Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 2025: A Year of Canadian Basketball Greatness
In a year packed with standout performances across the sports world, one name stood head and shoulders above the rest-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard didn’t just have a great year. He had the year, delivering a run of dominance that will be talked about in Canadian sports circles for decades.
Let’s be clear: Gilgeous-Alexander was already a star before 2025. He’d finished second in the NBA in scoring and in MVP voting the season prior, earned back-to-back All-NBA First Team honors, and led the Thunder back to the playoffs after a three-year drought.
That turnaround-from 40 wins to 58-came with one of the league’s youngest rosters. And on the international stage, he helped Canada qualify for the Olympics for the first time in nearly 25 years and powered them to a bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup, including a statement win over Team USA.
But all of that? That was just the prelude.
When the calendar flipped to 2025, Oklahoma City was already 27-5 and riding a 12-game win streak. They’d stretch that streak to 15, later rip off another 11 in a row, and finish the regular season with 68 wins-a mark topped by only four teams in NBA history.
The Thunder weren’t just good; they were dominant. And at the center of it all was Gilgeous-Alexander, orchestrating the offense with surgical precision.
He captured his first scoring title, averaging 32.7 points per game. That’s impressive in any context, but here’s the kicker-he didn’t even play in 17 fourth quarters.
That’s how far ahead the Thunder were in so many games. Even with time on the bench, he was still putting up nearly 33 a night.
That’s elite efficiency and impact, rolled into one.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s path to the top wasn’t a straight line. A late bloomer by NBA standards, he made his mark early on in high school in Hamilton before heading south to chase tougher competition.
He earned a scholarship to Kentucky, where he began his lone college season coming off the bench. But his game kept growing, and by the time March rolled around, there was no holding him back.
Draft night brought its own twist. Selected in the lottery, he was traded by Charlotte before ever suiting up.
A year later, the Clippers sent him to Oklahoma City in a deal that, looking back now, might rank among the most lopsided trades in NBA history. From that point on, he just kept building.
And in 2025, it all came together.
The Thunder steamrolled through the regular season, but the playoff questions lingered. They hadn’t won a series since 2016.
Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t at his absolute best in the first round, but he still helped lead a sweep of Memphis. Then came the real test: a clash with Nikola Jokic and the defending champion Nuggets.
Jokic, a three-time MVP, was widely seen as Gilgeous-Alexander’s top competition for the title of best player on the planet.
What followed was a heavyweight battle. Game 7 was a showcase of poise and production-Gilgeous-Alexander poured in 35 efficient points to push OKC through. From there, the Thunder kept rolling, dispatching Minnesota in five games to reach the Finals.
By that point, the accolades were stacking up. Gilgeous-Alexander was the unanimous Western Conference Finals MVP. Just days earlier, he’d been named league MVP, securing 71 first-place votes to Jokic’s 29 and joining Steve Nash as the only Canadians to ever win the award.
And he wasn’t done yet.
In the Finals against Indiana, Gilgeous-Alexander delivered again and again, leading all scorers in five of the seven games. In the decisive Game 7, he dropped 29 points, dished out 12 assists, and committed just one turnover.
That’s the kind of stat line that defines legacies. He walked away with Finals MVP honors and, more importantly, brought Oklahoma City its first NBA championship.
When you stack it all up-scoring title, MVP, Finals MVP, a 68-win season, and a championship-it’s not just one of the best years a Canadian athlete has ever had. It’s one of the most complete, dominant calendar years we’ve seen from any player in the NBA.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t just arrive in 2025. He took over.