• Faith: Unknown
• Career: Athlete
• Birthday:  July 12, 1998

Born in Toronto, Ontario, on July 12, 1998, Shaivonte Aician “Shai” Gilgeous-Alexander, known affectionately as “SGA,” comes from championship DNA. His mother, Charmaine Gilgeous, competed in the women's 400 meters for Antigua and Barbuda at the 1992 Summer Olympics. His father, Vaughn Alexander (also of Antiguan descent), played high school basketball, winning a Toronto city championship in the early 1990s. He would also later coach Shai in youth basketball.

Before his family moved to the United States, Gilgeous-Alexander attended St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary. Oddly enough, he didn't make the high school basketball team during his first year. He would be forced to play on the junior varsity team (known in Canada as the "Midget Squad"), where he would lead that team to a city championship, and he was named MVP.

Florida initially recruited Shai as a four-star player, but he later re-opened his recruitment when he landed at Kentucky in 2017. In college basketball, Gilgeous-Alexander earned a tremendous reputation as a team player with 13 PPG, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists on average for each game.

In 2018, he declared for the NBA draft, where he was selected 11th overall by the Charlotte Hornets but traded that same day to the Los Angeles Clippers for Miles Bridges and two future second-round picks. After six months in the G-League (Basketball’s minor leagues), he scored 24 against the Portland Trail Blazers in his first professional game on December 17, 2018. Eleven days later, Gilgeous-Alexander was named to the Canadian World Team for the 2019 Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend.

Although he was successful on the Clippers, Gilgeous-Alexander was traded with Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and the rights for two others to the Oklahoma City Thunder for All-Star Paul George. He made an immediate impression in OKC and has been doing that ever since. Today, Shai is known as one of the best players in the league, earning his first NBA MVP award in 2025 after finishing as the runner-up in the previous season's MVP voting.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Religious Beliefs

Gilgeous-Alexander married Hailey Summers, his longtime girlfriend, in February 2024. Two months later, they welcomed their first child.

Although he keeps his views about life and religion private, it has been noted that he attended Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, a Christian school in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

He frequently speaks about the “power of belief,” whether that belief is in his team, his family, or himself. That is what fuels his quest to become league MVP and, eventually, win an NBA Championship.