Always eloquent with his words, Sam Presti was asked to describe Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in his basketball dialect. The Oklahoma City Thunder general manager did so with NBA pantheons like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
A few years ago, Presti compared Durant to a basketball god, Westbrook to a basketball warrior and Harden to a basketball genius. After one of the greatest individual seasons ever, capped off by winning an NBA championship — something none of those three did in their time in OKC — Gilgeous-Alexander more than earned his nickname.
After a few seconds of thought, Presti settled on calling Gilgeous-Alexander an appropriate moniker that suits his on-court production and off-court personality.
“Basketball artist,” Presti said. “That’s what I would say with Shai. That’s my first reaction to that.”
Ooh. I like that. That’s a nice description. Gilgeous-Alexander is a mid-range maestro. He has the best footwork in the NBA. His drives to the basket usually result in highlight-reel slashes through multiple defenders. While Westbrook overpowered you with brute strength and speed, Gilgeous-Alexander danced around you like a ballerina.
“I just think he’s got left and right brain working, and I think when you think about people that are extremely successful in what they do, they can’t operate all on one side or the other,” Presti said. “People have to have, to me, the great people in life, business, sports, any industry, have to be able to access both sides, a creative side and then also a very objective side.”
The Thunder had one of the greatest seasons the NBA has ever seen. They went a historic 68-14 with the best point differential ever. After some hiccups, they captured the Larry O’Brien trophy after being the overwhelming favorites for most of the season.
You can thank Gilgeous-Alexander for most of that. His improbable ascension from a decent lottery pick to an MVP winner has put the Thunder in a position to be a perennial contender. While one championship is a franchise changer, they’re set up to win more.
“But what makes to me the greatest of the great are the people that have the emotional intelligence to decide when to call on each one of those,” Presti said. “So you can have access to both, but the key is knowing when to pull which club, at what time. You just can’t use the hammer. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So in this case, you’ve got to know when to use the hammer, and then you’ve got to know when to use the sander, if that’s an example. And I think he’s got that.”
You never want to use the “D” word so liberally, but the Thunder have set themselves up to be a possible dynasty. Gilgeous-Alexander is an all-time great who can be the face of that. There’s a reason why most of his statistical feats are in the same breath as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. OKC has the Gen Z version of that.