Can Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Lead Canada to Olympic Glory?
The last time Team Canada played men’s basketball at the Olympics, we had a future NBA Most Valuable Player at point guard. The year was 2000; Steve Nash was our captain and our hero, leading Canada to the quarter-finals in Sydney before a heartbreaking five-point loss to France.
We’re looking for bigger things this time. Nobody knows whether Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will eventually win the MVP award – let alone two of them like Nash did – but there’s no question that he’s Team Canada’s top star heading into the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off a strong 2023-24 season with the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, the top playoff seed in the Western Conference. Can he lead Team Canada to their first Olympic medal since they took silver at the 1936 Games in Berlin?
Their chances look very good indeed. As we go to press, Team Canada are the second favourites to win gold on the Olympic basketball odds at Bodog Sportsbook, albeit a distant second at +1100 to Team USA at a chalky –450.
If Canada’s going to reach the Promised Land, Gilgeous-Alexander is the one to lead us there. We know he can do it; at last year’s World Cup, “SGA” scored 40 points and dished out 12 assists in our 127-118 overtime win over the United States, securing the bronze medal and giving us our first World Cup victory against Team USA in eight tries.
What makes Gilgeous-Alexander the right man for the job? Bodog Sportsbook has the answers in our latest Team Canada profile for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The DNA of SGA
If you want to be a top athlete, the womb is a good place to start. Gilgeous-Alexander was born in Toronto on July 12, 1998. His mother is Charmaine Gilgeous, a former Olympian in her own right, who ran the women’s 400 metres for Antigua and Barbuda at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AW0LkiS2B_w
Gilgeous-Alexander was also coached growing up by his father, Vaughn Alexander, who worked with both SGA and his cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker – yet another player for Team Canada at the Paris Olympics. The two cousins moved together to Chattanooga, Tennessee to play in junior and senior high school before taking different paths through Division I college hoops.
For SGA, his path led him to Lexington, where he played the 2017-18 season for John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats and led them to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness, aka The Big Dance. Then it was off to the NBA to launch his professional career in the world’s top basketball league.
Waiting Your Turn
A late lottery pick at No. 11 in the 2018 NBA Draft, Gilgeous-Alexander flashed potential during his one-and-done year at Kentucky, but he spent his rookie season with a Los Angeles Clippers team that already had Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley at point guard. SGA still managed to claim a starting gig and finish sixth in Rookie of the Year voting.
That’s when the Clippers rolled the dice and shipped Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder as the key piece in the Paul George trade. It was a hefty price to pay for Los Angeles to put George next to Kawhi Leonard, who had just signed in free agency after leading the Toronto Raptors to their lone NBA championship in 2019.
While the Clippers tried and failed (as of yet) to burst through their championship window, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder were slowly rebuilding. All that losing was painful at first, but the seven first-round draft picks they acquired for George alongside SGA started to bear fruit – including swingman Jalen Williams, who was runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2022-23, and fourth in last year’s Most Improved Player voting.
With each year that passed, Gilgeous-Alexander kept improving. Already a competent player as a rookie, SGA was playing at an All-Star level by Year Three, finally earning that nomination two years later in 2022-23 with a stellar campaign that saw Gilgeous-Alexander finish fifth in the MVP race.
Most Valuable
The best was yet to come. Gilgeous-Alexander just turned 25 last year, a man barely entering his prime, and he was about to be joined for the first time by Oklahoma’s most highly-touted prospect yet: 7-foot-1 centre Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Despite missing the entire 2022-23 season with a foot injury, it didn’t take very long for Holmgren to establish himself as Gilgeous-Alexander’s right-hand man, forming a viable Big Three with SGA as the pivot, Holmgren as the big, and Williams on the wing.
With quality role players like Team Canada’s own Luguentz Dort adding their talents to the mix, and head coach Mark Daigneault – the reigning NBA Coach of the Year – establishing himself as one of the best young minds in basketball, Gilgeous-Alexander now had all the tools he needed for NBA superstardom. He finished second in MVP voting to Nikola Jokic, ahead of Luka Doncic in third.
It’s a Different Game
All these accolades are worth noting, but NBA basketball and FIBA basketball are not the same. The courts you’ll see in Paris are a bit smaller, the 3-point line is a bit shorter, there’s no defensive three-seconds call, the goaltending rules are more relaxed, and you only get five fouls instead of six before they kick you out. The games themselves are also shorter at just 10 minutes per quarter.
Not every NBA player has been able to make the adjustment, but it’s been smooth sailing for Gilgeous-Alexander. He got an early start with Canada’s junior national team, winning silver at the 2016 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship before joining the senior team later that year.
Sadly, Canada wasn’t yet good enough to qualify for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, just barely missing out in their 83-74 loss to France. That team was missing a lot of talent, and after we failed again to qualify for the Tokyo Games, Team Canada officials decided enough was enough, and it was time for a change.
Sign Here Please
On May 24, 2022, Gilgeous-Alexander inked a three-year commitment with Canada Basketball and the senior men’s national team, with mandatory training camps and game appearances for the “core” players. Fourteen players signed that day, with Gilgeous-Alexander the cornerstone.
