ESPN’s Shams Charania announced on Sunday that Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had won MVP for the second year in a row, and former NBA player Brandon Jennings dished out a hot take soon after. Jennings took to X to state that Gilgeous-Alexander is the third-greatest point guard of all time behind Stephen Curry and Magic Johnson.
“SGA is top 3 Point Guard All Time!!! At the age of 27. I’m not debating idc. Steph Magic SGA.”
Jennings’ hot take was brought up on Gil’s Arena on Tuesday, and he received a whole lot of pushback.
Kenyon Martin brought up Hall of Famer Jason Kidd as someone he’d rank above Gilgeous-Alexander. Jennings thinks the Canadian is greater, though. He pointed out that while Kidd has a championship on his resume like Gilgeous-Alexander, he was a role player when he won with the Dallas Mavericks.
Rashad McCants then named another Hall of Famer in Isiah Thomas, who won two titles. Jennings wouldn’t put Thomas over Gilgeous-Alexander and pointed out he wasn’t the Finals MVP when the Detroit Pistons won it all in 1989. He wasn’t budging.
It is probably a bit too soon to put Gilgeous-Alexander that high up. Sure, the 27-year-old has won one title, one Finals MVP, two MVPs, and one scoring title, but we have only seen one great playoff run from him so far. That was, of course, 2025, when he won it all.
Gilgeous-Alexander played pretty well in 2024, but the Mavericks knocked the Thunder out in six games in the Western Conference Semifinals. As for 2026, he does find himself in the Western Conference Finals, but hasn’t been all that great lately.
There is little doubt that Gilgeous-Alexander will have some epic postseason runs in the future, but we can talk about him being as high as third after they happen. The body of work has to be greater before we stick someone right behind Curry and Johnson. As for these two, there is little debate about them being the top two right now.
Johnson won five titles, three Finals MVPs, three MVPs, and four assists titles. He made it to the NBA Finals nine times over the course of his incredible career.
Curry has won four titles, one Finals MVP, two MVPs, and two scoring titles. He has made six trips to the NBA Finals so far and would be hoping to make another before he walks away from the game.
Gilgeous-Alexander had looked set to rack up championships like Johnson and Curry after the Thunder won in 2025, but there is a very tall roadblock in his way now. Victor Wembanyama just powered the San Antonio Spurs to a 122-115 double overtime win in Game 1 against the Thunder. That made it five wins in six games for the Spurs in this matchup in 2025-26 (regular season and playoffs combined).
While Wembanyama dazzled, Gilgeous-Alexander was far from his best in Game 1. He put up 24 points (7-23 FG), three rebounds, 12 assists, five steals, and one block. Gilgeous-Alexander will need to play far better if the Thunder are to take down the Spurs. If he does and then guides his team to another title, he’d climb further up in these all-time lists.
