MVPs come in all shapes and sizes.
Like Kevin Durant, a 7-footer graced by the basketball gods with a mythical combination of size and skill. As pure of a shooter as we’ve ever seen.
Or Russell Westbrook, a terrorizing force of nature and nasty. Mr. Triple-Double.
And then there’s the NBA’s latest MVP, as announced Wednesday night: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
A player whose movements are more unpredictable than that of a paper airplane trapped in a tornado — rising and gliding and reversing and spinning and fluttering and lurching and dipping — often all at once.
A cool Canadian, the second from his country (Steve Nash) to win MVP. A Hamilton, Ontario, native, who, fittingly enough, spent his last two years of high school at a place called Hamilton Heights in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The first Kentucky Wildcat ever to win the award. The first guard to claim MVP since James Harden in 2018.
A fashion fiend like Westbrook with the aesthetic ease of Durant.
Three MVPs from the third-smallest market in the NBA all within a 12-year span.
Thunder fans, for the 3,502nd time, here’s a reminder of how lucky you are.
Guess what the Grizzlies, Hornets, Magic, Nets, Pacers, Pelicans, Pistons and Raptors don’t have? A single MVP, forget about three.
The Thunder has existed since 2008, and already it’s in the company of the Lakers, Celtics, 76ers and Rockets as the only five teams to have produced at least three different MVP winners.
Philadelphia has the most with five: Wilt, Dr. J, Moses Malone, Allen Iverson and Joel Embiid. The Lakers and Celtics have four: Kareem, Magic, Shaq and Kobe. Cousy, Russell, Cowens and Bird. Houston has three: Moses, Hakeem and Harden.
And now there’s KD, Russ and SGA in OKC.
“Those guys have done amazing things with the game, changed the game in ways you couldn’t see coming,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Wednesday night after he accepted the award. “To even be in the same breath, it’s hard to even put into words.
“I know Kevin and I know Russell. I know the kids they were, and they just dreamed and worked hard and got to this position, and so did I.”
How Thunder MVP seasons compare for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook
Let’s compare their MVP seasons, not to pit their greatness against each other, but to show how each of the three is a one-of-one.
Kevin Durant in 2013-14: 32.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 3.5 turnovers, 1.3 steals, 0.7 blocks, 50% FG, 39% 3FG, 87% FT Russell Westbrook in 2016-17: 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists, 5.4 turnovers, 1.6 steals, 0.4 blocks, 43% FG, 34% 3FG, 85% FT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2024-25: 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 2.4 turnovers, 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks, 52% FG, 38% 3FG, 90% FT
By Basketball Reference’s player efficiency rating, SGA’s season was the best, with a 30.7 PER. Westbrook’s was second (30.6) and Durant’s third (29.8). Prefer box plus/minus? The same order stands.
SGA’s MVP season was the best of the three from an efficiency standpoint — and for his two-way play — but Durant and Westbrook each played in five more games, and in a couple hundred more minutes, than did SGA in their MVP seasons.
That’s the product of a lot of fourth-quarter rest for SGA, who led his team to 68 wins in his MVP season compared to Durant’s 59 and Westbrook’s 47.
Pairing his MVP with an NBA title would be the ultimate prize for SGA — one neither Durant nor Westbrook grasped in Oklahoma City.
Maybe the third time’s a charm.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.