Yes, there is a difference between SGA and KD/Russell……

SGA plays for the team, his teammates, the OKC system, and is totally unselfish.  SGA, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, has no ego with regard to the players he goes to war with.  He is bought in with team first, and is not an athlete that has selfish goals over team goals.  He wants to be the best basketball player he can, but his work to make others on the team be their best too, is the foundation of his mindset. He is not a statistical hog.  He does not chase MVPs.  He is a man that does not play the “me first” game.

SGA is not in anyway like the two other greats of the franchise on Reno Street, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.  And the leader of the Thunder, a man named Sam Presti, learned his lesson with those two greats, that you cannot cater to the superstars if you want to build something that will last.

Feeding the selfishness and individual whims of “wanting a title at any cost to others”, which Presti did with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, was a failure.  KD just wanted to “have fun”.    He was, in fact, on the day he departed OKC for Golden State, a very immature  person, to his team and to the OKC nation.  He was, and I say was, a low-down person that sold out to his fluffy personal goals and to hell with his mates in OKC.

As for Russell, he became disheartened with not winning a title and thought he could do better elsewhere.  He found that he was wrong, and he will never  be the corner piece of an NBA Larry O’Brien Trophy.  And I will say, the way he was allowed to be the crown prince of the franchise in OKC.  Presti gave Westbrook the keys to the kingdom, allowing him to be “the man”, to the determent of winning the aforementioned trophy.  Russell was, in fact, a cancer in OKC, as you cannot have total team building with one player being treated above all others. Presti knows that now.

With SGA, Presti has found the head of the snake with a player that has more concern with his teammates as any that has played the game. SGA is all in, for the team, and not himself.