Shai shines in Canadian debut
No nerves shown during Hamiltonian’s first game at childhood dream arena
An hour or so before tip-off in Toronto, the coach of the Los Angeles Clippers expressed some concern for his prized rookie from Hamilton.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the first product of the city ever to play in the NBA — is a great kid with a terrific attitude, has skills that are even better than the coach first thought and a spectacular work ethic, Doc Rivers said.
But first games at home rarely turn out well for freshmen.
“Usually they play awful,” Rivers said. “They really do. I hate to say that. I hope that doesn’t happen, but I know I remember my first game. I was so worried about tickets and all that stuff, I forgot we played.”
Things are exacerbated when you’re facing one of the best teams in the league, which happens to be the one you grew up rooting for as a boy. Plus, you’re playing in the arena where you saw your first NBA game from way up in the nosebleeds and 45 or 50 family and friends have come to see you. So disaster was looming. Until it wasn’t. His Clippers were torpedoed 121-103. But Gilgeous-Alexander was outstanding. The 20year-old scored a team-best 19 points, had five rebounds and added a team-best three assists. Afterward, Rivers called him the lone bright spot.
That’s becoming a theme. Doing better than anyone expects. Doing what people would think is, if not impossible, pretty bloody unlikely. Starting right from way, way back.
“I always thought I would make it to the NBA,” he said. “Always been a dreamer, I guess.”
That makes for a wonderful narrative once it actually comes true. And nobody’s going to doubt he truly believed it. But most-everyone else would likely say if he did, that was one wildly ostentatious dream.
As a floppy-footed, gangly kid in Grade 9, Gilgeous-Alexander failed to make the St. Thomas More team. Not the senior team, the junior squad. A future NBA player was cut from the second-best team at his high school in Hamilton.
“It stung a little bit,” he said. “But I remember texting my mom saying, ‘I’m going to make everybody regret making that decision.’ ”
He transferred to Sir Allan MacNab the next year and made the junior team. Yet it wasn’t until he left for a prep school in Tennessee — aptly named Hamilton Heights Christian Academy — that he really took off. Even then, he arrived at the University of Kentucky two falls ago as a lithe, athletic guard, but hardly a surefire pro.
By midseason, however, he was being talked about as one of the gems of his draft class and one of the most surprising players in the NCAA. Which led to him being drafted 11th overall by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately dealt to the Clippers where, once again, he’s exceeded expectations.
“Oh, he’s been terrific,” Rivers said. “Way ahead of schedule. I don’t know, going into this season, we ever thought we were going to start him and I think we were starting him after game 10.”
Rivers described his young player as being smart, coachable and an incredibly hard worker. He says if something isn’t working in his game, Gilgeous-Alexander is in the gym working at it until he fixes it. To the point that he sometimes has to be told it’s OK to take a day off. That’s why he believes the six-foot-six, 180-pounder will be far more than just a guy who can hang around the league for a while.
“I think he can be great,” Rivers said. “He better be. I tell him that every day. I really do. If you’re not great then it’s my fault and yours. We’re going to share the responsibility. But he has no reason not to be a great player someday. And he will be.”
You can make a solid case that the finalist for the Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year Award is already the top active athlete from Hamilton. And so, so far from where he started.
As he stepped to the line to take a free throw early in the contest, his face filled the four giant video screens high above the court. It’s hard not to think many of the gyms he played in as a kid weren’t much bigger than the combined square footage of those massive TVs.
How long ago was that, by the way? When was the last time he played a game in Canada?
“Hmmm,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Sophomore year of high school maybe?” Does he remember much about it? Does he recall where his MacNab side was playing, who they were facing or what the score was? “I have no clue,” he said. Chances are, he’ll remember this one.