Latest / Bleacher Report / Shai Gilgeous-Alexander MVP Speech & Full Press Conference
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Okay, I should have wrote something down.
- 0:07Speaker 2: I would like to start this whole I guess speech
- 0:10Speaker 2: with just thanking my teammates, Like I can't say enough
- 0:15Speaker 2: how much you guys mean to me, and not only
- 0:18Speaker 2: as like a basketball player, but like as family.
- 0:20Speaker 1: You guys, I.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Know you guys know, like we do everything together on and.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Off the court.
- 0:26Speaker 2: We go shopping, we eat like you guys really like
- 0:29Speaker 2: my brothers, and I really mean that. And without this,
- 0:32Speaker 2: without you guys, sorry, none of this would be possible.
- 0:34Speaker 2: And I want you guys to know, like this award
- 0:36Speaker 2: is your award too, So thank you guys so much.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Then I would like to go to the organization from
- 0:41Speaker 2: top to bottom Clay Sam, coach Donnie, to the equipment guys,
- 0:48Speaker 2: to the weight room guys. You guys do an amazing
- 0:51Speaker 2: job of allowing us as players to just enjoy basketball,
- 0:56Speaker 2: and I don't think that gets enough credit. Like we
- 0:58Speaker 2: come in here, everything is laid out. All we have
- 1:01Speaker 2: to do is play basketball and have fun and be kids.
- 1:03Speaker 2: And I think that's why we've been able to grow
- 1:05Speaker 2: the way we have. And thank you guys for that.
- 1:08Speaker 2: And my people from back home. I have a crew
- 1:12Speaker 2: in the summer Mark Davante, Vince Maurice Sunday.
- 1:19Speaker 1: The guys that I grew up with.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Dave worked tremendous hours with me in the summertime to
- 1:25Speaker 2: help me get to this point, and without them, I
- 1:26Speaker 2: would not be the player I am today. There's Nate
- 1:30Speaker 2: Mitchell who helps me in the summertimes, them in the summertimes.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Without you guys and the rigorous training schedule and the
- 1:39Speaker 2: dedication to my craft that you guys don't get to
- 1:42Speaker 2: be a part of, I wouldn't be the player I
- 1:43Speaker 2: am today as well.
- 1:44Speaker 1: So thank you guys for that.
- 1:46Speaker 2: I also would like to thank my brother, my twin,
- 1:52Speaker 2: my best friend since I was two years old, since
- 1:54Speaker 2: he came out the doom. Thank you for everything, my
- 1:57Speaker 2: partner crime through it all. My dad for putting the
- 2:02Speaker 2: ball in my hands.
- 2:05Speaker 1: My mother. If you guys, any of you guys know
- 2:08Speaker 1: my mother, she's crazy.
- 2:10Speaker 2: And I told her the other day that like I
- 2:13Speaker 2: always thought she was insane until I had a child,
- 2:15Speaker 2: and I understood exactly what she was saying and exactly
- 2:18Speaker 2: what she meant. And I love the person that she's
- 2:22Speaker 2: She's turned me and my brother into and she has
- 2:23Speaker 2: a big part of that.
- 2:25Speaker 1: And then the one and only Hailey Summers.
- 2:34Speaker 2: Thank you. Sorry, I'm so dramatic, Hailey Summers. Thank you
- 2:48Speaker 2: for everything you are for me, for our sun aries.
- 2:52Speaker 2: You were the first person to show me what love
- 2:54Speaker 2: really meant. Ah, well love really meant, what sacrifice really meant?
- 3:08Speaker 2: H And I can't wait to spend the rest of
- 3:12Speaker 2: this this journey called life with you.
- 3:14Speaker 1: So thank you for everything.
- 3:15Speaker 2: I wouldn't be the man I am, I wouldn't be
- 3:17Speaker 2: the player I am, I wouldn't be the father I
- 3:18Speaker 2: am without you, and thank.
- 3:19Speaker 1: You for that. So thank you everybody.
