"It's mentality": Shai Gilgeous-Alexander highlights mental fortitude and waxes lyrical on LeBron James

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is seen as the main reason for the OKC Thunder's success this 2023-24 season and surprisingly, he credited four-time NBA champion LeBron James for getting him in a winning mindset. Working on his craft year after year, the Canadian basketball player is not just experiencing team success but is also being considered as an MVP contender.

There were a lot of reservations about what Gilgeous-Alexander could contribute to the Thunder since he arrived through a trade with the LA Clippers for Paul George.

But four seasons in, Gilgeous-Alexander is now a bona fide NBA superstar with an “MVP contender” tag, even as the Thunder are now on top of the Western Conference.

The Canadian star is crediting that to the mentality he is bringing every game.

"It's a mentality. The skill stuff I just hammer away at. But what makes a great player is how they carry that to the court, how they control fourth quarters and win games,” Gilgeous-Alexander said in an interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

The six-foot-six combo guard is averaging 30.4 points per game, third in the NBA and a league-leading 2.1 steals per outing, a testament to how he has improved on both ends of the floor.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, however, is likening what he has become to that of fellow superstar LeBron James, adding that the same kind of mentality is a factor in why he has been in the NBA for a long time already.

"LeBron is LeBron because for 20-some-odd years he's controlled games," Gilgeous-Alexander further said.

Chris Paul contributes to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s meteoric rise

If there is one player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could thank for his rise to superstardom, it could very well likely be Chris Paul.

Both Shai and Paul George only got together for the Thunder for barely a year and a half, but Paul did well in mentoring an enthusiastic student in Gilgeous-Alexander.

"Shai is just a basketball junkie," Paul said in a separate interview with Shelburne. "Even now, we might be on the phone watching a game, just talking about what we see."

Chris Paul, now with the Golden State Warriors, even said that he became close to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s mother Charmaine Gilgeous to the point that the 1992 Olympian even went to the Scotiabank Centre during the Toronto Raptors’ home games just to watch the two-time Olympic gold medalist in action.

Charmaine Gilgeous told Shelburne through a phone patch that the OKC Thunder main man’s mentality probably came from her.

The older Gilgeous, a part of Antigua and Barbuda’s athletics team during the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, revealed that she did not run a longer distance than the 400-meter dash because she wanted to win first in the said division.

Although she was not able to achieve that—she only finished fifth place in her preliminary heat and failed to advance further into the 400-meter event.