THE PLAYER WHO has mentored Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the most, and made the most impact on him, is someone he played with for just 17 months. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Oklahoma City, Chris Paul saw qualities and values in the then-21-year-old that mirrored his own: the unrelenting devotion to routine, the almost compulsive eye for details, the ability to see the longest view. Gilgeous-Alexander was constantly over at Paul’s condominium that year, trying to soak in as much as he could from one of the greatest point guards of all time. They trained together. Ate breakfasts and dinners together. Went to G-League games and talked hoops for hours. “Shai is just a basketball junkie,” Paul tells ESPN. “Even now, we might be on the phone watching a game, just talking about what we see.” But just as Paul is about to continue describing a player he now considers family, he stops. “You cannot write this story without talking to his mom,” he says. “Hold on. I’ll call her.” He patches her in.
1 hour ago – via ESPN