Now we have a real team. Flanked by current Toronto Raptor RJ Barrett and Houston Rockets super-pest Dillon Brooks, Gilgeous-Alexander went on a tear at the 2023 World Cup, finishing fourth overall with 24.5 points per game while making the All-Tournament first team alongside MVP Dennis Schroder from gold-medallists Germany.
Beating Team USA at the World Cup was like a fever dream for Canadian basketball fans. Yes, it was “only” the bronze-medal game, but the United States still sets the gold standard in basketball. Beating them on any day is a remarkable accomplishment.
But there was arguably an even bigger moment for Team Canada earlier that tournament. By reaching the quarter-finals, Canada qualified for the 2024 Olympics, a feeling that Gilgeous-Alexander called “almost indescribable” after so many years of frustration. His reward: Canadian Press Male Athlete of the Year for 2023. Steve Nash (2002, 2005, 2006) is the only other basketball player to claim this honour.
I See France
Having qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Gilgeous-Alexander and Team Canada have just completed their preparations for their big moment in the spotlight. We played a series of friendlies this month, losing 86-72 to Team USA in Las Vegas, but beating France 85-73 on their home soil in Orleans before putting away Puerto Rico 103-93.
Don’t be too disheartened by that loss to the US. We held our own in that matchup; it was an unusually poor shooting day for Canada at 7-of-33 (21.2%) from behind the arc, and that was including 2-of-4 from Gilgeous-Alexander.
If that result had Canadian basketball fans down, beating France – with Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert in the middle – was just the tonic we needed. Les Bleus are the third favourites on Bodog’s Olympic odds board at +1400, just behind Canada’s +1100. Gilgeous-Alexander torched them for 23 points to lead all scorers.
It was also encouraging to see Gilgeous-Alexander drop an efficient 14 points, six rebounds and two assists on Jose Alvarado and Puerto Rico, the longest shot for Olympic gold in Paris at +40000. Alvarado did bring Puerto Rico back to within five points in the fourth quarter, but Canada managed to extend the lead back to double digits and cruise from there.
Group of Death
Watching Team USA struggle to win their most recent friendlies over South Sudan and Germany has given the rest of the world hope for 2024 Paris. However, if there’s such a thing as a Group of Death among the three foursomes at the Olympics, Canada’s in it; Group A includes Greece (+2200), Australia (+3300) and Spain (+6600).
There are no gimmes in this group. Mind you, Canada also avoids the other leading favourites from the US, France, and Serbia (+1800), at least until the knockout stage. The top two from each group advance, along with the two best remaining teams, so there’s some wiggle room for Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates if they encounter some turbulence.
Saturday’s opener against Greece at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille will set the tone. Greece is led by former NBA champion and MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Gilgeous-Alexander should have his hands full with Nick Calathes, perhaps the best point guard in EuroLeague history, with the most career assists and the most steals.
Next up in Lille will be Australia on Tuesday, July 30. Gilgeous-Alexander will be familiar with at least one player on the Boomers: swingman Josh Giddey, who was SGA’s teammate in Oklahoma City before being dealt this offseason to the Chicago Bulls for Alex Caruso. Patty Mills, Dante Exum and Jock Landale are also notable NBA names Down Under.
It’s a bit strange that Spain have the longest Olympic odds in Group A. Not that they don’t deserve to be last on our list here at Bodog; the team that Canada will face on Friday, August 2 is a shell of the one that won silver at the 2008 and 2012 Games, and bronze in 2016. Gone are the likes of Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Jose Calderon and Serge Ibaka – although Rudy Fernandez is still around at age 39.
Shai, Shai, Shai
With this particular group of older point guards awaiting him in the group stage, there’s every reason to think Gilgeous-Alexander will rack up some big numbers over the first three games – Calathes notwithstanding. As we go to press, Gilgeous-Alexander is the favourite to lead Team Canada in points (–250), assists (–120), steals (–110), rebounds (+120) and even blocks (+200).
You can also get SGA at +1400 to be named the Olympic MVP. That’s ninth on the basketball odds list at Bodog, behind eight different members of Team USA, but ahead of Jokic and Wembanyama at +2000 apiece.
It’s hard to argue against Gilgeous-Alexander at these odds. He’s the one driving the bus for Team Canada, so if the team wins gold, SGA will very likely win MVP honours. The only other Canadian on the list at Bodog is Jamal Murray at +2200, and his role alongside Gilgeous-Alexander will be reduced compared to what we’re used to seeing from Murray when he’s working his magic with Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.
Making a deep run towards the gold-medal game will help ensure that Gilgeous-Alexander squeezes the most betting value out of his Olympic odds. Canada’s only priced at +500 to be eliminated in the group stage, so we’ll probably see SGA play at least a fourth time in Paris. How far will Team Canada go? Place your bets right now at Bodog Sportsbook, and enjoy the Games.
JOIN BODOG TODAY!