SGA nabs 2nd straight MVP

Sports

PROLIFIC scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP once more.

The main man of the Oklahoma City Thunder secured a second straight MVP award, becoming the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion.

With the Canadian superstar bagging the coveted award, it marked the eighth consecutive time that the NBA’s MVP was born outside the U.S. following wins by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a U.S. citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024.

This year's MVP finalists are international players with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama finishing 1-2-3.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama will take on against each other as the defending champions Thunder battle the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals starting Tuesday (Philippine time), May 18, in Oklahoma.

Also named Clutch Player of the Year, Gilgeous-Alexander sealed the award by getting 96 of 100 first-place votes in the balloting.

Gilgeous-Alexander ended the regular season second in scoring with 31.1 points per game, second only to LA Lakers' Luka Doncic, who was goos for 33.5 points a game.

It was also during the regular season that Gilgeous-Alexander extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140.(CCM)