ESPN’s Shams Charania had broken the news hours ago, but when it was time for Amazon’s studio show to officially announce the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate person to open the envelope and read the card.
“Should we have a drumroll?” Steve Nash asked. “OK … this year’s winner of the NBA MVP is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.”
The Thunder star became the 14th player to win back-to-back MVPs. Among the players he joined on that list was his Canadian countryman: Steve Nash.
Nash, as a Sun, was the 2004-05 and 2005-06 MVP. Twenty years later, another guard from the north has double-dipped.
“Full-circle moment,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Nash making the MVP announcement. “Really crazy.”
Although they grew up two decades apart on opposite sides of the country — Nash in British Columbia and SGA in Ontario — Canadian basketball is a small but burgeoning brotherhood.
“He was the first person to really tell me I was going to the NBA other than my family,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Sunday night. “It’s crazy how life works … he saw it early and I just believed ever since.”
Nash was born in South Africa, but he moved to Canada before he turned two.
Drafted out of Santa Clara, Nash played 18 NBA seasons — 10 in Phoenix, six in Dallas and two for the Lakers. In addition to being a two-time MVP, Nash was an eight-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA selection. He’s a hall of famer and a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He’s widely regarded as the best Canadian basketball player ever.
For now.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who turns 28 in July, already has one more championship (and counting) than Nash. SGA is a four-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA player. He already has more top-five MVP finishes (four) than Nash (three).
When SGA was still a teenager, playing for Canada’s national team, he remembers Nash telling him to “stay on this path and I’ll be (in the NBA) one day.”
“As a kid, hearing that from a two-time MVP was really big, just for my confidence level,” SGA added.
Nash, for a whole generation of Canadian kids, made the NBA feel reachable. Dozens of Canadians have since reached the league.
Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph were others Gilgeous-Alexander named who helped show him the way.
And now it’s SGA who is inspiring the next wave of Canadian hoopers.
International rules
James Harden was the last American-born MVP, way back in 2018 when Harden was a Rocket. The Beard has played for four teams since then!
But here’s an even more unbelievable bit of trivia: The last American-born player to finish in the top-three of MVP voting was Stephen Curry in 2021.
That can’t be right. Can it???
2025-26
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada)
- Nikola Jokic (Serbia)
- Victor Wembanyama (France)
2024-25
- Gilgeous-Alexander
- Jokic
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)
2023-24
- Jokic
- Gilgeous-Alexander
- Luka Doncic (Slovenia)
2022-23
- Joel Embiid (Cameroon)
- Jokic
- Antetokounmpo
2021-22
- Jokic
- Embiid
- Antetokounmpo
2020-21
- Jokic
- Embiid
- Curry (USA)
Now, there’s a caveat: “American born.” Embiid plays for Team USA but he was born in Cameroon and holds triple-citizenship in Cameroon, the U.S. and France.
Who will be the next American-born MVP
The Thunder has a couple of long-shot options in Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, both of whom have already made an All-NBA team in their pre-prime years.
But how are they supposed to win an MVP as long as they’re on a team with SGA? That’s why neither made my top-five.
1. Cade Cunningham, Pistons: Cunningham had to appeal to even be on the ballot after falling a game short of the 65-game minimum, and he ended up receiving two first-place votes and finishing fifth. Still only 24, Cunningham is only going to improve. But please, Detroit, get the man some help in the backcourt.
2. Cooper Flagg, Mavericks: I almost put Flagg No. 1. What he did in his age 19 season is unreal. His offensive game was way more polished than expected. The biggest knock on Flagg’s MVP candidacy? Team context. The Mavs are a few years away from contending.
3. Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves: He’s been in the NBA for six years, and yet he’s younger than Jalen Williams. Edwards has twice finished seventh in MVP voting. I could see him getting a few top-five finishes, but imagining him as MVP is a stretch.
4. Tyrese Maxey, 76ers: The 25-year-old is set to make his first All-NBA team. He averaged 28.3 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game.
5. Scottie Barnes, Raptors: He can do it all. Except for the shooting part. But what if he developed a reliable 3-pointer? He’s only 24.
Q&A with Nickeil Alexander-Walker
Nickeil Alexander-Walker couldn’t make it to his cousin’s MVP ceremony last year. He was busy preparing to face SGA and the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.
But Alexander-Walker, the league’s Most Improved Player, was in Oklahoma City on Sunday to watch Gilgeous-Alexander be named Most Valuable Player.
The cousins, who grew up together, went to high school together and are more like brothers, both collected big pieces of hardware.
In his first season with the Hawks, Alexander-Walker averaged 20.8 points, 3.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds.
I caught up with him Sunday night.
Q: What was Shai like when you guys were growing up?
Alexander-Walker: “He was very competitive. Very, very competitive. And a lot different than the Shai you see today, but similar in the same regard.”
Q: Different in what way?
Alexander-Walker: “A little bit more emotion than what you get now, but it was raw. You’re younger. We never really had a relationship that it came to fighting, but yeah, it’s come to like we’re getting physical, we’re getting rough, we want to win, we want to beat the other. All in all, the thing that I tell everybody that surprises me and amazes me from Shai at a young age is he had a high sense of emotional control.”
Q: You obviously got a big award yourself. What is it about the two of you where some guys come into the league as stars from Day 1, but you guys have both gradually gotten better?
Alexander-Walker: “I think it’s just a love for the game. We genuinely have a love and passion and appreciation. He touched on it earlier in his speech when he talked about having to give your all because of the sacrifices put in front of you. Seeing my mom work two jobs, my grandmother not really taking sick days and working until she had to retire, what family meant and how we were raised I think for me, it just stems from wanting so much more than just to make it. I want to make sure that this opportunity doesn’t just come. Very rarely are family members in the NBA. It’s just a blessing. You’ve gotta nurture the things you’re given.”
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Steve Nash come full circle as Canadian MVPs