Making the move from the bright lights of Los Angeles to Oklahoma City is a big change. Quite frankly, moving from Los Angeles to almost anywhere else is a fairly big change.
But newly acquired Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is familiar with the midwest. In his one year at the college ranks, Gilgeous-Alexander played for John Calipari at the University of Kentucky, where the point guard helped the Wildcats reach the Sweet 16 in 2017-18 season. From there, Gilgeous-Alexander declared for the draft, was drafted by the Clippers and now finds himself back in the midwest after being part of the Paul George trade.
That’s a lot of moving in the course of a few years — and before college, Gilgeous-Alexander graduated from high school in Tennessee after starting back home in Ontario, Canada.
But the 21-year-old has had fun with every step, including this summer, as he told Maddie Lee of The Oklahoman at Rolling Thunder Book Bus event on Thursday.
It’s been fun for me. At the end of the day, I still get to play basketball for a living and I get to do it every day. So it’s been fun. And I’m excited for the new opportunity. Went to school in Lexington, also a smaller city and it has a homey feeling and I get the same feeling here. So I’m excited.
But Gilgeous-Alexander did learn a lot from his experience in Los Angeles, having played a big role in the Clippers reach the 2019 NBA Playoffs.
Honestly, I was just grateful for the opportunity. Not a lot of guys get to experience that their first rookie season. I mean, I learned so much from it. To preparation before the game, to things obviously during the game and things that will go with me for the rest of my career. And me being blessed to experience them and learn them that early is something special.
