How Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is quietly becoming the best Canadian basketball player ever

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Professional basketball's often contentious greatest of all time debate will likely never be settled, but the conversation about the greatest Canadian to play in the NBA could very well be resolved as early as this week.
The Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who this season joined two-time NBA regular season MVP winner Steve Nash of B.C. as the only Canadians to win the award, has dominated this year's NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers, a series that continues in a potentially decisive Game 6 tonight in Indianapolis.
Should the Thunder emerge victorious, or in a Game 7 on Saturday back in Oklahoma City, Gilgeous-Alexander is the odds-on favourite to be awarded the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award.
Only a handful of players have won both MVP honours in a single season, all of them among the game's true greats: Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Moses Malone, Magic Johnson, Lebron James, who did it twice, and Michael Jordan, who was bestowed both honours on four occasions.
While Nash's MVPs came in successive seasons (2004-2006) when he was key to the Phoenix Suns' success, he never played in the Finals during his remarkable 18-season Hall of Fame career. (Although he would later become a de facto champion by way of consulting duties with the Golden State Warriors in 2017.)
In an interview with The Ringer earlier this year, Nash himself admitted that if Gilgeous-Alexander isn't already, 'he'll be the best Canadian to ever play the game — and in short order.'
He's done so by approaching the game — on and off the court — with composure and humility, while developing into a leader who recognizes his broader role for the young team and its fans. A case in point: he signed 429 autographs in the hours before Game 2, thinking he'd only signed a few dozen.
'Greatest season for a Canadian'
Statistically, the 26-year-old from Hamilton, Ont., conclusively produced the single best regular season by a Canadian player this season. His 32.7 points per game average led the league and was supported by five rebounds, 6.4 assists and a field goal percentage of 51.9 per cent.
His true shooting percentage, a stat used to determine shot efficiency, was an incredible 63.7 per cent.
Only two other players in the NBA's history have averaged similar figures: Jordan and 2017-18 MVP James Harden.
'Steve (Nash) would tell you this is the greatest season for a Canadian,' said Dwayne Washington, founder of UPLAY Canada, who coached a young Gilgeous-Alexander for several years before he left to finish high school playing against stiffer competition in Tennessee.
'So when the dust clears, people are only gonna look at statistics, and statistically it's undeniable.'
Similarly, Gilgeous-Alexander, already the recipient of the Western Conference Final MVP award, has produced playoff numbers that put him in rare air.
He has scored 30-plus points in 15 games, tying him with Kobe Bryant for the most in a single postseason and one off the record held by Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. He also set an NBA record by scoring at least 30 points in 10 straight home games.
Three of those have come in the Finals, during which he is averaging 32.4 ppg and 2.4 steals, both of which rank among the top five in history, per the league. That includes a 35-point performance in Game 4 — highlighted by a 15-point run in the final 5 minutes to help the Thunder come from behind and tie the series up at two apiece — and a 31-point, 10-assist double-double in Game 5.
According to Sportsnet, his 162 points through the first five games are the fourth most by any player.
He also joined an elite group last week when he became the 12th player with more than 3,000 total points in a single season (regular season and playoffs combined).
Another staggering number: the 429 autographs he signed before Game 2. He thought he'd only done 50 or 60.
Humble and hard-working
Like he was all season, Gilgeous-Alexander has continued to be humble about his success on the court, promoting selflessness and a team-first mentality in post-game interviews, often hailing his teammates' contributions as being just as vital.
After Game 5, he heaped praise on forward Jalen Williams' 40-point effort and said he was just 'trying to affect winning.'
'Trying to make a basketball play. I was trying to help the team win, trying to be in position for the next rotation, next play defensively. Whatever comes with that, comes with that.'
Washington, whose program has provided coaching and mentorship to other Canadian NBA talent such as R.J. Barrett, Lindell Wigginton, and Shaedon Sharpe, told National Post he's been impressed with how Gilgeous-Alexander is handling the defensive pressure, even likening it to what Jordan experienced in the playoffs.
'That is so hard to do. Some of the best athletes in the world are double- and triple-teaming you, and you're still getting 30, 10 assists and winning with a team so young,' he explained. (The Thunder's average age is just 25.6 years, making them the youngest squad to play for a title since the 1977 Portland Trailblazers.)
Washington offered more comparisons to Jordan, along with Bryant, in terms of Gilgeous-Alexander's approach to the game off the court — 'He's out-studying, outmaneuvering, out-planning, and out-working people before they even step on the court,' he said — and a fall-away mid-range jump shot that both legends deployed with lethal efficiency throughout their careers.
He said the six-foot-six guard has been working on that shot for years, and it comes naturally to him. However, most NBA coaches preach against the generally low-percentage shot attempt despite it being a go-to for elite offensive players.
Washington said Gilgeous-Alexander has been told not to shoot it 'most of his career,' but he's continued to perfect it anyway.
'I know he's been working on it, so it's great to see it in real time,' Washington said. 'I'll be honest with you, if he'd listen to other people telling him what not to do, he wouldn't be there.'
Nash also offered a Jordan and Bryant comparison in an interview with the Toronto Star last month, saying Gilgeous-Alexander 'does the same thing they do.'
'If you look at the numbers and you break it down, there's a lot of things he does that are greater than everyone that's even close to those type of players. So he's ascending towards that category.'
He'll look to continue that ascension when the NBA Finals resume tonight. Game time is 8:30 p.m. ET.
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