NBA star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander named Canada's athlete of the year for second time

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the NBA in scoring last season and later grabbed league MVP and Finals MVP honours, was named Canadian athlete of the year on Tuesday.

A sports media panel huddled in Toronto and selected the Hamilton native over Olympic swimmer and 2024 recipient Summer McIntosh, curler Rachel Homan, World Rugby women's player of the year Sophie de Goede and world hammer throw champion Camryn Rogers. Eighteen athletes were nominated.

Gilgeous-Alexander also won the Northern Star Award (formerly Lou Marsh Trophy) in 2023 after leading the Canadian men's national team to an historic bronze at the Basketball World Cup and its first Olympic berth in 23 years.

The 27-year-old is the 10th multiple winner, with only NHL great Wayne Gretzky and legendary figure skater Barbara Ann Scott having won more than twice.

In May, Gilgeous-Alexander became the second Canadian to be named NBA MVP after Steve Nash was recognized in 2005 and 2006.

Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and five rebounds per game last regular season, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 68-14 record and the second title in franchise history. He was also the first guard to win MVP since James Harden in 2018.

Before Gilgeous-Alexander, only three players in NBA history won the scoring title, league MVP, NBA championship and Finals MVP in the same season: Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal.

"Many athletes would be considered a great player having had achieved just one of these accolades," Rowan Barrett, general manager of the Canadian men's national team, said at a Hamilton rally in August.

“To do them all with such grace, calmness under pressure and true leadership in every sense of