No that isn't an old 15 pin video display standard (that's a deep cut old man/nerd reference there) it stands for this year's NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. His team is about to win its first championship and there is no doubt he is a huge part of that.
But my buddies and I have been involved in a good-hearted argument for the past month. First, I don't think anyone not named Nicola Jokic should even be considered for MVP. I have watched basketball for 45 years and I've never seen anything like him. He does everything on offense: pass, dribble, shot, drive, and rebound and recently he has used his giant brain to become an above average defender. He is so good mentally that players like Anthony Edwards thought Jokic was cheating because he always knew what play the Timberwolves were going to run. But he's not cheating, he's just a basketball genius. Without Jokic, the Nuggest wouldn't even make the playoffs. There is no one more valuable to their team.
That is what started the argument. I couldn't believe that SGA won the MVP. Yeah he has great numbers and is an excellent player, but I just can't accept anyone but Jokic. The OKC Thunder or so stacked that they would still win a playoff series even without SGA. I also had not seen very much of SGA so I was just going by the stats. Which are definitely impressive. So when I sat down to watch this year's playoffs, one of my goals was to really watch SGA. And for the longest time, I wasn't that impressed. He is a great scorer. But I was waiting for some "wow" moments. Every once in a while he'd drive to the hoop and make an awesome "wow-worthy" move but there weren't that many of them.
I started to wonder if he were just a product of the fact that OKC is so solid that you have to guard everyone and someone is bound to score. Because that is what my belief engine was telling me, that is all I saw. And then my buddy sent me an eyeopening stat. he sent this:
Wow. That is some really good company and not easy at all to do. This blew my mind and kind of reset that belief engine that was causing me to be so biased. Maybe SGA is just an incredibly smart, calm consistent player that doesn't need to be flashy. He scores and gets assists in a very calm manner because he is so good that he does not need to have big "wow" moments. He's just going to robotically do the right thing. I can see him like the Terminator going through a list of prompts "I will score now". "I will drive and kick now." I Will draw a foul now."
Although I still don't think anyone but Jokic should be the MVP, I have done a 180 and now think that SGA is far more special than I was giving him credit for. He is a very unique player. usually I like to use the "eye test" when judging a player. Do they look awesome? Do they look like they are dominating? Well SGA doesn't always look like that but by the end of the game, he killed you. He may do it calmly and surgically, but he killed your team nonetheless. I think to judge him, you have to look at the stats. They don't lie and they tell the story of an exceptional player.
He's still not Jordan though.
Anybody else think like this? Any other players who are just surgical assassins?
