The NBA’s MVP, once again, resides in Oklahoma City.Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won a second consecutive regular-season MVP award, the NBA announced Sunday. The 27-year-old beat fellow finalists Nikola Jokić of the Denver Nuggets and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. The now-two-time MVP finished with 83 first-place votes compared to 10 for Jokić and five for Wembanyama.“To Sam (Presti), Clay (Bennett), front office, ownership, thank you guys for believing in me as a kid,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in a news conference Sunday. “With some tough years, with shooting stepbacks off one leg, shooting 20 percent from the field. I wasn’t always this basketball player, but you guys stuck with it, stuck by me, and I really appreciate that.”Gilgeous-Alexander becomes the first back-to-back winner of the award since Jokić in 2021 and 2022. Among guards, SGA is the first to win consecutive MVPs since Stephen Curry in 2015 and 2016, and he joins Curry, Michael Jordan, Steve Nash and Magic Johnson as the only guards in NBA history to do so. SGA is also the 12th player with multiple MVP awards by age 28; the league has 16 multi-time winners.“All those guys have shaped the game of basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “All those guys have changed the game and how it’s played and how it’s approached. To be in that circle, to be in that conversation, (is) something that I don’t take lightly. I’m super grateful for it. Yeah, it’s bigger than just me.”In 68 regular-season games this season, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals while shooting 38.6 percent on 3s and 60.2 percent from 2-point range, the best mark of his career. He fueled Oklahoma City’s third consecutive finish atop the Western Conference standings, as the Thunder had their third straight season of at least 57 wins. The Thunder were 56-12 when he played this season.The Thunder, looking to become the first champion to repeat since Curry’s Golden State Warriors in 2017-18, started the season 24-1. Though they endured a series of injuries across different positions, Gilgeous-Alexander remained a constant. He often either played so well that his talents weren’t required in a fourth-quarter blowout or he reached for heroics in clutch time, a late-game portfolio that eventually helped him win this season’s Clutch Player of the Year award.For the fourth consecutive season, Oklahoma City’s leading man averaged at least 30 points per game, leaving him trailing only Jordan (10), Wilt Chamberlain (eight) and Oscar Robertson (six) for the most such seasons in league history. On March 12, SGA broke Chamberlain’s record for consecutive 20-point regular-season games with his 127th in a win over the Boston Celtics.Gilgeous-Alexander’s second MVP gives Oklahoma City four total since the franchise’s inception in 2008, the most of any team during that time. Kevin Durant won in 2014, and Russell Westbrook won in 2017. He’s the first Thunder player to collect two MVP awards in a Thunder uniform.“It’s special,” SGA said. “And not really for me personally, but more so for the city and the organization. Someone told me a stat: It’s been four MVPs in the last 12 years to go through this building, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. There’s a reason why you have success when you come through this program, in this facility. In this city.”In 2019, Thunder general manager Sam Presti acquired Gilgeous-Alexander after his rookie season from the LA Clippers in exchange for Paul George, who joined forces with then-NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard. Since then, including the playoffs, the Thunder have recorded the NBA’s fourth-best record, trailing only the Celtics, Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks.In the past two seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander has collected two MVP awards, an NBA title, a scoring title, and a Clutch Player of the Year Award. Nothing, though, raises the bar he’s set quite like winning at the biggest stage.“When it’s all said and done, as long as I know I gave everything I had to the game, I’ll live with the results. Whatever that looks like, it looks like,” he said. “I don’t have a certain amount of accolades I want to collect. I don’t have anything I specifically wanna do besides win. And as long as I’m giving my all and doing it the right way and my way, I’ll live with the results, whatever that looks like.”