The triumph of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals has basketball fans reflecting on how OKC got to this point.
Now four wins away from an NBA title and entering the Finals for the first time as a franchise since 2012, it's clearer than ever how much the Thunder benefited from one of the most lopsided trades in league history.
On July 10, 2019, the Thunder acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (then 20 years old), five first-round picks, and two first-round picks swaps from the LA Clippers in exchange for Paul George.
Gilgeous-Alexander, now an NBA MVP, is the living example of how bad the trade was for the Clippers.
But no one, not even the Thunder, expected SGA to become this good.
Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp
On Thursday, a day after OKC’s Game 5 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, The Ringer’s Wosny Lambre appeared as a guest on The Zach Lowe Show and reminisced on the trade in the context of everything that has transpired since.
“The Shai piece was very just underrated, man,” Lambre said.
“Like nobody really cared that much. People in our industry really cared about the picks that they got. Nobody was that impressed by Shai. And I had just started working for The Athletic midway through Shai’s rookie year. And I remember I would go to (almost) every single Clippers game. And I remember talking to one guy that works for the Clippers and him being like, ‘Yo, we think Shai is the next Penny Hardaway.’ And I remember being offended by that. I was like, ‘Are you out of your mind?’”
“Penny Hardaway? Like whatever. Right? And that was it. It's not as if Shai had … Anthony Edwards's rookie year. After that year, people would be like, ‘Whoa, this is a blue chip prospect.' … Or even like an Evan Mobley right after his rookie year, where people would call him the next (Tim) Duncan or (Kevin) Garnett or whatever.”
“None of that applied to Shai right when they got him at the time. And he's turned into the best player in the league. He's turned into the MVP. To me, that's what's jarring about this. It's like how they acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his journey … now look at him. The guy is legitimately the MVP. He’s been the best player in the NBA playoffs … he's led them to the NBA Finals.”
Lambre taking offense at a pre-breakout Shai being compared to Hardaway shouldn’t come as a surprise, given how special Penny was as a young player.
Hardaway led the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals at age 23 in just his second NBA season (1994-95), a year in which he finished No. 10 in MVP voting and made First Team All-NBA. The following season, Hardaway bagged another First Team All-NBA and finished No. 3 in MVP voting. He was the next big thing in the NBA at the time, and sadly, injuries ended up putting a damper on his career.
Gilgeous-Alexander, 26, has a chance in June to do something Penny never did — win an NBA championship.
More NBA: Spurs' Victor Wembanyama reportedly hits growth spurt: 'Seven-foot-seven'