It’s been a near-perfect season for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The 26-year-old led the NBA in scoring (32.7 points per game) for the league’s best team in the regular season, earned All-Star and All-NBA First Team honors and was named MVP of the regular season and the Western Conference finals.
The only milestones that remain are winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy and, potentially, the NBA Finals MVP. If he pulls it off, Gilgeous-Alexander would join Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in NBA history to win a championship, a scoring title, regular-season MVP and finals MVP in the same season.
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On the latest episode of “The Athletic NBA Daily,” Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni explored where Gilgeous-Alexander’s season would rank among the greatest individual seasons in league history if the Oklahoma City Thunder finish the job and he takes home the finals MVP. They also discussed how his season might be viewed if the Thunder fall short in the finals, which players have had comparable seasons to the reigning MVP in the past and why Gilgeous-Alexander still has room to grow into even more of a dominant player.
Later in the episode, DuFour and Baraheni were joined by The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov to explain why the Thunder-Indiana Pacers finals matchup could actually be a good thing for the league, despite being small-market teams. Vorkunov outlined how the NBA’s long-term media rights deal has helped secure its financial health and why the rise of a new generation of stars is key for ratings.
Additionally, the trio previewed the most intriguing elements of the finals matchup: which player could emerge as an X-factor in the series, whether Indiana’s bench can hold up against Oklahoma City and the best way for the Pacers to attack the Thunder.
Watch the full episode of “The Athletic NBA Daily” below, on the YouTube channel or via the “The Athletic NBA Daily” podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
(Photo: Andrew Lahodynskyj / Getty Images)
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