Shai Gilgeous-Alexander promotes reading to children in OKC community on Thunder Rolling Book Bus

OKC Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spends time with the community with kids at Eugene Field Elementary and answers questions on his strengths and weaknesses.

Filling the shoes of a superstar and All-Star is hard work but new OKC Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is showing his mettle early.

He’s already got the philanthropic spirit down as he showcased recently at his home town YMCA located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. SGA spent time with 100 children at the event teaching them basketball fundamentals and at the end of the event shared pizza with them, signed autographs and posed for pictures.

Now, he’s back in Oklahoma City and bringing charity to the local community and he worked in conjunction with the franchise. Specifically, Gilgeous-Alexander traveled to Eugene Field Elementary. At the event, SGA helped the children in attendance pick out some reading material from the many available books on the Rolling Thunder Book Bus.

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SGA also showcased how easy going and smooth he is when he was in the media scrum answering questions and got interrupted by a loudspeaker making an announcement. The OKC Thunder point guard patiently waited for the announcement to finish and picked right back up continuing to answer the question.

To wit, the question offered some insight on SGA in terms of where he sees his own strengths and weaknesses. The Canadian noted his strength needs to be improved which he’ll no doubt spend time in the gym prior to training camp to add some muscle.

Other areas he noted as areas of focus are his shooting, specifically citing perimeter and off the dribble as two places he needs to improve. In an article I read recently about SGA, his trainer has him focusing on those specific shooting skills and makes SGA take his shots at the end of a session so it’s closer to an in-game situation.

He cited his strong points as leadership, playmaking and his penetrating ability which we all got to witness last season in his rookie campaign.  It’s fair to say we’ve seen those beneficial traits on the hardwood last season.

As for the leadership ability, OKC Thunder fans will get to witness that strength first hand this coming season.