- 3:38Speaker 3: There's a questions for the media, so we will have
- 3:40Speaker 3: a chance. You want to step back up a transition
- 3:48Speaker 3: luck with an ex the first question here, guys, So
- 3:51Speaker 3: if you want to raise your hand, we'll bring.
- 3:52Speaker 2: The I got caught up in crying and I forgot
- 3:56Speaker 2: to mention my m Sorry, I got caught up and crying.
- 3:59Speaker 2: I forgot to mention my manage and crew. You guys
- 4:03Speaker 2: have changed my life from the moment you stepped into
- 4:05Speaker 2: it and helped me really just go after what I
- 4:10Speaker 2: want in life. And without you, guys, like the last
- 4:14Speaker 2: couple of years, there's no fluke like it's been as
- 4:16Speaker 2: smooth as it is because of you guys, and thank
- 4:17Speaker 2: you for that.
- 4:18Speaker 3: So all right, go ahead, all right, all right, so
- 4:23Speaker 3: if you please raise your hand, stage your name and affiliation,
- 4:27Speaker 3: and then we'll ask Shaye questions.
- 4:29Speaker 1: We'll start. We go ahead of Cliff.
- 4:34Speaker 4: Yeah, Cliff Brunt, Associated Press. I wanted to ask you,
- 4:38Speaker 4: I know you've mentioned Steve Nash in the past. Want
- 4:40Speaker 4: to know what this means to you as a Canadian,
- 4:43Speaker 4: you know, as and what that means to you in
- 4:45Speaker 4: terms of now becoming that person that other people are
- 4:48Speaker 4: going to look up to in your country.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. He set the foundation. He was the
- 4:57Speaker 2: first Canadian basketball player I knew of. Like, without seeing
- 5:01Speaker 2: guys go to the NBA from Canada, it wouldn't have
- 5:04Speaker 2: been as much of a dreams as it was for
- 5:07Speaker 2: us as kids growing up. So to be in a
- 5:09Speaker 2: conversation with a guy like that and what he's meant
- 5:12Speaker 2: to not only basketball, but to to the country of Canada,
- 5:14Speaker 2: it's been special.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Next go to Sean Yeah, uh, Sewan Powell and day
- 5:18Speaker 1: dot com.
- 5:19Speaker 5: Shaye, at what point in your career did you feel
- 5:21Speaker 5: that you could play at an MVP level.
- 5:31Speaker 1: I I'm not too sure.
- 5:32Speaker 2: I I always thought I always thought that, like I
- 5:36Speaker 2: could be a really good player because I had, I
- 5:39Speaker 2: had seen like what just putting your head down and
- 5:43Speaker 2: working and controlling what you can control can do for you.
- 5:46Speaker 2: And I made tremendous strides. But I I never I
- 5:49Speaker 2: guess once like the conversation started a couple of years ago,
- 5:53Speaker 2: but I never like, I never like thought this was
- 5:58Speaker 2: gonna happen. I never I got dreamt about as a kid.
- 6:01Speaker 2: But it's like a you know, as a kid, it's
- 6:03Speaker 2: a fake dream. But to as the days go on
- 6:06Speaker 2: and you realize that, like you get closer to your dream,
- 6:10Speaker 2: it's hard to like not freak out.
- 6:12Speaker 1: It's hard to like not be a six year old
- 6:14Speaker 1: kid again.
- 6:16Speaker 2: And I think that's what's allowed me to achieve it.
- 6:17Speaker 2: I tried to just like not focus on it and
- 6:21Speaker 2: just worry about what's got me to this place, which
- 6:23Speaker 2: is just working hard and at taking it day by
- 6:26Speaker 2: day and trusting the people around me and trusting the
- 6:29Speaker 2: things that I've done to get me to this place.
- 6:31Speaker 6: Yeah, Andrew schle liked with the athletic Shay thinking back
- 6:35Speaker 6: to the early days back here, Shae, think back to
- 6:38Speaker 6: the early days with the thunder. What are some of
- 6:40Speaker 6: the things that they did to kind of lay a
- 6:42Speaker 6: foundation for you to be able to achieve something like this.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Yeah, So the first thing I noticed.
