Chris Paul knows that most people will question if he In fact knew.
The future shipowner of the Hall of Fame played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2019-20 season, and it was that year Paul formed a strict link with the current team shipowner: 2025 MVP of the NBA Shai Gilgeous-Alxander.
The two players, separated by more than 13 years of age, were inseparable. They would be late after practice to challenge each other in shooting competitions. On road trips, they would avoid nightlife for the extensive cinematographic breakdowns of the next opponents, with the young Gilgous-Alexander trying to obtain as much information as possible from the veteran Paul.
“He knew that year,” Paul told NBC News when asked when he thought Gilgous-Alxander had a MVP potential, although SGA was only in his second year in the league during his only season together. “I simply knew how I was in the game and how much I worked on it.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, the eleventh general selection in the 2018 Draft, has not had a typical ascent to the state of MVP. It was not a very high draft selection. He was changed after his first season. And from 2021 to 2023, their Thunder teams failed to reach the playoffs.
And yet, those who have been around them are not surprised by their individual success, which has led Oklahoma City to a confrontation of the NBA finals against the Indiana Pacers from Thursday night.
“I knew that I was going to end somewhere, surely,” says Lu Dort, the robust perimeter cap of Oklahoma City, who has been a teammate with Gilgous-Alxander since 2019. “The way he worked in himself and his game. Shai always had that mentality that no one could stop him. According to his work, he knew he was going to get there.”
The Cason Wallace Guard says: “It has a routine. Not everyone has a routine; not everyone works hard. But I have seen from the first day, since the first week of the season, it has a routine, and it is very consistent with it.”
Consistency has been a distinctive seal in the rise of Gilgeous-Alexander. He has averaged at least 30 points per game in each of the last three seasons, shot better than 50% from the field in four of the last five years and always played a star defense at the other end of the floor.
In any case, it was the general success of the team that needed to catch up with the player.
“I was averaging 30 when this team was not so good, and then I was doing it while raising the team at the same time,” says Dort. “When you go from the lower five in the league to seed number 1 for two consecutive years, anyone who does that deserves MVP.”
The center of the Pacers, Tony Bradley, who played for Thunder in 2021 and now will align against them, says: “Honestly, he is the same player when I was here; he is only getting more recognition. Of course, he has improved since I have been with him, but I have seen that potential when I was there.”
So what makes Gilgeous-Alexander special? It begins with its competitive nature.
Paul, who deals with each contest, from a Connect Four game to a confrontation of the regular season in January, such as the championship, notices a similar feature.
“Man, we used to go to that in practice,” he says.
The two players would enter everything, says Paul, from drill to individual shooting games, since the gym would begin to empty.
“Even the years of inactivity they had, we talked about games every night. We talked about their team. I talked about the hoop. I always appreciated that atmosphere.”
Dort says: “Every time he has shoes on and is on the court, he is a pure competitor.”
Although it does not happen so much during the season, in the summers and in the training field, Dort often aligns in front of Gilgeous-Alexander in practice. He says that none of the players contains the intensity despite being teammates.
“They are true battles,” says Dort. “I mean, I keep saying that I am the only one who can stop Shai. I have the recipe. I will always try to get the best of him, and he will try to get the best of me at the same time.”
However, what makes Gilgeous-Alexander unique is that his competitiveness does not interpose in the path of his leadership qualities, on or off the court.
Dort, who also plays with SGA for the Canadian national team, is especially close to him. He says that Gilgeous-Alexander has a completely different personality outside the floor, involving him in conversations on any subject, from paternity to music. (“This guy listens to so much music that is crazy. In the locker room he is always the one who sings. A lot of Drake”).
The two also share a deep passion for a particular extracurricular.
“The amount of time we have gone from purchases together is crazy, admits Dort. “At first I was not so big. When I approached Shai and I saw how I was going to dress: it was a lottery selection and I was in a bidirectional (contract) my first year, so we did not have the same income, but after that I put myself in my own wave and began to enter the style of style, too.”
As low as they may seem, it is the quiet nature of Gilgeous-Alexander what helps his teammates to be better versions of themselves.
“It makes entering the building much easier in the days you don’t want to be here,” says Wallace. “Because you know that the boys will come and have great energy.”
Thunder Mark Daigneault coach told NBC News this season: “He is inside the team. Treat everyone with respect. He is not cynical. There are so many qualities about him that they make him magnetic. He is not caught in anything out of his bubble in his life. And it is very impressive.”
Paul, a ring addict who is constantly watching films, realizes the small forms of Gilgous-Alexander collects his co-star.
“My favorite part of his game is the trust he has in his teammates,” says Paul. “If the ball happens to Lu and he does not shoot, he approaches Lu in the dead ball or something and says: ‘I, if it happened to you, shooting it!’ Almost every time, Shai makes the right play. ”
Paul, who can talk about experience about trying to be the facilitator of a team and his top scorer, says that the groups that are most successful are the best players who give their teammates confidence. “And that is the way they play Thunder,” he says.
It can be complicated for Paul, who is not exactly known for his friend’s nature on the court, to speak so well of an opponent. He says it is difficult to discuss the Gilgeous-Alexander game without starting to explore it. And yet, the fact that your relationship has been maintained despite being teammates for only one season during radically different moments in their careers is a testimony of the loyalty that SGA can generate.
“I am ultracompetitive, I want to beat these guys every time I play against them, but some relationships are different after the fact,” says Paul. “That year was a very crucial year in my life. My first year away from my family. Shai will always be one of my brothers.”
His link was evident when Paul surprised Gilgeous-Alexander when he appeared on the court in Oklahoma City for game 2 of the western conference finals. That night SGA finally received the MVP trophy.
Of course, a competitive nature and strong leadership arrive alone in the NBA. Gilgeous-Alxander has been able to multiply these qualities adding a relentless work ethic in addition to immense talent.
His game is described universally as soft, and has a lethal combination of foot and shooting that allows him to press the defenses. With the threat of its 3-point star shot, Gilgeous-Alexander uses the lack of spatial opponents that they want to give it to continually attack the paint.
During the regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in units per game and points per game out of units. Do you want to know why SGA arrives so much to the free throw line? It is because it never sits.
“He would not compare it to anyone else in the League, because he is his own player,” says Jaylin Williams. “His balance is crazy. I don’t know if they don’t realize, but sometimes Shai will step back and his knee will hit the ground … but he will remain awake. His balance for me is one of the best things in his game. He helps him in the offensive and defensive wing. It is really unique.”
As one of one as it is Gilgeous-Alexander, and with him and his team now taking the most prominent stage of the game, one of the questions that arise during the playoffs (especially among the types of sports debate) is whether it can be the face of the NBA.
To Paul, at least, that loses the point.
“The League is now very deep with all these different types with different personalities,” he says. “Then, instead of everyone trying to discover who it is, just celebrate what is facing you.”
