Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was frank in his exit interview when asked how he measures a season in which the Thunder fell short of the NBA Finals.
“It was a failure,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I failed at my goal. I didn’t achieve what I wanted to achieve.”
And in a literal sense, SGA was right. The Thunder’s goal was to win a championship. It won 64 games and fell a game shy of the NBA Finals, but it didn’t win a championship. It failed.
Gilgeous-Alexander left no room for nuance, even though plenty is warranted. Namely, the fact that OKC was missing Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell for most of the Western Conference Finals.
Gilgeous-Alexander went back-to-back as MVP, he was heroic as the Thunder’s lone star in Game 7 against the Spurs, but his individual accolades were irrelevant in the aftermath of his team’s elimination.
“I didn’t get where I wanted to go this season,” he said. “There’s a reason for that. Now I have to look at that reason and try to make sure it never happens again.”
Joy rivals: Jaylin Williams vs. Jared McCain
All 15 of the Thunder’s standard contract players cycled through the press room of the Thunder’s practice facility on Sunday for exit interviews.
We covered the highlights, and you can watch each player’s full exit interview on the Thunder’s YouTube page.
A note about exit-interview day: It’s not just a media thing. Players are also meeting with team personnel before many of them head out of town. Also, the emotions of an elimination loss are still raw for the players. The Game 7 loss to the Spurs wasn’t even 24 hours old.
To their credit, though, each player was gracious with his time — from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Thomas Sorber.
But if you’re a Thunder fan looking for a reason to smile (I imagine there are a few of you out there), the exit interviews of Jaylin Williams and Jared McCain should be atop your queue.
J-Will shared a hilarious anecdote about McCain, maybe the most adored Oklahoman at the time of this writing. McCain is magnetic. Everyone knows that by now. So much so that he’s coming for J-Will’s crown as Mr. Happy.
“When he first got on the team,” J-Will said of McCain, “I asked (Kenrich Williams) and I asked everybody: Is this how I was? Like, is this how y’all saw me?”
Their answer: Yes.
“But I don’t agree with it,” said J-Will, smiling (of course).
From painting his nails, to posting TikTok dances to singing along to Olivia Dean in the shower, McCain is who he is. And everybody loves him for it.
“The fact that they allowed me to be myself and have fun with this basketball stuff, it makes the job fun — it makes everything else in life fun,” McCain said. “And so I say it a lot, but just being thankful for it, for everything that’s happened in my life. This is a blessing, for sure.”
Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort team options
Isaiah Hartenstein has a $28.5 million team option for next season. The Thunder could pick up the option, decline the option and let Hartenstein walk, trade Hartenstein or decline the option and sign Hartenstein to a long-term extension. My bet is on the latter.
But Hartenstein’s comments on his contract status seemed to scare some Thunder fans.
“I love being here,” he said. “I love the organization, but it’s a lot in their hands.”
That could be Hartenstein playing hard ball. It could also be Hartenstein stating the obvious: The ball is in the Thunder’s hands. It’s not called a team option for nothing.
Hartenstein originally signed a three-year, $87 million deal with the Thunder in free agency. It was the biggest free-agent deal ever handed out by the Thunder, and it paid off immediately.
Lu Dort took a different tact in his exit interview regarding his $18.2 million team option.
“I have a lot of trust in this organization and in Sam (Presti),” Dort said. “I’m really grateful for all the stuff that he did for me to this point and obviously I want to stay here. This organization and this city have really shaped me as a person and as a player.”
Dort, coming off a down season, doesn’t have the negotiating leverage of Hartenstein. He’s also a Thunder lifer who’s played alongside SGA his entire career.
Knicks have their own Alex Caruso in Josh Hart
Alex Caruso and Josh Hart were rookies together in Los Angeles.
The Lakers scooped up Caruso after the Thunder let him get away, and LA acquired Hart — picked 30th overall in 2017 — as part of a draft-day deal.
Had the Thunder and Knicks faced off in the Finals, Thunder fans would’ve seen in Hart what they appreciate so much about Caruso.
Hart starts for the Knicks whereas Caruso comes off the bench, but both are high-end, all-effort role players. Maniacial competitors and make-the-winning-players. Their 3-point shots come and go, but you trust them in big spots.
“I think it was different for me understanding that I had to be a role player,” said Caruso, looking back on his rookie year. “I think there was a window for Josh where he was kind of one foot in, one foot out, maybe trying to be a main engine guy versus being a role player.
“Somewhere along the way, he figured out how his game translates into the NBA. He’s done a really good job of kind of perfecting that and being super comfortable with who he is and how he can affect the game. He’s a fun player to watch.”
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander calling Thunder season ‘failure’ needs nuance