- 6:52Speaker 1: I had got traded.
- 6:53Speaker 2: It was summer league and I flew here for physicals
- 6:55Speaker 2: and that night I was in the gym shooting, and
- 7:00Speaker 2: when I got in the gym, I realized that all
- 7:03Speaker 2: the balls were lined up and you can see the
- 7:06Speaker 2: sport Wilson's and then I realized, like the organization in
- 7:12Speaker 2: the gatorades and the towels and that kind of just
- 7:15Speaker 2: like I just like took like I just took a
- 7:17Speaker 2: step back and just like, hmm, this is interesting.
- 7:19Speaker 1: I've never seen this before.
- 7:21Speaker 2: And then as I went through my career here so far,
- 7:26Speaker 2: I understood like the meaning of it. And at first
- 7:29Speaker 2: it was just like, oh, someone has OCD, like someone
- 7:32Speaker 2: is crazy in the building. But I understand the organization.
- 7:36Speaker 2: I understand the like the particularness in just like making
- 7:41Speaker 2: sure everything is right. So all you have to do
- 7:44Speaker 2: is worry about putting the ball in the hoop or
- 7:45Speaker 2: boxing out or rebounding or getting a star. And that's
- 7:49Speaker 2: what's allowed guys to come here and grow and it's
- 7:52Speaker 2: no fluke, it's it's for a reason, and they do
- 7:54Speaker 2: a great job of that.
- 7:57Speaker 7: To all thems in with to Oklahoma. When you hear
- 8:00Speaker 7: the news, obviously this is a long journey for you.
- 8:02Speaker 7: Only you truly know what it took, Like what are
- 8:06Speaker 7: the moments to flash.
- 8:08Speaker 1: In your mind when when you hear that, you know
- 8:10Speaker 1: you want MVP.
- 8:15Speaker 2: All the all the moments I got like cut, traded, slighted, overlooked,
- 8:24Speaker 2: but also all the all the joy, all the all
- 8:28Speaker 2: the things that like my family has comfort me in,
- 8:34Speaker 2: all the life lessons, everything that's like turned me into
- 8:38Speaker 2: the man and the human being that I am today.
- 8:40Speaker 1: And I don't think it.
- 8:42Speaker 2: I don't think it's enough emphasis on how much off
- 8:46Speaker 2: the court influences on the court. And once I became
- 8:52Speaker 2: better off the court, my my career started to skyrocketing.
- 8:55Speaker 8: And it's no coincidence, say Mark Spears, ESPN, ZANSKAP talk
- 9:02Speaker 8: about the watches you got your boys, Where the idea
- 9:05Speaker 8: came from? I don't know if they show us what
- 9:07Speaker 8: they got, but uh, and and also you got your
- 9:11Speaker 8: family here, your wife. Obviously you're not a diva. You
- 9:15Speaker 8: maybe would close you're a diva but with the closure.
- 9:18Speaker 8: But as a person, what has kept your humility?
- 9:21Speaker 1: Yes, so the Watches. I think it was last season.
- 9:28Speaker 2: We were like just on the bus being silly like
- 9:31Speaker 2: we always are. And I can't remember who it was,
- 9:34Speaker 2: but obviously I was in the MVP talks and somebody
- 9:38Speaker 2: brought up like a gift or something or what it
- 9:41Speaker 2: was J Will. Yeah, of course it's j Will. He
- 9:46Speaker 2: was like, two, what are you gonna get us when
- 9:48Speaker 2: you went m VP? And it's a crazy question to ask,
- 9:52Speaker 2: but I don't. I don't know what brought it up.
- 9:55Speaker 1: But Watches was in the conversation, and a lot of
- 9:58Speaker 1: guys on the team like Watches. Who and like Watches?
- 10:01Speaker 1: And then I said yes, which also silly on my part,
- 10:05Speaker 1: but I said yes.
