Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his second straight NBA MVP trophy on Sunday, cementing a season that ended with the 27-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder guard on top of the league and his team with the best record in basketball.
The result also extended a run of repeat winners that has now reached a 14th straight back-to-back MVP. Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama finished behind Gilgeous-Alexander, but the race was over once the ballots were counted, not reopened after the fact.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s case was built on dominance and team success. He guided Oklahoma City to the league’s best record, then added another championship ring in 2025, giving the award more than one layer of meaning. For voters, the message was clear: the season belonged to him, and the trophy reflected that.
Wembanyama, though, made the back half of the season harder to ignore. From Feb. 1 to the end of the year, the Spurs went 28-2 when he played, a stretch that included a plus-23.4 net rating with him on the floor and plus-0.7 when he sat. That is the kind of swing that turns an outstanding player into a nightly argument.
The numbers only got louder in the final weeks. Wembanyama had 13 games with a game score above 30, and 10 of them came after Feb. 1. He scored 41 points on March 30 and did it again on April 1, two performances that underlined how quickly the conversation had shifted around him.
The Spurs’ broader profile also changed when he was healthy. From Feb. 1 through the end of the season, their on-court net rating with Wembanyama was plus-23.4, a 22.7-points-per-100-possessions difference from what they produced without him. That kind of gap is rare enough to force a second look, even in a league built on big stars.
One more voice sharpened the debate in April. During Game 6 of the Spurs’ series against Minnesota, Stan Van Gundy said Wembanyama was the most impactful defensive player he had ever seen in the league. It was the sort of line that hangs in the air long after the game ends, because it speaks to more than scoring.
That is where the tension now sits. Gilgeous-Alexander has the award, and the award is settled. But Wembanyama’s late surge, his playoff impact and the way he tilted games defensively have made the larger question harder to shrug off: who is the best player right now? For the moment, the answer on the MVP ballot is Gilgeous-Alexander. The argument around the league, however, is only getting started.
