There have been flickers. Everyone is human. No one is unwavering in their belief, unshakeable in their confidence, undeterred in their path.
But real confidence, the kind of genuine self-belief that allows setbacks to be temporary and progress inevitable, is earned through repetition, focus, diligence and attention to detail.
Which is the bedrock for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a person and a basketball player, and the biggest reason he was named the NBA’s most valuable player for 2024-25 on Wednesday night.
“I always try to find a way a way to get better every year,” the Canadian told me earlier this season when it was becoming evident that the MVP award was likely going to end up in his hands. “… it ultimately comes down to me finding ways for me to be better, for this basketball team to win games … it has definitely paid off so far.”
Handsomely. Gilgeous-Alexander is eligible to sign a four-year contract extension this summer worth $294 million that would make him the highest-paid athlete in the NBA on an annual basis, at $73.3 million a season. But the real rewards are still pending: after a blowout win in the opening game of the Western Conference Finals, the Thunder are the odds-on favourite to convert their record-setting 68-win season into an NBA title.
The recognition completes a steady three-year rise up the league’s ladder of excellence for the seven-year veteran, who was taken 11th overall in the 2018 draft and traded after his rookie season by the Los Angeles Clippers to the Thunder.
Gilgeous-Alexander rose from fifth in the MVP voting in 2022-23 to second last season to winning relatively easily this year, earning 71 out of 100 first-place votes and 29 second-place votes, outdistancing three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo finished third.
It’s no coincidence that as Gilgeous-Alexander’s star has climbed, so has the Thunder’s, improving from a 40-win play-in team two years ago to a 57-win first seed that lost in the second round of the playoffs last season to a 68-win juggernaut that looks nearly unstoppable at this stage.
Ballots (I am a panellist and voted for Gilgeous-Alexander) were submitted before the playoffs began and reflected the Canadian national team star’s jaw-dropping regular-season production, though it’s worth noting he leads the post-season in total points scored and is the leading points-per-game scorer (29.2) among players in the conference finals.
The 26-year-old finished the regular season averaging a career-best and league-leading 32.7 points per game, along with 6.4 assists — also a career high — 5.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals, while shooting 51.7 per cent from the floor, including 37.5 per cent from three on a career-high 6.1 attempts. He also led the NBA in free throws made, knocking them down at a rate just under 90 per cent.
In sum, Gilgeous-Alexander’s performance this season featured a hard-to-fathom overlap of scoring volume and efficiency, particularly for a perimeter player. His 63.7-per-cent True Shooting percentage (the stat captures the value of two-point field goals, three-point field goals and free throws) is on par with the 63.8 mark legendary sharpshooter Steph Curry managed in his first MVP season a decade ago. Gilgeous-Alexander posted it while putting up more shots (21.8 per game) than anyone else in the league and more than Curry has in any season of his career.
In plain terms, Gilgeous-Alexander had one of the best offensive seasons ever, while more than holding his own on one of the best defensive teams in league history. The only other players to average at least 32 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.5 steals on True Shooting of 60.0 or better are Michael Jordan and James Harden, both of whom have done it twice. Dig a little deeper, though, and Gilgeous-Alexander is the only player to hit those marks while playing just 34 minutes a game and the first to manage the line while making fewer than 200 turnovers (183) — Jordan is next best at 247.
Jokic authored a regular season for the ages as well, putting up 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.8 steals with a 66.3-per-cent True Shooting mark — surpassing his production in any of his three previous MVP years — but it was hard to overlook that the Thunder finished 18 games ahead of the Nuggets in the standings.
The voting had been completed for weeks before Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points and snatched three steals in the Thunder’s blowout Game 7 win over Denver this past Sunday, a performance that was a fitting exclamation point on why the MVP award ended up in Oklahoma and not Colorado.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s win joins him at the peak of the Canadian basketball hierarchy with Steve Nash. The point guard is the only other Canadian to be named MVP, a feat the former Phoenix Suns star accomplished in consecutive seasons in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Their respective wins are reflective of their times.
When Nash was emerging as an MVP, for Canadian basketball junkies it was like watching someone flap their wings and make it to the moon, so impossible seemed the climb.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the face of the new age of Canadian basketball where the league is dotted with Canadian stars, elite role players and up-and-comers — and that’s just in the conference finals, where only the New York Knicks won’t be relying on Canuck talent to help them compete for a championship.
There have never been more excellent Canadian basketball players walking the earth than there are at this single moment, but it may be a long, long time before another is as good as Gilgeous-Alexander.
Nash was one of one, Gilgeous-Alexander is the best of many.
But there is a bond that Nash and Gilgeous-Alexander share that is timeless: a deep and unquenchable thirst to squeeze the most they can out of their potential and a passion for all the little steps required before someone can take a big leap.
Nash has always been gracious and supportive towards Gilgeous-Alexander, dating back to when he added the skinny young ball-handler with the quirky, herky-jerky style to the men’s national team in 2016, before Gilgeous-Alexander had finished high school.
Gilgeous-Alexander paid homage, too, when — in an interview with GQ just as his star was beginning to rise — he said one of his career goals was to “be the Black Steve Nash.”
Game recognizes game. I connected with Nash via text regarding Gilgeous-Alexander’s win and he was thrilled to have the Toronto-born, Hamilton-raised point guard join him in the MVP section.
“I respect and admire Shai so much,” Nash told me. “Not just the way he plays, but how he carries himself and what he represents. It’s always inspiring to watch someone’s unwavering desire to improve and perform. Shai is a historic player writing history and pushing boundaries. Proud is an understatement.”
But the two men understood that no one gets to the peak alone. Nash made being a great teammate a skill; Gilgeous-Alexander gathered his teammates so they could be part of his MVP announcement on TNT, just as he does for every post-game walk-off interview. He also dug into his pocket to reward them all with Rolex watches.
Nash and Gilgeous-Alexander both made their way to the upper echelon of their sport by honing their craft to a razor’s edge, leaving no stone unturned.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault calls it the “invisible work” — the effort made when no one is watching.
“His invisible work (is) elite,” the youthful Thunder head coach told me about his star guard. “The more you learn about (Gilgeous-Alexander) and the more you get a little peek behind the curtain, you realize that this guy, he’s on his own. He’s got an internal light that he’s following.
“He’s not looking left and right. He’s incredibly self-confident and self-secure, and he knows what he wants. He works for it, and he doesn’t care if anybody’s watching. He’s just he’s doing it with an unbelievable trust that it’s going to show up. And I think that’s where his confidence comes from.”
Gilgeous-Alexander started with a dream, but he didn’t stop there. From his days competing in the driveway against his cousin, Minnesota Timberwolves wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker, to the lunch-time film studies with his high school and AAU coach with the prestigious UPlay program, Dwayne Washington, to his willingness to be mentored by veterans Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams as a rookie and Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder in his first season with the Thunder, he listened, learned and put lessons into practice.
“I always thought that I could be a really good player because I had seen what putting your head down and working and controlling what you control can do for you,” Gilgeous-Alexander said at his media availability in Oklahoma City after the MVP winner was announced. “I made tremendous strides, but I never thought this was going to happen.
“I dreamt about it as a kid, but as a kid, it’s a fake dream. But as the days go on and you realize that you get closer to your dream, it’s hard to not freak out. It’s hard to not be a six-year-old kid again. And I think that’s what’s allowed me to achieve it. I tried to just not focus on it and just worry about what’s gotten me to this place.”
It’s taken him incredible places, and Gilgeous-Alexander is just getting started and on his way to taking Canadian basketball to heights yet unseen.
