Last season was the year Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leaped into true superstar territory. He won both the regular season and NBA Finals MVP awards in leading the Thunder to their first NBA Championship and, along the way, drew a lot of comparisons to his favorite player growing up, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Gilgeous-Alexander has spoken about how watching Kobe as a kid inspired him to keep pushing for his dreams and last season a lot of those things came true. In particular, winning that MVP award was something he dreamed about after watching Bryant receive MVP chants during his legendary career.