This year, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joined an elite group of players who won the NBA MVP in consecutive seasons. This puts the OKC Thunder star in position to tie the record held by Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Larry Bird, the only players to win the award three times in a row.
Brian Windhorst, however, isn’t optimistic about SGA’s chances to pull off an MVP hat trick. On Friday’s episode of “The Hoop Collective,” Windhorst warned that voter fatigue could get in the way of Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP chances this year.
“You can win two MVPs in a row, but for some reason, the standard for winning the third MVP in a row, it just gets very, very high.” [Timestamp – 5:33]
Windhorst then pointed to historical examples of how improbable it is to win three successive NBA MVP awards.
“Some of the more contested or hot-button MVPs were when guys were trying to win their third. For example, Jordan won in ’91 and ’92, and then Barkley won in ’93. That is a ‘debated for years’ MVP. LeBron won two in a row, twice. And the one time in between, he lost out to Derrick Rose.” [Timestamp – 6:08]
This past season, Gilgeous-Alexander went up against the likes of Victor Wembanyama and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic in the MVP race. Though both big men had a strong case for the award, it ended up being a landslide victory as SGA garnered 83 first-place votes (with Jokic picking up 10 and Wembanyama getting five).
Jokic, in fact, is the latest NBA superstar to fall short of a third consecutive MVP award. As Windhorst’s co-host Tim MacMahon pointed out on their podcast, the Joker won the 2021 and 2022 MVP awards but lost out to Joel Embiid in 2023.
“Jalen Brunson’s Championship Is More Valuable”: Shannon Sharpe Comments on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Second MVP WinMeanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s name has also come up in debates sparked by remarks from Tracy McGrady. On Monday’s episode of the “Cousins” podcast, McGrady argued that getting the MVP award “has more weight” than winning the NBA title.
Four days later, “Nightcap” host Shannon Sharpe voiced a contrary view.
“I think Jalen Brunson’s championship is more valuable than Shai’s MVP…Guys his size don’t lead teams to championships.”
Sharpe’s co-host Joe Johnson added that Brunson “beat the odds” as he helped the New York Knicks overcome sizable leads in this year’s NBA Finals.
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