It’s now or never
Shai aims to cap MVP season with NBA crown
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Daily TribuneShai aims to cap MVP season with NBA crown
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TYRESE Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are expected to go hard when they face the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
JOE MURPHYAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has piled up the individual accolades in leading the Thunder to the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals, but the Canadian guard says a title triumph against the Indiana Pacers is the prize that matters.
“I don’t play for the individual stuff, I don’t play for anything else besides winning — I never have in my whole life,” Gilgeous-Alexander said Wednesday, a day before the Thunder host the Pacers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series on Friday morning (Manila time).
From youth basketball in Canada through university basketball in the United States, Gilgeous-Alexander said, his focus has been on winning titles.
“Now I’m 26, I want to win the NBA championship,” he said.
“It’s always about winning for me.”
With that goal in his sights, Gilgeous-Alexander delivered a spectacular season that saw him supplant Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic as the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP).
“SGA” averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds. 1.7 steals and 1.0 blocked shots per game in leading the Thunder to an NBA-best 68 regular-season wins.
He became the first player to lead the league in games with at least 20 points (75), 30 points (49), 40 points (13) and 50 points (four) in a season since James Harden in 2018-19.
Named MVP of the Western Conference finals after the Thunder dispatched the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, Gilgeous-Alexander could become the first league scoring champion since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 to win the NBA title in the same season.
Gilgeous-Alexander said it had been “a long week to wait” since polishing off Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves — which followed a seven-game victory over Jokic and the Nuggets in the conference semi-finals.
He acknowledged after the conference semis that he’d been nervous in the run-up to game seven — but that experience has only helped him in the build-up to the Finals.
“As these playoffs go on, you get better in controlling the situations, controlling your emotions. You understand what’s coming,” he said
