{"id":22974,"date":"2025-07-25T11:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22974\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T11:53:08","slug":"shaq-drops-kill-shot-case-for-why-shai-gilgeous-alexander-is-now-the-face-of-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22974\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaq drops kill-shot case for why Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now the face of NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

With every passing year, the 2019 trade that sent Paul George from the OKC Thunder to the Clippers gradually looks worse and worse<\/a> for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Not only does LA no longer even roster the All-Star forward, but, on top of the slew of draft capital Oklahoma City received in exchange, the then-promising young prospect in the transaction, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, has unequivocally blossomed into a superstar cornerstone in the association.<\/p>\n

No matter which way you look at it, the guard is miles ahead of anything and everything the Thunder originally gave up in the blockbuster exchange. <\/p>\n

From his three First-Team All-NBA nods, and his 2025 NBA MVP award to guiding the organization to their first Larry O’Brien Trophy since 1979, after only six years running the show, SGA is already in the conversation of being considered OKC’s GOAT player. <\/p>\n

Of course, the 26-year-old’s greatness isn’t necessarily limited to the Thunder’s history books, and Hall of Fame center and perhaps the most dominant basketball player to ever live, Shaquille O’Neal, only emphasized this during an appearance on The Pivot Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shaq groups Thunder star into same conversation as all-time greats<\/p>\n

When discussing who the current faces of the league are, Shaq confidently stated that the mantle has been taken by Gilgeous-Alexander, and, in his eyes, there’s really no debate. <\/p>\n

The five-time champion would further elaborate on his stance by saying that the guard isn’t just great in the modern sense, but, rather, in the all-time sense as well.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen Magic, I’ve seen Jordan, I’ve seen Kareem. I’ve seen greatness. I played with Penny, I played with Kobe, played with D-Wade [and] LeBron [so] I’ve been a part of greatness. If you’re not in that category I’m not giving you no type of props… If you couldn’t have played with us or played like these guys, I’m not f*cking with you. SGA is in there now,” Shaq said.<\/p>\n

Considering all that he’s accomplished over these last few years, especially in 2024-25, this shouldn’t be seen as a hot-take in the slightest.<\/p>\n

This past year, not only did Gilgeous-Alexander drop sensational all-around averages of 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 steals on 51.9 percent shooting from the field, but he also become just the fourth player in league history to be crowned NBA MVP, league scoring champion, NBA Champion, and Finals MVP all in the same year.<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, the last person to accomplish this latter feat was Shaq himself.<\/p>\n

O’Neal would then go on to name-drop guys like Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic as the only other current players who are in this legendary all-timers conversation, all of whom have been tabbed as the face of the league at one point in their respective careers.<\/p>\n

Now, with all that he’s accomplished over the last year and change, it’s Gilgeous-Alexander’s turn to take on the prestigious moniker.<\/p>\n

Shaq’s tirade only further strengthens such a sentiment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With every passing year, the 2019 trade that sent Paul George from the OKC Thunder to the Clippers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-22974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}