At the beginning of this decade, Nikola Jokic was considered just another one of the great big men in the NBA, and now, he's being talked about with some of the greatest centers to ever play this game. Oklahoma City Thunder fans can see that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is now following this exact same trajectory with his career.
If we think back to 2020, we remember that Anthony Davis was seen as nearly as good a player as Jokic, or possibly even better, depending on who you asked. Davis' game-winner over Jokic in that bubble playoff series only served to cement this viewpoint as factual.
But in the next two years, Jokic would go on to win back-to-back regular season MVP awards and firmly solidify himself as the best center in the game. Joel Embiid's 2023 MVP in the regular season served as fuel for those still wanting to doubt Jokic's place among the hierarchy, but Nikola going out and leading the Nuggets to the NBA championship while taking home Finals MVP put an end to those conversations fast.
Now, when we talk about Jokic, we talk about him in the same breath as players like Shaquille O'Neal or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He no longer has any true peers in the league today, and those whose legacies he's looking to surpass are the all-time greats who's impact on the league are purely a memory. As they say, Jokic is "chasing ghosts."
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is entering all-time conversations
The same is now true of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Just a few short years ago, he was being talked about just as one of the league's most fun and up-and-coming guards, but nothing beyond that. As recently as 2023, there were still arguments to be made that guys like Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell deserved to be ranked above him.
Now, the work that SGA has put in and the achievements he has under his belt have put him into a totally different stratosphere. The aforementioned players are still among the best the league has to offer at the guard position, but Gilgeous-Alexander is now chasing the legacies of the all-time greats.
That's exactly what you dream about your team's star player becoming. When a player has done enough to escape being mentioned in talks concerning other current players, you can be sure that they are on their way to true greatness.
And if you've been watching this season, that's precisely what you've seen SGA do. The reigning Finals MVP has been routinely scoring 30 points in three quarters before sitting out the fourth quarter while the Thunder cruise to another win. Oklahoma City truly has one of the all-time greats on their hands.