As Adam Silver awarded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award, his demeanor was as usual.
Stoic. Controlled. Tranquil.
You almost wouldn’t have known he just led the Oklahoma City Thunder to its first NBA Championship.
With Gilgeous-Alexander leading the charge with 29 points and 12 assists, the Thunder closed out the Indiana Pacers in the first Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 2016, 103-91. He was joined by his co-stars, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, in starring in the most important game that any of them is likely to play in their long, fruitful NBA careers.
Williams overcame a slow start and rode a huge third quarter to score 20 points and dish out four assists. Holmgren, who came under fire from many after a rough Game 6, was monstrous in clinching the title, scoring 18 points and rejecting an NBA Finals Game 7 record five blocks. Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso came up huge, as they have so often in these playoffs, playing lockdown defense and helping OKC get 14 steals.
OKC’s championship win is special. It, in an odd way, puts a bow on the first era of Thunder basketball by finally doing the only thing it hadn’t as an organization.
That should be the story for OKC fans. Finally, climbing that one final mountain and doing so in the way that so many thought it would 13 seasons ago. But we would be remiss not to discuss the devastating injury to Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
Haliburton, playing on a strained calf, was off to a fast start, scoring nine points in the first quarter. He was feeling himself, talking to fans, and taking and making bombs away 3s.
Then, he made a routine drive to the basket before falling down and turning the ball over. At first, it looked like a normal play, a failure by a ball boy to dry some sweat off the court. But it quickly became clear that something awful had happened.
The air left the Paycom Center as he was helped off the court, and later in the second quarter, his father confirmed to ESPN that it was an Achilles injury.
It marked a horrible and sad end to one of the best runs in NBA Playoffs history by a player who, had he stayed healthy, could’ve played a huge part in stunning OKC and having the Larry O’Brien Trophy leave Oklahoma City on a jet.
Instead of backing down when their superstar went down, the Pacers stayed with it, fighting back and even taking the lead into halftime. Pascal Siakam was terrific in the first half, scoring 10 points. Andrew Nembhard provided elite defense, though Gilgeous-Alexander powered through it to score 16 in the first half, and point guard relief due to the injury to Haliburton.
But in the end, NBA history suggests that you need one of those select few guys to win a title.
No one thought Haliburton was one of them when these playoffs started, but he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is, and will be for a long time.
And, unfortunately for the neutral viewer of the NBA Finals, his chance to prove he was one of them in the biggest moment of the season was taken, and the Pacers didn’t have enough to pull through one final time.
OKC had one of its dominant, run-centric third quarters and took a 13-point lead into the fourth and closed out the final 12 minutes of its season without a ton of stress.
Someone had to take the moment in the NBA Finals and prove they were one of those select few. And while Haliburton’s chance was taken, Gilgeous-Alexander stood tall. He joined Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan as scoring champions to win the NBA Finals. He had the fifth 25-point, 10-assist game in NBA Finals Game 7 history.
The Thunder can’t control who goes down. All it can control is the effort it brings to the table, and it brought every ounce it had. The result? An NBA Championship at the second-youngest average age in NBA history.
Now, regardless of the context around it, OKC will go down in history as a champion. And few in NBA history can say that.
