The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander blueprint: The NBA star's path to SI's Sportsperson of the Year

5 days ago 2

The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander blueprint: The NBA star's path to SI's Sportsperson of the Year originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Fresh off being named Sports Illustrated’s 2025 Sportsperson of the Year, SGA has become a cultural anomaly: a superstar winning through surgical precision on the court and a deliberate, high-fashion architecture off it.

The announcement, made January 2, comes after a year in which SGA led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a franchise-record 68-win season and the NBA championship, picking up the NBA MVP and the NBA Finals MVP awards along the way. The SI validation isn't just a nod to Gilgeous-Alexander's scoring average; it’s a recognition of his total cultural impact. He represents the new commercial archetype of the "Global Mogul." Where previous generations chased mass-market appeal, SGA is winning through niche authority and aesthetic discipline.

Or as Decked Out magazine points out, SGA is the first NBA superstar to perfectly bridge the gap between Paris Fashion Week and League Pass, making him the ultimate asset for luxury brands looking to capture the Gen Z and Alpha markets. Here are some additional quotes from the interview.

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On the notion of improving after one of the greatest single seasons in sports history

"I think more than anything, I was excited by the fact that I had achieved those things and still had so much room to grow."

On learning to control his emotions

"Weaponize them. Like use anger or use sadness, use excitement, use them in ways that can help me and motivate me. I think especially the negative emotions. As a kid, I always shied away or acted like I didn’t feel them, and then it would be overwhelming, and I would explode. And it would be an inappropriate setting, time, or place. I would look crazy. Figuring out how to reverse that was big for me."

On the perspective gained from raising his son Ares

"It’s made me a better leader. He’s forced me to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Like, if my teammate does something wrong, I’ll take a step back and think about how they feel. He’s shown me all the things that you think matter in life don’t even really matter."

On his life perspective

"I still pinch myself sometimes. To where I was 10 years ago. Growing up you have goals, and you write them down, and you’re like, I’m going to get this one day. But way more people do that and don’t achieve their goals than actually achieve them. So it’s always like "Is this really my life? type of feeling. And I don’t know if that’ll ever go away."