Kendrick Perkins Drops a Surprising Choice for the Best Player in the NBA—You Won’t Believe Who Made the Top Spot!

So here we are, folks—fresh off the Oklahoma City Thunder clinching the 2025 NBA Championship in a nail-biter Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers, and the buzz is all about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s jaw-dropping season. You know, it’s not often you see a player sweep MVP, scoring title, Eastern Conference Finals MVP, and Finals MVP all in one go, then top it off by leading a surprisingly young squad to hoist the trophy. Kendrick Perkins didn’t mince words on The Pat McAfee Show—he’s calling SGA the best player in the league. But is that really a slam dunk, or just a spicy take to ruffle some feathers? Meanwhile, Nikola Jokic fans are sharpening their debate skills, arguing efficiency and triple-doubles like it’s a final exam. And don’t even get me started on the foul-baiting drama and officiating grumbles. So here’s my question: with all this talent and controversy swirling, who truly deserves the crown of NBA’s best? Buckle up—this discussion’s got more layers than a playoff series stretching to seven games.

The Oklahoma City Thunder brought home the 2025 NBA Championship last night in an emotional Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers, who saw star point guard Tyrese Haliburton go down with a torn Achilles in the first quarter after attempting to play through a calf strain he suffered in Game 5.

The title concludes one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history that featured a 68-win regular season and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander winning MVP, the scoring title, Eastern Conference Finals MVP, and Finals MVP.

After racking up all of those accolades, Kendrick Perkins officially claimed him to be the best player in the league during an appearance on Monday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.

"[Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] is the best player in the league."@KendrickPerkins questions what else SGA needs to do to be recognized as the best in the NBA pic.twitter.com/idbS6OB0Vt

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) June 23, 2025

Many will still argue that Nikola Jokic is the best player in the league, which is certainly valid considering he just averaged a hyper-efficient 30-point triple-double this season and took Oklahoma City to seven games in the second round despite his team being vastly inferior to the Thunder’s.

There are plenty of fans who dislike Shai’s foul-baiting style and believe OKC gets a favorable whistle and is allowed to maul people on defense while SGA gets to the line at an alarming rate and gets away with push-offs constantly, but that’s ultimately an issue with officiating.

For a player to rack up this many accolades in one season and finish it all off by leading such a young team to a championship, Gilgeous-Alexander has every right to the throne at this point.

Congratulations to the Thunder, and it will be interesting to see what happens during this week’s draft since this OKC team is positioned to win a lot more titles in the coming years, given all the picks and cap space they have.

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