“Shai Challenged Everything in Warriors Existence”: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s IG Post Involving Stephen Curry Invokes ‘Ridiculous’ Richard Jefferson Rant on ESPN

The Oklahoma City Thunder have many reasons to rejoice as they have beaten the Golden State Warriors in back-to-back games, amassing a 10-4 record and a third spot on the Western Conference table. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander mainly stole the show on Saturday night against the Warriors by scoring 40 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, thus creating a new franchise history and record as a player.

Well, overwhelming Stephen Curry and Co. is not an easy task to accomplish and therefore, it sometimes becomes difficult not to boast about it. Given that Shai and his team defeated the mighty Warriors twice, the Canadian star celebrated this 40-piece on Instagram with a somewhat contentious post.

However, Shai’s subtle shade on Stephen Curry and the whole Warriors organization did not go unnoticed by fans. The caption of the post by Shai read, “I was feeling e-40 in the Bay, so I had to go dumbbbbb.” After seeing SGA’s post, former Cleveland Cavaliers player and 2016 NBA champion Richard Jefferson was as shocked as others. In fact, Jefferson went on an explosive rant on ESPN deeming Shai’s choice of words as a challenge to the existence of the Warriors as a whole.

Adding to his rant, Jefferson said, “Shai challenged the entire Golden State Warriors organization, he challenged their entire fanbase, he challenged everything in their existence.”  Here is a clip from Jefferson’s rant, shared by OKC beat writer Cooper Jones on X.

The Dubs fans and the NBA community poorly received Gilgeous-Alexander’s post. The comments section ridiculed Shai’s poor choice of words and even the picture, reminding him of how Stephen Curry had just returned from an injury and is still a bona fide legend. Additionally, some other fans reminded Shai to hold his horses as a young player facing a 4x NBA champion and 15-season veteran.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also mocked Bradley Beal after defeating the Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns, who had a shaky start to the season with a 4-6 record, recently fell against the OKC. The Thunder defeated the Suns with a 12-point margin and a final score line of 99-111. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played phenomenally well in the game, putting up 35 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists to help them capture the win.

Before throwing shade at Stephen Curry and the Warriors, Shai also used his Instagram to celebrate this win against the Suns. Unfortunately, Bradley Bill, who could not guard SGA on that fateful night, fell victim to Shai’s online shade. The Canadian All-Star posted a clip of Beal failing to guard him and captioned the post, “It’s crazy how you go from being motivated to the Motivation…so who am I supposed to look at now for some inspiration?”

Fans have now started analyzing whether Shai has any personal vendetta with the featured players or is doing this for fun. Either way, it’s now well understood that to not end up on Shai’s IG page, players need to step up their game.