Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, born in Toronto and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, by a mother who ran track for Antigua and Barbuda. He spent one season at Kentucky, was drafted eleventh in 2018 and traded twice inside eighteen months, arriving in Oklahoma City in the 2019 deal that sent Paul George to the Clippers.

His game is built on pace and angles rather than power. He plays at a deliberately slow tempo, gets to the mid-range and to the foul line, and defends the ball better than most lead guards, which is why the Thunder could build a contender around him without surrounding him with veterans.

In 2025 he was named the league's Most Valuable Player and then Finals MVP as Oklahoma City won the franchise's first championship since the move from Seattle. He is also the face of a Canadian national side that now expects to compete at every major tournament.

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