{"id":162925,"date":"2025-10-16T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=162925"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T18:17:07","slug":"a-back-to-back-sga-mvp-campaign-is-going-to-be-historic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/16\/a-back-to-back-sga-mvp-campaign-is-going-to-be-historic\/","title":{"rendered":"A Back-to-Back SGA MVP Campaign is Going to Be Historic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> is coming off one of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. The Thunder star finished with the season MVP, WCF MVP, and the Finals MVP in addition to winning the championship last June. But now all of that&#8217;s in the books. And now, SGA is keen to bring his game to the next level in the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s plenty of buzz surrounding another SGA MVP campaign this season, which is going to be a historic feat if he ends up winning it again. After all, he is just getting to his prime. With the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/26\/thunder-big-three-major-leap-espn-player-rankings\/\" target=\"_self\">OKC big three intact<\/a> for the next few years, expectations are sky-high. If Gilgeous-Alexander bags another MVP this year, he&#8217;s entering elite star status.<\/p>\n<h2>A Back-to-Back SGA MVP Campaign is Going to Be Historic<\/h2>\n<p>At this point, SGA is on the rise to prove his worth as the face of the league. With Oklahoma City rising to a championship campaign last year, another championship should do the trick. But to further secure that claim among names such as <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jokicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jokic<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, a back-to-back MVP run is needed.<\/p>\n<h3>SGA Has the Chance to Make History Among Point Guards<\/h3>\n<p>Since <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a> in 2014-15 and 2015-16, no other point guard in the NBA has managed to win back-to-back MVPs. Other guards did win after Curry, including <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a> in 2016-17, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a> in 2017-18. The succeeding years, however, saw the decline of guards being in the MVP race and even final winners.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SGA had quite the year last season:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f Kia MVP.<br \/>\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f WCF MVP.<br \/>\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f NBA Finals MVP.<br \/>\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f NBA Champion.<\/p>\n<p>Year 8 in the Association loading&#8230; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/N0Wpa5JSal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/N0Wpa5JSal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1972725965232173446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Before SGA won in 2024-25, it was a six-year dominance by big men. Centers and forwards dominated the MVP, shared between Jokic (3x), Antetokounmpo (2x), and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a>. Should Gilgeous-Alexander come up with yet another majestic season, he&#8217;s leaving a mark in the MVP race. A championship and more of the same as last year? Definitely breaching the GOAT conversations.<\/p>\n<p>Averaging 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.7 steals on 51.9% shooting, this is an otherworldly stat line. For a guard who shoots at a high volume from the mid-range compared to other notable MVP candidates, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/30\/sga-mvp-campaign-2025-26\/\" target=\"_self\">SGA<\/a> sure stands tall in the annals among top guards in the league.<\/p>\n<h3>Canadian History is on the Line, Too<\/h3>\n<p>Canada is starting to be a bastion for NBA players. Team Canada has risen to be one of the top dogs among global teams, and SGA has become an icon who is starting to take over as well. No other Canadian player has been this successful&#8212;aside from <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nashst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Nash<\/a>. The latter was an eight-time All-Star and has won two MVP awards. But what&#8217;s reachable by SGA&#8217;s current trajectory is the MVP count.<\/p>\n<p>Nash was the only Canadian player to ever win the MVP in back-to-back seasons. That makes him another one of the point guards who&#8217;ve also done the same back-to-back MVP runs. Gilgeous-Alexander is the current favorite to win the league MVP award, and that makes a two-straight MVP finish feasible as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SGA is favored to win his second straight MVP this season, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PolymarketSport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@PolymarketSport<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/njoAmroVBR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/njoAmroVBR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/1978636461365948471?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Provided that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/13\/is-okc-capable-reaching-70-wins-2025-26\/\" target=\"_self\">OKC notches or even eclipses their projected win total of 70 games<\/a>, it&#8217;s possible that the SGA MVP campaign has a bigger chance. After all, who would not praise the leader of a team that would also finish as the best in the West, and possibly the NBA?<\/p>\n<h3>Another SGA MVP Campaign Coming Up?<\/h3>\n<p>One thing that experts are looking forward to is SGA playing another full season. Entering his eighth year in the NBA, he&#8217;s only done that once. The most he&#8217;s played since? He finished with 76 games last season, and ended up as the MVP. It&#8217;s worth noting that he also played 75 games in the 2023-24 campaign, and finished as the runner-up for the said award.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SGA placed himself in some all-time company\u2026<\/p>\n<p>MVP<br \/>Finals MVP<br \/>Certified <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Svpc6H1JOE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Svpc6H1JOE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA University (@NBA_University) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA_University\/status\/1936983469730472030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 23, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Aside from the eligibility for individual awards, it&#8217;s more of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/19\/sga-starting-5-season-2-championship-journey\/\" target=\"_self\">the impact that SGA has to offer<\/a>. He played 76 games last season, and OKC ended up with 68 wins. Of course, there&#8217;s always a time that a team may lose. But if Oklahoma City is going to pull off another historic season, they will need SGA to be the best MVP version of himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 DOUG HOKE\/THEOKLAHOMAN \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off one of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. The Thunder star finished with the season MVP, WCF MVP, and the Finals MVP in addition to winning the championship last June. But now all of that&#8217;s in the books. And now, SGA is keen to bring his game to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5536,"featured_media":162982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,22],"tags":[564,1489],"class_list":["post-162925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-nba-mvp","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162983,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162925\/revisions\/162983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}