It’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s world, and we are just living in it. The Thunder star has been playing the best basketball of his career this year and has been the frontrunner to win MVP for the majority of the season. And he strengthened his case tonight with a dominant performance against the Celtics, handing them a rare loss in their own arena. Adding insult to injury, Converse used this opportunity to market SGA’s brand by giving him the Batman treatment in Boston.

Of course, Shai is a Converse athlete, and they recently unveiled his first signature sneaker — SHAI 001. With the brand’s global headquarters located in Boston and the sneaker’s upcoming release this fall, Converse decided to capitalize on OKC’s win over the Celtics and lit up several landmark spots in Boston with SGA’s logo, including the TD Garden. The same way Batman’s logo is posted in Gotham City.

Well, Shai surely deserves the recognition after the way he played tonight, finishing with 34 points and seven assists. Moreover, he snapped Jayson Tatum and Co.’s five-game winning streak while also sweeping the season series. Shai has truly been Batman for the Thunder as he has led them to the top seed in the West with 54 wins so far, twelve wins ahead of the second-seeded Nuggets. With tonight’s victory, they also clinched a playoff berth. And if Shai continues this form, they might even dethrone the Celtics in June.

Talking of SGA’s logo that took over Boston tonight, it was first unveiled in December last year by Converse. Turns out, the logo was initially hand drawn by Shai, and was later finalized through a creative process with the apparel and sneaker brand. The unique design has two mirrored number 2s, obviously a nod to SGA’s jersey number.

And it signifies how effortlessly the Thunder star blends the worlds of basketball and fashion, while maintaining equilibrium. As expected, the hoop community was left in awe of Converse’s unique strategy.

NBA World praises Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s “Chad Move” as he outshines Celtics stars

With SGA’s logo taking over Boston, the pictures instantly went viral and the fans couldn’t help but praise the unique marketing move. Comments like “Thunder up. Chad move” And “That’s actually insane” began flooding in. Some netizens even gave props to Converse for using Shai’s incredible performance to promote the brand, “This is incredible marketing by Converse.”

Moreover, many fans were mesmerized by Shai’s ‘aura’, something that the Celtics have been missing despite having more accomplished stars. One wrote “In all fairness to SGA, he prolly figured the Celtics could use some aura, so he slapped his logo up in that building like, ‘Here you go, fam.’ Lol” while another said, “SGA has more star potential than any of the Celtics players honestly.”

Obviously, this was an indirect dig at Jayson Tatum, who is constantly trolled for lacking aura and star power despite being an NBA Champion and potentially a Top Five player in the league.

More importantly, tonight’s performance could give Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a much-needed edge over Nikola Jokić in the MVP race—his only real competition at this point. And maybe, just maybe, Converse knew exactly what they were doing with that Bat-Signal-style logo, subtly taking a jab at Jokić, aka The Joker. A genius move, if true.

As for Jokić? He seems completely unbothered by the MVP debate. When asked about it recently, he kept it simple:

“I cannot control it. I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, it’s enough. If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.”

At the end of the day, no matter who walks away with the MVP trophy, one thing is undeniable—SGA and Jokić are both putting together historic seasons. And the real winners? The fans, who get to witness this incredible battle for greatness. Do you agree?