When Shai Gilgeous-Alexander entered the NBA seven years ago, Canada’s 20-year-old game, then 10 years old, had to have a starting job.
Winning your driving license took a little more time.
While he was training on an learner’s license during his recruit season, Gilgeous-Alexander relied on teammates or Uber to move to Los Angeles, where the Clippers had drafted him in the general classification and practiced 14 miles from their downtown arena.
There was a lot in advance on him to navigate. Unexpectedly exchanged in Oklahoma City after his recruit season, he landed with a Thunder Rebuilding franchise which would only win 46 games from 2020 to 2022. However, this season, Gilgeous-Alexander arrived among the big ones of the match.
On Wednesday, Gilgeous was appointed the most useful player of the NBA after producing medium -sized points (32.7), frank launching attempts (7.9) and shooting attempts (21.8) while leading Oklahoma City to a 68 victories and the head of the Western Conference for the second consecutive season. The price is voted by media members.
Gilgeous-Alexander obtained 71 votes of first place and 913 points in total from a panel of 100 voters.
Denver Center Nikola Jokić, who this season has only become the third player in the history of the NBA on average a triple-double, finished second with 787 points, including 29 votes in first place. They were the only players to have obtained votes in first place. Giannis Antetokounmpo de Milwaukee finished third, Jayson Tatum de Boston was fourth and Donovan Mitchell de Cleveland finished fifth.
Jokić finished in the top two to vote for the price in five consecutive seasons, including victories in 2021, 2022 and last season, when Gilgeous-Alexander was a finalist. In April, Jokić scored the most points ever recorded in a triple-double, 61.
The Thunder has been in the Western Conference final for the first time since 2016, and if it has been beating the Minnesota Timberwolves, this would go to the first appearance of the team’s NBA final since 2012. Although the franchise has won the 1979 NBA championship during its incarnation in 2008.
Gilgeous-Alexander joins Steve Nash as the only winners of the upcoming MVP in Canada. An international player has won the last seven MVP prices; A player of American origin has not finished in the first three since 2021.
“He’s a special player,” said Jokić after Whitlahoma City beat Denver in the semi-finals of the conference last week. “His selection of shooting, his ability to make his own shots, separation, to play his rhythm. Defensively, he always steals the balls (and) still blocking the blows. … He is a special player.”
