Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Back-to-back MVP with a smooth game. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the 2025 title with Oklahoma City and back-to-back MVPs, all with a calm, crafty game and some of the best fits in the league.
SGA with the Thunder: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0
A Toronto kid who kept getting better
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander grew up in the Toronto area, played college ball for one season at Kentucky and was picked 11th in 2018 by Charlotte, who traded his rights to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night. A year later the Clippers sent him to Oklahoma City in the deal for Paul George.
At the time, many fans thought the Thunder were simply rebuilding. In reality they had just acquired the player who would lead them to a title.
The art of the slow game
SGA does not overpower defenders. He changes speeds, stops on a dime and uses hesitation dribbles to get exactly where he wants. His midrange shot, a lost art for much of the analytics era, became his main tool again, and he gets to the free throw line constantly.
His scoring kept climbing, and in 2024-25 he won the scoring title at 32.7 points per game, the first Canadian to do it. In 2025-26 he passed 100 straight games with at least 20 points, a streak only Wilt Chamberlain had matched.
He is also an underrated defender with quick hands that pile up steals, and he rarely turns the ball over for a player who handles it so much.
MVP, then champion, then MVP again
In 2025 he was named MVP, then led Oklahoma City past Indiana in a seven-game Finals and won Finals MVP, becoming the first Canadian to take that award. It was the franchise's first championship since moving from Seattle.
He followed it with a second straight MVP in 2026 and also won the league's first Clutch Player of the Year award. In July 2025 he signed a four-year extension reported at about $285 million.
Oklahoma City built patiently around him with young players such as Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, plus the extra draft picks it had collected.
The tunnel fit king
SGA is as famous for his arrival outfits as for his buckets. Wide-leg trousers, bold leather, unexpected accessories: his pregame walk through the arena tunnel became must-see content and turned him into a favorite of fashion editors.
For Fly Baller, he is proof that style and substance can live together. He shows up dressed like a designer and plays like a surgeon.
He has described fashion as a way to express himself before he locks in for work. Fashion magazines noticed, and other players followed his lead, turning the arena hallway into a weekly runway.
- SGA with the Thunder: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0
- SGA playing for Canada: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text written by Fly Baller.
