Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would join elite group by winning NBA Finals MVP

And now, as Gilgeous-Alexander and his team sit four wins away from a championship, he has an opportunity to join an elite group and accomplish something that hasn't been done in over a decade. 

Gilgeous-Alexander could complete the modern NBA trifecta if he captures the NBA Finals MVP as well. And if he ends the season lifting the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Trophy, he will become the first player to win the NBA MVP and Finals MVP in the same season since LeBron James did it in back-to-back seasons, the last being for the 2012-13 campaign. 

While several superstars have come close since, and some even own both trophies, no one else has been able to win both trophies in the same season in 12 years. 

When Stephen Curry won his first MVP in 2015, he also led the Warriors to what would become his first of his four championships. However, it was his teammate Andre Iguodala who was named the Finals MVP. He was MVP again a year later, but the Warriors would squander a 3-1 series lead and lose the Finals as James and the Cavaliers finished off a historic comeback. 

Kevin Durant was the Finals MVP in both 2017 and 2018 when Golden State won back-to-back championships. And when Curry finally won that elusive Finals MVP in 2022, he did it to cap off a season in which Nikola Jokic was MVP. 

Speaking of Jokic, he's a three-time NBA MVP, but in ironic fashion, finished as the runner-up to Joel Embiid in the year he would go on and lead the Nuggets to their first championship as the Finals MVP. 

Since the merger, only 10 players have claimed the NBA MVP and Finals MVP in the same season. Those legends are Michael Jordan, who did it four times, James' with the two most recent such seasons, Larry Bird with a pair of his own and then singular occurrences by Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Willis Reed, the first to do it in 1969-70. 

Based on the Thunder's dominance and Gilgeous-Alexander stepping up his game in every round, history could be made this year.