After the Oklahoma City Thunder dropped a frustrating Game 3 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets way back in Round 2 of the 2025 NBA playoffs, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked off the court with a smile. The TV broadcast caught a glimpse. Now you can’t scroll past Twitter for more than a few seconds before you see the iconic image as someone’s profile picture.
It was a rare crack by Gilgeous-Alexander. The usually stoic MVP winner seldom shows his emotions on his sleeve. Whether with MVP or free-throw merchant chants, he receives a wide range of raw emotions from fan bases. But for himself, he likes to keep it cool.
Gilgeous-Alexander revealed he learned that defensive mechanism in high school. Every small mistake he made on the court was met with loud overreactions and self-anger. After a heart-to-heart conversation with one of his old high school coaches, he learned to maintain a poker face at all times.
“To be the guy you wanna be on a basketball team or the NBA, I can’t behave like that or it’ll translate to the rest of my team,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “As my team goes up and down, so will I and the rest of the guys. It’ll be hard to sustain whatever it is we’re trying to do. That lesson has always stuck with me.”
That’s quite the culture shock for longtime Thunder fans. If you’ve followed the team long enough, the franchise’s last MVP winner was the polar opposite. Russell Westbrook has strived off pure emotions, whether good or bad. He lets them fuel his play, for better or worse.
Neither approach is right nor wrong. You can’t really criticize how an MVP winner self-processes these high-stakes environments because of the results. It’s just interesting to compare both and see the juxtaposition with how Gilgeous-Alexander handles his internal feelings.
“I understand not to let it show and kinda weaponize it for myself. Showing that also gives your opponent a weapon as well,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The more I can be even-keeled through whatever is going on, the less they know what I’m thinking or feeling. Which ultimately gives me an advantage.”
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