After nearly a month-long, injury-induced hiatus, OKC Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is officially set to make his return to action on Friday night in a must-see showdown against conference rival, the Denver Nuggets.
Prior to being shelved with an abdominal strain in early February, the point guard appeared to be well on his way toward earning his second straight Most Valuable Player Award, which, in turn, would make him just the 15 player in league history to accomplish such a feat.
Though still widely regarded as a prominent candidate to take home the illustrious honor, his margin for error is now slimmer than ever, and so, too, is his allotted number of games he's able to miss before becoming ineligible.
Thunder star can only miss six more games before MVP disqualification
The league implemented its so-called “65-game rule” right before the start of the 2023-24 season, which, simply put, allows players to miss a total of 17 games (18 if one reaches the NBA Cup Final) before they are officially eliminated from contending for end-of-season honors.
That list includes Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, All-NBA, All-Defensive teams, and, of course, Most Valuable Player.
Last season, these qualifiers were far from deterring Gilgeous-Alexander's historic run to earning his first Michael Jordan Trophy, as he missed just six games while claiming his first scoring title with 32.7 points per night and stuffing the stat sheet with 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks along the way.
In 2025-26, however, the pressures of the aformentioned rule change are undoubtedly starting to be felt by the Thunder cornerstone.
While he may be ranked number one in NBA.com's latest MVP ladder, with his incredible stat line of 31.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.3 steals and Oklahoma City's top-seeded 45-15 record doing most of the heavy lifting, already registering nearly double the number of games missed in 2024-25, SGA can only afford six more absences before his pursuit of history is completely over.
Right on his tail are a number of top-tier threats to take home the moniker themselves, including guys like Cade Cunningham and Victor Wembanyama.
Of course, none are as much of a danger to Shai's repeat bid than Nuggets centerpiece Nikola Jokic, who not only came in second in last year's race but is someone he'll be seeing immediately upon his return to action out at Paycom Center.
With just 22 games remaining on the regular season docket, for the Thunder star to join guys like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry as some of the only players to win consecutive MVP honors, he'll need to make every one of them count.