Gilgeous-Alexander closer to becoming first Canadian star to lead NBA champion

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Whatever way Game 7 between Oklahoma City and Denver went on Sunday, it was going to result in a bit of a rarity, a key Canadian player advancing to an NBA conference final.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the best Canadian of them all, ended up going forward when the Thunder demolished the Nuggets, robbing countryman Jamal Murray — a key reason the series even got that far — of a third appearance in the league’s third round of the playoffs.

Until Murray and Andrew Wiggins made conference finals three out of four years combined, starting in 2019-20, it was extremely uncommon for Canadian stars, or even starters, to make it this far.

Steve Nash was the key exception for many years. The pride of Victoria, B.C., the only Canadian to win NBA MVP honours (twice), until Gilgeous-Alexander likely joins him any day now, was the second-best player on a Dallas Mavericks team that won two seven-game series before falling short to eventual champion San Antonio in 2002-03, and the best player on three Phoenix Suns squads that lost one round away from the championship (twice falling to the team that would win it all).

Before Nash, Canadians had occasionally been starters on team’s to make the NBA’s last four (like Toronto-born Rick Fox at times for the Los Angeles Lakers dynastic teams, or Winnipeg’s Todd MacCulloch for Philadelphia, or Montreal’s Bill Wennington being the backup centre for the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls) and Brampton’s Tristan Thompson would do it regularly later for Cleveland setting the stage for recent events. Toronto-born, Kamloops, B.C-raised Kelly Olynyk made two deep runs himself, one for Boston and one for Miami when the Heat lost to Los Angeles in the bubble in Orlando.

Thompson helped inspire players such as Wiggins, of Vaughan, Ont., and Murray, of Kitchener, who would go on to win a championship in absolutely crucial roles. Murray was clearly Denver’s No. 2 player in 2023 and that’s still the case today, while Wiggins had a career year the previous season when Golden State surprised Boston in the final. At worst, Wiggins was the Warriors’ third-best player that year and some would argue he was their second-most impactful.

Now, Gilgeous-Alexander not only joins them, but has a chance to do something a Canadian hasn’t before — be the guy opponents fear the most at this point of the playoffs or beyond.

While the NBA is wide open this year, with New York and Indiana the unexpected last ones standing in the East and the Minnesota Timberwolves as Oklahoma City’s opponent, it won’t be easy.

The Wolves are led by Anthony Edwards, a superstar who at times has been nearly Gilgeous-Alexander’s equal. Gilgeous-Alexander has had a solid playoff so far, but not quite up to his epic regular season standards.

He’s shooting only 29% on three-pointers after hitting 37.5% in the regular season, the second-best mark of his career, and is averaging nearly four points fewer per game.

That said, Gilgeous-Alexander has lit up the Wolves historically, especially this season when he averaged 35 points and shot 56% on three-pointers against them in four meetings, and he averaged 36 on absurd 57% shooting against the Knicks, and 39 a game against Indiana.

He also has raised has game when needed, including 32 points on 69% shooting in Game 6 against Denver and 35 on 63% shooting in Game 7, with five combined three-point makes in those games after hitting only five over the first five games of the series.

Gilgeous-Alexander is a household name by now in this country, but he still flies a bit under the radar considering how dominant he is at one of the most popular sports in the world.

A ridiculous conference final performance, and then an epic NBA Finals, could change that.

@WolstatSun