Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP and Finals MVP of the NBA right now, recently sat down with GQ for an interview where they went in-depth on his life, basketball career, and aspirations ahead.
During a tour of his house, the NBA champion showed a mural of his Mount Rushmore of NBA basketball, which included Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as well. He revealed that his ultimate goal was to prove that he belonged with those players on that mural.
“I pick up a basketball to be the best. If you’re asking me if I want to be better than Kobe, of course I do,” Shai says. “Whether I get there or not, we’ll find out.”
Earlier this summer, Gilgeous-Alexander claimed he’s the best basketball player in the world right now. And they say to be the best, you need to beat the best. Therefore, to achieve the goals that he set for himself in his career, he needs to surpass benchmarks that his own childhood heroes and the greatest players of all time have set before him.
Hence, when an athlete like him is asked if he believes he could be better than a legend like Kobe Bryant, sitting at the pinnacle of the sport, he has no choice but to say yes, in my opinion. And that’s what Gilgeous-Alexander did in this case. However, he is still about four championships away from being anywhere near Bryant in terms of achievements.
Additionally, there’s also the question of his impact on an era of players wherein Gilgeous-Alexander is nowhere close to the impact that the Mamba Mentality has had on the lives of multiple generations of players. Therefore, while Gilgeous-Alexander is not wrong for aiming that high but he is putting himself in that discussion way too soon for now. But in my opinion, if Bryant were alive today, he would respect Gilgeous-Alexander for aiming at such high standards as his own.
Shai Gilgeous Alexander On Aiming For Back-To-Back Championships
Just last year, Gilgeous-Alexander became the scoring champion, regular season MVP, an NBA champion, and the Finals MVP in the same season. That is an accomplishment that only three legendary players before him could accomplish in NBA history: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and Shaquille O’Neal.
He averaged 32.0 points, 6.4 assists, and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 50.6% from the field and 35.6% from beyond the arc over the 99 games he played in the entire season (76 regular-season games and 23 games in the Playoffs). Coming off such a strong season, he was bound to believe that he could lead the Thunder could do it again.
“That’s what it’s all about: In your era, how dominant can you be?” he says during the GQ interview. “And winning multiple in a row speaks to that dominance, for sure. We definitely have the talent, the personnel, the chemistry, and the experience to repeat. But so many things have to go right from now to the end of June 2026.”
Therefore, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would likely look to capitalize on the momentum for the Thunder and build on such a solid season. Going into the 2025-26 season, they will look to successfully pull off a back-to-back championship run that the NBA last saw with the Warriors in 2018.
