Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having a season for the ages — and he’s just getting started
CNN
In 2000, Shaquille O’Neal put together one of the most dominant campaigns in NBA history. He won the scoring title, regular-season MVP and Finals MVP — culminating in a Lakers championship. Only three players have ever pulled off that trifecta: O’Neal, Michael Jordan (four times) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In 2000, Shaquille O’Neal put together one of the most dominant campaigns in NBA history. He won the scoring title, regular season MVP and NBA Finals MVP — culminating in a Lakers championship. Only three players have ever pulled off that trifecta: O’Neal, Michael Jordan (four times) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It hasn’t happened since. Until, maybe, now. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is knocking on history’s door, and he’s doing it with the unshakable calm of a player who already belongs there. At just 26, Gilgeous-Alexander has the Oklahoma City Thunder on the cusp of their first NBA title since the franchise relocated from Seattle. Game 3 in the Finals is at 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday in Indianapolis. His smooth, yet herky-jerky style has had defenses guessing and gasping all season. Through the first two games of these NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 72 points, the most ever by a player in their first two career Finals games. He has topped 30 points in every game so far and is averaging more than 30 per game in the postseason. “I’m being myself,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 2. “I don’t think I tried to reinvent the wheel or step up to the plate with a different mindset. Just try to attack the game the right way. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that so far.”
Team USA avoided a World Baseball Classic disaster on Wednesday when Italy pulverized Mexico, ensuring the Americans advanced to the quarterfinals.
Cinderella is a funny girl when her glass slippers are Nike issued. We are amused by her as a lead-up to the ball, love her if earns a party-crashing admittance and then goes on to trash the place in the first weekend. But not everyone is so eager to hand her one of the coveted 37 extra tickets held in reserve.
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch is requesting his ownership stake in the team be transferred to his children, according to an internal NFL memo.
Team USA is on the verge of one of the most embarrassing exits in World Baseball Classic history and, at this point, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Rick Barnes has been a head coach for 48 years. Won 857 games, been to the NCAA Tournament 29 times. He is not a man who needs to explain or even create a culture around his team. It sort of just exudes from him at this point.
Seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer team have remained in Australia, while the rest of the squad has now left the country for Iran, a source has told CNN Sports.
After their final defeat in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday, supporters of the Iranian women’s football team crowded around their bus shouting at police to “save our girls” as it pulled away.
The Iran women’s national soccer team was forced to salute and sing its anthem on Thursday ahead of its Women’s Asian Cup group stage match against host Australia, sources close to the team tell CNN Sports, just days after the squad refused to do so in its tournament opener.
Lou Holtz, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and won 249 games over 33 seasons at six schools, has died. He was 89.
North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF) women’s half marathon championship by a slim margin of just over four seconds on Sunday in Atlanta – but the result is only half the story.
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When American golfer Brooks Koepka left the PGA Tour in 2022, he didn’t seem all that sorry about it.
Arsenal star Bukayo Saka has exclusively told CNN Sports that his side has “the opportunity to make history” after the 24-year-old committed his long-term future to the current Premier League leaders.