Gilgous-Alexander is top scorer and fashion king of NBA: ‘Let him be figurehead’

This article was last updated on May 15, 2025

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Gilgous-Alexander is top scorer and fashion king of NBA: ‘Let him be figurehead’

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, they are all already at home. While the play-offs are in full swing, the NBA is urgently looking for a new superstar. Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that new figurehead?

Connoisseurs in the US are enthusiastic about the 26-year-old Canadian, who this season, with an average of 32.7 points per match, crowned top scorer of the NBA and with his club Oklahoma City Thunder has a chance to win the title.

“Nobody plays like him. I love him,” says four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal about the player who is working on his seventh season in the strongest basketball competition in the world.

“On average at least 30 points per match and half of your shots hit? The only other game distributor this has achieved this in the past is one Michael Jordan,” the well-known NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith crashes him.

Wait changes

Ivan Lukovic also thinks that Gilgous-Alexander has everything to become the new face of the NBA. “There is a change of the guard going on. We say goodbye to the old stars,” says the Dutch NBA connoisseur and maker of the basketball podcast.

“There are some young players who may want to claim the status of Superster, such as Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Shai is perhaps the one who is most ready and the one in the best situation to make that happen.”

Yet Lukovic has not yet been sold. “Everyone who gets a little older holds on to the players of his generation, just like you do with music you grow up with. I am still a fan of Michael Jordan and Latrell Sprrewell.”

Not everything about Gilgeous-Alexander’s game can appeal to Lukovic. In his eyes, the Canadian tends to prefer to decorate personal mistakes with his actions to the basket. “Throwing your head back when your Aura is touched, so to speak, I find a less pleasant trait.”

On the other hand, Gilgous-Alexander is one of the most effective players in the NBA. “It is important that players do their best both defensively and attacking. He does that. He not only lives on three -point, but is also very effective with his shots of a little closer.”

Gilgous-Alexander or Jokic?

While the play-offs are busy, above the NBA also the question is who should be declared the most valuable player (MVP) of the regular season. Gilgous-Alexander is one of the most important candidates, together with Denver Nuggets-Alleskunner Nikola Jokic, who won the prize three times in the last four years.

“Shai should have won the prize last season,” says Shaquille O’Neal, who was once chosen as MVP in his nineteen -year -old career. “He is the player who silences everyone.”

Lukovic looks at that differently. “For me, the MVP is the most valuable player for his team. Denver is nothing without Jokic, while Oklahoma City has so much talent that it can also win without Gilgous-Alexander. Although you cannot say that someone of the best team in the strong Western Conference, someone who makes more than 30 points on average, does not propose anything.”

Gilgous-Alexander also has another weapon that he can throw in battle to become the NBA’s signboard. With his passion for fashion, he can often be admired in colorful, striking designer clothing. In 2022 he even walked over the catwalk at the Fashion Week in Paris.

That love for fashion owes style icon Gilgeous-Alexander to his mother Charmaine, who made sure that he and his brother and he always dressed in perfect and regularly took her children to chic fashion stores in his birthplace Toronto, even though they didn’t have it wide. Only to look, to show: if you continue to work hard and are successful, you can dress like that.

Not a bad example

“I find his way of dressing apart, but I am almost twenty years older than he laughs,” laughs Lukovic. “There is a whole generation of young people who also have clothing as a hobby. In addition, he is a bit of it. He is not a bad example for the youth.”

“In general, it seems like a good boy to me. And it is not that he has not worked hard enough for it. Shai was not chosen in the top ten of his Draft and was exchanged after his first season in the NBA. So then it is a nice story if he goes for the title as a 26-year-old with a young team. So yes, let him be that figurehead.”

What are the play-offs?

The play-offs in the NBA are finished after the regular season from mid-April to the beginning of June. In this waste race, sixteen teams play for two final places. Each round is a best-of-seven series, in which the team that is the first to win four duels.