‘Championship or Bust’: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wants more than MVP in OKC this season

<!–>

Giannis Antetocounmpo had one request before the All-Star match in February.

“Just squeeze me,” Antetocounmpo said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander While they were in the locker room. “I just want a little aura.”

Antetocounmpo, double MVP, and then breaks around the locker room, mimicking Oklahoma City Thunder Superstar. Moved with unmistakable caterpillars. He pretended to twice driving basketball, stepping with his left foot, hesitating, and then shooting into a jumper.

Gilgeous-Alexander laughed at the show.

All eyes are on Gilgeous-Alexander this season, even in a room filled with some of the biggest stars of the league. Anthony Edwards called him “MVP NBA” after scoring 40 points in the Minnesota win on New Year’s Eve.

The fan even asked Gilgeous-Alexander to sign his child earlier this season.

Gilgeous-Alexander has transformed himself from players who overlooked most of his career into a full blower superstar. In the race, with two horses with Nikola Jokic for the MVP Award, and led Thunder in the first place at the Western Conference with a record of 56-12.

But for him none of that matters.

“Championship or bust,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in an exclusive interview with Fox Sports. “If we don’t win, it’s a failure.”

In many ways, Gilgeous-Alexander is the perfect superstar for Thunder, whose culture is being built around the team of the first mentality. He usually performs TV interviews after playing together with his teammates, which is a high contrast to the norm. And he often deserves them for his success.

In fact, in the midst of his meteoric climb, one thing attracted the attention of those around him more than his muffled statistics.

It didn’t change much.

“Throughout the rise, he was exactly the same guy,” said coach Thunder Mark Daigneault. “If nothing else, he has become more affordable and relative with his teammates … (Superstars) separates, only natural. It is not their fault. But the world separates them from the team. If the intention remains on the team, it does.”

Gilgeous-Alexander cares about basketball, his family and fashion. He wants to win the championship and wants to look good while he does. Everything else fades in comparison, including the MVP Award.

In fact, when asked if he deserved it this season, he got sick of himself, but stopped answering the inquiry directly.

“I always felt like I was one of the best players in the league,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Fox Sports. “Very convinced of my game. Very convinced how hard I do. I think I’m going outside and showing it at night.”

It promotes much louder on the ground.

This season, the 26-year-old guardian league runs a league in scoring, with an average of 33 points in the career at 52.6 percent of shootings, together with 5.0 rebounds and 6.2 assistants. He scored at least 40 points this season and at least 50 points four times.

But don’t think it was easy. Gilgeous-Alexander had to fight for this moment.

He did not make his high school basketball team as a freshman. He was seventh ranked seven recruits that were signed in Kentucky in 2017, and the only one among them who did not have a five -star rating. Then, Scissors He was made by Thunder for Paul George in 2019 after just one season in Los Angeles.

At every turn, he proved that he was very underestimated.

In Kentucky, Gilgeous-Alexander became the best Wildcats player. With the Clippers, he broke his way to the starting lineup in the middle of his Rookie season. Last season, even George, ninefold All-Star, acknowledged after the match against Oklahoma City that Thunder “won that store” who included them, since the Clippers gave up five elections in the first round and a future candidate for the MVP.

But still, Gilgeous-Alexander is easier to brag about your teammates than yourself. Some might be suspicious that a man who is at the top of the league and is comfortable with modeling the underwear for the skim Kim Kardashian brand can be so grounded.

He owes it to his parents, especially his mother, Charmaigne, who called the Kentucky coaching staff when he began excellent, urging them to alleviate their excitement, so his head was not too big.

“My parents always made sure we understand, no matter who you are or what you are doing, you are not better or worse than anyone,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Fox Sports. “I guess it’s just the guy I am. No matter what I want to achieve in this game, I need my teammates and I know that. I need as much as they need. So there is no reason to get big heads.”

It also helps that Gilgeous-Alexander spent six of his seven seasons with Thunder, which is one of the few organizations in the NBA that puts the emphasis on the superstar. Chet Holmgren He believes Thunder was lucky to find a leader who fits their culture so perfectly.

