Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has established himself as one of the premier talents in the league and is carrying the legacy of historical figures like Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the Oklahoma City Thunder to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2012 and has the team three wins away from winning the franchise’s first title.
Throughout the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Gilgeous-Alexander has been close to unguardable and he’s started to draw comparisons to Bryant. Gilgeous-Alexander has heard the comparisons and humbly said he hopes to reach the same status as Bryant some day.
Jalen Williams has seen first-hand how Gilgeous-Alexander has grown as a player and noted he sees the similarities between his teamamte and Bryant.
“Yeah, first, the Shai question, there are a lot of similarities there,” Williams said before Game 2 of the NBA Finals. “I feel like if you are really paying attention to basketball and watch the way he plays, there’s a lot of similarities. It’s cool that he can pick certain aspects of his game to mimic that a little bit and then add his own touch to it. That shows the player that he is, to be able to steal bits and pieces from his favorite players and be able to put it into a game and work on it. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into him being able to do that.
“And then, yeah, winning the days in between, you never really know if you won them until you play your next game. But all you can do is try to have the same routine that you’ve had throughout the season, throughout the playoffs, and try and mimic that as close as possible, eliminate distractions and not focus on where the series is at. Focus on how you can get better. Like I said earlier for the first question, you try to figure out small things to get better at during the playoff run, during the Finals. And basically whatever team can, like, figure out how to get better each and every game, each and every series, usually ends up winning. That’s what we try and do, and that’s what we focus on.”
A video recently surfaced of Gilgeous-Alexander mirroring some of Bryant’s moves and the similarities are indeed striking. Bryant’s influence on the current generation of stars can’t be understated and it’s good to see players like Gilgeous-Alexander paying homage to the Lakers icon.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looking to join Shaquille O’Neal in record books
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is looking to cap off a special season as if the Thunder win it all, he will be the first player since Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal to win the scoring title, MVP and NBA championship in the same year.
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