NBA Legend Murders Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Name, Days After An Official’s Bizarre Mistake On Live TV

As the NBA continues to spread its wings, more superstars born outside America are taking over the league. Just this year alone, all three MVP candidates, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic, were foreign-born players, as has been the case for the last three seasons. While it’s great to see international talent bringing in their unique style and dominating, it has also produced a unique challenge for some. Because for those who aren’t used to the usually lengthy names, even pronouncing them becomes a challenging task. And that’s what happened when Kevin Garnett recently tried to give props to SGA.

Making an appearance on The Stephen A. Smith Show, KG briefly addressed the role of analytics in today’s NBA and how it has negatively affected the game, “Analytics have messed up the game.” While analytics make it easy to measure the strengths and weaknesses of a player’s game through stats, Garnett claimed that it cannot measure the presence and aura of superstars and how they impact the energy of their team.

Then, giving props to the upcoming stars in the league, KG said, “If you don’t have a young boy with the presence and a closer like a Ja Morant, or an Anthony Edwards, or a Jalen Green… or SHAI GILGEOUS, you’re not built for the future.” Although KG’s heart was in the right place, he did butcher the pronunciation of SGA’s name, almost calling him ‘GILCHRIST.’ And this is not the first time Shai’s name has caused trouble for people.

Just a few weeks ago, during Game 2 of the OKC vs. Pelicans series, a referee called a foul on SGA live on the announcers’ desk, saying, “We have a blocking foul on GILCHRIST.” Maybe, the official had Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in mind who hasn’t played in the league in the last four years.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not alone!

Although SGA does have one of the harder names to pronounce, he is not the only foreign player whose name has been butchered by the NBA community. Initially, when Giannis Antetokounmpo was new in the league and trying to find his footing, we could constantly hear announcers saying their versions of his name during games. And it took them some time to finally wrap their heads around it. Even this year, many announcers and analysts frequently mispronounced rookie Victor Wembanyama’s last name as he took over the league.

Two people who are the most famous for butchering names on Live TV, Shaq, and Charles Barkley, have been doing it for years and giving the fans several memorable moments. With Shaq calling Bosnian star Jusuf Nurkic ‘JOO-SOOF NERKICK’ or Senegal player DeSagana Diop ‘JUH-JAWNA SHOP’, the Big Diesel has made some hilarious mistakes on Inside the NBA.

Meanwhile, who can forget his partner in crime, Sir Charles butchering the name of Lithuanian Center Jonas Valanciunas multiple times? From calling him ‘VALAS-UCENUS’ to ‘VALA-CHEWING’, eventually, the Center himself had to make an appearance on the show to tell Barkley the correct pronunciation of his name.

Yes, pronouncing these names can be hard for some people. But they might as well get used to it because, by the looks of it, the best players in the league are foreign-born players and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.