They share a sweet tooth. They have the wing spans of a pterodactyl. Both sport braids beneath their headbands. They’re goofy, but you wouldn’t know it from watching them play.
One is the MVP in Oklahoma City. The other bounced around before finding a home in Minnesota.
Cousins Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nickeil Alexander-Walker have faced each other 15 times now in the NBA — including once in a play-in game — but never in a playoff series. Tuesday, they’ll match up in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
SGA’s Thunder against NAW and the Wolves.
Gilgeous-Alexander shook his head, as if calculating the long odds.
“It’s hard to even explain,” he said. “If you know how close we are, he’s literally like my second brother.”
Shai and Nickeil were born 52 days apart. SGA’s father, Vaughn, and Alexander-Walker’s mother, Nicole, are siblings.
“He’s been through every stage of life with me — picking up a basketball, to going to prep school to making the NBA, we’ve gone through every situation together,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
For their junior and senior high school seasons, the Canadian cousins moved stateside for prep school. They enrolled at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hamilton, coincidentally, is where Gilgeous-Alexander grew up — about 45 miles south of Toronto along Lake Ontario.
In Chattanooga, Shai and Nickeil lived with their head basketball coach, Zach Ferrell, who now coaches at Eastern Florida State College.
Ferrell’s oldest son was 1 when the cousins moved in with his family. “Shai,” was one of his son’s first words. Shai and Nickeil helped babysit. They had normal teenage chores, like cleaning their rooms and taking care of the dog. In their first year in Chattanooga, Ferrell made them turn in their phones for the night at 10:30 p.m.
“They shared beds that were feet apart and they literally did every moment of life together for two years while they were in Tennessee,” Ferrell told The Oklahoman. “As close as any two people could be.”
Shai and Nickeil were an extended part of the Ferrell family for those years.
“Those two, the relationship is much deeper than coach/player,” Ferrell said. “I’m very proud of who they’ve become as men and husbands and fathers, and then it’s awesome to see what they’ve been able to do on the court, also.
“Obviously, you have to have some God-given things to make it to that level, but what both Nickeil and Shai had was a very focused mind on the goals they were wanting to get to. Every basketball kid grows up wanting to play in the NBA and all that, but they had the discipline on and off the court to give themselves the opportunity to do that.”
From Hamilton Heights, Gilgeous-Alexander went to Kentucky and Alexander-Walker to Virginia Tech. SGA was the 33rd-ranked player in the 2017 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports composite. Alexander-Walker was 44th.
Gilgeous-Alexander went one-and-done as a Wildcat. Alexander-Walker played two seasons for the Hokies.
SGA was drafted with the 11th pick in the 2018 draft. NAW was taken 17th a year later.
You know Gilgeous-Alexander’s path. One year with the Clippers before the Thunder pried him from LA in the Paul George trade. He’s set to win MVP this season — in what will be his third top-five MVP finish in as many years.
Alexander-Walker has never been a full-time starter. Or a full-time resident of any NBA city. He’s already traveled every quadrant of the Western Conference — from New Orleans to Utah to Minnesota, where he’s spent parts of the last three seasons.
Last summer, the cousins played together on Team Canada in the Olympics.
“For both of us to be where we are is special,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “To compete against each other is even more special.”
Alexander-Walker has been an iron man for the Wolves, playing in 82 games in back-to-back seasons. In 25 minutes per game this season, Alexander-Walker averaged 9.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He shot 38% from 3-point range on 4.5 attempts per game.
Unlike the Nuggets, the Timberwolves have three reserves they trust — a floor-spacing center in Naz Reid along with Donte DiVincenzo and Alexander-Walker, two dynamic guards.
“Those guys in particular give a scoring punch off the bench,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Monday after practice. “Reid is a very unique matchup, off the bench especially. DiVincenzo comes in hot, he’s ready to play every single night. Alexander-Walker is a great two-end player for them who plays with really good offensive confidence as well. They have eight guys that are really, really impactful players … There’s a reason they are where they are for the second straight year.”
Alexander-Walker knows all of Gilgeous-Alexander’s tricks by now, but that doesn’t mean he can contain his cousin.
They’re blood, but they’re also out for blood.
“I am trying to take his head off, for sure,” Gilgeous-Alexander said with a grin.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
Western Conference finals: Thunder vs. Timberwolves
GAME 1: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Paycom Center, ESPN (best-of-seven series)
