Latest news with #Hamilton-raised
Hamilton Spectator
24-05-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Top Hamilton headlines this week: Landlord fined for violating tenants' right of return + Jury no-shows hauled before judge
The weekend is here, but plenty happened in the Hamilton area this week. Don't miss these top stories from Spectator reporters. The Tiger-Cats kick off their pre-season schedule Saturday and there are plenty more things to do this weekend in Hamilton. Here are some ideas . The sun could break through Sunday following a week of clouds and rain, but the forecast still calls for possible showers Saturday and cooler weather through the weekend. Long-term tenants of a Strathearne Avenue low rise informed their landlord of their intention to return once renovations were completed. But their landlord re-rented the apartments and jacked up the rates. Now, that landlord has been ordered to pay a penalty for not recognizing his former tenants' right of refusal. Hamilton-raised Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named NBA MVP Wednesday night. His achievements stand alone in local sports lore, writes Scott Radley. Jon Wells recounts meeting the basketball superstar in his 'Upbeat' column. If you have received a notice for jury duty and your first thought was 'How do I get out of this?' — this story from Susan Clairmont is for you. After more than two months stranded in the Dominican Republic — where he was wrongfully detained on drug smuggling charges — the 57-year-old arrived home to Canada. Two popular Hamilton banquet halls have been placed in receivership as a bank looks to recoup millions of dollars in unpaid loans, potentially leaving scores of charity events and weddings in limbo. Subscribe to our newsletters for the latest local content .
Toronto Star
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
Hamilton's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins NBA MVP award over Nikola Jokic
It is the true sporting genius who can impose their will on a game, on a season, in the same fashion all the time and continue to succeed at it. Nba 50 shades of Shai: How Gilgeous-Alexander is reaching new scoring heights in his best NBA season In one five-week span, the Thunder superstar had four games of 50 or more points, one of the most blistering stretches of NBA scoring in recent years. Nba 50 shades of Shai: How Gilgeous-Alexander is reaching new scoring heights in his best NBA season In one five-week span, the Thunder superstar had four games of 50 or more points, one of the most blistering stretches of NBA scoring in recent years. A perfect example is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Hamilton-raised, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard who was announced Wednesday as this season's most valuable player in the NBA. Everyone — opponents, teammates, fans — knows he wants to slither his way to the elbow where the paint meets the free-throw line to knock down 12- to 15-foot jump shots with metronomic consistency. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Those same observers know that he can snake his way through a maze of large defenders, initiate contact driving to the basket, take a hit, make a basket and saunter to the free-throw line and make a foul shot. It is his brilliance and why he was judged the best player in the NBA, becoming the second Canadian to win the annual award. The Thunder point guard beat out finalists Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in voting by 100 media representatives who regular cover the league. Gilgeous-Alexander got 71 first-place votes, Jokic got the other 29 of the 100. Antetokounmpo received 88 third-place votes. Full disclosure: My five-man ballot, in order, from which the three finalists were culled was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, Antetokounmpo, Boston's Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell of Cleveland. Gilgeous-Alexander, finishing his seventh season, is now eligible for 'super max' contract extensions that will put him in the salary stratosphere. He could sign a four-year extension worth $293 million (U.S.) this summer or wait to be eligible for a five-year, $380-million deal after the 2025-26 season. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'You try so hard throughout the season to not think about it and just worry about playing basketball and getting better and trying to win games but as a competitor and as a kid dreaming about the game, it's always in the back of your mind and I'm very thankful to be at this side of, I guess, the ballot,' Gilgeous-Alexander said in a TNT interview, sitting in front of his teammates at the Thunder practice facility. 'But none of this is possible without the guys behind me. The amount of games we won (68) and the fashion that we won the games is so impressive and it's mainly the reason why I got this award.' The 26-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander has grown into one of the era's best players through a meticulous work ethic, daily dedication to honing his skills and a personality that won't allow him to put himself before his team. He is confident, of course, but never seeks the spotlight that shines so brightly on him. 'He also wants to be one of the guys,' Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said earlier this month. 'He just wants to operate like another member of the team. You see him walk around the building, he doesn't walk around the building any differently than anybody else. 'He wants to blend into the organization, blend into the team the same way everybody else does. And I just think that balance is very unique.