“If you are not a good person, you are not playing for thunderstorms in the end,” Holmgren said. “He is a testimony because he has every opportunity to act whatever he wants and do everything he wants, because you can’t say much because you need to go out there and put a lot of buckets next evening. But he doesn’t do. He’s an extremely humble guy and everything is in basketball.”

As for the store that sent him in thunder? This is still a painful place to organize Clippers. But a little thought they would develop in this.

Interestingly, one of the first people who believed in him is former NBA Great Jerry West, who served as an advisor to Clippers before died in 2024. West encouraged the team to trade for Gilgeous-Alexander on the same day when Charlotte chose him with the 11th overall choice in the 2018 design.

West, gloriously, sharply recognized the talent, including the orchestration of the trade that brought to the Temple a young star named Kobe Bryant in 1996.

During the Rookie Gilgeous-Alexander season with the Clippers, he developed into a promising young player. But even former Clippers coach Doc Rivers didn’t hesitate when he asked if he thought Gilgeous-Alexander would grow into superstar.

“I would love to lie and say absolutely,” Rivers said, adding that only one person in the organization really predicted his potential. “(Auxiliary Coach) Sam Cassell was the highest (on it). He said from day one, he was not in a strong manner in favor of the store.”

Things worked for both Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander.

Thunder helped unlock the Gilgeous-Alexander game, placing perfect pieces around. In 2019, they signed Lu Dort, who is a powerful scorer and a 3 -point defender. 2022 drew a Qualified Center Chet Homgren (No. 2) and a two -way sensation Jalen Williams (No. 12). And last summer they have acquired the veterans of Isiah Hardtenstein and Alex Caruso.

Now Thunder have turned from the franchise of renewal into the right candidates for the championship.

In the meantime, Gilgeous-Alexander has grown into a wizard in changing the tempo, an elite playmaker, an artistic shooter and a solid defender, who seemingly pyrouettes around defense with a mixture of speed and agility.

Gilgeous-Alexander believes he landed in a perfect place. Although, he firmly rejects the idea that if he played elsewhere, things would play differently for him.

“I think I’d become what I am,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Fox Sports. “I think that regardless of my circumstances, wherever I have been thrown throughout my career, from the time I was in the ninth grade, I cut myself, I always focused on developing, I always worked great and I always continued to improve. So I always thought no matter what fire I was in, I’ll be fine.”

Longtime coach Gilgeous-Alexander, Olin Simplis, repeated it. In fact, if nothing else, he believes Gilgeous-Alexander would become the name of the household before if he had remained in Los Angeles because he would have more eyes on it. He claimed that the achievements of Gilgeous-Alexander flew under Radar, especially last season.

“He had no other All-Star or All-Nba player beside him and were number 1 in the West,” Simplis said of Thunder. “Honestly, you should go for MVP back.”

(2024-25 NBA MVP quotes: Sga fleeing Jokic)

Simplis, who started working with Gilgeous-Alexander after the first year in Kentucky, said he immediately recognized that he was destined for size.

He recalled that when Gilgeous-Alexander was 19, he constantly messed up as he tried to take a secondary step after which he escaped. Three days straight, Gilgeous-Alexander arrived at the gym at 6am, working over and over again until he added it to his arsenal.

For the second time, Simplis organized a free throw competition with a draft perspective, and the winner received $ 20. To date, Simplis is still thinking about the intensity in which Gilgeous-Alexander approached that drill.

“He’s just one of that kids, you tell him one thing, he’ll do it,” Simplis said. “He will do it until he has mastered him. His mindset is the same with the stories you hear about Kobe Bryant.”

All this has succeeded for Gilgeous-Alexander, who grew up from a teenager who didn’t do his Varsity team in high school to become a narrow-choice to become the future face of the league.

But even though he avoided becoming big heads, he is also not for false humility.

When asked to think about his journey, he could not without blinding a wide smile and shook his head in disbelief.

“It’s inspiring just to see how much I arrived,” he said.

Melissa Rohlin is NBA writer for Fox Sports. Earlier covered the league for Sports Illustrated, Los Angeles Times, News Group for Bay Area and San Antonio Express-nws. Follow her on Twitter @Melisarohlin.

Follow Follow your favorites to personalize your Fox Sports Experience

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Oklahoma City Thunder

The baseball of the main league

–>

Get more than the National Basketball Federation Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more