Oklahoma City Thunder GM Defends Shai Gilgeous-Alexander From Incessant Foul-Baiting Criticism

Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti took the opportunity to defend his franchise player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, during a postseason news conference on Monday.

Gilgeous-Alexander has drawn criticism for his perceived foul-baiting, which was magnified during the Oklahoma City Thunder’s recently concluded playoff run. Presti argued that Gilgeous-Alexander should be celebrated more than being constantly scrutinized, especially on social media.

“He’s playing against six people. He has five defenders, and the sixth defender is social media. It’s a reality. He’s not going to be the last player that the machine decides to target. But nobody is going to handle it as gracefully,” Presti said of Gilgeous-Alexander via ESPN’s Anthony Slater.

“If we are just trying to talk about drawing fouls, he drew 415 fouls this year. Eleven were challenged. Eleven. Four of those were overturned. That’s like 2.5% of the foul calls challenged. In the fouls drawn, he’s tied with Joel Embiid for eighth in terms of number of fouls called. Six and seven are Jaylen Brown and (Victor) Wembanyama. That’s kind of the group of players he is in,” he continued.

Oklahoma City Thunder News: Sam Presti names two admirable traits of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

While defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Sam Presti praised the Oklahoma City Thunder star for his durability and always being available for basketball fans.

“Shai plays every night. He missed a bunch of games this year for an oblique strain, and we might give him a night off two or three times a year, maybe. But he plays back-to-backs. He plays heavy minutes. He plays against good teams. He plays against teams that are bad teams. He plays every night. His consistency is well documented. So you can’t get him on that,” Presti told reporters.

“The other one is like these guys are just totally inaccessible. They’re in their own world. Well, the guy signs 400 autographs before every game. Before the Western Conference Finals Game 7, he’s signing autographs,” he continued.