The NBA is set to officially announce the league’s Most Valuable Player award at 6 PM Central time on Wednesday evening before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks, but Shams Charania broke news this afternoon, revealing what pretty much everybody in the basketball world already knew.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an all-time season, averaging 32.7 points per game on 51.9% shooting from the field, 37.5% from three, and 89.8% from the free throw line. He also averaged 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and a block per game. He did all of this while playing 34.2 minutes per game in 76 games.
The Thunder is an incredibly young squad, which has been evident at times in clutch moments so far in the playoffs, but OKC continues to rise to the occasion, continuing to battle when down, and now that that the award has been rightfully given to SGA, the Oklahoma City Thunder can focus on the real goal of the season: winning an NBA Finals.
After losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round last year, it was clear that the Thunder was not quite ready for the big stage, but after some key moves in the offseason, OKC proved that they are all in by defeating the Denver Nuggets in 7 games in the Western Conference Semifinals. After dominating the Minnesota Timberwolves 114-88 last night in Game 1, the march continues as they are just 3 games away from making the Finals and 7 games away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Shai has had a decent playoff run so far, averaging 29.2 points on 46.7% from the field, 27.4% from three, and 84.5% from the free throw line, as well as 6.6 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game. While he’s definitely not played as well as he did during his peak of the regular season, he’s still doing whatever he can to will his team to wins, and he’s done a great job at making plays for his teammates.
It is clear that this team has close relationships with one another—both on and off the court—and while outsiders may think their postgame interviews and TikTok videos are “corny,” it cannot be said enough how much their chemistry off the court has paid dividends on it. If this group can stick together—and it certainly looks like they should be able to for the most part—there is no telling just how far they can go and how many championships they could end up winning.
Winning the league’s Most Valuable Player is an incredible achievement—one that should be celebrated properly. But if anyone knows Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they know that he will likely downplay the achievement, at least for now, and continue to point his teammates who helped him get here and to this team’s goal of moving on to the next game with their trademark ‘0-0’ mentality.
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