The 26-year-old Canadian guard also averages 6.1 assists, 5.1 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.0 blocked shots a game for a team trying to defend its regular-season conference crown.
“We have an opportunity to, for sure, win an NBA championship,” he said. “Now we’re going to have to earn it.
“You go in the playoffs and you need to be the best team for a couple months and you’re not that unless you earn it throughout the season and playoffs.
“We’re more than halfway through the season, but it’s a long road and we’ve just got to keep getting better through the road and hopefully where we want to be at the end of it.”
‘For sure surreal’
Gilgeous-Alexander has accepted the growing attention brought by his exceptional play.
“I try to make sure I don’t let it affect the person I am, the player I am and the teammate I am,” he said.
“Doing so has helped me succeed on the court and us succeed as a team, as well. Yeah, I definitely notice it, embrace it, and try to make sure it doesn’t get in the way of things.”
Gilgeous-Alexander says he knows he will not be mentioned alongside such contemporary greats as James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry unless he leads an NBA championship team.
“You play the game to win and that’s, at the end of the day, all that really matters,” he said. “If I don’t succeed in that in my career, I will have never have accomplished what I wanted to.”
He accepts he might have a chance to become the face as the NBA like James and Michael Jordan.
“That’s literally for the world to decide and whoever the world gravitates to is going to become it naturally,” he said. “It’s not really like a title, it’s more of an opinion, but it is something that is for sure surreal.
“If you’re in that conversation… you will probably go down in history, and to be in that conversation is a blessing.”
© 2025 AFP
