In 2000, Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal put everything together and had one of the greatest single seasons the league has ever seen. Shaq won the scoring title and led the Lakers to the best record in the NBA and ultimately the NBA Championship. Now in 2025, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on that same path.
Like O’Neal, Gilgeous-Alexander won the scoring title at 32.7 points per game while leading the Thunder to the NBA’s best record. Also like Shaq in 2000, Gilgeous-Alexander won his first regular season MVP in 2025 and is looking to lead the Thunder to the NBA Championship.
If he were to do so, Gilgeous-Alexander would be the first player since the Lakers legend to win the NBA scoring title and the NBA Championship in the same season, via NBA PR:
FINALS FACT: The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a chance to become the first player to win an NBA scoring title and a championship in the same season since the Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-00. pic.twitter.com/vAyEL55TL7
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) June 3, 2025
Gilgeous-Alexander is truly putting together one of the best overall seasons we have ever seen, and potentially joining Shaq at his peak shows just how good he has been. O’Neal in 2000 with the Lakers was the best he ever was from start to finish and the Thunder star deserves all of the praise he has received.
Coincidentally enough, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder have to defeat the Indiana Pacers to finish their story, just as Shaq and the Lakers did in 2000. In fact, this is the Pacers’ first NBA Finals appearance since that year when O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers took them down in a very competitive six-game series.
This is the first NBA Finals appearance for Gilgeous-Alexander, so how he performs under the brightest lights the league has to offer will be very interesting to see. But should he shine on that stage like many expect, he puts himself into some elite company.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder join multiple Lakers teams amongst biggest NBA Finals favorites
The expectation is certainly for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder to be victorious over the Pacers in the NBA Finals as they opened as -700 betting favorites, the seventh-highest odds in NBA history.
The Thunder joined multiple Lakers teams on that list, which was topped by the 2001 Lakers who were -2000 favorites over the Philadelphia 76ers. The 2000 and 2002 Lakers were also on the list, as were the 2004 Lakers, who are the only team amongst that list to lose the NBA Finals.
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