Named NBA Finals MVP following Oklahoma City’s 103-91 Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has earned the crown jewel of one of the NBA’s most decorated seasons at only 26 years old.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the regular-season MVP and Finals MVP this season, becoming the ninth player in league history to accomplish that feat and the first since LeBron James in 2012-13 with the Miami Heat.
“It’s hard to believe that I’m part of that group. It’s hard to even fathom that I’m that type of basketball player sometimes,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 7. ” … I’m just glad and happy that my dreams have been able to come true.”
The 6-foot-6 point guard was the clear favorite to win the award if the Thunder captured the championship, averaging 30.3 points, 5.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game in the seven-game series.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a tough shooting night (8 for 27 from the field) to close out the series in Game 7, but as he’s done all season, he produced from the free-throw line. The league leader in drives made 11 of 12 attempts from the stripe and had his best playmaking performance of the Finals, notching a playoff-career-high 12 assists along with a game-high 29 points.
“Coming off of Game 6, I obviously had a lot more turnovers than assists. That’s not a recipe for a win, and I wanted to do whatever it took tonight to get a win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Whether that was me playing in space, or it was … some of my teammates open and just trying to make the right basketball play.”
With a record 72 points over his first two career Finals games, Gilgeous-Alexander started hot and never looked back. His 34-point performance in Game 2 to prevent a 2-0 Thunder deficit and 35 in Game 4 to avoid falling behind 3-1 kept Oklahoma City step-for-step with a relentless Indiana Pacers team.
The Thunder proved to be equally as tough. They lost consecutive games only twice in the regular season and never lost back-to-back games this postseason.
“We have a team full of competitors, we did what it took this year to be champions, and we deserve this,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We rose to the moment, here we are.”
The Toronto native won regular-season MVP by leading a 68-win Thunder team — the highest regular-season win total since the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors — and pacing the league in scoring at 32.7 points per game.
Alexander had among the most efficient volume scoring seasons of any guard in NBA history, posting 51.9/37.5/89.8 shooting splits, and was a solid defensive piece on one of the stingiest defenses in recent league history.
The No. 11 overall pick by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2018 draft, Gilgeous-Alexander was traded on draft night to the Los Angeles Clippers. After his rookie season, the Clippers shipped the Kentucky product to Oklahoma City in a package for Paul George, tipping the first domino in what would become one of the league’s most successful rebuilds.
Gilgeous-Alexander was a fringe All-Star caliber player for three seasons, in two of which the Thunder won fewer than 30 games, until he burst into the forefront of the NBA in the 2022-23 season, averaging 31.4 ppg.
Last season, he was the runner-up for MVP while Oklahoma City fell short of a title in a second-round exit.
A year later, Gilgeous-Alexander hoisted the first Larry O’Brien and Finals MVP trophies that Oklahoma City has ever seen.
— Field Level Media
