The media’s argument on Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is really trying to say what no one wants to say

Nobody liked watching Floyd Mayweather Jr fight; he was never entertaining.

That was not a jab at him. Just a fact.

Mayweather built a style so technically precise, so frustratingly effective, and so completely within the rules that opponents spent entire fights swinging at air while he walked away undefeated.

People called it boring. They called it soft. They called it everything except what it actually was: the most dominant strategic execution the sport had ever seen. In the NBA, you have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doing the same thing, only falling down. A lot. 

You all are missing the flopping point

The conversation dominating the league right now is about flopping and how do you beat it? And is it fun to watch? Videos circulate daily of SGA falling over or grabbing players' arms and hitting himself. Fans were furious over it, and Jay Williams walked off the set after Michael Wilbon said: “There will be kids out on the playground learning how to flop.”

The debate has swallowed the sport as a whole during its most important games of the year. But underneath all of that is something few have spoken about: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has mastered the rules of basketball so completely that the only way to discuss him anymore is to argue about whether the rules themselves are fair.

That is the Mayweather problem boxing had. Nobody accused Floyd of breaking the rules. They accused the rules of being broken because he understood them better than everyone else.

In truth, the NBA cannot fix flopping from the floor in real time. That falls on referees making split-second decisions at full speed, and no referee on the planet is going to be perfect at it. What the league can do is review film after the fact and issue fines when a flop is obvious enough to be indefensible. But enforcing that consistently across a full season? And then a postseason? That is a logistical nightmare that never ends cleanly. Good players will adapt, and someone will come along and find the next mechanic, and we will be having this exact same conversation about a different name.

There is history here, and the NBA could be doomed to repeat it

The NBA has always lived with players who exploit what the rulebook allows. Michael Jordan was the Muhammad Ali of the sport, unbeatable, the only guy who you have to have on every GOAT discussion. His fanbase is wild.

Then there are LeBron and Kobe, who are the George Foremans and Mike Tysons. SGA is really Mayweather, technically flawless to a point it can be uncomfortable to watch because of how he wins, even when the winning itself is undeniable.

That made boxing boring to watch, and that made ratings drop because it was predictable. That could happen to the NBA if the Thunder continue their dominance. But again, it’s not that they’re winning that is the problem; it’s how they’re doing it.

So before everyone labels SGA the most hated player in the NBA, consider that he would be in the conversation for back-to-back Finals MVPs. That is something that has not been done since LeBron James in 2012 and 2013 and Michael Jordan in 1991 and 1992. That is the company we are being asked to dismiss because the flopping is annoying.

SGA may not be winning the way you like to win. But he is winning.

If the Thunder go to the Finals, the league gets the matchup it secretly wants and could take care of a problem all without having to do anything.

Against Jalen Brunson and a Knicks team built entirely on chemistry, sacrifice and doing things the right way. New York did not get here because of one transcendent talent exploiting the rulebook. They got here because five guys who have known each other for years decided that the whole was worth more than any one of them individually.

There is something almost poetic about it. The most technically manipulative player in the sport going up against the most fundamentally pure team in the sport. You cannot manufacture that kind of narrative. Either who I call “Flop Vader” wins the finals and the NBA explodes, or Brunson and company go Knicks-ing nuts, and New York finally gets its championship on the back of a point guard who was never supposed to be good enough.

The NBA should be so lucky.

For whoever comes out of the West tonight, whether it is San Antonio pulling off a stunner or Oklahoma City doing what most people expect, the Knicks will be waiting. Ready to face whoever.