{"id":391178,"date":"2026-01-06T13:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/391178\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T13:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:46:11","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexander-is-in-the-moment-even-as-his-trophy-case-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/391178\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is ‘in the moment’ even as his trophy case grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> plans to have a pre-written speech in hand when he accepts his Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award tonight in Las Vegas. That is a much simpler plan for the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> star than when he freestyled during his emotional speech for the 2025 NBA Most Valuable Player award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one I\u2019ll be a little bit more prepared,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander revealed to Andscape after the Thunder\u2019s 131-94 win over the host Golden State Warriors on Jan. 1. \u201cWith MVP, I wanted it to come straight from the heart. I had no speech. I just started talking. But those people, I see every day. I just wanted to give them raw emotion. That is probably why I started crying like that because it was raw.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this one I\u2019ll be more prepared. I\u2019m writing it just myself. I\u2019ll write it down and probably have it on a teleprompter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander will be the 71st recipient of SI\u2019s Sportsperson of the Year award, given to \u201cthe athlete or team that best represents, in character and performance, the ideals of excellence and sportsmanship.\u201d The 2025 NBA Finals MVP led the Thunder to their first NBA title and a league-best 68 regular-season wins last season. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds last season. <\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Canadian will join prestigious previous winners such as Arthur Ashe, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, LeBron James, Simone Biles, Stephen Curry, Michael Phelps and Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n

Those elite winners made it a no-brainer for Gilgeous-Alexander to accept the award despite a demanding section of the season. The award ceremony is sandwiched between the Thunder playing back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday, and another game on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the list of people who have won this award, it\u2019s an honor,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cUsually, I don\u2019t do this. But it wasn\u2019t really that hard of a decision because of the award, the prestige of it, and what it means. So many great basketball players have won it and athletes in general. The GOAT [greatest of all time] of their sport. To be amongst that list is an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShaiShai Gilgeous-Alexander on racking up awards in the past few months: \u201cThey add a level of confidence to my walk and swagger on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Frese\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thunder head coach Mark Daignault says Gilgeous-Alexander was deserving of the award based on the superstar he is on the court and the humble father he is off it. Gilgeous-Alexander and his wife, Hailey, have a 1-year-old son named Ares.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe history of the award is a crazy list of athletes that he has added his name to,\u201d Daignault said before the win against the Warriors. \u201cIt\u2019s an unbelievable accomplishment. And we\u2019re certainly incredibly happy for him. It\u2019s well deserved. On [the court] is what everybody sees when the lights come on. He\u2019s incredibly impactful. As a winner, he\u2019s incredibly efficient. He uses possessions in an incredibly efficient way. He plays both ends of the floor. He plays in such a way so his teammates can be successful, which allows your team to be pretty good. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really takes a lot of pride in being a good guy, being a great husband and being a good person. He treats everybody with dignity, kindness, respect. All of the things that you want your kids to do, he does. I can\u2019t say enough about him. I always tell people if you spent more time around him, you only gain more respect for him. Sometimes when you see behind the curtain the opinion changes. With him, the opinion changes for [the better]. We\u2019re really happy for him. Congrats to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award list has grown dramatically for Gilgeous-Alexander over the past six months. In 2025, Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA MVP, the NBA Finals MVP, the Western Conference Finals MVP and the ESPY award winner for Best Male Athlete and also Best NBA Player. He said his NBA Finals MVP trophy and his other awards are sitting mostly unbothered in the art room in his home in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

‘He didn’t change one bit’: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remains Oklahoma City’s humble superstar \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander said his awards have given him a mental boost on the floor, but off of it he\u2019s focused on his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey add a level of confidence to my walk and swagger on the court,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cBut in my everyday life, I don\u2019t really think about them. I\u2019m so in the moment. I honestly don\u2019t even get time to sit and think about them, especially with my son growing so fast. I try to cherish those moments with my wife. Really just be present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t have much time now. I guess I think about it when he\u2019s running around the house, and he opens the door in the room, and I have to get him, and I see them. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh yeah.\u2019 But I really don\u2019t think about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a rise to stardom for Gilgeous-Alexander is stunning if you consider he was the 11th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft and he was traded by the Los Angeles Clippers after his rookie season. The former University of Kentucky star said the first individual award that really meant something to him was being named the MVP of the 2018 Southeastern Conference men\u2019s basketball tournament after leading the Wildcats to a title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played a pretty good tournament. That was my coming-out party as a collegiate player,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander told Andscape. \u201cI kind of knew after that I was going to enter the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShaiShai Gilgeous-Alexander (left) hopes to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a second consecutive NBA championship. <\/p>\n

Joshua Gateley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander is now trying to buck an NBA trend by leading the Thunder to a second consecutive championship. The NBA has not had a repeat champion since the Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. The Thunder actually opened this season with a 24-1 start and appeared talented enough to challenge the 2015-16 Warriors\u2019 NBA record 73-9 regular-season record.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, however, went through a stretch in December where they lost four of five games, including three to the San Antonio Spurs. Oklahoma City entered Tuesday with an NBA-best 30-7 record but are just 5-5 in its last 10 games.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The media conversation is] going to be very loud because we barely lost,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve had way tougher times as an NBA player. So, I\u2019m not overreacting or anything. But we definitely need to get better. But that is nothing we didn\u2019t already know. We didn\u2019t think we were going to go 81-1 and not lose to anybody, [or] we were going to win the championship with the team we had [last season].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe league is going to get better. The players are going to get better. The coaches are going to get better. Schemes are going to get better. We knew that and we knew we had to grow. We lost a couple games because we weren\u2019t ready and we weren\u2019t as good as we thought we were. We use those experiences like we have in the past and grow from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn\u2019t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander plans to have a pre-written speech in hand when he accepts his Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-391178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}