Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on the verge of winning his second consecutive NBA MVP award. The NBA announces this season’s winner on Sunday night via Amazon Prime Video, shortly after 7:30 p.m. EDT. Gilgeous-Alexander has been the overwhelming betting favorite for weeks. The timing also carries a familiar feel. Last season, the league announced him as MVP just one day before he and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a home game in the Western Conference finals. That same sequence appears set to repeat itself. The Thunder host the San Antonio Spurs in a West finals home game on Monday.
The 3 finalists and what separates them
The NBA named three finalists last month. Gilgeous-Alexander leads the group. He is joined by the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. All three are exceptional candidates. However, Gilgeous-Alexander’s combination of scoring, playmaking and defensive impact across a dominant Thunder season has placed him firmly ahead in the race.
Notably, all three finalists were born outside the United States. Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian. Wembanyama is French. Jokic is Serbian. That detail feeds into a broader and remarkable trend in the award’s recent history.
5 straight years of international dominance at the top
Regardless of the final order, this marks the fifth consecutive season that the top three MVP finishers will all be players born outside the U.S. That streak is without precedent in the award’s history. Here is how the previous four seasons played out:
- 2025 — Gilgeous-Alexander first, Jokic second, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo third.
- 2024 — Jokic first, Gilgeous-Alexander second, then-Dallas guard Luka Doncic third.
- 2023 — Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid first, Jokic second, Antetokounmpo third.
- 2022 — Jokic first, Embiid second, Antetokounmpo third.
The last American-born player to finish in the top three was Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who placed third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. Moreover, the last U.S.-born player to actually win the award was James Harden, then with Houston, back in 2018. Since then, Harden has played for four different franchises. The award, meanwhile, has belonged entirely to international talent.
What a second MVP would mean for Gilgeous-Alexander
Winning back-to-back MVP awards places a player in elite company. It signals sustained dominance rather than a single exceptional season. For Gilgeous-Alexander, a second consecutive award would also reinforce his standing as the face of one of the NBA’s most exciting young franchises. The Thunder have emerged as genuine title contenders. As a result, everything Gilgeous-Alexander does this postseason carries extra weight.
The announcement comes Sunday night on Amazon Prime Video. By Monday, he could be celebrating both an MVP trophy and a home playoff win in the same 24-hour window exactly as he did one year ago.
Source: The Associated Press via WTOP
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