“You Need to Start Tucking in Your Jersey”: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Channels His Inner Chris Paul While Dishing Advice

With an average roster age of 24.148 years, the Oklahoma City Thunder entered the 2024-25 season as the youngest team in the NBA. Thankfully for Mark Daigneault, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s lone season with Chris Paul is still paying dividends in OKC four years later.

Gilgeous-Alexander is passing down the lessons he learned from the ‘Point God’ to his younger teammates. “Hey, man, you need to start tucking in your jersey during the games. If you don’t tuck it in, we’re going to get a technical and it’s going to cost us a game,” the 26-year-old said to a younger member of the squad after OKC’s 105-101 win in Golden State.

These are the tricks of the trade that come with years of experience. Though SGA is just in his sixth NBA season, his former teammate CP3 is a 19-season veteran, who has previously used the league’s tucked jersey policy to his advantage.

In 2019-20, when Paul was still with the Thunder, he called out Timberwolves player Jordan Bell for having his jersey untucked. With 1.1 seconds on the game clock, the refs called a delay of game violation on Minnesota and rewarded OKC with a free throw.

Karl-Anthony Towns, who was at the charity stripe when Bell was called for the violation, knocked down his second free-throw and put the Wolves up by 2. But a full-court heave from Steven Adams found Dennis Schroder in the paint, who converted a game-tying layup. In overtime, the Thunder would win the game, all thanks to Paul’s high IQ move.

Though CP3 would be traded from OKC the following season, clearly one year with the ‘Point God’ was enough for SGA to absorb his knowledge of the game.

Chris Paul and SGA were more than just teammates

Paul had spent seven seasons in LA before he was traded to Houston, and two seasons later, to Oklahoma. However, with his son and daughter facing important school years, the Paul family decided it was best to continue their upbringing in Los Angeles.

Therefore, CP3 found himself in a unique spot during the 2019-20 season. Enter his soon-to-be protege, Gilgeous-Alexander.

“That was my first year living without my family, right? Without my wife and my kids in LA. And, man, Shai, he’s just a basketball head…And so Shai would come over to my house before practice, just to eat, cause I had a chef. You know what I’m saying? Night after games, Shai at my house,” Paul once revealed.

With SGA filling up the vacuum left in Paul’s personal life, the two became close friends off the court too. Even during recent years, the respect between the two is hard to miss when their teams face off. Shai is ensuring that CP3’s legacy in OKC lives on, particularly when he preaches about highly specific codes of conduct, like the tucked jersey policy.