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Unique, too, are his skills, which blossomed this season like never before. He led the NBA in scoring, averaging 32.7 points per game and shooting 51.9 per cent from the field, 37.5 per cent from three-point range and 89.8 per cent from the free-throw line on an NBA-best 8.8 foul shots per game. He was part of the NBA's best defensive team as well and averaged 1.7 steals per game. There are critics who denigrate Gilgeous-Alexander's skills because they see him as someone who hunts fouls, embellishes contact and lives at the free-throw line. It's lost on them, it seems, that Gilgeous-Alexander plays the same style, game after game, and the best defenders in the league can't find a way to consistently stop him. Maybe opponents and fans should find a solution to his skills rather than complain about them. 'I always marvel at his ability to get himself back to zero after every game,' Daigneault told reporters earlier this spring. 'Usually, he's doing it after a great game. That's his secret sauce. 'When he fails, he doesn't point fingers. He doesn't pout. He's not angry. He just gets himself ready to play again.' In many ways, Gilgeous-Alexander replicates the character of Steve Nash, the only other Canadian to be named the NBA's MVP. Both are selfless and more worried about team success than personal accolades even though both are and were near maniacal about preparation and setting standards for their teammates to match. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'He's an absolute master of his craft, and that comes from hard work,' Nash said on a podcast earlier this month. 'That comes from really intentional, purposeful work … A big admiration for him. 'Not just how he's gotten there but how he handles himself … A guy that the league should be putting (out as its face) everywhere.' It is not as if Gilgeous-Alexander won out easily over his main rival. Jokic, the MVP in 2021, 2022 and 2024, had a truly incredible regular season, averaging 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game for the Nuggets, who lost a seven-game, second-round playoff series to Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder. Jokic seems to toy with the game, bending it to his whim and immeasurable skills every time he's on the court. Gilgeous-Alexander's election continues an incredible run for him. He was an MVP finalist for the award three years ago and finished runner-up to Jokic in 2023-24. Gilgeous-Alexander was also named to the first-team, all-NBA team in two consecutive seasons and is certain to be get the same honour this season. The result a year ago drove him. 'To be honest with you, I used it as motivation,' Gilgeous-Alexander said in the television interview. 'Last year, all it meant was that more people thought I shouldn't win than I should win, and this year I wanted to change the narrative and have it flipped. I think I did good job of that.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW At home, he led Canada to a historic bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup and led the 3-1 Canadian team to the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Gilgeous-Alexander was also awarded the Northern Star Award as Canada's athlete of the year in 2023 and has already committed to play for Canada through the 2028 Los Angeles Games. 'It's amazing playing in front of people that are from where I'm from, grew up the way I grew up, seeing the same things I've seen,' said Gilgeous-Alexander, who was born in Toronto and raised in Hamilton. 'It's like a little connection. Obviously … we share a common bond. It's cool. 'I'm proud to be Canadian, to play in front of Canadians, the special feeling whether I know them or not.'
Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Toronto-born Shai Gilgeous-Alexander becomes second Canadian ever to win NBA MVP. Is he the best Canadian player ever?
Toronto-born, Hamilton-raised Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has become just the second Canadian to be named most valuable player in the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder phenom has had a steady ascent to greatness, becoming one of the best players in the last few years, and leading his team to a first-place finish in the 2024-25 NBA regular season. Not only was the scoring champion this season, but he's recognized as one of the best defensive players in the game, ranking among the leaders in steals and blocks among point guards. Now, he has cemented his legacy. A post shared by UNINTERRUPTED 🇨🇦 (@uninterruptedcanada) Gilgeous-Alexander joins NBA legend Steve Nash as just the second Canadian-born to ever win the highly-coveted MVP honour, sparking debate about who is the best Canadian player in the history of the league. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joins Steve Nash as just the second Canadian to ever win NBA MVP. The Thunder are currently playing in the NBA's Western Conference final against the Minnesota Timberwolves, looking to win their first championship in the young franchise's history. Gilgeous-Alexander has also earned respect from his peers and the basketball community for his participation with Team Canada in the 2024 Summer Olympics. THE BEST PLAYER IN THE NBA IS FROM CANADA 🇨🇦🏀 Congratulations to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from Toronto who just won the MVP trophy in the NBA for the 2024-25 season. Here are ESPN's top 10 plays from Gilgeous-Alexander's impressive season. Is Gilgeous-Alexander the best Canadian-born NBA player of all time? Take our reader survey and weigh in. Disclaimer: Reader survey results are not scientific. As the informal findings of a survey presented to the readers of this site, they reflect the opinions of those who have chosen to participate. The survey is available online to anyone interested in taking it. This poll does not restrict the number of votes each person can cast.
