“I don’t play to be a good basketball player. I play to be one of the best in history”. The declaration of intent corresponds to one of the stars of the NBA and of this World Cup. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads Canada after a brilliant course as game manager at the Oklahoma Thunder. Neither in his team nor in the national team there are doubts about the leading role of this 25-year-old and 1.98m young man who is a physical prodigy (inherited from his mother, an Olympian in Barcelona 92 for Antigua and Barbuda in 400m) and a relentless shooter. SGA, as it is known by its acronym, is the leader…
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“I don’t play to be a good basketball player. I play to be one of the best in history”. The declaration of intent corresponds to one of the stars of the NBA and of this World Cup. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads Canada after a brilliant course as game manager at the Oklahoma Thunder. Neither in his team nor in the national team there are doubts about the leading role of this 25-year-old and 1.98m young man who is a physical prodigy (inherited from his mother, an Olympian in Barcelona 92 for Antigua and Barbuda in 400m) and a relentless shooter. SGA, as it is known by its acronym, is the leader of the North American team in average points (22.3; sixth highest scorer in the championship), rebounds (7.8) and assists (4.3). A three one that speaks for itself about Shai Gilgeous’s omnipresence on the track and his ability to do anything. He passes like a point guard, shoots like a forward and rebounds like a center. Spain will have this Sunday (3:30 p.m., La1) facing a whirlwind difficult to contain on the way to the quarterfinals.
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FIBA itself places the Toronto-born player in second place in its World Cup MVP ranking, only surpassed by the Slovenian Luka Doncic, and ahead of the American Anthony Edwards. His selector, Jordi Fernández, surrenders to the commitment of his best piece. “He is a superstar and at the same time a very trainable person, who comes, works and is very professional not only in terms of the game but also taking care of his body and preparing himself completely. And he is a good leader. He is the example for many players to follow, especially the youngest. As the best of the team, he is a crosshair for others. Everyone thinks of points, but against France he led the team in rebounding [13], with six assists and only one lost ball. This is very important. That says that he is not only a player who makes an impact in the game scoring points, but defending and making his teammates better, ”explains the Catalan coach.
The ball goes to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canada’s undisputed beacon after the last-minute loss of forward Jamal Murray, who resigned from the World Cup after a long NBA course crowned with the ring with the Denver Nuggets. In the American League, the figure of SGA has also shone this season, for the first time with a place in the All Star, as a reserve for the West. He was drafted in 2018 by the Hornets, traded to the Clippers and a year later to Oklahoma. There he has signed the best scoring mark of his career this season, 31.4 points per night that made him the top scorer in the franchise, in addition to adding 4.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists to the basket.
He is also life insurance in free throws, with a 90.5% success rate in the American competition, and the player who made the most one-point shots in the entire NBA during the season, 669, ahead of Embiid, Trae Young, Tatum and Doncic. SGA is a pitching machine. No one in the League shot more times from two points last year than him, on 1,213 occasions, and only Embiid and Antetokounmpo celebrated more successes. Reference numbers that are transferred to the checking account with a contract of 148 million dollars for four courses.
The young Shai grew up watching José Manuel Calderón in the Toronto Raptors from the stands. Today he is the brain of Canada, an intelligent reader of spaces and a producer of baskets. His stitches fall out of his hands. In February he endorsed the Rockets with 42, and this World Cup opened with a display of 27 and 13 rebounds that melted France. SGA is just the player that Spain misses, a super star that moves the team but is capable of deciding a game.
Classification of the groups of the second phase.
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2023-09-03 01:00:00
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