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Kevin Durant Makes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Statement Amid NBA Playoffs

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Orlando Silva | Last updated May 23, 2025 6:58 PM ET

Kevin Durant shared his two cents on a popular debate regarding the talent and character of American players compared to European stars and people from other nationalities.

It all started when NBA analyst Jay Williams discussed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP victory on Friday's episode of "First Take" (via Awful Announcing).

The former Chicago Bull star said sensitivity has taken over young players, who are afraid of coaches yelling and holding them accountable.

“How much of this do you think is cancel culture," Williams questioned. "I hear a lot of coaches talk about they don’t feel like they can coach young kids anymore. Cause anything they say could get used against them."

This opened the door for a debate that included the two-time NBA champion.

Robert Littal of Black Sports Online added to the conversation by saying that Netflix's documentary on the Olympic basketball teams showed how different American and international coaches work, naming Nikola Jokic's experience on Team Serbia as an example. Durant chimed in and responded:

"Most of these successful international guys either are influenced heavily by American basketball culture, played high school ball in America, some even went to college here. This whole convo is trash, basketball is a universal language, some people have different dialect. Some states teach the game different than other states, who says there’s a perfect way to teach the game? All this (expletive) is corny."

Most of these successful international guys either are influenced heavily by American basketball culture, played high school ball in America, some even went to college here. This whole convo is trash, basketball is a universal language, some people have different dialect. Some…
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 23, 2025

When a fan When a fan brought up Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic's lack of high school background in the United States, Durant mentioned two international players who did.

"Embiid did, shai did," he tweeted.

Embiid did, shai did.
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 23, 2025

The NBA has grown globally thanks to American players, but also the solid talent that has come from overseas. The last four NBA MVPs have all been international players, starting with Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020, Jokic in 2021, 2022 and 2024, Joel Embiid in 2023 and Gilgeous-Alexander this year.

"SGA" just started writing his legacy with the Thunder and if he continues playing at this level, he could challenge Durant and Russell Westbrook's status as the greatest Thunder players of all time.

The three are MVP award winners, but Georges Niang believes that a championship would elevate Gilgeous-Alexander over the future Hall of Famers.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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