Alex Caruso Reveals Locker Room Secrets After Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Gave Rolex Gift to Teammates

Have you ever marked a major achievement in your life by wanting to celebrate it by going all out? Perhaps you treated your family or friends after getting good marks in the exam, or gave out gifts to them after marking a promotion at work? You don’t have to necessarily do it, but it certainly makes you a bigger person when doing so. Perhaps knowing this, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did not want to celebrate alone after being named the KIA MVP of the tournament for the first time in his 7-year NBA career. The player turned gratitude into grandeur by gifting his teammates literal Rolex watches! The luxury timepieces, as a token of appreciation, were too overwhelming for some, as Alex Caruso revealed.

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Game 2 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the backup point guard participated in a Q&A session. During the same, Scott Van Pelt asked about whether Caruso got to pick the Rolex, or whether it was Shai himself. Caruso revealed that different colors were given out to the players, with him receiving one in a blue shade. Caruso, however, wasn’t choosing to be picky, anyways.

He revealed, “I honestly wasn’t even gonna look at it, I was just gonna be like ‘thank you’, cause there is no need to even look. But that’s the kind of guy he is, kind of leader, he is. You know, he just wins this award, and it’s about the team”.

The Rolexes weren’t the only thing that the team members got. As Shams Charania reported through Instagram, the SGA’s MVP Gift Basket also contained iPhones, Newest Beats By Dre Headsets, and Canada Goose Jackets, which were custom embroidered! The contents of each basket reportedly cost well over $10,000! No Thunder player was left out. Not even those on two-way contracts. It is certainly a good time to be Shai’s teammate right now. The 15th pick of the upcoming NBA Draft better position Shai for next year’s MVP too, so that he too could get some gifts at that time.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander knew the contributions his team, as a whole, made to elevate himself and the OKC to new heights. Thanks to a 68–14 win record in the regular season, the team was able to clinch the best record in the NBA for the first time in the franchise’s history. In Shai’s own words, the OKC squad prioritized the right things, and prioritized winning. From looking to get better to putting each other’s success first, OKC stood out from the rest of the franchises. If the players were wearing those Rolexes on their hands, Shai claimed it was only because of that.

“They were asking me, ‘What are you going to give us if you win MVP?’ It’s a wild question. I don’t know what prompted it, but watches were part of those conversations. A lot of the team loves watches. Who doesn’t like a nice watch?” said Shai. “I’d take the MVP over a Rolex any day of the week. I wouldn’t have the MVP without them, so this is the least they deserve.”

Through the gifts, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was certainly able to raise the morale of his OKC locker room. With players flashing their watches in IG posts, and the MVP giving out speeches marking their contribution, the mood amongst the squad would have been a sharp contrast to the gloom that had surrounded the team only earlier this month.

Alex Caruso revealed OKC crew being downcast after Game 1 loss against the Denver Nuggets: “pretty dim the first couple of minutes”

After securing the best record in an NBA regular season, even a minor setback would cause a team to enter a state of gloom. For Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and co, they didn’t see a loss in the post-season until the Denver Nuggets defeated them in Game 1 of the 2nd round series. To make matters worse, the loss could have been easily avoided, since OKC lost only by a score of 119-121. For Alex Caruso, his 20-points, and 5-steal masterpiece, were wasted away. Therefore, not only him, but everyone in the locker room let the feeling of gloom be absorbed within themselves. After all, before you feel better, you have to first feel a little bad.

“It was pretty dim the first couple of minutes. We had to sit there and take in that we lost Game 1. We played really well for 40-45 minutes of it. I don’t wanna come off as lighthearted or not caring,” said Caruso. “There’s a deep-rooted care factor in this team and we want to win and go deep in the playoffs… That being said, it’s the first team to four games. They have one, we have zero.”

The gloom that got to the OKC locker room at that moment was a motivating factor. As OKC Thunder Wire reporter Clemente Almanza highlighted, these types of losses can have a ripple effect for the rest of the series. Therefore, the best way for OKC to avoid that was to mentally and emotionally move on. They did that, and went on to defeat the Denver Nuggets in a 7-game series. Now, Shai and co have already won 2 games against the Minnesota Timberwolves. This makes them the favorite to win the NBA championship this season.

Locker room moments are filled with both happiness, and gloom, from time to time. Making those special moments count is what matters. Through his heartwarming gesture, and expensive gifts, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did exactly that.