Why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander winning MVP makes him the best NBA player to play for John Calipari at Kentucky

Kentucky basketball is synonymous with college basketball royalty. In UK’s storied history, the program has produced 60 first-round NBA Draft picks. Thirty-seven of those selections occurred during the John Calipari era, which spanned from 2009 to last spring. Twenty-five of the 37 first-rounders Calipari produced were lottery picks.

But there was still something missing despite what Kentucky’s program has accomplished as one of the blue bloods of the sport. Kentucky had never produced an NBA MVP winner — until this week. On Wednesday night, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander earned the NBA’s top individual honor, edging out Denver’s Nikola Jokić and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in the voting.

The closest any player had previously come to winning MVP during the Calipari era at Kentucky was Anthony Davis, who finished third behind LeBron James and James Harden during the 2016-17 season. Davis finished in the top five of MVP voting twice, but hasn’t finished higher than third in the voting since.

Davis’ overall body of work as an NBA player is impressive. He was named to the 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the title in 2020 and has finished in the top five of Defensive Player of the Year voting four times. Davis, who helped Kentucky win a national title as a freshman, is also regarded as the best one-and-done players of the modern college basketball era, a crown Duke’s Cooper Flagg — the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — wasn’t able to take away from him after coming up short in last month’s Final Four.

At 26 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander’s prime is just beginning. Before the OKC superstar burst onto the scene as one of the faces of the NBA, he carved out his path at Kentucky under Calipari. Here is a deeper dive into why Gilgeous-Alexander should be considered the best NBA player that played for Calipari at Kentucky.

Revisiting SGA’s time at Kentucky

Coming out of Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Gilgeous-Alexander was ranked as the No. 20 overall prospect in the 2017 recruiting cycle by 247Sports. Kentucky’s 2017 recruiting class finished second in the 247Sports team rankings behind Duke.

Gilgeous-Alexander was the sixth-highest ranked player from his own Kentucky recruiting class. Jarred Vanderbilt, Hamidou Diallo, Nick Richards, Kevin Knox and PJ Washington all ranked as top 20 recruits. Gilgeous-Alexander became the second-highest drafted player from Kentucky during the 2018 Draft behind Knox, who went No. 9 to the New York Knicks.

Gilgeous-Alexander started 24 of the 37 games he appeared in during his lone season at Kentucky and averaged 14.4 points, 5.1 assists and 4.1 rebounds. The Kentucky star was drafted 11th by the Charlotte Hornets, who traded his rights to the Los Angeles Clippers. He only spent one season with the Clippers before becoming part of one of the most iconic trades in NBA history. More on that shortly.

How Gilgeous-Alexander took the next step in his NBA career

Gilgeous-Alexander getting shipped from L.A. to Oklahoma City in the Paul George trade was part of the first step that allowed him to take a star turn. He improved his scoring average from 10.8 points in his rookie season to 19 in Year 2. By his fifth season (2022-23), Gilgeous-Alexander was averaging over 30 points per game (31.4) and the Thunder were on the fast track toward an impressive rebuild.

OKC’s star guard finished fifth in MVP voting in 2023 and was the MVP runner-up to Jokić last season. Gilgeous-Alexander has finished in the top five of MVP voting in three consecutive seasons. The only other Kentucky player from the Calipari era with multiple top five MVP finishes is Davis, who has two.

Now that Gilgeous-Alexander is officially the league MVP, the next step is capturing an NBA title. The Thunder are three wins away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 after a decisive 114-88 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night.

There is still room for debate about the best player from the Calipari era at Kentucky. If Gilgeous-Alexander can lead the Thunder to a championship as the primary option, the gap between him and the other top Kentucky players of this era will shrink considerably.