Kendrick Perkins makes bold Shai Gilgeous-Alexander claim after fifth-straight 30-point game

Kendrick Perkins says Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player in the world

It’s becoming harder and harder to argue against Perkins’ opinion that Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player on the planet.

After the 2025 MVP posted his fifth-straight 30-point game in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 132-101 win over the Sacramento Kings, Perkins posted the following to X:

“OKC is still the best team in the NBA with the Best player!!! Don’t @ me and good night!”

Perkins isn’t alone in this opinion. Josh Giddey said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the best player alive after his former teammate beat his Chicago Bulls earlier this month.

Gilgeous-Alexander is scoring 33.3 points per night, good for second in the NBA behind Tyrese Maxey, who is having a breakout season for the Philadelphia 76ers. But Gilgeous-Alexander is doing this in just over 29 minutes per night, shooting 61.2% from the field, 42.9% from three, and 97.2% from the foul line. 

And his Thunder team looked poised to repeat their championship win from last season. They lead the NBA with a 9-1 record and still appear to be the most complete team in the league on both sides of the basketball.

They face stern competition, especially in the West, but if Oklahoma City wins back-to-back titles, this noise is only going to grow louder.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander explains how he is playing with historic consistency 

At just 27 years old, only five guards in NBA history have more 30-point games than Gilgeous-Alexander.

His remarkable consistency means he has scored at least 20 points in a full season’s worth of games (82 straight games).

What’s even more incredible about those numbers is that due to Oklahoma City’s dominance, he rarely plays a full game. Gilgeous-Alexander has more 30-point games when he sits out the 4th quarter this season (five) than when he plays in it (four). 

It’s hard to play with the same level of focus, attention to detail and aggressiveness in the regular season after winning a championship, but Gilgeous-Alexander said that comes from not being content with how his team played in the Finals last year.

He said after beating the Kings, “I didn’t like the way we won. I don’t think we won the NBA championship playing our best basketball.”

The Thunder were taken to seven games by the Indiana Pacers in the Finals, and could well have lost if not for Tyrese Haliburton’s injury early in the decisive game. It seems like this time around, the Thunder don’t just want to win. They want to dominate.