Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has parlayed one of the best seasons in NBA history into his second Northern Star Award as Canada’s athlete of the year for 2025.
The 27-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder guard from Hamilton beat out more than a dozen other nominees in balloting by a nation-wide media panel and administered by the Star.
The other finalists: swimmer Summer McIntosh, curler Rachel Homan, rugby star Sophie de Goede and hammer thrower Camryn Rogers.
Gilgeous-Alexander had won the 2023 Northern Star Award; McIntosh won last year. Gilgeous-Alexander and Steve Nash are the only two basketball players to win the award formerly known as the Lou Marsh Award.
Gilgeous-Alexander capped a brilliant season in June when he was named the MVP of the NBA Finals for leading the Thunder to its first NBA championship.
He was also the regular season MVP, the Western Conference championship series MVP and ended as the 2025-26 regular season as the leading scorer in the league.
Only three other players in NBA history — Michael Jordan, who accomplished it twice; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal — had pulled off the regular season MVP, Finals MVP and scoring title trifecta.
And he’s continued the torrid play through the end of the 2025 calendar year. He and the Thunder are 23-1 on the season; he’s scored more than 20 points in 93 straight games — second only to Wilt Chamberlain — and he’s second in the NBA in scoring.
There is no doubt of his strong ties to Canada, and Hamilton in particular. He led Canada to a bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, a quarter-final berth at the 2024 Paris Olympics and plans to play for Canada again this summer in qualifications for the 2027 World Cup.
“Growing up as I travelled across the world, to countless states, cities and countries people always asked where I was from,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in the summer at an event in Hamilton honouring his NBA championships and MVPs. “I took pride in letting everyone know I was from Hamilton.
“Hamilton is different from every other city in Ontario, Hamiltonians carry a different sense of grit, determination, pride and energy than the rest of the province and honestly, I couldn’t shy away from that. I carry that with me every day and everywhere I go so you guys can only imagine how (much) overwhelming joy there was when I found out I was getting a key to the city I love and a street named after me.”
More later