I bet Uncle Sam, George Washington, and the other founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they found out that a Canadian was dominating in a league populated by Americans. But let’s talk facts here: Canadians should be dominating the NBA! After all, the late great James Naismith, the founder of basketball, was Canadian. Even the Basketball Hall of Fame, where the legacy of icons like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal are immortalized, is named after him.
The NBA has not seen a Canadian MVP since Steve Nash in 2005–2006. The 19-year spell without a Canadian MVP could end this year, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander playing the way he is.
At the time of writing, Gilgeous-Alexander was averaging 32 points with 6.1 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He leads the NBA in points per game and is the de facto leader of the Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder who currently lead the Western Conference with a record of 36-8 and have the best record in the league, tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
You can’t hate on Gilgeous-Alexander’s aura and greatness. I used to be a big hater of Gilgeous-Alexander. However, after the OKC Thunder destroyed the Boston Celtics on Jan. 5, I had to come to terms with that view. The Lucky Charms Leprechaun had to witness the slaughter of his compatriots, courtesy of Gilgeous-Alexander. The only person who can come close to Gilgeous-Alexander in this MVP race is Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, who is having a historic season and who, in my opinion, is one of the top 10 players of all time. But Gilgeous-Alexander, leading a young OKC Thunder team to the first seed at just 26 years old, while putting up incredible numbers, is arguably more impressive than what Jokic is accomplishing.
Gilgeous-Alexander was born in Toronto, but he spent most of his life in Hamilton. He has athletic genes, as his mother is a former Olympic track athlete, and his father played basketball at the high school level. Gilgeous-Alexander could not make the senior basketball team of St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School, and ended up playing for the midget squad where he eventually won MVP, leading St. Thomas More to the midget boys championship.
A four-star recruit, Gilgeous-Alexander committed to the University of Kentucky in 2016 and only played one year in college, averaging 14.4 points per game, before declaring for the 2018 NBA draft.
Gilgeous-Alexanderwas drafted 11th overall in the first round by the Hornets; that same day, he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. After averaging 10.8 points in his rookie season with the Clippers, Gilgeous-Alexander was traded to the OKC Thunder alongside Danilo Gallinari and a boatload of first-round draft picks for Paul George. This has to be the biggest fumble in humanity since Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo.
To break this down for people who don’t follow the NBA: imagine trading a 2025 Benz and coupons to get more Benzes in the future for a 2009 Porsche with defective body parts. That’s essentially what the Clippers did: they traded an MVP prospect as well as first-round picks, who ended up being future All-Star caliber players, like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, for Paul George, a superstar who is injury-prone and is past his prime.
Gilgeous-Alexander improved his numbers as a sophomore, averaging 19 points per game. His breakthrough season came in 2022–2023, when he had his first NBA All-Star selection and earned the All-NBA First Team honours. Gilgeous-Alexander finished runner-up in MVP voting for the 2023–2024 season, only trailing behind Jokic. Many people felt Gilgeous-Alexander should have won MVP that year, and some prominent media figures expressed their outrage, including Shaquille O’Neal.
If Gilgeous-Alexander continues like this, he is well on track to win MVP. And though the Celtics are favourites to win the NBA, the OKC Thunder could take the NBA trophy away from the Celtics. If this happens, Gilgeous-Alexander could go down in history as the greatest Canadian player in the NBA, and could be mentioned alongside great Canadian athletes such as Wayne Gretzky and Georges St. Pierre.
