Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has earned his first NBA MVP award, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Wednesday.
The league will officially announce the honor Wednesday night, a few nights after Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder defeated Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished as the runner-up in last year’s MVP voting, when Jokic won his third MVP in four seasons.
Jokic had arguably the best season of his career, averaging 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game, but Gilgeous-Alexander also had a historical campaign for an Oklahoma City team that broke the NBA record for point differential (plus-12.9 per game) and finished with 18 more victories than the Nuggets.
