Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might have done what many players dream of. The Oklahoma City Thunder star joined the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic as one of the 14 players to win back to back MVP titles. However, his reported win on Sunday has come with controversy.
The NBA will officially reveal this season’s MVP on Sunday, one day before Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder play host to a West finals home game against the San Antonio Spurs. The announcement is coming on Amazon Prime Video shortly after 7:30 PM EDT. The 27-year-old, who is on a four-year, $273.3 million super maximum contract, averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 68 games (all starts) this season.
Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 25.3 points, 5.3 assists and 4.7 boards in 530 career games (521 starts) with the Los Angeles Clippers (2018-19) and Thunder. He led the team to its first NBA championship last year.
Why SGA’s NBA MVP win was hit with a controversy
Well, the controversy is not exactly linked to Shai himself. It is more about Shams Charania and ESPN’s reporting. NBA fans on Sunday called out Charania for ‘leaking’ the MVP result hours before the official announcement.
“Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award, becoming the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs, multiple sources tell ESPN,” the NBA insider posted on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
Slamming him, a user tweeted: “You are literally the worst lol. Ruined this for the second year in a row. & almost gave me a heart attack by starting the tweet with “Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.”
“Why did you have to leak this?” another one added.
If Gilgeous-Alexander wins, he would beat Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic in the race.
List of 14 NBA stars to win back-to-back MVP awards
These players include Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
