SIMMONS: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joins GOAT conversation with Gretzky, Lafleur and Orr

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The names atop the list are legends, all of them: Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal.

And now another name: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, born in Toronto, raised in Hamilton, the fourth player of the 4,800 or so who have suited up in the NBA to win a championship, a league MVP Award, a scoring title and a Finals series MVP all in the very same season.

One of the truly great individual and team seasons in Canadian sports history.

The names atop the Canadian list are legends, all of them: Bobby Orr, Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky.

Orr played for the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in 1970. He won the scoring title, which was incredibly unusual for a defenceman. He won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player in the NHL. He won the Conn Smythe trophy as most valuable player in the playoffs.

He pulled a Gilgeous-Alexander before we knew what a Gilgeous-Alexander was.

Gretzky did precisely the same thing in 1985. His Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup. Gretzky won the scoring championship and the Hart Trophy. He then went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

For all of Gretzky’s records, his nine Hart Trophy wins, his 11 scoring titles, his four Stanley Cups, he only had just one Gilgeous-Alexander season where he took home everything.

Lafleur had one of those seasons himself before Gretzky played a game in the NHL. He was the scoring champion in 1977 with the Montreal Canadiens, the MVP, the Conn Smythe winner on a dominant playoff victor.

Orr was Canada’s athlete of the year in 1970. Lafleur was Canada’s athlete of the year in 1977. Gretzky took home the award in 1985. It’s all but certain Gilgeous-Alexander should win his second Northern Star award this December.

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And in his world, Gilgeous-Alexander won the NBA scoring title this season — first time for a Canadian — scoring 32.7 points a game with the Oklahoma City Thunder. To put that number into some kind of perspective, consider this: The 32.7 points per game was more than Steph Curry scored in his two scoring championship seasons; it’s more than Kevin Durant scored in winning four scoring titles; it’s more than Michael Jordan scored in seven of the nine seasons he won scoring championships and more than Allan Iverson scored in his three times leading the league.

Some of the greatest Canadian athletes in history: Sidney Crosby, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe all won Stanley Cups and scoring titles and MVP awards, just not necessarily in the same seasons. Lemieux had his best scoring season in 1993, after Pittsburgh had won two straight Stanley Cups.

Crosby has won three Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh and two Conn Smythe Trophies and two scoring titles, just not necessarily in the same year.

So you put Gilgeous-Alexander alongside Orr, Gretzky and Lafleur — a multi-sport Mount Rushmore — and that’s where he belongs on the list of great Canadian athletes.

Ahead now of Steve Nash, the two-time MVP of the NBA, who never won a championship. Ahead now of whatever Alphonso Davies has attained in the soccer world. Ahead now of the yards Chuba Hubbard has rushed for in the National Football League and anything Russ Jackson did while playing quarterback for Ottawa way back when.

There was no Conn Smythe Trophy in the days when Howe was winning Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings. The award began in 1965. Howe won four Cups in a six-year period in the 1950s. He won one of his six MVP awards in those Stanley Cup years. He won scoring titles in two of his four Cup winning seasons. Had there been a Conn Smythe back then, Howe would likely have one or two of them.

So he ranks among the greats, just not at the top of the hardware list.

No pitcher in Canadian history has ever had a season as great as the one Ferguson Jenkins had in 1971. He started 39 games for the Chicago Cubs, finished with a record of 24-13, an earned run average of 2.77 and 321 innings pitched and a Cy Young Award victory and the highest Wins Above Replacement number of his magnificent career. His average start that year was 8 2/3s innings in length.

That happened to be Jenkins fifth straight 20-win season, back when winning games meant something for a starting pitcher. He won 20 again the following season. And again two seasons later in Texas.

He’s the greatest Canadian baseball player we’ve ever known.

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Larry Walker won an MVP Award with the Colorado Rockies in 1997. He hit 49 home runs that season, knocked in 130 and lead the National League in those eight different categories finishing the year with a career high OPS of 1.172 and a career high WAR of 9.8.

Jenkins and Walker are the baseball Canadians to remember. Davies is the soccer player from Bayern Munich we should never forget. Howe and Lemieux and Crosby have played hockey, really, like no one else has ever played. Each of them stylistic individuals of mammoth skill.

But right now, as of Sunday night, there is Orr and Lafleur and Gretzky and Gilgeous-Alexander with the single greatest seasons in Canadian sport. When Mike Weir won the Masters, he did that over four days, historical as it may have been. When Bianca Andreescu won the U.S. Open, she did that over a two-week tournament.

Gilgeous-Alexander played 99 games this season with Oklahoma City, one more than Gretzky played in 1985, five more than Lafleur managed with the Canadiens of 1977 and nine more than Orr managed with the Bruins.

An incredible list, truly: Orr, Lafleur, Gretzky, Gilgeous-Alexander. Champions and MVPs. Leading scorers and playoff MVPs. Champions forever.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
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