Apologies to the Miami Heat’s Andrew Wiggins, but the true Maple Jordan is the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
SGA is now a shoe-in for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame following his second straight NBA Most Valuable Player award, making him the 14th player in the Association’s annals to win in consecutive years.
Others who did the almost hat-trick are Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell.
He’s also absolutely now in the conversation for the NBA 80th Anniversary Team if and when the Association decides to celebrate their Top 80 players of all time in its 80th year in 2027.
For the 2025-2026 season, SGA averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.3 rebounds in 68 games. He also shot 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from 3-point range.
While those averages have somewhat fallen a bit in the scoring (29.1 points per game) and rebounding (3.0 rebounds per game) departments in the playoffs—while his assists have risen to 7.1 assists due to the constant double teams he’s faced—the former Seattle SuperSonics franchise isn’t complaining as they’ve literally wiped the floor clean of their first two playoffs opponents enroute to a squeaky clean 8-0 record.
To say that the Thunder are steamrolling through the 2026 postseason is an understatement, as head coach Mark Daigneault’s squad has turned the playoffs into a masterclass of absolute dominance, suffocating opponents with an elite defense and an explosive offense.
The Thunder are not just winning basketball games—they are obliterating the competition to the tune of a staggering 14.25 average margin of victory per contest.
And SGA is not alone scoring in bundles and doling out assists like it’s going out of fashion. Anchoring the paint is Chet Holmgren, providing an elite interior presence with a team-high 9.1 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per night. On the perimeter, defensive maestro Cason Wallace has locked down opposing guards, disrupting passing lanes to accumulate a team-best 1.8 steals per game.
The onslaught began in the first round, where Oklahoma City utterly dismantled the Phoenix Suns in four straight games. The Thunder set the tone immediately in Game 1 with a 119-84 blowout, followed by a comfortable 120-107 victory in Game 2.
When the series shifted to Phoenix, Oklahoma City showed their poise on the road, taking Game 3 121-109 before closing out the sweep in a high-scoring 131-122 shootout in Game 4.
The Western Conference Semifinals offered no relief for the opposition, as the Thunder handed the Los Angeles Lakers the exact same fate.
OKC protected home court with back-to-back 18-point victories, taking Game 1, 108-90 and Game 2, 125-107. They carried that momentum into Los Angeles, crushing the Lakers, 131-108, in Game 3, and ultimately sealing the sweep with a gritty 115-110 victory in Game 4 to keep their perfect playoffs so far.
Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs began yesterday, May 19, and all indications show that the Victor Wembanyama-led squad—with our kababayan Dylan Harper in the mix as a key reserve—won’t be pushovers like the Suns and the Lakers.
Still, I expect the Thunder to prevail in six games, at the most, as the defending champions have the depth and experience to dispose of The Alien—a real life Monstar—and his merry henchmen and advance to the NBA Finals.
As for the Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks, who really cares as the Thunder-Spurs matchup is the real battle for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
And speaking of Final Fours, our very own PBA is also down to the semifinals between Barangay Ginebra and some say the new never-say-die team, Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, in one bracket and MVP Group sister teams TNT Tropang Giga and Meralco Bolts in the other.
The Ginebra vs. Rain or Shine semis will be a classic with the crowd favorites a slight favorite, while I have a fishy feeling that the Bolts will put up a fight before eventually rolling the finals red carpet to the Tropang Giga in a Sagip Kapamilya kind of way.
Stay tuned for my predictions on what I presume will be a Ginebra-TNT PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals, as for the NBA champion in 2026, me thinks the Thunder will indeed strike twice.