{"id":51600,"date":"2025-08-07T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/51600\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:29:08","slug":"its-shai-day-hamilton-honours-shai-gilgeous-alexander-after-one-of-the-best-seasons-in-nba-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/51600\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Shai Day! Hamilton honours Shai Gilgeous-Alexander after one of the best seasons in NBA history"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best\u00a0basketball player in the world\u00a0is from Hamilton. On Thursday, the city will celebrate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, after\u00a0one of the greatest seasons in NBA history.<\/p>\n

In 2025, he won the NBA championship, the finals MVP, the regular season MVP and the league scoring title.<\/p>\n

The only other players who have managed that feat in\u00a0one season are\u00a0Shaquille O’ Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Jordan, who did it four times. That’s all. Just Gilgeous-Alexander and three NBA Hall-of-Famers. No Lebron. No Kobe.\u00a0No Steph Curry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder point guard is on a very short list with some of the greatest players of all time. On Thursday, he’ll come home to be welcomed by Mayor Andrea Horwath and local fans.<\/p>\n

There’s no charge to be a part of the rally, which begins at 3\u00a0p.m. ET at Hamilton Stadium. Those attending can RSVP on the Hamilton Ticats website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Horwath will give Gilgeous-Alexander “the first Key to the City presented by a Mayor since 1998, one of Hamilton’s highest honours,” the city said in a news\u00a0release in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event will be hosted by\u00a0TSN’s Kate Beirness and former Hamilton Tiger-Cats legend Simoni Lawrence. Gilgeous-Alexander will also be honoured\u00a0during the Tiger-Cats home game vs. the B.C. Lions at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday. Tickets for that game are sold separately.<\/p>\n

In the news release,\u00a0Gilgeous-Alexander said\u00a0“Hamilton is the city where I grew up, and it shaped the most pivotal years of my life. It laid the foundation not only for who I am as a basketball\u00a0player, but for the man I’ve become. I wouldn’t be who I am today without this city, and I’m deeply grateful for the continued love and support.”<\/p>\n

Horwath said bestowing the key is a “symbolic gesture of the deep pride and admiration Hamilton holds for one of its own.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last recipient of the Key to the City was professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, who then-mayor Bob Morrow presented with a key in September 1998. Morrow also said he was renaming Main and Bay streets Stone Cold Way for the day, according to the\u00a0Hamilton Spectator\u00a0archives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best\u00a0basketball player in the world\u00a0is from Hamilton. On Thursday, the city will celebrate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, after\u00a0one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-51600","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\/51600","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=51600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}