OKC Thunder Adding to Rich All-Star History
This weekend, Oklahoma City will add to their already illustrious list of All-Star representatives.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first representative in the All-Star game since 2020, when Chris Paul was selected as a reserve.
In Paul’s 2020 All-Star game, he put together a 23-point game in 25 minutes played, shooting 8-of-13 from the field and 7-of-11 from the field.
Before that, in 2019, both Paul George and Russell Westbrook were in the All-Star game, but with no notable performances. The same happened in 2018, but Westbrook was the starter and George was a reserve.
In 2017, when there were no captains and the teams were entirely based on conference, Russell Westbrook was the lone Thunder selected. This was his MVP season. He strung together a 41-point performance on 16-of-26 shooting and 7-of-13 on 3-pointers.
When both Kevin Durant and Westbrook were teammates, they won three total All-Star game MVP’s. Westbrook had 31 points on 12-of-23 shooting in 2016 and another 41-point performance on 16-of-26 shooting in 2015. Won the All-Star game MVP in both of those games.
Durant, in 2012, put together a 36-point performance on 14-of-25 shooting. Something unique about the performance was Durant only knocking down three 3-pointers. Nowadays you can assume the All-Star game MVP knocked down at least five or more 3-pointers.
Thunder have had quite a rich history in terms of consistently having representatives. With the Thunder building with such a young group of guys, they should be able to consistently send guys to the All-Star game for another stretch of years.
Not only have the Thunder sent their guys to the All-Star game plenty, but they usually have quite the performance, so Gilgeous-Alexander will be able to piggyback off that.
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