Story & Photography
By Michael Kinney
As Shai Gilgeous-Alexander enters his seventh season in the NBA, he is at the point in his career where most superstars enter their prime. They have enough experience under their belt to know what they can do and how to make others better.
But just as crucial, Gilgeous-Alexander appears to grasp what comes with that level of talent and what is expected of him when it comes to being the face of a franchise still starving for validation and a title. It’s something the 26-year-old is not running from.
“No knock on anybody that’s not a star player but growing up, you watch Kobe Bryant, the cornerstone of the Lakers franchise; you watch LeBron James, the cornerstone of the Cleveland franchise; you watch Allen Iverson, the cornerstone of Philly’s franchise,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Those are the guys budding in your face when you watch the game of basketball. The guys you go out there and try to emulate and go out there and inspire to play the game. Indirectly, (Sam Presti) has given me that opportunity to be that guy.”
Ahead of Oklahoma City’s season opener in Denver Thursday, Gilgeous-Alexander spoke on his preparations, expectations, and how he’s evolved as a player.
Question: Mark (Daigneault) was saying you guys have a system partly so that if guys are out things can keep pumping and you guys can keep rolling playing the same way. It’s not dependent. How do you feel like that you guys have done on that process so far?
Gilgeous-Alexander: I think that’s what makes us good. We have so many guys that can plug in and out of lineups rules and it gives us different looks, different nights ultimately allows us to play the same style of basketball. All do. It’s a sense of consistency and consistency for us and we know what we’re trying to get done as a team no matter who’s
Question: The pull-up 3-pointer, how much of a point of emphasis was that for you in the summer, and what about last season showed you that maybe that was something you wanted to work on?
Gilgeous-Alexander: Every summer I go into it trying to get better and there’s always something you can do. There’s always an area you’re never going to be a perfect basketball player and I wanted to use the preseason to try to implement my work over the summer. I try to transfer to the game. I think I did an okay job of that.
Question: But the 3s specifically?
Gilgeous-Alexander: Oh, just for fun. A couple of summers ago I shot mad mid-range for fun, some step-backs a couple of summers ago just for fun. Every summer I want to become a more complete basketball player and I add stuff to my game. I guess that’s the root of it all.
Question: You wake up this morning and it’s officially game week, do you still get excited about that first game?
Gilgeous-Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. The summers always go by fast but feels long at the same time. But yeah, I’m definitely excited for game one through the season. Either way, it’s the best time of year.
Question: Does it feel different, the expectation around the league, other players, about what you guys did last season, supposed to be a good year, that makes this year different?
Gilgeous-Alexander: Not at all. I feel like especially in the last couple of years we’ve come into the season pretty confident individually as a group that we can get certain things done on the floor every night. I think that’s our sales approach. We don’t really worry or care about the expectations or what’s going on outside of this building and what people are saying, what people think of us. We’ve gotten this far this fast because we’ve chipped away at it every day and worried about these four walls and I think we understand that and we’re not going to vary from that because basketball,
Question: You guys are young, but you played a lot of basketball together. Do you feel like veterans even though you’re still young in age?
Gilgeous-Alexander: As the years go by, you start to feel a little bit wiser, a little bit older, especially when your teammates are 22. Another but the old man, yeah, 26 feels old. It’s crazy. I think I’m like the third oldest or something like that, fourth or 17th. But yeah, with every year it comes experience because it comes wisdom and it’ll happen for every guy on the roster through the years it gets smarter to get better. Hopefully, we’ll be a better team.
Question: You mentioned that you’re never going to be a perfect basketball player just throughout your career, the concept of perfection, is that something you battle with?
Gilgeous-Alexander: Early in my career I was focused on perfection and perfection is more so like an outcome. And as I’ve grown in the league, I focused more on the process, focused more on my development and day-to-day as opposed to year-to-year. And it’s allowed me to get better in a fast amount of time because of it. So, I would say yeah, early in my career for sure and as I’ve grown, I’ve come to let it go a little bit.
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