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All season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the engine behind what will go down as one of the most historic runs in the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder star won the regular-season MVP award, he was the Thunder's MVP in the Western Conference Finals, and now, he is adding more than a championship ring to his trophy cabinet.
Gilgeous-Alexander earned Bill Russell Finals MVP honors on Sunday night with a 29-point performance in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals to give the Thunder a 90-68 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
The Thunder star never scored below 24 points in the seven-game series against Indiana, and Gilgeous-Alexander has ushered in a new era for one of the youngest teams in NBA history. Although they won a championship as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979, the Thunder don't acknowledge this history.
As a result, the 26-year-old MVP, and now joining illustrious history as the 2025 Finals MVP, has led Oklahoma City to their first NBA title.
“Really exciting opportunity, like a dream come true,” Gilgeous-Alexander said before Game 7. “Above all, I try to look at it as a blessing and an opportunity… Don’t try to do anything spectacular. Don’t try to do anything that you haven’t done before or be less of what you’ve been.
“Just be who you are and what got you here.”
Gilgeous-Alexander was the identity of the Thunder's resilience throughout this series against the Pacers.
After losing Game 1 with a 38-point performance, SGA set the tone for Oklahoma City in Game 2 with 34 points and eight assists. After scoring just 24 points in their Game 3 loss, the Thunder star bounced back in Game 4 with a series-high 35 points in a 111-104 win to avoid going down 3-1 in the Finals.
Against the Pacers, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.3 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 44.3 percent from the floor en route to winning a championship. Gilgeous-Alexander passed Allen Iverson for the most points (72) through a player's first two Finals games.
As a result of his scoring average over the seven games against Indiana, the 2025 Finals MVP joins Rick Berry (36.3), Allen Iverson (35.6), Giannis Antetokounmpo (35.2), Michael Jordan (33.6), Jerry West (30.5), Kevin Durant (30.3), and Nikola Jokic (30.2) as the only players in league history to average at least 30 points per game in the NBA Finals.
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When he began his career with the Los Angeles Clippers, Gilgeous-Alexander was nothing more than a role player in LA's backcourt. Many believed he would be a solid player after his rookie year, but nobody thought the guard from Kentucky would blossom into the league's MVP and lead a team to their first championship.
That is what happened when Oklahoma City took a chance on SGA by trading multi-time All-Star Paul George to the Clippers. From that moment on, Thunder executive Sam Presti had a vision that this young talent could one day take the Thunder to heights this organization thought they would reach with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden.
“They didn't want to play him as a point guard,” Shai's father, Vaughn Alexander, told ClutchPoints' Tomer Azarly in an exclusive interview at the NBA Finals. “So nobody really knew who Shai was. You could see the talent.
“So now when you go to OKC, Shai, I'm like, ‘Yo, guess what's about to happen, Shai? When you think about it, you're about to be Shai.”
From this point on, Shai became who he was destined to be: the best player on his team, the NBA's MVP, and now an NBA champion.
“A lot of hard work and a lot of hours in the gym. This isn't just a win for me. It's a win for my family. It's a win for my friends. It's a win for everybody who was in my corner growing up. It's a win for the best fans in the world,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after receiving the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy. “It means everything. It's why you play the sport. You play to win. We did what it took this year to be champions.
“We rose to the moment, and here we are.”
