Behind The Scenes: The Emergence Of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Stems From Targeted Offseason Work

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA – NOVEMBER 09: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder … [+] celebrates a late basket in the fourth quarter at Paycom Center on November 09, 2022 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images)

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When it comes to professional sports, constant improvement and development is paramount in becoming one of the best players in your respective league. It takes hard work, a targeted approach and the right skillset for this to all come together.

These are all traits possessed by Oklahoma City Thunder Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who led his team to the postseason last year while earning All-NBA First Team honors.

What’s been most impressive about Gilgeous-Alexander’s NBA journey has been the massive leaps he’s taken every time he gets extended time away from the game. This has been something Thunder GM Sam Presti and coach Mark Daigneault have always given him credit for, as he always comes back a better player. Not only during the offseason, but even when the NBA shut down for a short period of time during the 2020 pandemic, Gilgeous-Alexander entered the bubble in Orlando a better player.

Again, given the maturity and mindset of the 25-year-old, this shouldn’t be surprising.

“He’s one of the rising stars in the NBA. His mindset and mentality is really mature,” said Presti in 2021 after Gilgeous-Alexander signed his rookie max extension.

Behind every star athlete is a group of individuals that help support that journey. Family, friends, coaches, trainers and others are all pieces of the equation. For Gilgeous-Alexander, one of these key pieces in his support system is Nem Ilic, a mastermind in athletic performance, movement and development.

Ilic grew up playing basketball in the same AAU program as Gilgeous-Alexander, but was several years older. Once his basketball career ultimately came to an end, it was all about staying plugged into the game. Training and working out other athletes was that calling, which quickly gained momentum.

Although Ilic was from Hamilton — the same city as Gilgeous-Alexander — they weren’t yet acquaintances early in his days of training. With that in mind, that hometown connection drove Ilic to finding a way to get in touch with the Kentucky product. After working through his connections, he was able to get in contact and begin working with Gilgeous-Alexander, and the rest is history. Ilic is now the founder of UNLKD, which is focused on doing everything the player needs to do in order to unlock their full potential.

The relationship has grown through the years, to the point where the two now train together multiple times a week in the offseason. Furthermore, Ilic is traveling with Gilgeous-Alexander for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Keeping the Canadian star prepared both mentally and physically for these games is of extreme importance for Ilic.

The work Gilgeous-Alexander has completed over the past few offseasons with Ilic has clearly paid dividends. With that in mind, their training style may seem unorthodox to the average basketball fan. Rather than lifting heavy weights and trying to bulk up, Ilic leverages his own knowledge of the game to ensure Gilgeous-Alexander is doing workouts that will translate to the way he plays on the court.

“My biggest thing — and I’ve always tried to explain this with him and other guys I work with — is at the end of the day, you’re a basketball player, right? You don’t make a living being a weightlifter or powerlifter,” Ilic told me in a recent interview. “My job for you is to try and make you more efficient with how you play and be durable and be able to actually play a long time.”

Gilgeous-Alexander does things on the court that many players around the league cannot do. That’s partially due to the way he works out and the types of movements he’s actually doing in these sessions.

“Especially the way that he plays. A player like him contorts his body in unique ways,” Ilic would go on to describe. “He finds gaps that most guys can’t, so to just rack on 30 pounds of muscle and to just go get big will change his game for the worse. So that was never my goal, never my intention with him. Let’s get strong so you can continue to play how you play, and you’re a stronger athlete doing it. Let’s develop that core so you have the ability to do all the things that you do on a day to day basis. So my programming is based off of that exact idea. My goal is to make you a better basketball player on the court in terms of how you move and how you can play and how long you can play for.”

Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA’s most frequent driver and scores a ton of points from inside the arc. He also is the type of player that gets to his spots by leveraging angles, crafty dribble moves and moving with fluidity rather than relying on elite speed or strength. As such, having a strong lower body and doing dynamic workouts is the key.

“We incorporate lower body training quite a bit since the sport requires you to be on your feet all the time,” said Ilic. “You’re constantly running, jumping, sprinting, cutting etc. and it requires predominately lower body and core strength. The lower body stuff isn’t only your typical squat or static work, because you spend so much time in a split stance, whether its a crossover, a jump, a change of direction, whatever the case may be, we constantly work on several lunge variations.”

Ilic would go on to describe how much time they spend working on his feet. Athletes spend tremendous time jammed in shoes, so players tend to lose their function and strength in their feet, which is their foundation. At the FIBA World Cup this month, he’s been spending upwards of 30 minutes per day with Gilgeous-Alexander trying to regain strength and neuromuscular control in all the tissue involved with the feet and his lower legs. The goal being, strong feet will help reduce lots of lower leg related injuries, ankle sprains, foot injuries. This way, everything up the chain at the knee and hip can function better as well.

This core and lower body strength is really what makes Gilgeous-Alexander unique. It allows him to have tremendous body control, which is why he’s able to convert on such difficult shots while on the move. It’s essentially what he’s known for at this point, which is why maintaining these areas of strength must only continue.

Again, it’s one thing to have support from someone like Ilic, but it’s another to really put in the time and execute. Gilgeous-Alexander is truly obsessed with being the best he can be, which makes the improvement that much easier to understand over the years.

“That’s one thing that I definitely see that separates him,” Ilic said of the Thunder superstar. “I grew up a Kobe fan and he is too, so we always talk about those things. The similarities that I see mentally and what I hear that Kobe did, like his approach to certain things. He does it in a different way — he’s more quiet — but he’s ready to kill.”

In a standard offseason, Gilgeous-Alexander is working with many different parties to enhance his game. For example, there’s weeks in which he’s spending five days with Ilic in the morning followed by an afternoon with his skills team. He’ll also spend multiple days with sessions focused just on shooting. These are all stacked and include many days with both a morning and an afternoon workout. While Gilgeous-Alexander still ensures he spends time enjoying his offseason, he is always finding time to put in the work.

As Gilgeous-Alexander continues to break out on the FIBA stage as well as the upcoming NBA season, it’s important to remember just how much effort goes into his development. Not only does he work hard, but also smart — with a support staff that ensures he is working on the right things that will translate onto the court.