{"id":558346,"date":"2026-01-24T19:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558346\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T19:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:28:17","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexanders-winning-take-on-chet-holmgrens-all-star-candidacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558346\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s ‘winning’ take on Chet Holmgren’s All-Star candidacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 After a 117-114 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> doubled down on why he thinks Chet Holmgren is an All-Star forward<\/a> this season. Ahead of the NBA announcing the All-Star reserves for this year’s game in Los Angeles, Holmgren is on pace to earn his first appearance.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander reflected on Holmgren’s injury-riddled start to his NBA career, which began with Chet missing his entire rookie campaign. For Gilgeous-Alexander, injuries are the only reason Holmgren, in his third season, has never received an All-Star selection, a selection SGA believes will change next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cChet’s kind of been [hauled] by injuries in the past, or else he would have had a few under his belt already,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cBut his impact in winning is second to none. And if you don’t win, it doesn’t matter. No matter what you’re going for \u2014 from the GM to the owner, to the coach, to the players, to the fans\u2013everyone wants to be part of a team that wins. And you adding Chet Holmgren to your group adds wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve seen it here firsthand. And he just continues to grow and get better with his skill and with his game. I’m not sure what his stats are, but it feels like he’s having the best year of his career, offensively. Then, defensively, he’s a monster. To me, it’s a no-brainer. The guy should definitely be an All-Star.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, SGA says the Thunder’s league-leading 37-9 record means the defending champions should have at least two players at this year’s All-Star Game, and that second player is undoubtedly Holmgren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have the best record in the league, to date,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander added. \u201cSo, it probably would make sense to have more than one. I’ve never seen a one-man team have the best record in the league. So, yeah. Chet Holmgren.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander was announced as a starter for the Western Conference last week.<\/p>\n

Chet Holmgren gets All-Star praise from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\"ThunderAlonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Thunder failed to complete an 18-point comeback<\/a> in a 117-114 loss to the Pacers, as Isaiah Joe’s 3-point attempt to send the game into overtime bounced off the rim at the Paycom Center on Friday. The Pacers handed the Thunder its third home loss before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pointed to Chet Holmgren as a big reason the defending champions have way more wins than losses this season.<\/p>\n

After a 111-91 blowout win against the Rockets, Gilgeous-Alexander talked about Holmgren deserving an All-Star selection this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cChet is most definitely an All-Star,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters<\/a>. \u201cFrom the moment he stepped foot on the court with the basketball team, we’ve been #1 in the West. That’s no coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA All-Star reserves will be officially announced on February 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 After a 117-114 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doubled down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,366,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,2144,209,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-558346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chet-holmgren","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-reporting","17":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","18":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115951731955785828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}