On Monday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder began the third round of the NBA playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs, and it raises the question of how many people across Canada truly care about this event. This is happening alongside Game 7 in Buffalo, a Yankees-Blue Jays series in New York, and coaching searches for the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and possibly the Vancouver Canucks. With so much sporting news across the country, it is easy and convenient to push Shai Gilgeous-Alexander aside, ignoring his eight straight playoff wins, his second consecutive MVP award, and his championship season in OKC, with the possibility of another title.
It is easy and uncomfortable, and really, it is a bit wrong. Canada has become an amazing sporting nation in recent years. The best hockey players in the world—Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Macklin Celebrini—are all Canadian. The best basketball player in the NBA, with apologies to Nikola Jokic, is Canadian. One of the best soccer players in the world is Alphonso Davies, a Canadian. The best young hockey players in the NHL are Celebrini, Matthew Schaefer, and Connor Bedard, all Canadian. The best swimmer in the world might be Summer McIntosh, a Canadian. These athletes come from Toronto, Hamilton, Newmarket, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Halifax, and almost the entire country, doing what has rarely been done before: Canadians excelling.
Gilgeous-Alexander has now won the NBA MVP in two straight seasons. The phenomenal Steve Nash, born too short for his game and in the wrong country to be great, pushed barriers to become the difference-maker at point guard that made him so special. Nash may have garnered more attention because he was the first and the only great Canadian player of his time in basketball. There was no one like him, just as there was no one like Wayne Gretzky, who saw what others could not see and did what others could not do. His game was subtle theatre almost every night.
On any list of the greatest Canadian athletes of all time, Nash would be near the top, not far from Gretzky, if not right alongside him. What he did in his 18 NBA seasons seemed more impossible than what any Canadian athlete had ever done: starring in basketball, coming from a country where hockey rules and everything about hockey matters. Nash won two MVPs; he may not have deserved both, but in almost every season he did not win an award, he was still the show on the court. He did that until age caught up, always the show in an NBA that had Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, and later LeBron James and Steph Curry. Nash took home two MVPs in a league where Kobe Bryant only won one.
Nash was alone as the great Canadian basketball player of his day. In this NBA season, with Gilgeous-Alexander averaging more than 30 points per game for the fourth straight season—numbers that are better than McDavid's when comparing sport to sport—the lineup of Canadians in the NBA has been rather impressive. These are not like the Nash years where he was singular and special. SGA is singular and special yet surrounded by national team members like Jamal Murray, who averaged 25.4 points per game, followed by his cousin Nikeil Alexander-Walker at 20.8, and then Dillion Brooks, RJ Barrett, and Ben Mathurin, all scoring 18 points or more per game. Scoring-wise, those are Scottie Barnes numbers. The SGA numbers are like nothing any Canadian—or almost any player—has managed before.
It is not that we ignore Gilgeous-Alexander. We take note of him on the day he wins his MVP, his playoff MVP, his championship MVP, or his Northern Star Athlete of the Year award, which he should win again this year. We take note for a moment and then go back to what matters in our lives.
He deserves more applause. We do not appreciate him enough. He is not the national figure he should be. He is being paid in the neighborhood of $72 million U.S.—which, for perspective, is a little more than the Edmonton Oilers pay McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman, Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Tristan Jarry, and Mattias Ekholm combined. The Thunder are 8-0 in the playoffs. They may be 9-0 by the time you read this.
Clearly, he does not need us. But we should need him at a time when celebrating all that is great about Canada is something we need to do more of every day. Who are the greatest Canadian athletes ever? You start with Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, and Mario Lemieux. You need Steve Nash on the list. That is five of your top ten. You need Donovan Bailey and Percy Williams somewhere on the list. You need Summer the Swimmer and Christine Sinclair the scorer. You probably need Davies from Bayern Munich and the brilliant pitcher Ferguson Jenkins. Maybe you find a place down the list for Larry Walker or Joey Votto. And because of my age, I will find a place for Russ Jackson as well. That is more than ten, more like fifteen, and the question is, where do you put SGA on the list? He is only 27. He probably has half a career still to go. He already belongs with Gretzky and Orr, with Nash, Jenkins, and Lemieux. Near the top or at the top.
We need to be way more appreciative of all that he has accomplished. Orr won two Stanley Cups, same as Lemieux. Gilgeous-Alexander is on his way to a second NBA title, doing what no Canadian athlete has ever done before. He is doing it in his own kind of Canadian way, with his own kind of humble anonymity.
