Former OKC Thunder Star Talks About Relationship with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chris Paul only played together for one season, but they made a lasting impact on each other.

In the 2019 offseason, Gilgeous-Alexander and Paul made their way to Oklahoma City after being involved in trades for Paul George and Russell Westbrook, respectively. The Thunder’s starting backcourt in 2019-20 quickly grew fond of one another.

In Paul’s recent podcast appearance on “Point Forward,” the future Hall of Famer talked to Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner about how much Gilgeous-Alexander meant to him in that season.

“I try not to get emotional when I talk about Shai, man, because that was my first year living without my family, without my wife and my kids in LA,” Paul said. “And, man, Shai, he's just a basketball head, right? You show me somebody who loves basketball and crazy about their family, then me and them gonna be tight.”

Since that season, Gilgeous-Alexander has become one of the league's best players. The Thunder’s All-NBA guard benefitted from his time with Paul and has begun to use that against his mentor’s teams.

Paul is now on the Golden State Warriors, and Gilgeous-Alexander played a huge role in getting the Thunder an overtime win in the teams’ most recent matchup. The sixth-year guard scored 40 points on 18-of-29 shooting to steal a victory.

After one of the Thunder’s two games in San Francisco, Gilgeous-Alexander went over to talk to Paul’s family. While Paul was missing his family in his year with the Thunder, the young star spent plenty of time with the 12-time All-Star.

“Shai would come over to my house before practice just to eat ‘cause I had a chef,” Paul said. “Night after games, Shai’s at my house.”

That chemistry led to on-court success for the Thunder. With a 44-28 record, the Thunder finished as the fifth seed in the Western Conference and had their best win percentage since the 2015-16 season.

Oklahoma City also pushed the fourth-seeded Houston Rockets to seven games before losing in heartbreaking fashion in the first round of the playoffs. After the bubble, the Thunder traded Paul to Phoenix, where he helped lead the Suns to their first NBA Finals in nearly three decades.

Meanwhile, the Thunder went into rebuild mode and are now realizing their potential to be one of the best teams in the NBA. After the Thunder played their final scheduled game against the Warriors, Paul was willing to give Gilgeous-Alexander some advice.

“We already played them the three times that we’re gonna play them this year, so yesterday I was giving him some basketball advice about something I watch when I play him,” Paul said. “Just because I ain’t wanna tell him if we had to play them again.”

However, the NBA just announced that the Thunder and Warriors will have one more matchup in OKC this season after both failed to make the quarterfinals of the In-Season Tournament. So, Gilgeous-Alexander will soon get a chance to put that advice to use.

“He’s so good when it comes to hooping, and he’s just an even better person, and I mean that,” Paul said.

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