Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Father Believes He’ll Stay With the Thunder “Unless Politics” Happens

With seven seasons with the team, Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has quickly become the face of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He notched all four of his All-Star selections with the Thunder (2023-26) while winning the regular-season MVP awards on back-to-back occasions (2025 & 2026). SGA led OKC's postseason charge in the 2025 season, and his name has become synonymous with the franchise, but his father recently revealed the only thing that could make him change teams.

Since joining OKC in 2019, Gilgeous-Alexander has led the Thunder to an NBA championship in 2025—a five-year arc that has made him inseparable from the franchise. Having said all that, his father, Vaughan Alexander, believes that his son will never leave the Thunder unless the NBA has something to do with it, as he said on the No Flukes podcast on YouTube.

"Shai is perfect where he is in OKC, and I don’t think he will ever leave unless politics or something happens. I don’t know how the NBA works, but when it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

The Thunder letting go of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seems unlikely in the near future. SGA has become too valuable to the Thunder to consider a trade. The politics his father mentioned could be trade demands and roster issues, which are a regular occurrence in the league. SGA is not expected to leave the Thunder by choice, as implied by his father on the No Flukes podcast on YouTube.

SGA led OKC to their second title in franchise history. Last season, while they were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 Western Conference Finals, it's still impressive how Shai led the Thunder to the No. 1 seed, not once falling off the West's standings.

Over the 15 postseason games he played in the 2025 season, he averaged 27.6 points along with 2.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists, while shooting 30.5% from beyond the three-point line. SGA, along with Chet Holmgren and Ajay Mitchell, led the Thunder's postseason charge before being knocked out by the Spurs.

Gilgeous-Alexander was originally drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in 2018 as the No. 11 overall pick before being traded to the LA Clippers on draft night. SGA's arrival in OKC was timely, as the former Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had left, giving young SGA a chance to shine.

To Vaughan Alexander's point, unless someone asks him to form a superteam with another squad in the future, it doesn't seem like Shai will go anywhere anytime soon. But despite his father's confidence about his time with the OKC, SGA hasn't received the recognition some feel he deserves, with the ESPY Awards being a sore subject.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander snubbed at ESPY Awards

Once a year, ESPN hosts the ESPY Awards to recognize athletes for the hard work they've put in all season long. In the case of the NBA, one of the most coveted awards to receive is the Best NBA Player award.

Last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was crowned the 2025-26 NBA MVP, winning his second straight award. Usually, the league's reigning MVP is viewed as the best player. However, despite being one of the candidates to win the Best NBA Player ESPY award, Gilgeous-Alexander didn't win.

Instead, New York Knicks' guard Jalen Brunson was crowned the Best NBA Player. While Brunson didn't win the regular season MVP award, he won all other MVP awards last season.

Brunson led the New York Knicks to an NBA title, wherein he was named the Finals MVP. Before their title victory, the Knicks also won the Eastern Conference Finals, where Brunson was also named the MVP of that series. Then there's the NBA Cup MVP award, which he won in 2025 after the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup Finals.

Brunson is the first player to notch all three of those MVP awards in one season, a feat that Gilgeous-Alexander has yet to accomplish. It comes as no surprise that Brunson was named the Best NBA Player at the 2026 ESPY over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.