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During an end-of-season press conference on Monday, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti addressed criticism of star player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander head-on — and did not hold back.
In a scathing defense of Gilgeous-Alexander, Presti spoke for nearly seven minutes straight about how the reigning league MVP doesn’t deserve much of the criticism he is given. The GM made a point to note how Gilgeous-Alexander does not fit into the stereotypes about NBA players in the modern era, but has become the latest target of the “machine” of criticism aimed at players.
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“We’ve got a litany of things that the narrative is about NBA players that they do wrong. Well, based on those narratives, I don’t agree with them, but he would be doing them right. And he doesn’t really complain about any of it,” Presti said toward the conclusion of that rant.
Gilgeous-Alexander has been criticized all season for falling after shooting, which some consider a form of flopping or foul-baiting. It’s been an opinion shared by multiple players, including the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, during postgame press conferences. In December, Spurs center Victor Wembanyama went as far as to call his own version of the game “pure and ethical basketball.” As a result, “ethical basketball” become a rallying cry for critics of Gilgeous-Alexander’s penchant for drawing fouls.
Presti opened his defense on Monday by addressing this narrative, and the players who have helped disperse it.
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“The postgame press conference has turned into the bully pulpit to create competitive advantage,” Presti said. “It used to be you’d get up there, you’d talk about your own team. Now everyone gets up there and they talk about the officials and they discredit the other team.”
Presti said that he doesn’t “fault” players who do that, because “they may think it works” to give themselves a competitive advantage. But that “narrative” against Gilgeous-Alexander, he added, created additional obstacles for the two-time league MVP.
“He’s playing against six people. He’s got five defenders, and the sixth defender is social media,” Presti said. “That’s a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/thunder-gm-sam-presti-launches-spirited-defense-of-shai-gilgeous-alexander-hes-playing-against-6-people-hes-got-5-defenders-and-the-6th-defender-is-social-media-205758667.html
Author : Kari Anderson
Publish date : 2026-06-08 20:57:00
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