He’s about to star on NBA stage
Hamilton native expected to be a top pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft
Maybe you watch the NBA draft every year, maybe you never tune in.
Thursday night, you should. For the first time ever, a Hamiltonian will be selected. Not as a late-second-round-let’s-take-achance-on-this-clumsy-kid-because-he’s-huge pick, either. No, early.
Maybe in the top 10. Certainly by the midway point of the first round.
His name is Shai Gilgeous Alexander. Which is pronounced Shay (rhymes with hay) Gilljus Alexander, though this will almost certainly be the last time you’ll ever need that primer. Because he’s about to become very, very much a household name around here and everywhere.
In short — though that’s an oxymoron of sorts — the six-footsix guard with a seven-foot wingspan is seen as an incredibly athletic young man who sees the court exceptionally well, plays an unselfish brand of basketball and can defend.
Most scouting reports predict he’ll be a starter in the NBA in short order.
Why then, might you not have heard much about him until now? While he grew up in Hamilton and started playing ball here, he wasn’t a star. Not back then. In fact, his first high school coach tells the story of how he was cut from the St. Thomas More junior team in Grade 9 and had to play on the school’s midget squad, which is not where future NBA stars begin their careers.
A year later, he transferred to Sir Allan MacNab and was still pretty good but hardly Jordan-esque.
After that, he transferred to a prep school in Tennessee — appropriately named Hamilton Heights Christian Academy — where he played for a couple years until choosing to play his college ball at University of Kentucky.
This is where his story gets interesting. OK, more interesting. Because after arriving on campus as a bit of a project who still wasn’t seen as a future superstar, he got better and better and better. Once the league playoffs rolled around, he was great. And in March Madness, he absolutely shone.
Suddenly, this kid from Hamilton was on everyone’s radar. Every mock draft (the actual draft starts at 7 p.m. and can be seen on Sportsnet) has him in the top 14 or 15. Some higher. Sports Illustrated picked him at 11, same with CBS Sports, and SBNation. Bleacher Report has him going at 12, NBA.com says 13, USA Today says 15 and ESPN says he’ll be gone long before then at No. 8.
The point is, everyone was raving about him. In short order he’d gone from a 19-year-old who might get some playing time at a legendary college to a kid who’ll likely be making a $3 million rookie salary in the big league this fall.
Based on those numbers, he could land in Charlotte, Los Angeles, Cleveland or Washington. But a twist in his story could make this tale even more ridiculous.
The Toronto Raptors don’t have a pick in the first round having traded it away. But rumours have been swirling for days that the hometown team — at least until Hamilton lands a franchise — is trying to make a move to acquire one and pick Gilgeous-Alexander.
That would be a remarkable twist that would take him from household name to Cheers-Theme-Song-name-familiarity territory. It could be a bluff. Teams have been known to do that. It could be impossible to pull off now that teams know what the Raptors want and increase their asking price to squeeze more out of them.
But if it happens? If it comes true or even if another team takes him high, keep this little nugget in mind. The scuttlebutt is suggesting if the Raptors are going to get him, it’ll probably have to be at the No. 10 spot. Not much later if those mocks are anywhere close to accurate.
Back in April, Kia Nurse — who also went to St. Thomas More — was taken in the first round of the WNBA draft. She was taken No. 10.
It’s like basketball’s Twilight Zone has landed in Hamilton.