Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Prime Video on what it took for him to win his second consecuitive NBA MVP award:

💬 “Hard work, obviously. Not being satisfied. The guys in the room (my teammates) really having my back night in and night out. It’s a long season, full of ups and downs, injuries and things like that. So those guys just tightening those boots up and going to war with me and for me. … The NBA can at times seem like a business and a job, but these guys make it seem like just fun and what it was like when I picked up a basketball at a young age. I think that’s why we’ve had success, because we’ve had fun and we’ve had fun doing it together.”

“The MVPs and all the big stuff, there’s no way I could have wrapped my head around that stuff (when I was young), and how bad I was at basketball at the time. I saw growth really fast in those summers and in the summers leading up to when I got drafted. I said, ‘If I can duplicate that every summer and get better at that rate, then I’ll eventually get to where I want to go, and it’s work out for me.”

When asked by 2007 NBA MVP Dirk Nowitzki about what he would think 10 or 15 years down the road looking back at his accomplishment, Gilgeous-Alexander draws laughs when he says, “Probably like, ‘Damn, I used to be nice.’ … Hopefully I’m going to soccer practice, basketball practice, playing tennis in my free time.”