{"id":574542,"date":"2026-02-01T06:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/574542\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T06:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T06:22:22","slug":"2-time-mvp-defends-shai-gilgeous-alexanders-free-throw-reputation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/574542\/","title":{"rendered":"2-time MVP defends Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s free-throw reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 31, 2026, 9:00 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

\"OKLAHOMA<\/p>\n

When you think of Canadian basketball, you think of two names \u2014 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Steve Nash. Both easily make up the two best players from Canada that the game has ever seen.<\/p>\n

Nash is a two-time MVP and Hall-of-Famer. He defined the point guard position by being one of the most efficient scorers and an all-time playmaker. Gilgeous-Alexander has broken out as the NBA’s best 30-point scorer. The one-time MVP winner could soon add a second prestigious trophy.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander has openly talked about over the years how much he admires Nash. Growing up, he was likely his top idol \u2014 alongside Kobe Bryant. That’s why it shouldn’t be a shocker to hear Nash recently stick up for Gilgeous-Alexander and his unwarranted reputation.<\/p>\n

Every NBA great has a few anti-gimmicks that stick with them. For Gilgeous-Alexander, that’s being called a ‘free-throw merchant’ \u2014 even though he has a painfully-average whistle when you look at every other 30-point scorer in league history.<\/p>\n

As the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> dropped a 123-111 loss<\/a> to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nash went to bat for Gilgeous-Alexander. He was part of Amazon Prime’s three-person broadcast crew for the national TV game.<\/p>\n

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“I don’t think it’s factual,” Nash said on Gilgeous-Alexander’s free-throw merchant reputation.<\/p>\n

While admirable, NBA Twitter will stick with its jokes. It comes with the territory of all-time dominance. At least Gilgeous-Alexander has the respect of his basketball peers. Anybody who’s ever laced up a pair of sneakers knows just how special a player he’s turned into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 31, 2026, 9:00 p.m. CT When you think of Canadian basketball, you think of two names \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[72400,7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,30882,72482,72404,77785,72912,72459,72444,72422,72484,72405,72485,72406,77784,72687,312,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-574542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-sstssportsnbathunder","17":"tag-sstsnokc-thunder","18":"tag-tagbasketball","19":"tag-tagcanada","20":"tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","21":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnba","24":"tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagshai-gilgeous-alexander","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagsteve-nash","29":"tag-tagtwitter","30":"tag-thunder","31":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574542","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=574542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}