NBA – New MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander talks about his arrival at the Thunder: “I found it strange”

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been playing for the Thunder for several years now, becoming their franchise player. Recently voted MVP, the Canadian reflected on his early days in Oklahoma City in 2019, with one detail that particularly bothered him.

He is the third MVP in the history of the Thunder, after Kevin Durant in 2014 and Russell Westbrook in 2017. In other words, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is already one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise, especially since he also managed to bring the franchise to the NBA Finals in addition to having signed his best all-time record in the regular season (69 wins for 14 losses).

The guard has reason to be proud of his accomplishments with his team, having finished this year’s regular season with 32.7 points, 5 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game. This also allowed him to be crowned the league’s leading scorer, just to brighten things up a bit. Here again, he joins KD and Brodie in a very small circle, on the OKC side.

And yet, there once was a world in which SGA didn’t wear the Thunder jersey in the NBA, which seems inconceivable these days. Arriving in the league in 2018, he made his professional debut with the Clippers… before everything changed a year later, following the arrival of Kawhi Leonard, who had just been crowned champion with Toronto.

SGA recounts his arrival in Oklahoma City

In order to surround themselves with a second superstar, the Los Angeles franchise had set its sights on Paul George, who was playing in Oklahoma City. In order to convince GM Sam Presti to give up the forward, the Clippers were forced to give up Shai in return. Six years later, it was clearly the Thunder who won the trade! The player remembers his arrival very well:

The first night after I was traded here, I saw all the balls perfectly lined up in the room, everything organized, the Gatorade bottles, the towels… At first I found it strange, almost obsessive. Then I understood how much this organization allows the players to grow. Here, we just have to play, everything is ready for us.

Initially disturbed by the atmosphere in OKC, SGA quickly acclimated to this new environment to the point of becoming its leading figure. Today, he leads a terrifying armada that includes Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso, Chet Holmgren, and Luguentz Dort. The future belongs to them, and especially to him.