Why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won MVP

Kentucky basketball is a synonym for College basketball kings. In the history of British history, the program produced 60 NBA-draft picks in the first round. Thirty-seven of these selections occurred during the John Calipari era, which was exceeded from 2009 to the last spring. 25 of the 37 First-Rounder Calipari produced goods lottery picks.

But something was still missing, although Kentucky's program has reached one of the blue blood of sport. Kentucky had never produced an NBA MVP winner until this week. On Wednesday evening, the Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received the top honor of the NBA and displaced Denvers Nikola Jokić and Milwaukees Giannis Antetocounmpo in the vote.

The next player, who had previously won in the Calipari era in Kentucky MVP, was Anthony Davis, who took third place in the 2016-17 season. Davis was twice in the top 5 of the MVP vote, but has not been third -party since then.

Davis' general work as a NBA player is impressive. He was appointed 75th anniversary team in 2021, helped Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 and ended the top 5 defensive players of the year four times. Davis, who helped Kentucky to win a national title as a newcomer, is also considered the best one-player of the modern college basketball era, the Cooper Flag from Crown Duke-The projected overall election in the NBA design of 2025 draft draft draft draft draft draft draft was unable to take him away After you have briefly found in the last four last month.

Gilgeous -Alexander Prime is just beginning at the age of 26. Before the OKC superstar broke into the scene as one of the faces of the NBA, he carved Kentucky under Calipari. Here is a deeper dive why Gilgeous-Alexander should be seen as the best NBA player who played for Calipari in Kentucky.

Visit Sgas time in Kentucky again

Gilgeous-Aalexander came from the Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was classified in the 2017 recruitment cycle as the number 20 of the total view in 2017. The Kentucky recruitment class in 2017 was second in the 247SPorts team behind Duke.

Gilgeous-Alexander was the sixth highest player in his own recruitment class in Kentucky. Jarred Vanderbilt, Hamidou Diallo, Nick Richards, Kevin Knox and PJ Washington took the top -20 recruits. Gilgeous-Aalexander became the second highest player from Kentucky 2018 during the design behind Knox, who took number 9 of the New York Knicks.

Gilgeous-Alexander started 24 of the 37 games in which he appeared in Kentucky during his only season, and scored an average of 14.4 points, 5.1 assists and 4.1 rebounds. The Kentucky star was drawn in 11th place by the Charlotte Hornets, who exchanged his rights against the Los Angeles Clipper. He only spent one season with the Clipper before becoming part of one of the best -known shops in NBA history. More on that shortly.

How Gilgeous-Alexander took the next step in his NBA career

Gilgeous-Alexander was shipped from La to Oklahoma City in Paul George trade, which enabled him to take a starter. He improved his value average of 10.8 points in his rookie season to 19 in the 2nd in season (2022-23) Gilgeous-Alexander had an average of over 30 points per game (31.4) and the thunder was on the fast path towards an impressive conversion.

OKCS Star Guard finished fifth in the MVP vote in 2023 and was Jokić's MVP second place last season. Gilgeous-Alexander ended the top 5 of the MVP votes in three consecutive seasons. The only other Kentucky player from the Calipari era with several top 5 MVP surfaces is Davis, who has two.

Now that Gilgeous-Alexander is officially the MVP of the league, the next step is capturing an NBA title. The thunder is three victories before reaching the NBA final for the first time since 2012 afterwards A crucial win of 114-88 Via the Minnesota Timberwolves in game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Tuesday evening.