Olin Simplis promised Shai Gilgeous-Alexander two weeks ago that this was the last basketball-related text message of the year.
“Go back to being Shai,” it read.
A professional basketball trainer, Simplis has worked with Gilgeous-Alexander for the past two offseasons, beginning with the Kentucky product's pre-draft process. If he wanted to, Simplis could have broken down the Thunder guard's shot piece by piece.
But he didn’t do that.
“They have family members reaching out to them, their agents are reaching out to them, former AAU coaches,” Simplis said. “They’re getting calls from everyone about basketball.