Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Shares Interesting Sam Presti Story

The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen Shai Gilgeous-Alexander collect the Sportsperson of the Year honor from Sports Illustrated. During his acceptance speech, he shared an interesting Sam Presti story.

Dec 25, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander laughs during warm ups before a game against the San Antonio Spurs at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

This past year has been a whirlwind of awards for Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He collected the NBA scoring title, his third straight All-Star and All-NBA nods, his first NBA MVP award, NBA Western Conference Finals MVP honors, NBA Finals MVP, graced the cover of NBA 2K26, released his first signature shoe, won his first championship to deliver Oklahoma City their first major professional sports title, the Northern Star award for a second time and now the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the year for 2025.

Gilgeous-Alexander has been a remarkable story. Starting in L.A. with the Clippers where he played in all 82 games in Doc Rivers' rotation en route to the All-Rookie squad before being traded to Bricktown that offseason in a blockbuster trade that included a historic draft haul to Oklahoma City in exchange for Paul George heading to LaLa Land.

No one could've pictured all of this falling into place for the now superstar. He is the face of the Thunder, a team poised to contend for years to come, after Gilgeous-Alexander inked his super max extension this offseason.

Oklahoma City saw Gilgeous-Alexander fly to Vegas on Tuesday, Jan. 6 to accept his Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the year honor. In his acceptance speech, the OKC Thunder superstar shared an interesting story about Thunder general manager Sam Presti that perfectly detailed their relationship.

"Sam [Presti] you took a chance on a small framed wirey kid and you never looked back. Even at times when I started to get frustrated with the process, you made sure I remembered the path ahead. I'll never forget when I first arrived at OKC and you gave me the book The Tortoise and the Hare. You explained to me the meaning behind it and I’d be lying if I said I hoped I didn’t need it at the time. And boy were the next few years very, very rough. I think we won 25 games one of the following seasons and that was a lot at the time. Eventually, when we started to weather the storm, I revisited that story and I started to see how it relates to my own path and our own path. This past season, when we won the championship he gave me a statue of the tortoise, and that's a very Sam Presti way of saying 'I told you so.' I keep that beside my championship ring, my MVP trophy, and thank you for that," Gilgeous-Alexander said.

This was a story that the Thunder superstar, nor Presti, has ever shared before but really should resonate in Bricktown as it is another example of the vision coming to be for the Thunder through patience and steadiness.

SGA telling the story of Sam Presti giving him The Tortoise and the Hare book during his Sportsman of the Year speech is a must watch.

"I'll never forget when I first arrived at OKC and you gave me the book The Tortoise and the Hare. You explained to me the meaning behind it and… pic.twitter.com/ppeXtzLobq

— Brandon Rahbar (@BrandonRahbar) January 7, 2026