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As the Oklahoma City Thunder captured the championship and won the NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers in seven games, it was led by not the MVP of the entire league in star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. With the Thunder superstar named the NBA Finals MVP as well, Colin Cowherd would go as far as to compare him in one aspect to the likes of Tim Duncan and even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
After what was an impeccable season for the Oklahoma City guard, Cowherd would say on “Hoops Tonight with Jason Timpf” that he likens him to Abdul-Jabbar and Duncan as they all “have mastered what they do” and no one can stop it. He would say a good portion of the all-time greats “can be boring,” but each of their traits seems to be unstoppable.
“If I go back to Kareem and the sky hook. Tim Duncan, the great fundamental, is that a lot of the all-time great players, and I've said this about [Patrick] Mahomes, can be boring,” Cowherd said. “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.”
“And I think when you watch them play, they can be uneven offensively,” Cowherd continued. “The greatest thing I can say about SGA [Gilgeous-Alexander], he's their clear, dominant, number one scorer. But it's like, stop him, and people can't. I mean, that to me, is a fastball like that is precision that is mastering a craft. And I just have great respect for that.
“A lot of the all-time greats can be boring…it's like, ‘Stop him,' and people can't.”
Colin Cowherd compares Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tim Duncan 👀
(via @TheVolumeSports)pic.twitter.com/J3wWsQxi4x
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 23, 2025
How Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is “surgically effective”
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With the Thunder star eligible for a big contract extension after winning the NBA title, it seems likely that Gilgeous-Alexander will be making his mark on the league for the foreseeable future. After Cowherd's comments, Timpf would point out the comparison to Duncan and say that both lack “an optical appeal” to their game, but it is “surgically effective.”
“The Duncan comp is super fascinating to me because Shai doesn't have some super demonstrative personality on the court,” Timpf said. “He lacks a vertical element to his game. But similar to Duncan, even if there wasn't that, you know, overwhelming optical appeal. It's just surgically effective.”
Oklahoma City has capped off a historic season with a championship that also included having a 68-14 record, comfortably at the top of the Western Conference.
