Former Kentucky Wildcats standout and current Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was this year’s NBA scoring champion, leading the league in points per game.
SGA was drafted 11th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft after one year in Lexington. Now in his seventh season, he led the league by averaging 32.7 points per game for the Thunder, who enter the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference.
SGA beat out Giannis Antetokounmpo (30.4 ppg), Nikola Jokic (29.6 ppg), Anthony Edwards (27.6 ppg), and Jayson Tatum (26.8 ppg) to earn this year’s scoring crown.
SGA was also able to achieve this feat while shooting nearly 52% from the floor and 37.5 percent from deep. He also shot nearly 90% from the free-throw line on almost 9 attempts per game.
This is the first time a former Kentucky player has won the NBA scoring crown, dating back to the 1946-47 season.
Six former Wildcats finished in the top 30 in scoring in the NBA this season. Devin Booker finished 9th with 25.6 ppg. Karl-Anthony Towns was 12th at 24.4 ppg. Tyler Herro wasn’t far behind at 17th in the league with 23.9 ppg, and De’Aaron Fox was just behind him at 23.5 ppg. Jamal Murray came in at 26th, averaging 21.4 ppg.
It’s an impressive accomplishment for the former Wildcat, who is also one of the frontrunners for this year’s NBA Most Valuable Player award. This year’s MVP race is mostly viewed as a two-horse race between SGA and Jokic, but the success of the Thunder could help push SGA ahead.
The Thunder won the Western Conference by a 16-game margin with a regular season record of 68-14.
That’s not to take away from what SGA accomplishes on the box score as well. To go along with his league-leading 32.7 points per game, he also added five rebounds and 6.4 assists per game to go along with 1.7 steals and one block per game.
If SGA wins the MVP award, he would be the first Kentucky player to win the league’s most prestigious award.
The NBA will announce its end-of-season awards in the coming weeks, so this will be worth keeping an eye on.
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