(UK Athletics Facebook photo)

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Former Kentucky star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player and led Oklahoma City to the NBA Finals where he put his name into the record books.

His 72 points in the first two career Finals games against Indiana were the most in NBA history. The only other player to hit 70 was Allen Iverson who needed 70 shots compared to Gilgeous-Alexander’s 51 in two games.

Gilgeous-Alexander also joined LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Rick Barry to have 30 or more points and three or more steals in consecutive games in the Finals — the other three all won Finals MVP.

“While he was here (at UK), you could see he was a special talent,” former UK All-American Jack Givens said. “However, you never thought he was going to explode this much. He’s been knocking on the door to this kind of recognition for the last few years and now it is happening.

“You have to feel good about it not just because he’s from Kentucky but it is so refreshing to see someone other than the usual NBA stars doing it at playoff time like he is and letting casual fans who maybe only watch the NBA Finals see him.

“’It’s great to be talking about a fresh name. You’re not talking about LeBron (James), and the names that you hear every year. Now you’re talking about a guy doing what he is doing and people are thinking,’ Who is SGA?’ It’s pretty cool to see.”