{"id":117697,"date":"2025-06-23T03:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T03:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117697\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T03:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T03:07:10","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexander-wins-nba-finals-mvp-for-oklahoma-city-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117697\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins NBA Finals MVP for Oklahoma City Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the 11th player in NBA history to win the league MVP and Finals MVP in the same season.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Thunder beat Pacers in Game 7 of NBA Finals, win franchise’s first title<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Pacers in Game 7 to capture the franchise’s first NBA title.<\/p>\n

Sports Pulse<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> star, is commonly referred to by initials, SGA. You can also call him MVP \u2013 not only of the 2024-25 regular season<\/a> but now of the 2025 NBA Finals, too.<\/p>\n

A fluid, 6-foot-6 guard, Gilgeous-Alexander became the first Canadian to win the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award after leading the Thunder past the Indiana Pacers for the franchise’s first NBA title<\/a> since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points and added 12 assists and five rebounds in the Thunder’s 103-91 win<\/a> in Game 7 on Sunday, June 22.<\/p>\n

Wearing Classic 6 Stitch Braids and a look of utter confidence, Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, was unmistakable and almost unstoppable during the series.<\/p>\n

WINNER: Celebrate OKC Thunder’s NBA title with our gear, books, keepsakes<\/a><\/p>\n

NBA FINALS GAME 7 RECAP: Highlights from Thunder’s win over Pacers<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.3 points, 5.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals and shot 44.3% from the field in the Finals. That made him the clear pick for Finals MVP honors, and he put his name in elite company.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander became the 11th player in NBA history to win the league MVP and Finals MVP in the same season<\/a>, joining Willis Reed (1969-70), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1970-71), Moses Malone (1982-83), Larry Bird (1983-84, 1985-86), Magic Johnson (1986-87), Michael Jordan (1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, 1997-98), Hakeem Olajuwon (1993-94), Shaquille O’Neal (1999-00), Tim Duncan (2002-03) and LeBron James (2011-12, 2012-13).<\/p>\n

MOST VALUABLE: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins first NBA MVP award<\/a><\/p>\n

The road to MVP status began in 2018. Gilgeous-Alexander was drafted 11th overall by the Charlotte Hornets and traded that same night to the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n

After making the All-Rookie Second Team, he was on the move again \u2013 traded to Oklahoma City. It\u2019s where he blossomed.<\/p>\n

This season, his seventh in the league, Gilgeous-Alexander has gone from very good to great. He led the league in scoring with 32.7 points per game and total points (2,484), made his third All-Star Gae and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time.<\/p>\n

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news \u2014 fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the 11th player in NBA history to win the league MVP and Finals MVP in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[610,7,311,1501,623,113,126,3659,609,615,3580,935,70,85,6,1220,11,67,310,179,61,134,114,34,132,276,622,209,275,286,66,83,277,312,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-117697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-abdul-jabbar","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-finals","12":"tag-gilgeous-alexander","13":"tag-indiana","14":"tag-indiana-pacers","15":"tag-jordan","16":"tag-kareem","17":"tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","18":"tag-michael","19":"tag-michael-jordan","20":"tag-national","21":"tag-national-sports","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-finals","24":"tag-nba-playoffs","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-oklahoma","27":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","28":"tag-overall","29":"tag-overall-positive","30":"tag-pacers","31":"tag-playoffs","32":"tag-positive","33":"tag-scores","34":"tag-shai","35":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","36":"tag-sport","37":"tag-sport-scores-u0026-statistics","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-sports-news","40":"tag-statistics","41":"tag-thunder","42":"tag-u0026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114730476863018248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}