After having the NBA’s best regular season record in the 2024-25 season with an incredible 68 wins, the heavy favourites have reached the summit for the first time in the franchise’s history, defeating the Indiana Pacers in 7 games.
The Thunder are the second youngest team to ever win an NBA Championship, only behind the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers. They won two game 7’s to capture the title.
It is impossible to talk about this championship without discussing the masterclass performance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He was the NBA’s MVP of the season, the second Canadian to a make this achievement after Steve Nash, as well as the scoring title, averaging 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.4 assists with a field goal percentage of 51.9%.
In the playoffs, he averaged an outstanding 29.9 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.3 rebounds in 23 games. He also won the Western Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP. With that, he joins the likes of Micheal Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players to win MVP, scoring title, and Finals MVP in the same season.
Gilgeous-Alexander is also the first Canadian to win Finals MVP. This is also the first time a team has won an NBA Championship with more than one Canadian on the roster (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort). Oklahoma acquired Gilgeous-Alexander from the infamous Paul George trade with the Clippers in 2019. The trade kick started the Thunder rebuild and is the key catalyst of the teams current success.
This trade also included five first round picks that the team used to select Jalen Williams, who was a massive contributor on the roster averaging 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 23 playoff games.
It is also worth noting that the Thunder still have first round picks this year and next from this trade. The Thunder’s Finals opponent, the Indiana Pacers, had one of the greatest playoff runs in the history of the sport.
Led by Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers had some of the most heroic moments in playoff history with six 15-point or more comebacks. Haliburton hit a buzzer beater game tying or game winning shot in all four series.
Their most impressive comeback was ingame one against the New York Knicks when the team was down 14 points with a little more than 3 minutes left on the clock. This is the first time a team had ever won in the playoffs with these circumstances.
Indiana saw its championship hopes evaporate in game 7 of the Finals when Tyrese Halliburton ruptured his right achilles. Haliburton had 9 points, all from the three point line, before the injury with 4:55 left in the first quarter.
Haliburton’s injury was one of three achilles ruptures this playoffs. Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard and Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum both ruptured their achilles in this year’s playoff run. This along with the Kevin Durant achilles rupture in the 2019 Finals against the Toronto Raptors has ignited the conversation of shortened the NBA season or increasing load management for the players.
Lillard, Tatum, and Haliburton are all expected to be out for most of if not all of next year’s NBA season. With all three superstars being in the eastern conference, it raises some great questions about who will come out of the east next year.
As of right now, Oklahoma City stands on top of the NBA mountain. With the way the team is constructed, their lack of salary cap issues, and the fact they are so young, and most players have not even entered their prime yet, it is possible that we are witnessing the start of the newest dynasty in the NBA.
