The skinny kid from Hamilton has taken his place ahead of one of the ultimate NBA legends, an icon across all of sports and culture.
It’s hard to fathom. A signpost for Canadian basketball that no one could have seen coming, even as our national presence in the NBA kept coming in waves.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander breaking a record belonging to Wilt Chamberlain?
It happened.
But what Gilgeous-Alexander signalled once again when he converted a 20-foot jumper at the 7:04 mark of the third quarter on Thursday against Boston, marking his 127th straight game of 20 points or more, was that he is on a path that will have him mentioned among the best to ever play as a matter of routine.
Chamberlain held the previous mark for consecutive games with at least 20 points at 126, which came to end on Jan. 20, 1963 when the then-San Francisco Warriors star was ejected in the first quarter of a game for arguing with an official.
The way Gilgeous-Alexander is going, it seems like only injury or bad luck could threaten this current run. But chances are whenever it does come to a close, it will be nothing more than an interesting anecdote in his still unfolding basketball biography.
The 20-point streak was one of the prolific Chamberlain’s lesser-known records until recently, a forgotten footnote until the OKC star’s steady excellence pulled Chamberlain’s milestone out from the behind the spare lightbulbs and paper towels in the far reaches of the statistical closet.
But for Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 35 points and nine assists in a 104-102 OKC win over the Celtics that kept them atop the Western Conference standings, it will represent another paragraph it what will certainly be a hall-of-fame resume.
“It’s still a lot to even wrap my head around,” Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters earlier this week after tying Chamberlain’s 63-year-old record. “To be honest with you, I try not to even think about it, especially during the season. So much is going on, and so many things have to go right for you to get what you ultimately want.
“But obviously being in the conversation with a guy like (Chamberlain) is special.”
Tellingly, Gilgeous-Alexander was emotionless after he broke the record, and didn’t show much more when he hit consecutive jumpers that gave the Thunder the lead in the final minute. Thunder big man Chet Holmgren scored the winning points with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.
Tying a Chamberlain record is like bumping Babe Ruth from the books in baseball, or Wayne Gretzky in hockey.
Chamberlain still is the only player in NBA history to average 50 points per game for a season; or score 100 points in one game; or lead the NBA in scoring seven times; or in rebounding in 11 times; or average 22.9 rebounds per game for your career.
And in case you were wondering, his record for consecutive 30-point games remains standing at 65.
But on this night, Gilgeous-Alexander had centre stage to himself.
For context, the next longest active streak of 20 points or more belongs to Kawhi Leonard, with 43. Among active players, the closest anyone else has come is Kevin Durant with a 72-game streak. LeBron James scored at least 10 points a game for an NBA record of 1,297 consecutive games – a run that ended earlier this season in Toronto. But the NBA’s all-time leading scorer’s longest streak of 20-point night nights topped out at 49.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak has been no frills. There has been no chasing or stat padding.
According to Tom Haberstroh at Yahoo Sports, Gilgeous-Alexander had hit the 20-point mark before the fourth quarter 39 times heading into Thursday.
More importantly, Gilgeous-Alexander’s record-breaking streak straddles two of the greatest individual seasons a player has ever had and taken place while leading the NBA’s best team.
Over the past two seasons combined – 131 games and counting – Gilgeous Alexander is averaging 32.3 points, 6.5 assists and 1.6 steals with a True Shooting percentage (reflecting the value of two-point shots, three-point shots and free throws) of 64.9.
No other NBA player – not Chamberlain, not Michael Jordan, and not James – has ever matched that combination of offensive volume and efficiency.
Only five players – Jordan, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Damian Lillard are the others – have ever had averaged 31 points and six assists with a True Shooting mark above 60.0. None have done so while making just 2.3 turnovers a game, like Gilgeous-Alexander has.
Put another way: Remember when Steph Curry turned basketball upside down and shot 44.3 per cent from three on more than eight attempts a game while winning his first MVP award and leading the Golden State Warriors to their first title in 2014-15?
Well, over the life of his streak Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged nearly nine more points per game than Curry (23.8) in his first MVP year and was more efficient than Curry in posting one of the best shooting seasons in NBA history.
Even the late Chamberlain would likely give a knowing nod of approval.
But what is perhaps most relevant about Gilgeous-Alexander’s new record is that it will end up being simply an interesting thing for the Canadian guard rather than a defining achievement.
Just consider that since Gilgeous-Alexander started his streak on Nov. 1, 2024 with 30 points in 28 minutes in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers, the OKC star has won the NBA scoring title, the regular-season MVP award, the Western Conference MVP award and the Finals MVP award.
Barring an injury, Gilgeous-Alexander will almost certainly win the MVP award again and the Thunder remain the favourites to win their second straight NBA title, with Gilgeous-Alexander the presumptive Finals MVP. Only James, Jordan and Larry Bird have ever done that.
If he were to take up snooker and never touch a basketball again, he’d already be a lock for the Hall of Fame, the greatest Canadian basketball player ever and a candidate for best Canadian athlete of all time.
But Gilgeous-Alexander is just 27 years old. The organization he works for is putting on a masterclass for the modern sports era. In a league designed to make dynasties short-lived, the Thunder are young, agile and set up for the long-term.
Success in the NBA can come and go like a wave rising and crashing on a desolate beach.
But if you had to bet on whether Gilgeous-Alexander was closer to the start of a long run as a dominant force on a dominant team or to the end, you know where the smart money would end up.
All of which is to say: who knows what accolades and accomplishments Gilgeous-Alexander will accrue over the next five years of his prime and beyond?
Enough, almost certainly, that what he did Thursday night – knock Wilt Chamberlain out of one line of the history books – will be a garnish on the main course of his career.
After all, this is an athlete whose motto is: “My whole life is consistent.”
I’m not sure when Gilgeous-Alexander gave the quote in full for the first time, but it pops up from an on-court interview he gave to Thunder sideline reporter Nick Gallo on March 9, 2024 on the night he had his 47th 30-point game, breaking Durant’s Thunder record. It has become his personal tag line at this point.
The first time I heard it was after Gilgeous-Alexander had helped the Thunder to a double-overtime win over the Toronto Raptors a month earlier.
On the eve of him making history for being able to achieve a minimum level of excellence for nearly two entire seasons, it rings truer than ever.
“I’m very, very strict on consistency in every aspect of life,” Gilgeous-Alexander said to me, post-game on Feb. 4, 2024. “And I think it helps my basketball. Whether it’s my eating, my day-to-day schedule, how clean my house is. It’s what I do with my time, whether I’m playing or not. I try to be very, very strict on discipline, being consistent. I think it helps with my basketball.”
Which is the ‘how’ when it comes to Gilgeous-Alexander’s greatness. As his skill coach Nate Mitchell explained to me with regard to his client’s Kobe Bryant-like zeal for the process of improvement in the off-season: “Nothing changes. There’s no bend. I could lose my phone and I know where to get him on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, in three different places [each day]. Like, he’s gonna be rigid — on time, same time.”
So what do have here? A long-armed six-foot-six point guard who can dribble like prime Muggsy Bogues, shoot like prime Lillard, change directions like Gumby, and train like Rocky Balboa?
All of which is to say Gilgeous-Alexander being named in the same sentence as Chamberlain won’t be the last time he and a short list of NBA greats are side by side in word and deed.
Where that streak ends, no one knows.
