NBA New Blood: SGA heats up.
My brain really stopped retaining information in 2010. Who are these children taking over the League? To be clear, I’ve been watch NBA basketball and listening to NBA Podcasts this whole time. I talk shit on group threads and make bold proclamations about Bill Walton and Eddie House. This year I am trying to my game and shock my brain into being current. This weekly feature will cover key players that are emerging as key characters in the playoffs. No Lebrons. No Jokers. No Tatums. New guys only. This week, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
(Full disclosure I have a strong bias against the owner of the Thunder. He did Seattle dirty. I don’t know how a town smaller than Worcestor, Massachusetts has a premier NBA team but here we are. Karma will come for Klay Bennett. Okay, bad vibes stated. I’m moving on.)
I remember hearing that OKC won the Paul George trade but the winner was in Oklahoma so, are they really winning? I’m wasn’t going to pay attention until I have to. Well, I have to! Not just because we are being carpetbombed with that AT&T “what a pro needs” ad. These OKC kids can ball and it all starts with SGA, a man who deservedly grabbed a few votes from Jokic’s third MVP campaign. We pick these New Blood pieces in advance and Mike Morrocco had his sights set on SGA but last night I was really hoping we wouldn’t look dumb today. AND WE DON’T LOOK DUMB. Because Shai showed out. (Fellow Dimer and diehard Mavs fan, Travis H. Hill couldn’t be reached for comment this morning.) The key things for those like me that have a strange mental blind spot for OKC:
We all like Shai: He is a cool dude. The type that bring shis teammates with him to the post game interview like last night after he gutted the Mavs. He’s not out there wildly gesticulating trying to show the cameras that he is a LEADER.
Many Gears and CLUTCH : Having elite midrange game is not sexy. Let’s face it. Last night when the rim was guarded by Sentinels from the X-Men, that tool kit was a game saver. Ask any Mavs fan how deadly SGA’s midrange is after seeing him hit 8 points in two minutes of crunch time. I checked in with my smart NBA friend Avi, h described him as an efficient two level scorer that’s proficient at drawing fouls. If Jalen Brunsen is a hammer, SGA is a surgeon’s knife.
His mom was an olympian : Charmaine Gilgeous competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as a sprinter for Antigua and Barbuda. I love athlete families.
I still hope for the Mavs to advance, mostly Travis’s mental health, but also I genuinely think they’re a more competitive team than the Thunder at this point. It’d be a fun story if these young guns Thunder got to the Western Conference Finals. This year isa a big generational shift. No matter what Shai and his whole squad are coming into next year with a new level of swagger.
