He's the best player for the NBA's defending champions and the voters say he's the best player in the league, too - again.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder won the Most Valuable Player award on Sunday for the second consecutive year.

He became the 18th player to win at least two MVP awards and the 14th to win them in back-to-back fashion.

The win for Gilgeous-Alexander, who is Canadian, marks the eighth consecutive time that the NBA's MVP was born outside the US.

The run started with Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver's Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a US citizen) in 2023 and Jokic again in 2024.

And in 2025 and 2026, SGA is the MVP.

"Who he is has never changed," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "I think he's touched up the edges on his game and on his leadership and on his perspective, just like anybody else that's coming of age."

Jokic was second and San Antonio's star French centre Victor Wembanyama placed third.

Gilgeous-Alexander got 83 of a possible 100 first-place votes. Jokic received 10 and Wembanyama got five. Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers was fourth in the voting and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons was fifth.

International players went 1-2-3 in the voting for the fifth straight season.

— Last season the order was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo.

— In 2024, it was Jokic, then Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic (Slovenia) of Slovenia.

— In 2023, it was Embiid, then Jokic, then Antetokounmpo.

— In 2022, it was Jokic, then Embiid, then Antetokounmpo.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama will face off Monday night when the Thunder and Spurs open Game 1 of the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City.

The MVP win is Gilgeous-Alexander's second major individual award this season; he was also voted the league's Clutch Player of the Year by an overwhelming margin — he got 96 of 100 first-place votes in that balloting, paying tribute to how great his performances tend to be in the final five minutes of close games.

Then again, he's pretty good no matter how much time is on the clock.

Gilgeous-Alexander was second in the league with 31.1 points per game, second only to Doncic. He also extended his NBA-record streak of regular season games with at least 20 points to 140 and counting.