Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton weren't expected to ever be starring in leading roles on the NBA Finals stage.

Well, at least not by many.

"It's been a roller coaster," Gilgeous-Alexander, a Hamilton native, said. "I had nights where I thought I wasn't good at basketball, had nights where I thought I was the best player in the world before I was. It's been ups and downs. My mentality to try to stay level through it all really helped me. Once I figured that out, I really saw jumps in my game."

Those jumps have made Gilgeous-Alexander the face of the Oklahoma City Thunder. This, after he was cut from his junior varsity team as a ninth grader. He came off the bench for most of the first two months of his freshman season at Kentucky, wasn't a top-10 d

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