Hamilton's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now in exclusive club with Shaq, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan
If ever a movie is made about the life of new NBA heavyweight
champ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
— at this point isn't anything possible? 'Space Jam 3?'
Shai
Jam? — it could open with a scene in the cavernous gym at Hamilton's downtown YMCA.
Summer of 2013: a skinny 14-year old kid with oversized feet is grinding, working on his game at a basketball camp, displaying uncommon seriousness of purpose.
Kenold Knight, one of the coaches, notes the kid's intensity.
'So what do you have going on?' Knight asks. 'What's your plan?'
'I'm going to the NBA,' replies Shai.
Flash forward to the present, Sunday night, and the coach's eyes tear up in front of his TV, watching a player
universally known as SGA
hoist new trophies — National Basketball Association champion and Finals MVP — and dish credit to teammates and 'everyone that's helped me get here, and they know who they are.'
'When you have someone who dreams so big, and you see them achieve it on the biggest stage, it is just surreal,' said Knight. 'And hearing Shai give credit to the people who helped him — that is humility, embodied right there.'
At the same moment he led his Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA title in Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers — the second gut-check Game 7 victory for OKC in these playoffs — Gilgeous-Alexander placed Hamilton in a rarefied category, with San Antonio, New York City, and Wilmington, N.C.
What do all four cities have in common?
They are cities where a pantheon of NBA greats grew up, who — like Gilgeous-Alexander — achieved the sublime quad of winning the NBA scoring title, MVP, championship and finals MVP all in the same season: Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan (MJ did it four times.)
A spokesperson with the City of Hamilton said 'plans to celebrate and honour Shai here in Hamilton are still being finalized.' Mayor Andrea Horwath posted a congratulatory post on social media: 'Your leadership, poise, and passion are unmatched!'
Gilgeous-Alexander was born in Toronto, where his father, Vaughan Alexander, had been a star high school hoops player.
Alexander was courtside in OKC for Game 7. He told The Spec that his son's accomplishment was the culmination of hard work and perseverance.
'I'm sure he has had a list of achievements he has checked off all his life,' he said. 'Has been checking them off one by one, and he's not done. He plans to get better. Players in their prime get better. I'm looking forward to that.'
Gilgeous-Alexander, who attended St. Thomas More and Sir Allan MacNab high schools,
has always talked up Hamilton
as the place he developed his early basketball skills and where he 'became a man.'
'A blue collar, under the radar city,' he has told The Spec. He recalled that in youth basketball, GTA teams 'had all the hype. We played with a chip on our shoulder … An underdog mentality.'
Chip? Perhaps it is a coincidence, but note that in Game 3, Gilgeous-Alexander uncharacteristically tussled with an Indiana player who had been harassing him on defence when he didn't have the ball. The player, Andrew Nembhard, went to high school in Vaughan, in the GTA.
Six of Gilgeous-Alexander's old MacNab Lions buddies gathered at a restaurant in Ancaster to watch Game 7.
In OKC, the Hamilton content courtside, in addition to Shai's wife, Hailey — they dated in their teens — was personal trainer, Nemanja (Nem) Ilic.
He attended Westmount high school, and for six summers worked out Gilgeous-Alexander in the off-season in Ilic's garage/gym on the Mountain.
Ilic was on the floor after the game with Gilgeous-Alexander and other family and friends, trying to 'feel the moment,' he told The Spec.
'I felt fortunate to witness history. All the hard work leading to this moment … I'm super proud of his growth as a basketball player and as a man and who he's becoming.'
On social media, a few fans posted that they thought OKC players reacted happily — but also with oddly restrained enthusiasm — after winning the championship.
Perhaps the players can't help but channel SGA, their calm and steady superstar who plays with a unique blend of fire and ice.
And maybe the Thunder, and Gilgeous-Alexander, are already pondering new dreams.
Ilic, for one, couldn't help it.
Celebrating with his friend and client on the hardwood, he said to him: 'Now let's make it a repeat — why not?'
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