- 10:07Speaker 2: And then as I got closer to achieving the goal,
- 10:09Speaker 2: I was like, wait a second, I actually have to
- 10:12Speaker 2: do what I said I was gonna do. So I
- 10:14Speaker 2: made it happen. But this is nothing compared to what
- 10:18Speaker 2: they've been to me. And I would rather have the
- 10:22Speaker 2: MVP over Rolllext every day of the week, and without them,
- 10:24Speaker 2: I wouldn't have the MVP. So this is, in the
- 10:26Speaker 2: slightest what they deserve. Oh, the second one, what was
- 10:31Speaker 2: it again? Humility? Correct? My family for sure, Like they
- 10:36Speaker 2: don't ever let whatever's going on around like get to.
- 10:41Speaker 1: My head or like I guess, gas me up.
- 10:46Speaker 2: Like they're always they're always honest with me, open with me,
- 10:50Speaker 2: and they don't they don't ever waiver, like no matter what,
- 10:55Speaker 2: no matter what I just achieved, no matter what I
- 10:58Speaker 2: didn't achieve, Like they're people when I walked through the door,
- 11:02Speaker 2: and that that's been inspiring for me, Like that's that's
- 11:04Speaker 2: showed me not only like who they are as humans,
- 11:08Speaker 2: but like the balance that you have to have in
- 11:10Speaker 2: life to take steps forward and succeed.
- 11:12Speaker 1: And uh, they've they've helped me in tremendous wiz.
- 11:16Speaker 9: Joe Masado the Oklahoma and Shay Is. You became an
- 11:20Speaker 9: All Star, All NBA player. You always made it clear
- 11:22Speaker 9: you weren't like trying to chase or become Russell Westbrook
- 11:26Speaker 9: or Kevin Durant, But those are gonna be natural comparisons.
- 11:29Speaker 9: Now that you're the third thunder player to win to
- 11:33Speaker 9: win MVP, what's it like just being in that group
- 11:35Speaker 9: with those guys.
- 11:36Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing. Any conversation, which.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Particularly those two guys but guys that get this award
- 11:44Speaker 2: is hard to even wrap your head around. Those guys
- 11:48Speaker 2: have done amazing things with the game, changed the game
- 11:50Speaker 2: in ways you couldn't see coming. And to even be
- 11:54Speaker 2: in the same breath is like I said, it's it's
- 11:57Speaker 2: hard to even put into words. It's just I can't
- 12:02Speaker 2: chalk it up to anything else besides just like a
- 12:04Speaker 2: kid dreaming and working at it and seeing where it
- 12:06Speaker 2: takes you.
- 12:07Speaker 1: And that's the biggest thing. Like I know Kevin and
- 12:10Speaker 1: I know Russell.
- 12:11Speaker 2: I know the kids they were and they just dreamed
- 12:13Speaker 2: and work hard and got to this position, and so
- 12:16Speaker 2: did I Daniel Lbs.
- 12:19Speaker 10: So sure, can you just talk about you know, can
- 12:21Speaker 10: talk about the up and down roller coaster of the
- 12:24Speaker 10: journey that has been to get to this point coming
- 12:26Speaker 10: here being a playoff team, to winning twenty two games
- 12:30Speaker 10: with nobody in the arena to.
- 12:31Speaker 1: Sixty eight with an NBA or franchise record.
- 12:36Speaker 10: Just stick sticking with the journey to get to this point.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Yes, every time something doesn't go my way in basketball
- 12:46Speaker 2: and in life, I guess.
- 12:49Speaker 1: I revert back to this book.
- 12:52Speaker 2: And it's a karate book that I received from a friend,
- 12:56Speaker 2: and the message in the book was basically that success
- 12:59Speaker 2: isn't so it's never like just like this.
- 13:03Speaker 1: It's always up and.
