Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder have made franchise history by winning the 2025 NBA championship. After finishing the regular season with the best record in the Western Conference, the Thunder defeated every team on their path to winning a title and are now the defending NBA champions.
Since Gilgeous-Alexander won the regular-season MVP award, the Conference Finals MVP award, and now the Finals MVP award, a legitimate argument can be made that he is one of the best players in the world.
Colin Cowherd is a well-known media personality and analyst. He recently appeared on a podcast, spoke about Gilgeous-Alexander, and compared the reigning Finals MVP to an NBA legend.
Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Similar to Tim Duncan?
Although it has been several years since Tim Duncan retired, he is still considered a legendary player and is viewed by many as one of the best players in league history. Duncan won five NBA championships throughout his career with the San Antonio Spurs and is nicknamed “The Big Fundamental” due to his simple yet effective play style.
During a recent episode of “Hoops Tonight” with Jason Timpf, Cowherd appeared as a guest and made a comparison between Gilgeous-Alexander and Duncan.
“If I go back to Kareem and the sky hook. Tim Duncan, the great fundamental. It’s that a lot of the all-time great players, and I’ve said this about Mahomes, can be boring. They have mastered what they do, frustratingly so…And I look at a player who knows exactly what he is, and he leans into all of his skills. When you watch them play, they can be uneven offensively.”
SGA is the modern Tim Duncan. Not flashy, but a master of their craft.
Hoops Tonight | @Microsoft pic.twitter.com/GhNHWpSoqB
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) June 23, 2025
Cowherd concluded, “The greatest thing I can say about SGA? He’s their clear dominant number one scorer. It’s like ‘stop him’ and people can’t. That to me is a fastball. That to me is precision. That is mastering a craft, and I just have great respect for that.”
Timpf seemed to agree with the NBA analyst and went on to share his own opinion on why Gilgeous-Alexander is not viewed specially, “The Duncan comp is super fascinating to me because Shai doesn’t have some super demonstrative personality on the court. He lacks a vertical element to his game. But similar to Duncan, even if there wasn’t that overwhelming optical appeal … It’s just surgically effective.”
Perhaps the basketball community would appreciate Gilgeous-Alexander more if he had a vocal personality or a greater number of high-flying dunks and posters in his arsenal. Since Gilgeous-Alexander does not have those traits and abilities, he might be closer to Duncan in terms of personality and play style, albeit in different positions on the court.
In any case, Duncan won five titles and is considered by many to be the greatest power forward ever. Fans are left wondering if Gilgeous-Alexander can mirror Duncan in accomplishments as he appears to be doing in terms of personality and play style.
