Having a superstar on the team you cheer for is a cool feeling. Having an approachable, personable, thoughtful superstar who thinks about the people around him on the team you cheer for is even better. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fits into the latter category; Thunder fans have known that the entire time he's been in OKC, and the world gets to see that side in season two of Starting 5 on Netflix.
In episode 4, SGA talked about how he approaches meet-and-greets with fans before and after games, and called back to his childhood when he saw how a few legends of the game interacted with fans:
"They see me in a certain light... I remember being a kid and seeing guys like Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant in a certain light... So I try to give everyone the best experience every time I see them. I want them to be able to say, like, 'Shai was an amazing guy,' not just a basketball player."
NBA players are constantly in the limelight; to hear Shai talk about how he still cares about how fans view him as a person (and I believe him when he says this, for the record) is pretty meaningful, and it's a big reason why he's so embraced in OKC not just for his play — but for who he is as a person.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's personality shines in Starting 5
The second season of the hit Netflix show was just released, and Shai is featured along with Tyrese Haliburton, Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. Each player has a unique personality and view of the world, the NBA, and themselves, and it's always fascinating to hear interviews with players when answers aren't scripted and they feel comfortable actually talking.
Shai often gets a reputation of being "too cool," but I don't think that's accurate at all, and Starting 5 shows him as the personable, approachable person he is, from his desire to make every fan have a good experience with him at a meet-and-greet, to his undiluted joy when he found out he was the cover athlete for NBA 2K26.
"Everyone has some haters... If you're famous," Kevin Durant says at one point in Starting 5. And that's true about Shai the player (which is an article for a different day.) But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the human, has always been pretty much impossible to hate, and his real desire to connect with fans is another example of why.