SGA Named 2025 SI Sportsperson of the Year; Top 3 Card Sales This Year
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) has had quite a year. He was named the NBA MVP on May 21, 2025; just one month later, he led the Thunder to a title and was named Finals MVP on June 22, 2025. To top off this historic year, he was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year.
While he has spent all but one year of his young career in Oklahoma City, his highest-selling cards of 2025 are all rookie cards featuring him in his Los Angeles Clippers uniform. The Clippers are the team he made his NBA debut with in 2018.
2018 Panini Prizm Gold Prizm, graded a PSA GEM MT 10
The first card on the list, and third-highest-selling SGA card of 2025, is his rookie Gold Prizm, graded a PSA GEM MT 10. This gorgeous card sold for $152,501.22 with the buyer's premium on March 29 on Goldin Auctions after 22 bids.
This is an incredibly rare card, numbered to just 10. But graded copies increase the rarity, with a PSA 10 pop count of just three.
2018 Panini Donruss Optic Gold Vinyal 1-of-1, graded PSA Authentic
The second highest card sale of SGA this past year is a one-of-a-kind, literally. It's his 2018 Donruss Optic, Gold Vinyl one-of-one autograph, graded a PSA Authentic. This one just barely beat the first card on the list, selling for $156,000 with Alt on August 14, 2025.
2018 Panini National Treasures RPA gold #/10, graded PSA GEM MT 10
SGA's highest selling card of 2025 is his 2018 Panini National Treasures Gold Rookie-Patch-Autograph card, graded a PSA GEM MT 10. This card sold for $180,000 with the buyer's premium with Fanatics Collect on April 24, 2025, just as he was starting his run to the NBA Championship.
PSA's cert registry shows only two copies of this card as PSA GEM MT 10, which is a parallel of the base version numbered to 99. The patch on this piece is incredibly detailed, showing dual colors of blue and white and a big section of what looks to be the bottom of an S from the front of his jersey.
SGA and the Thunder in 2026
The Oklahoma City Thunder currently have the best record in the NBA at 29-5 on their way to defending their 2024-25 NBA title. And while they were on pace to possibly break the 73-9 record set by 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, recent loses have hampered their pace. But SGA is still performing at a 32.1/4.7/6.4 stat line on his way to another All-star nod, and one of the top MVP candidate according to the odds makers.
Fans can order a copy of the magazine commemorating this award by clicking here from Sports Illustrated.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz