Shai nears career milestone
OKLAHOMA CITY—Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a chance to make a whole slew of history in these NBA Finals.
The Oklahoma City star is the first reigning MVP who’ll play in the finals—they start Thursday night when the Thunder play host to the Indiana Pacers—since Golden State’s Stephen Curry in 2016. He could become the first player to win a scoring title and an NBA title in the same season since Shaquille O’Neal did it for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999-2000.
And sometime in Game 1 or Game 2, Gilgeous-Alexander will likely hit another milestone.
He comes into this series with 2,960 points this season—officially, anyway, more on that in a second—between the 82-game regular-season slate and now the postseason.
With 40 more points, he will record the 25th instance of a 3,000-point season when combining the regular season and the playoffs. The most recent to do it was Luka Doncic, who had 3,005 points for Dallas last season.
If the NBA Cup championship game counted statistically, which it doesn’t, Gilgeous-Alexander would only need 19 more points for 3,000. He had 21 in that OKC loss to Milwaukee at Las Vegas in December, but those points don’t count toward his season total.
Michael Jordan had 10 seasons with at least 3,000 points, Wilt Chamberlain had five and nine other players—Bob McAdoo, Elgin Baylor, James Harden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Rick Barry, Shaquille O’Neal and Doncic—have one.
The Thunder and Pacers are playing for the NBA championship, the Larry O’Brien Trophy and about $5 million.
Technically, $5,002,359. That’s what one team will get added to its share of the league’s annual playoff pool by winning the NBA Finals this season.
