STOP AT THIS NBA ACRONYM — SGA = OKC — AND YOU MIGHT HAVE A NEW CHAMPION
Everyone talks about Doncic, LeBron, the Celtics, Curry and Butler, but what about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won 68 games and shouldn't shock us if they win a title?
He could mention tariffs, but why bother? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander grew up in Ontario and plays in Oklahoma City, a combination that doesn’t conjure Rucker Park and a Kobe Bryant mural in Venice Beach. Seven syllables and a hyphen qualify him as the longest-lettered MVP since Giannis Antetokounmpo, another reminder that every man who has won the award since 2018 is not an American.
So, again, much of the NBA’s postseason will center around Planet Earth because the world understands what we sometimes don’t. No one should be shocked if SGA and the Thunder win the championship, which would complete the unconventional wildness that he’ll gut three-time winner Nikola Jokic in voting. Gilgeous-Alexander led the league with 32.7 points per game, the most by a guard this century, including Steph Curry. I love him because fans know little about him.
They stare at him. They mumble his name. Then they watch him take over games with a clean-shaven ease, knowing Jokic has surpassed him with all-time offensive efficiency. The difference: The Thunder, quietly, features one of the best defenses ever, while the defense in Denver led to Michael Malone’s firing. Only nine other players averaged 30 in three straight seasons. Curry deserves the same splash at 37, starting this weekend in Houston — where he’ll be known as “Batman” to Playoff Jimmy Butler, who must settle in as “Robin.” But Oklahoma City is the favorite, even if no airline flies directly to Cleveland, a possible Finals opponent when Jaylen Brown takes knee painkillers in Boston.
The first player to mention Gilgeous-Alexander as the MVP is Anthony Edwards. He is supposed to be basketball’s “new face,” though LeBron James and others hate the facial references, yet Edwards understands reality. The Thunder approached record territory at 68-14 — 16 victories ahead of the second-place Rockets — in a Western Conference of bruisers. Most people would fail a game-show quiz when asked: Who is the OKC coach? (His name is Mark Daigneault.) They should know the leader who has inspired another astonishing team record, the best average point differential (12.9) in league history, an incredible plateau for Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and the rest.
Until this season, we only knew SGA for singing a commercial parody of “What A Girl Wants” with Holmgren. There’s much more.
“No offense to you guys in the media, but the best satisfaction is when your peers and the guys who do the same thing for a living at a very high level recognize and respect your craft and talent,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s a really good feeling. Obviously, the caliber of player he is, the sky is the limit.”
Daigneault won’t stop at the sky. “It’s like LeBron in his prime, Giannis, the speed of (Ja) Morant, the speed and power of (Russell) Westbrook. He’s a great athlete, but he’s not an overpowering athlete, where those guys are. And yet, he gets to the same places on the floor as they do,” the coach said. “And to me, that says it all about the skill.”
He will win the Michael Jordan Trophy, as the league describes the MVP, which should throw James into a Stephen A. Smith-like tizzy. The best three players are a Canadian, a Serb in Jokic and a Greek in Antetokounmpo. They will be joined in the playoffs by Luka Doncic, whose former general manager in Dallas continues the most haunting chant in sports — “Fire Nico!” — by justifying the horrific trade to the Lakers. In Los Angeles, fans are believing Austin Reaves, who said, “I feel like we could win a championship, to be honest with you.”
“That’s our only goal,” said Doncic, the Slovenian trying to navigate freeways. “I think we have the team to do it.”
People who enjoy the Lakers and Golden State Warriors know they must crash through the Thunder. LeBron is 40. Curry, Butler and Draymond Green are at least 35. Might the team playing in the Ballmer Dome, the L.A. Clippers, be a tougher ride with a seemingly healthy Kawhi Leonard joining James Harden? What might stop the Thunder is the NBA’s sinister plan: Before advancing to the Finals, don’t young teams need smackings?
The new MVP, too?
“I’m more focused on our team, and that’s a directive from Shai,” Daigneault said. “Shai wants to focus on team success. All the interactions I have with him are about the team. I am very impressed with Shai’s ability to compartmentalize that. Obviously, he would be honored to win MVP, but when he steps in between the lines with our team, he is only focused on our team. And I think our team success has reflected that for two years.”
Unlike LeBron, still bothered by everything, SGA has no interest in trash talk. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says league people “don’t respect” the Thunder. “We have a bunch of guys that are All-Stars in their role. That's our motto, that's our mentality — next man up,” SGA said. “Be ready to make a play, be aggressive, play within your game and do what the team needs. I think, because of that, our record shows.”
In mid-April, with two months to go, the widespread story is assembled in front of us. “The fact that there’s a national narrative around those two players — those are two great ambassadors for the game,” Daigneault said. “Jokic is a great guy. He’s a great team guy. Shai, obviously, I can’t say enough about him as a person and a team guy. So I think it reflects well for the NBA that those two guys, in this season, are the guys that everyone’s talking about.”
An international narrative, he should have said. “Shai is in the category of, you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. He is fully aware of his worth. Recently, SGA parted ways with his agent, Thad Foucher, and plans to represent himself when Thunder boss Sam Presti approaches him with a $300 million extension.
“I always say no matter how untouchable you think you are, you never know. There's always something like this," Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Doncic trade. “That's how my mindset is, and I guess that keeps me a little bit of an edge to make sure I'm taken care of. I want the team to value me as much as I want them to.”
A mural has been painted in Oklahoma City. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t have to play in New York or Los Angeles to gain artwork. “That's actually the most complex piece I’ve ever done,” artist Samantha Woj said. “I’ve never done that much color and have that much texture in a painting, so that was my own challenge.”
We see Doncic and LeBron, Curry and Butler, the Celtics and the Cavaliers.
A team won 68 games thanks to a man in a headband who doesn’t politicize.
He has my two eyeballs.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.