Hamilton Spectator
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Steve Nash on SGA, one MVP to another: ‘He's heading way past me'
It's easy to forget how unbelievable it was when Steve Nash won the NBA's most valuable player award , and then won it again. A Canadian MVP? In the NBA? The path to that place didn't exist, and wasn't close to existing until it was fully formed. It was before the Canadian basketball generation arrived and even once it did Nash's MVP wins, and his Hall of Fame career, were one of one. Twenty years after Nash's first MVP award, he has company. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander , Toronto-born and Hamilton-raised, was named the 2025 NBA MVP with 71 of 100 first-place votes. 'I mean, he's heading way past me. He's a historic player already,' Nash said. 'The fact that he won over Nikola Jokic , who's on his way to being one of the top — I don't know, he keeps going — one, two, three, four, five best players ever, shows you how amazing a season Shai had, and how galvanizing he is for his team and organization, and how he just continues to get better and better.' Jokic has now won three MVPs and finished second twice in the past five years, and remains the game's defining player, but Gilgeous-Alexander was in some ways his equal, at the head of the league's defining team. The 68-win Thunder are three wins from the NBA Finals, are deep and defensively terrifying, and set a league record for winning margin this season at 12.9 points per game. The Oklahoma Thunder superstar is the second Canadian to win the NBA MVP award, following Steve 'The amount of games we won, in the fashion that we won the games, is so impressive and is probably the main reason why I get the award,' Gilgeous-Alexander told TNT after the award was announced. He led Oklahoma City with an NBA-leading 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks, .519/.375/.898 shooting, and just 2.4 turnovers per game. Among truly big-scoring guards, only Steph Curry has ever scored more efficiently; Gilgeous-Alexander scored the fifth-most points per 100 possessions in history on an absurd .637 true shooting percentage. Michael Jordan's best true shooting season was .614, in 1988-89; Luka Doncic once got to .617. Curry has hit .675, and Nash, who didn't shoot enough, once reached .654. Gilgeous-Alexander bends like a reed, swerves like a sports car, slices like a blade, and stops on a dime. He is a master of acceptable amounts of contact, and he has a killer's heart. And he has obsessively, meticulously polished that mid-range game like a stone. 'I think we get carried away with athleticism being explosiveness, which he has, but it's more like stop, start, accel, decel, change of pace, direction, body control, and he's a master of finding contact,' Nash said. 'You add it all together with his length, and he's an incredible, incredible player.' It's a two-man race for the NBA's MVP award. We asked Doug Smith to make the early case for both Yes, Gilgeous-Alexander has some foul merchant grifting in him. But so does Jokic when he has to. The list of players who have won the regular and Finals MVP in the same season is breathtaking: Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, LeBron James. Gilgeous-Alexander can join that list, and he hasn't even turned 27 years old. Nash was 31 when he won his first MVP. This is a victory for Canadian basketball. Nash jumped from Canadian high school ball to the NCAA, which was rare at the time. Gilgeous-Alexander didn't make his junior high school team , and came off the bench for much of his one season at Kentucky. Like Nash, he was not seen as this kind of star. But he is the culmination of what we hoped would follow Nash. Tristan Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and R.J. Barrett were top-five picks. Kelly Olynyk, Nik Stauskas, Trey Lyles and Jamal Murray were all late lottery picks in the years before Gilgeous-Alexander, picked No. 11 in 2018. (The Raptors offered DeMar DeRozan to the Clippers for the No. 12 and 13 picks that year, one of which was traded for Gilgeous-Alexander. The Clippers said no.) 'I think there's a reluctance, out of respect and admiration, to say names like Jordan and Kobe or whoever, but he does the same thing they do,' Nash said. '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. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half, and 'And obviously, if you win the championship this year, that also helps the argument. But I'm not so much into arguments. I'm just into quality of play and quality of player, human being, leader, winner, and he's ascending at a historic rate here. So I mean, there's no limit, really. I just love him to death, and just to see him recognized is phenomenal.' Canadian basketball has grown beyond its wildest dreams since the days of Nash, but this is the guy who will likely become the greatest basketball player we have ever produced. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, MVP.
Toronto Star
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
Steve Nash on SGA, one MVP to another: ‘He's heading way past me'
It's easy to forget how unbelievable it was when Steve Nash won the NBA's most valuable player award, and then won it again. A Canadian MVP? In the NBA? The path to that place didn't exist, and wasn't close to existing until it was fully formed. It was before the Canadian basketball generation arrived and even once it did Nash's MVP wins, and his Hall of Fame career, were one of one. Twenty years after Nash's first MVP award, he has company. Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Toronto-born and Hamilton-raised, was named the 2025 NBA MVP with 71 of 100 first-place votes.
