Paul George Makes Lofty Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Comparison With Michael Jordan After 2025 Championship

The OKC Thunder have put together a historic season and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander himself had a season in the same league as Michael Jordan.

Paul George Makes Lofty Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Comparison With Michael Jordan After 2025 Championship

Michael Jordan, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Firstsportz Image)

The OKC Thunder put together a historic run led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the youngest team to win a championship in 40 years. But is it worthy of comparison to ‘The Last Dance’ for Michael Jodan and his Bulls?

NBA championships have become harder to win than ever before. Front offices and rosters across the league have had to adjust to the increased injury risks, the pace of play and the emphasis on long-range shooting. The OKC Thunder were lucky to be able to avoid injuries. Due to their irresistible regular season, in which they had a historically good net rating while winning 68 games, their players earned a lot of rest.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had one of the greatest individual seasons by a guard ever. He set a record for the highest scoring average by a scoring title winner in a championship year. Much like MJ in 1998, he won the MVP award, the scoring title and the Finals MVP trophy. Both of these 2 guards also averaged over 30 points per game in their teams’ NBA Finals wins, though OKC went to seven.

According to Paul George, in terms of individual achievements, these are two comparable seasons. The Sixers star, who resumed his podcast after a short hiatus, was posed this question by his friend and co-host Dallas Rutherford. He put the two campaigns at the same level, praising how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has gone against the grain in terms of his offensive philosophy while still getting the job done:

It’s 1A, 1B. I think you can put him in. From a season standpoint, you gotta put him in that conversation. That’s a hell of a year, especially in the league today… It’s tough as a smaller guard. Especially the analytics, they despise the way SGA plays now more than they did in any other year. Because you want threes and layups. Well, he gets to the free throw line, which is great, but he doesn’t shoot threes. It should put a ton more emphasis on the players that can operate in the mid-range game. Because you see it, it’s important.

Does Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deserve this Michael Jordan comparison?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Jordan
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Michael Jordan (Image by FirstSportz)

One of the ills ailing modern sports media is the need to compare every sportsperson to a superstar from the past. It is a common theme across sports among the media, partly because it makes for nice casual conversations. But the reality is that while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had arguably a better regular season, Jordan’s 1998 playoffs will go down in league history as the best by any player at the age of 35 or above.

SGA did not earn an All-Defensive First Team selection like Michael Jordan in his 13th season. Jordan had the higher scoring average in the playoffs (32.6 vs 29.9 points per game). Coincidentally, both shot the same percentage from the field (46.2%). SGA averaged 4.9 3-point attempts per game, while Jordan had only 2.0 attempts per game. Crucially, SGA was the primary ballhandler, while MJ was a pure scorer at that point.

However, Kobe Bryant arguably had better seasons during the 2007-2010 stretch. Although he was upstaged for MVP awards by LeBron James for two of these years, his playoff runs, combined with his All-Defensive First Team selections, allowed him to surpass Shaquille O’Neal in career rings and stamp him as a pantheon legend to have led a dynasty as its unquestioned best player.

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