OKC Thunder Superstar Running Away With NBA MVP in Latest Straw Poll

The Oklahoma City Thunder have their sights set on another championship parade in Bricktown this June.

The Bricktown Ballers are attempting to be the first team since 2018 to repeat as champions and are the odds on favorites right now to do so. Oklahoma City also has the chance to see their superstar point guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, take home back to back NBA Most Valuable Player awards.

A year ago, Gilgeous-Alexander won the NBA MVP, Western Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP honors. A perfect season where he dazzled with his efficency, scoring output en route to a scoring title and led the Thunder to 68 regular season wins before the title clinching victory in June during Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers.

Now, the Oklahoma City Thunder has led the OKC Thunder to 62 victories and counting, with jaw-dropping numbers for a team that has seen a run of injuries only he would have the ability to overcome at this level.

This season, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 31.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.1 stocks per game (steals plus blocks) from an efficiency 55% from the floor, 38% from deep and 88% at the charity stripe in 66 games.

Oklahoma City saw its current franchise player join the ranks with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as players in Thunder history to win an NBA MVP award. Gilgeous-Alexander would be the first to win two.

Each year ESPN does an NBA Most Valuable Player Award straw poll conducted by Tim Bontemps who polls 100 media members multiple times a year. It is the best prediction of who will take home the award and by how much, as many of the voters in this poll cast ballots in the true MVP race.

Gilgeous-Alexander brought home 88 first place votes, nine second place votes and three third place selections. That brought his point total to 958, making him the NBA MVP in a landslide.

Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama brought in eight first place votes, 63 second place votes, 19 third place votes, nine fourth place votes and a single fifth place selection. He tallied 644 points to land himself a distant third.

These two have gone head to head in the NBA MVP debate for the last quarter of this season. It bolsters Gilgeous-Alexander's case that he has been the lone constant in the heated NBA MVP race. Being compared to Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Jaylen Brown and Cade Cunningham throughout the year.

This result in the straw poll suggest that the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar will waltz his way to back-to-back NBA MVP honors.