Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just crashed basketball’s most exclusive club and history says he may not be done originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
For years, the NBA MVP award has been the league’s ultimate measuring stick. Stars make All-Star teams. Superstars make All-NBA teams. But MVP winners are remembered differently. And players who win back-to-back MVPs? They are remembered forever. That is why this moment feels so massive for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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After reportedly winning his second straight MVP award, Gilgeous-Alexander officially entered one of the smallest and most intimidating groups in basketball history. This is no longer just about being the best player in the NBA right now. This is about entering a conversation filled with names that shaped entire generations of basketball.
Michael Jordan did it. LeBron James did it. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Nikola Jokić all did it too. Now Shai’s name sits next to theirs. And the wildest part is that history suggests he might only be getting started.
NBA history says the third MVP changes everything
Winning one MVP is extraordinary. Winning two straight means the league belongs to you for a period of time. But the third MVP is where basketball history starts treating players differently. That is the line where legends become permanent.
Look at what happened with Bird in the 1980s. His third straight MVP did not just make him the best player in basketball for a few seasons. It cemented him as one of the defining figures in NBA history. The same thing happened with Magic. The same thing happened with LeBron. The same thing happened with Jokic recently.
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Even Jordan’s story fits this pattern. His second MVP was huge, but it was the championships and continued dominance afterward that turned him into basketball mythology. That is why Gilgeous-Alexander’s second straight MVP feels so important. He is no longer climbing toward greatness. He is standing directly in the middle of it.
The conversation has changed now. Nobody asks whether he belongs among the NBA elite anymore. That debate is over. Now the question becomes just how high he can climb historically.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander feels built to dominate this era
Part of what makes Gilgeous-Alexander so fascinating is that his game does not feel temporary. Some stars rely on explosive athleticism that fades with time. Shai’s game feels controlled, patient and surgical. He destroys defenses with footwork, pace and impossible angles. He gets defenders leaning the wrong way before they even realize what happened. It feels less like chaos and more like someone slowly taking control of a game possession by possession.
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Historically, players with that kind of style tend to age beautifully. That should terrify the rest of the NBA because Gilgeous-Alexander is still only 27 years old. This season he averaged more than 31 points per game, shot a career-best percentage from the floor and once again proved himself as arguably the league’s best late-game player. The Thunder also finished with one of the NBA’s best records and continue looking like a team capable of controlling the Western Conference for years.
That matters because MVPs are often tied to eras. Russell and Wilt owned the 1960s. Bird and Magic defined the 1980s. Jordan consumed the 1990s. LeBron dominated the 2010s. Now Shai is positioning himself to become the face of this current NBA era alongside Jokić, Giannis and Victor Wembanyama.
That is not hype anymore. That is reality.
Only nine players have reached the level Shai is chasing
This is where the conversation becomes truly historic. Only nine players in NBA history have won at least three MVP awards. The list barely even sounds real: Kareem, Jordan, Russell, Wilt, LeBron, Bird, Magic, Moses Malone and Jokic. That is basketball royalty.
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That is the inner circle. And now Gilgeous-Alexander stands one MVP away from joining it. The scary thing for the rest of the league is that there is no obvious reason he cannot get there. He already has the stats. He already has the winning. He already has the playoff success and championship credibility. Most importantly, he has a game that feels sustainable for the long haul.
That is why this second straight MVP feels bigger than a normal award announcement. It feels like the beginning of something much bigger. Because if history has taught NBA fans anything, it is this: players who win back-to-back MVPs rarely stop chasing history there.
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