NBA champion Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now Canada's greatest basketball player

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If there was still a debate before Sunday, there’s no longer any doubt: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best Canadian basketball player ever and, even at only 26 years old, he already has the resume to prove it.

Hamilton’s finest lifted both the Larry O’Brien and Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophies late Sunday night after Oklahoma City’s Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Gilgeous-Alexander has now done what Steve Nash could not, winning the NBA title (not to mention the league’s scoring title). Only Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have claimed regular season and Finals MVP as well as the scoring title in the same season.

He averaged 29.9 points a game in the playoffs as the centre of attention and the focus of all opposing defences, and as a finale, carried the Thunder early Sunday on the way to a 29-points, 12-assist, one-turnover performance in the biggest game of his life.

Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t worry about missed shots (he went just 8-for-27, his worst shooting game of these playoffs), but still consistently made the right play.

Game 7s always are a slog, everyone seems to be off (the Thunder hit 40.2% as a team, Indiana 41.4% without even getting to 100 points, but Gilgeous-Alexander consistently found a way to break down the Pacers and finish a storybook season.

Nash already is in the Naismith Basketball Hall Of Fame and now we know Gilgeous-Alexander will join him one day. Only two non-active former Finals MVPs have failed to reach the Hall since the award was first handed out in 1968-69 and Gilgeous-Alexander is just getting started.

This is the fourth year in a row a Canadian has won it all (Andrew Wiggins with Golden State, Jamal Murray with Denver, Oshae Brissett with Boston), with Gilgeous-Alexander and Montreal’s Lu Dort becoming the 11th and 12th Canadian NBA champions.

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Countrymen Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin also put their stamp on the series at various times.

Canada basketball is in a great place.

SIAKAM DID ALL HE COULD

Once Tyrese Haliburton went down, it was going to be up to Pascal Siakam to pull off another Indiana miracle. He gave it his all, but so many minutes and OKC’s fearsome defence seemed to catch up with Siakam.

Still, it was a hell of a year for the former Raptors great, one that will get him a lot of future all-NBA votes (he already has made the second team and third team once each and was the Eastern Conference final MVP) and firmly put him back on the map as an all-star level player.

It was interesting to hear Siakam allude afterward to the ugly end to his time with the Raptors. That team wasn’t alone in believing Siakam wasn’t worth the max contract he was seeking (otherwise it would have been easier to deal him for a far better package than what Indiana offered), but it stung Siakam because of how close he had been with Masai Ujiri and others with the Raptors through his remarkable rise to stardom.

It ended with a lack of communication between Siakam and the Raptors, Ujiri calling him (and other now former Raptors) selfish in a bizarre media day attack before the ultimate trade and has continued with Siakam not taking part of any of this season’s 30th anniversary year retrospectives.

Siakam said Sunday how fun Haliburton and the Pacers had made basketball for him.

“Like a couple years ago, I think basketball was just — yeah, it was kind of dark for me. It was just not fun at all,” Siakam said.

“And I got traded here, and these guys, they just gave me a boost and starting with Ty, obviously but just playing with these guys has been so incredible but just found my joy for the game and just playing with so much swagger and happiness and that’s all I want to do as a player. I lost that for a while and it’s so incredible that (he got it back).”

“I didn’t believe this was possible because of the situation I was in and to see how amazing we did this year and all the things we accomplished … and obviously it sucks that we didn’t (win) … (but) I’m super appreciative of the opportunity to be here. Kind of gave me my — that joy for the game again, and I’m just super grateful for that,” he said.

EAST EVEN MORE WIDE OPEN

While the Thunder is set up to lead the West again, Haliburton’s devastating Achilles injury has made an already-wide-open Eastern Conference even more of a crapshoot for 2025-26.

If Haliburton and Boston’s Jayson Tatum both miss all or most of the season, those two projected powerhouses might not even be in position to earn a homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. It’s expected the Celtics will weaken themselves further, this time on purpose, to lower their salary-cap penalties as they take a “gap” year until Tatum is ready to return.

Milwaukee is a disaster, New York is in some turmoil (and needs a new coach), the 76ers are relying on Joel Embiid and Paul George to stay healthy, which leaves Cleveland, Orlando — now powered up with the addition of Desmond Bane — and maybe upstart Detroit as the class of the conference.

That’s why the Raptors and other teams wanted Kevin Durant, or Giannis Antetokounmpo and others, and will continue to angle for high-powered additions. It’s not every year that a deep playoff run looks this attainable.

The East is once again very much the league’s junior varsity division.

STATS PACK

Here’s a wrap on the best stats from a surprisingly superb series between Oklahoma City and Indiana:

The Thunder is the youngest team to win the title since Portland in 1977.

OKC finished 11-2 at home in the playoffs. That’s two short of Boston’s 2007-08 record and only the 1987-88 Lakers and 1983-84 Celtics won 12.

Home teams are now 16-4 all-time in Game 7 of an NBA Finals with Cleveland the only road winner since Washington beat Seattle in 1978.

@WolstatSun