Photo: Oklahoma City Thunder/X

After being eliminated in the second round of last year’s NBA playoffs and experiencing an early exit at the Paris Olympics with Team Canada, the Oklahoma City Thunder star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has used these challenging setbacks as motivation.

Sam Amick of The Athletic examines how these two tough losses have fueled the MVP frontrunner’s drive, shaping his mindset and reminding him not to take any opportunity for granted.

“Like (Thunder head coach) Mark Daigneault said a couple weeks ago, this group that we have today could be the best group of players I ever play with,” Gilgeous-Alexander reflected. “You think, ‘Oh, we’re all 25 or under, so we have a whole runway in front of us.’ But you never know what happens.”

Gilgeous-Alexander has played 7 seasons for the Thunder and the Clippers. He has averaged 24.4 points, 5.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds in 459 regular-season games. He was selected to play in 2 All-Star games.

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