Oklahoma City Thunder superstar point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off a remarkable season in which he led the league in scoring, won his first MVP award, and finished his illustrious campaign with Finals MVP honors, helping the 68-14 Thunder win the first championship in franchise history since moving from Seattle.
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Despite all his success and having turned just 27 years old this summer, the Toronto, Canada native spoke to GQ’s Yang-Yi Goh regarding how long he wants to keep his career going. Goh brought up how superstar LeBron James and longtime mentor Chris Paul are still playing in their 40s, and asked if Gilgeous-Alexander could do the same.
"I won't want to miss that much of my kid's life," Gilgeous-Alexander explained. "I won't want to be away and miss his first basketball game every year, his first soccer game, football game, piano lesson, chess lesson, whatever it is," he says. "And there's a certain point in your career where you reach your peak. I don't fault guys for still playing. They love the game. But I just feel like I play this game, ultimately, to see what the best version of me can be. Once I figure that out and I start going down, then it's like, ‘Okay, well, what am I playing for now?’ As soon as that happens, I'll be on the first ship out."
It is certainly commendable for the reigning MVP to make this prediction, but with such clear improvement year-over-year, there is no telling when he might start to lose a step.
With three consecutive All-Star nods and All-NBA First Teams, and most recently putting up the highest points average of his career (32.7), he and the Thunder have massive plans for this upcoming season to try and get back to the promised land.
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