- 13:03Speaker 2: Down, and you dip three to go up four, and
- 13:06Speaker 2: then you'll dip again to go up six, and before
- 13:09Speaker 2: you look at it, you're up ten. So that's how
- 13:12Speaker 2: I always always once I read that book, that's how
- 13:14Speaker 2: I always looked at it. So if we're in a drought,
- 13:19Speaker 2: or if we're in a three game losing streak, or
- 13:21Speaker 2: in some it was a seventeen game losing streak at
- 13:23Speaker 2: one point, it is always a lot at the end
- 13:27Speaker 2: of the tunnel if you do the right things and
- 13:29Speaker 2: you trust the work and you stick with it. And
- 13:31Speaker 2: I guess we're all seeing that today.
- 13:36Speaker 5: Lisa Salters from ESPN along those same lines. For you personally,
- 13:40Speaker 5: you talked about being cut, traded, slided, overlooked. Can you
- 13:45Speaker 5: take us back to what those moments have been like
- 13:48Speaker 5: for you and then with that in perspective, describe what
- 13:52Speaker 5: the journey has been like for you personally to get
- 13:54Speaker 5: to this point.
- 13:56Speaker 8: NBA, NBA MVP.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Yeah, I used all those moments as motivation.
- 14:05Speaker 2: My mom did a really good job of making sure
- 14:07Speaker 2: like we me and my brother never made excuses as kids, like,
- 14:10Speaker 2: it was always it was never anyone else's fault. It
- 14:12Speaker 2: was always our fault and what we can control. And
- 14:15Speaker 2: that's helped me in my mindset and helped me attack
- 14:17Speaker 2: those situations and coming on the.
- 14:19Speaker 1: Better end of them. And then sorry, it was your second.
- 14:21Speaker 5: Part of your question, just you know, having gone through
- 14:25Speaker 5: all those low points, can you describe what the journey
- 14:29Speaker 5: has been like for you personally to get to this point?
- 14:32Speaker 1: Oh yeah, League, MVP, something that.
- 14:33Speaker 5: You said you never really thought about.
- 14:35Speaker 1: Yes, it's been a roller coaster.
- 14:40Speaker 2: I've had nights where I thought I wasn't good at basketball,
- 14:43Speaker 2: had nights where I thought I was the best player
- 14:45Speaker 2: in the world before I was like, it's been ups
- 14:47Speaker 2: and downs, and my mentality to try to stay level
- 14:52Speaker 2: through it all really helped me. Once I figured that out,
- 14:55Speaker 2: I really saw jumps in my game.
- 14:59Speaker 11: Steve E with News nine, Shay, you gone from eleventh
- 15:02Speaker 11: pick in the draft to multiple All Star Games all
- 15:06Speaker 11: NBA a couple of times, probably be for the third
- 15:08Speaker 11: time in a row this year now, MVP, what's left
- 15:11Speaker 11: for you on the basketball court?
- 15:15Speaker 2: The way I see it, like everything is left, I
- 15:20Speaker 2: don't I never like when I picked up a basketball
- 15:23Speaker 2: and I was nine years old playing AAU like I
- 15:28Speaker 2: never I never sat there like I want to be
- 15:32Speaker 2: an All Star, I want to be an MVP. I
- 15:34Speaker 2: sat there like I want to win this tournament. And
- 15:38Speaker 2: winning is like winning is everything. If you don't win,
- 15:42Speaker 2: none of it matters. And that's just how I see
- 15:44Speaker 2: the game. That's how I see competition in general. Like
- 15:47Speaker 2: you play, whether it's pick up with your friends, whether
- 15:51Speaker 2: it's men's league and you're fifty five, whether it's novice
- 15:55Speaker 2: basketball and you're nine years old, like you pick up
- 15:57Speaker 2: the ball to play and win. And that's what I'm after,
- 16:02Speaker 2: winning as many times as I possibly can.
- 16:05Speaker 12: Shay, there's kind of three things on the same trajectory,
- 16:09Speaker 12: your personal game and success, the team's record. You know,
- 16:14Speaker 12: sixty eight wins and every guy up here is a
- 16:18Speaker 12: better player now than they were at the beginning of
- 16:20Speaker 12: the season. How have you been able to chart that
- 16:23Speaker 12: all at the same time, to have all those three
- 16:25Speaker 12: things on the same trajectory This year.
