{"id":243962,"date":"2026-05-18T00:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/okc-star-joins-elite-group-with-back-to-back-mvp-awards-as-remarkable-us-drought-continues\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:44:00","slug":"okc-star-joins-elite-group-with-back-to-back-mvp-awards-as-remarkable-us-drought-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/okc-star-joins-elite-group-with-back-to-back-mvp-awards-as-remarkable-us-drought-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"OKC star joins elite group with back-to-back MVP awards as remarkable US drought continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the NBA\u2019s Most Valuable Player for a second consecutive season, continuing the league\u2019s remarkable run of international dominance in the award.<\/p>\n

Watch NBA with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Stream an average 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of the NBA Playoffs.| <\/b>New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The Canadian guard edged out fellow finalists Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Joki\u0107 to claim the honour, becoming just the 14th player in NBA history to win back-to-back MVP awards. <\/p>\n

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The 27-year-old delivered another spectacular campaign for Oklahoma City, averaging 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game while leading the Thunder to a league-best 64-18 record and the top seed in the Western Conference. The reigning NBA Finals MVP will now lead Oklahoma City into a blockbuster Western Conference Finals series against Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, beginning Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander joins an elite group of players to win consecutive MVP awards, including Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Denver Nuggets star Nikola Joki\u0107 was the most recent player to achieve the feat, winning in 2021 and 2022, while Giannis Antetokounmpo also went back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

His latest MVP triumph also extends an extraordinary streak of international players dominating the award. The last American-born player to win MVP was James Harden in 2018 with the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n

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Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since then, Gilgeous-Alexander (two MVPs), Joki\u0107 (three), Joel Embiid (one) and Antetokounmpo (two) have combined to win the last eight MVP awards, underlining the NBA\u2019s growing global influence.<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s voting further highlighted that trend, with all three finalists born outside the United States. Gilgeous-Alexander represents Canada, Wembanyama is from France and Joki\u0107 hails from Serbia, while Slovenian superstar Luka Don\u010di\u0107 finished fourth in voting.<\/p>\n

Wemby\u2019s parting dig at \u2018dirty\u2019 rivals after 9yr Spurs first; top seed extend crazy record<\/a> \u2014 NBA wrap<\/b><\/p>\n

The shift marks a dramatic change from previous eras. Before Antetokounmpo\u2019s breakthrough MVP win in 2019, American-born stars dominated the award for more than a decade, with players such as Harden, Russell Westbrook, Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant combining to win 11 straight MVPs between 2008 and 2018.<\/p>\n

While international stars have won MVP before, including Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, the current run is unprecedented, with overseas players now firmly leading the league\u2019s biggest individual honour entering what appears to be a new era of NBA superstardom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the NBA\u2019s Most Valuable Player for a second consecutive season, continuing the league\u2019s remarkable run of international dominance in the award. Watch NBA with ESPN on Kayo Sports | Stream an average 9 LIVE Regular Season games per week plus the best of the NBA Playoffs.| […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-243962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}