NBA ALL-STAR MEDIA DAY

February 15, 2025

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Chuck's Global Stars

Media Day Press Conference

Q. Do you feel like you need to win a championship to be in the same conversation as Steph Curry, as Kyrie Irving? Do you think that should happen, and why?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yes, absolutely. You play the game to win, and that's, at the end of the day, all that really matters. If you don't win, or in my mind if you don't win, you lost and if you lost, you failed. Now you learn through those failures and losses, but ultimately, I wake up in the morning to win, and if I don't succeed in that in my career, I will have never accomplished what I wanted to.

Q. How do you see your chances this year compared to last year?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, we have obviously a pretty good basketball team. We have a little bit more experience. We have an opportunity to, for sure, win an NBA championship. Now we're going to have to earn it, just like the team that's going to win it this year and the teams that's won it in the past.

You go in the playoffs and you need to be the best team for a couple months, and you're not that unless you earn it throughout the season and throughout the playoffs.

We're more than halfway through the season, but it's a long road and we've just got to keep getting better through the road and hopefully where we want to be at the end of it.

Q. You’ve been here a few times. What do you try to get out of the weekend here?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, try to enjoy it. Don't take the opportunity for granted. It's special, regardless of how many times you come. The best players in the world in the best league in the world are here, and to be around that is a blessing and an honor. That's how I see it.

Q. There's a little hockey game in Montreal tonight, US and Canada. Do you think an international format for All-Star could be something that would work going forward?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Maybe. Honestly, I don't know. All that stuff is kind of, like, I don't worry about. I just love the game. I'm glad to be around it, glad to be here. Would love to hoop if we hoop. But I just love the game and want to play.

Q. Coming here the last couple years, it's obvious that your star has grown, even this year. Is that something that you can feel in yourself as you become a bigger star off the court?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, absolutely. But I would be naïve if I didn't.

It's something that I try to be aware of and I try to make sure I don't let it affect the person I am and the player I am and the teammate I am.

I think doing so has helped me succeed on the court and us succeed as a team, as well. Yeah, I definitely notice it, embrace it, and try to make sure it doesn't get in the way of things.

Q. Shai, in this era, mid-range shooters are a few. What encouraged you to be a mid-range shooter?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: My favorite players growing up were Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson. They shot a lot of mid-range. For me it was just part of the game. It was a skill set, a weapon, and I try to implement it in my game and I've done so.

Q. Shai, there's an age-old conversation about stars not being able to flourish in Oklahoma City. Can you kind of address that, why people think that and how you're helping change that narrative?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, it's a smaller market, so naturally and organically it's less attention, but if you're good enough at basketball, attention will find you, and we've seen that over the years. LeBron was in Cleveland, and there was no problem because he was that good at basketball.

So, it's like, the market matters to a certain extent, but if you're that good at basketball, it'll figure itself out. That's how I see it.

Q. Obviously you mentioned how your star has spread the last couple years. There is all this talk about the competitive level in the All-Star Game, questions about the format, whatever. Do you feel any personal obligation to try to make sure it feels different, it looks different, and do you think this format can help with that?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, I mean, obligation is kind of hard. Like I'm one guy out there. I would love to play -- if you're asking where my stance is, I would love to play like a pickup game, like we do in the summertime for sure. But I'm one guy out there, and I'm not about to be the only guy diving on loose balls.

Obligation is hard just because I'm one of 24, but yeah.

Q. Shai, this whole talk about future faces of the NBA and that type of thing. For you personally, is that something that you desire to lead as the LeBrons and Stephs get to the end of their careers? What do you think about the idea about being a face of the game?

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah. It's cool. It's something that we as players normally kind of have don't really full control over. That's literally for the world to decide, and whoever the world gravitates to is going to become it naturally.

Now, it's something that would obviously be -- it's not really like a title, it's more of an opinion, but it is something that is for sure surreal.

If you're in that conversation, if you're amongst those guys, you are a very, very, very good basketball player and will probably go down in history, and to be in that conversation is a blessing, that surrounding is amazing.