Every weekday morning during the NBA offseason, a gleaming black Cadillac Escalade pulls into the driveway of an unremarkable brick building in an unremarkable office park in an unremarkable suburb of Toronto at 6 a.m. sharp. On this particular Thursday in early September, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hops out of the back seat looking fresh off the set of a Hype Williams video: cropped tactical vest, billowing Balenciaga track pants, backwards cap over a taut durag, all the same inky shade of black. The Oklahoma City Thunder star glides inside, trousers swishing as he walks, past a vacant reception desk and down an unlit hallway until he emerges into the fluorescent-lit expanse of the gym. Inside, there are three full-size basketball courts and a couple stands of bleachers. Along the back wall is an enormous mural of an NBA-ified Mount Rushmore: Jordan, LeBron, Kareem, Kobe.
Immediately as he plops into a chair on the sidelines and changes into his workout clothes, SGA is at ease, loose, laughing. As he should be: He has known virtually everyone in the room this morning for much of his life. His skills coach, Nate Mitchell, with whom he’s worked every summer since he was 16. His sixth-grade pals, Maurice Montoya and Mark Castillanes, who now help out on the court during drills. The only two relative newcomers present are Kayode Fakomi—a six-foot-seven former college player brought aboard Team SGA this summer to simulate NBA-size defenders—and me.
