Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Nominated For Best Male Athlete ESPY

Each season, the ESPY’s have its work cut out for them. With all the firepower across all professional sports, rewarding one athlete in any category is going to be difficult. To be mentioned as a finalist for an ESPY is certainly a great honor.

The ESPY Awards stands for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards. It is ESPN’s biggest awards show, where they recognize outstanding achievements in sports — both team-related and individual accomplishments.

It shouldn’t be too shocking, but Oklahoma City’s recent MVP winner was named as a finalist for the “Best Athlete - Men's Sports” category. After Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's massive individual season that was recently capped off with the franchise’s first NBA championship, he felt like an obvious inclusion.

“First-team All-NBA. Scoring title. NBA regular season MVP. Western Conference finals MVP. NBA Finals MVP. NBA championship,” ESPN wrote to build SGA’s case and show readers how much he accomplished. “It was a busy season for the guard, who became the first player since Stephen Curry in 2014-15 to net a regular-season MVP award and the title. He was also the first to win the scoring title and championship since Shaquille O'Neal in 1999-00.

“Gilgeous-Alexander's historic season placed the 26-year-old among elite company: He was the first player to score at least 18 points in every regular season game since Michael Jordan in 1988-89. Gilgeous-Alexander's 212 points during the NBA Finals were the most by any player since LeBron James in 2015 and powered the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the Finals.”

SGA finished second in MVP voting a season ago, and came into the 2024-25 campaign with vengeance. He averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. For the third straight season, he averaged over 30 points per game on greater than 50% shooting.

Also nominated for the award are Josh Allen and Shohei Ohtani. The 2025 ESPYS are set to be announced on July 16. Until then, Thunder fans can vote to make sure Gilgeous-Alexander goes home with the show's biggest honors.