If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads the Oklahoma City Thunder to the title this season, he could enter a very exclusive club that only has three other NBA legends.
Over the storied history of the NBA, only Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal have achieved the single-season trifecta of winning the scoring title, league MVP, and Finals MVP. Gilgeous-Alexander’s already ticked off two from that list, scoring title and league MVP.
With how Gilgeous-Alexander has looked for the Thunder in the Finals, he could be well on his way to ticking off Finals MVP.
When did NBA legends make their single-season trifectas?
Abdul-Jabaar was the first person to accomplish this feat, doing it in the 1970-71 season when he was still named Lew Alcindor. Abdul-Jabaar led the Milwaukee Bucks to its first ever NBA championship by averaging 27.0 points, 18.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, leading the Bucks to 66 wins.
Jordan is the only one to accomplish this feat multiple times in his career. In fact, he did it in four of his six championships with the Chicago Bulls. The first time he did the rare trifecta was during the 1990-91 season. He averaged 31.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists while leading the Bulls to 61 wins.
Jordan made sure to silence any doubters who called that season a fluke by doing it the following season too (1991-1992). This time, he averaged 30.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 6.1 assists en route to 67 wins.
The other two times Jordan won those three individual accolades in one season were during his first two full seasons after coming out of retirement the first time around.
Moving on to Shaquille O’Neal, he did it with the Los Angeles Lakers during his first NBA title run back in 2000. That season, Shaq had his best scoring year averaging 29.7 points, with 13.6 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game. The 1999-2000 season also turned out to be the second-best winning season in Lakers history, going 67-15.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s breakout year
Gilgeous-Alexander’s rise from promising guard to MVP-caliber superstar has been nothing short of meteoric.
In the 2024-25 season, he led the youngest team in the league to the best record in the NBA. At 25 years old, the way Gilgeous-Alexander can get to his spots and impact the game on both ends made him nearly unstoppable.
Once the playoffs started, he shined and added his name to multiple records.
Through the first three games of the NBA finals, here’s what Gilgeous-Alexander’s been able to do in his fourth playoff run:
- Set the record for most points (72) scored through a player’s first two games in the Finals.
- Became 12th player in NBA history to score 3,000 points in one season (regular season and playoffs combined)
- Joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only other player in NBA history to score 30+ points in nine straight home playoff games
In a league looking for the next bearer of the torch once Stephen Curry and LeBron James retire, Gilgeous-Alexander has separated himself.
He’s now on the cusp of doing something almost no one ever has. And if he adds Finals MVP hardware to his historic season, he won’t just be a champion, he’ll be part of NBA royalty.
The post Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has chance to join Kareem, MJ and Shaq by winning 2025 NBA title appeared first on ClutchPoints.