- 16:28Speaker 2: As a group, we prioritize the right things, like we
- 16:33Speaker 2: prioritize winning, we prioritize getting better, and we prioritize each
- 16:39Speaker 2: other's success and doing so has like we've just focused
- 16:45Speaker 2: on those things every day. Every day it's we come in,
- 16:48Speaker 2: how can we get better individually and as a group.
- 16:51Speaker 2: Every day it's a learning process. Every day it's what
- 16:55Speaker 2: can we do to win the next day, when the
- 16:57Speaker 2: next practice, when the next game. And when you take
- 17:03Speaker 2: that mentality, you get really good at it and you
- 17:05Speaker 2: look up and you've strung some winds and you've strung
- 17:07Speaker 2: some days in a row of you getting better, and
- 17:09Speaker 2: you're a better player and you're a better team.
- 17:10Speaker 1: At the end of the tunnel.
- 17:11Speaker 2: And that mentality has completely changed this group. And it's
- 17:18Speaker 2: not it's not a coincidence. It's the guys in the room.
- 17:21Speaker 2: It's the character of the guys in the room. They
- 17:24Speaker 2: know what it takes and they prioritize it.
- 17:29Speaker 13: Say you talked earlier in the year about getting cut
- 17:33Speaker 13: from your JV team in ninth grade happens to a
- 17:37Speaker 13: lot of kids, kills a lot of passion. Can you
- 17:40Speaker 13: just give a message to those kids that you know
- 17:43Speaker 13: may not be where they need to be right now
- 17:44Speaker 13: in ninth or tenth grade.
- 17:48Speaker 2: Yeah, One thing I would say is like, the only
- 17:51Speaker 2: way your dream one hundred percent does not come true.
- 17:55Speaker 2: Is if you don't try and you give up, Like
- 17:57Speaker 2: that's the only way that you I promise you you
- 18:00Speaker 2: won't achieve it if you give up. So the last
- 18:02Speaker 2: thing you should do is give up and stop trying. Now,
- 18:06Speaker 2: if you're gonna try it, and make sure you try
- 18:08Speaker 2: really hard and give it your one hundred percent.
- 18:10Speaker 1: But but don't never give up for sure, rollin styles, lockedown,
- 18:13Speaker 1: thunder shit. You played for a lot of great coaches.
- 18:15Speaker 4: But is there anything unique about Mark that's kind of
- 18:18Speaker 4: made you better and gotten you to this place?
- 18:20Speaker 1: Yes? Mark is Mark. All Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna
- 18:32Speaker 1: be nice.
- 18:33Speaker 2: Mark is insane. Now, He's insane in the best way possible.
- 18:39Speaker 1: He he is.
- 18:43Speaker 2: He is so annoying with with how particular he is
- 18:50Speaker 2: with like little things like he's he's so I'm trying
- 18:54Speaker 2: to find no words. He's like, he's so focused on
- 18:59Speaker 2: the things that matter and he does not let those
- 19:00Speaker 2: slip no matter what. And it doesn't matter if it's
- 19:03Speaker 2: raining outside, sunny outside. I just had a hundred points,
- 19:06Speaker 2: if I just had two points, Like he holds me
- 19:09Speaker 2: to a standard that that never wavers, and that that
- 19:14Speaker 2: mentality has helped me, like not only in my game
- 19:17Speaker 2: and as a basketball player, but as a leader for sure,
- 19:20Speaker 2: Like I I N I now know what it takes
- 19:24Speaker 2: to like like lead the right way, and he's helped
- 19:28Speaker 2: me in tremendous ways with that and that that that's
- 19:30Speaker 2: helped me become a better player for sure.
- 19:32Speaker 1: Thanks coaching. Do you have any other rights?
- 19:37Speaker 7: Really much?
- 19:38Speaker 11: Just think your pears