Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder cement legacy with NBA championship

OKLAHOMA CITY — The smell of champagne wafted out into the hallway, the traditional cologne of champions. 

It was coming from the locker room of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who might be bathing in it for the next decade or so. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should fill his pool with it. 

As much as the Thunder’s championship was about capping off their year-long dominance with an exclamation point, the final, irrevocable proof that a 68-win season where they set records with their defence and their victory margin meant they deserved to be mentioned among great teams of the past, it was also about what the future could hold. 

The Thunder’s 103-91 win in Game 7 over the Indiana Pacers wasn’t about the end of 2024-25 as much as it was about what the rest of this decade and beyond might have on offer. 

“I haven't even thought that far ahead. But yeah, we definitely still have room to grow,” said Thunder star and Canadian Olympian Gilgeous-Alexander. “That's the fun part of this. So many of us can still get better. There's not very many of us on the team that are 'in our prime' or even close to it. We have a lot [of room] to grow, individually and as a group. I'm excited for the future of this team. This is a great start, for sure.”

That they could and likely will be in this position again and soon gives them a leg up on answering any of the critics of their first title who might make the case that a devastating lower-leg injury suffered by Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton early in the first quarter takes some shine off the Thunder’s win. 

Haliburton went down while trying to beat Gilgeous-Alexander in a one-on-one battle with 4:55 left in the first quarter and the game tied. Haliburton — he had been questionable for Game 6 with a calf strain but played well in his 23 minutes as the Pacers won in a blowout to force Game 7 — banged the floor in frustration and in obvious pain. He was 3-of-4 from three at the time and his offence could have been the difference in a game that ended up being a bit of a slog in that respect as the two teams combined to shoot 40.7 per cent from three. The Pacers' 23 turnovers — which led to 32 Thunder points and was the single biggest statistical swing in the game — likely would have been mitigated by Haliburton’s presence too.

Whether people end up making a big deal of it or not — and Toronto Raptors fans take note, given the injury luck they benefited from on their way to the 2019 title — there is a very good chance the Thunder will have a chance to answer any doubters this time next year. 

No one was pretending it wasn’t a significant shift in the game — although the Pacers did take a 48-47 lead into half thanks to a deep step-back three by Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard just before the horn — it’s just that twists of fate, due to bad luck, injury or anything else, are literally part of the game. 

“You just hate to see it in sports in general, but in this moment, my heart dropped for him,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who visited briefly with Haliburton after the game. “I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes [but] that team [the Pacers] is going to be really good for a long time … impressive team, impressive player.”

The same could be said about Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder. 

As much as anyone, Gilgeous-Alexander has been the catalyst and the tentpole under which everything else fits in Oklahoma City. His rise has been both spectacular and steady, culminating in a 2024-25 season where he won the NBA regular-season scoring title, earned regular-season MVP honours and then on Sunday night was named Finals MVP. The trifecta joins him with all-time greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971), Michael Jordan (1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998) and Shaquille O’Neal (2000) as the only players to hold those three honours in a single season. 

Doing it at age 26 and his sixth season is another point of distinction as only Abdul-Jabbar did it earlier in his career or at a younger age than Gilgeous-Alexander, the 11th overall pick in the 2018 draft who wasn’t a starter when he first arrived at the University of Kentucky and was traded by the Los Angeles Clippers after his rookie season. 

It also puts Gilgeous-Alexander on a fast track to being the best Canadian basketball player of all time and, in a wider view, one of the most accomplished Canadian athletes in any sport outside of professional hockey.

It’s heady stuff, but Gilgeous-Alexander has earned it by doing what was necessary when the Thunder needed it. Game 7 was no different. He finished with a game-high 29 points — albeit on 8-of-27 shooting — along with a post-season career-high 12 assists, two blocked shots, a steal and just one turnover. He was in the middle of the game-defining run in the third quarter — hitting a three, setting up teammates Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams for threes and then dashing in for another lay-up that gave the Thunder some breathing room on their way to a 22-point fourth quarter lead. 

Gilgeous-Alexander’s box score line for the series — 30.3 points, 5.6 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.6 blocks — will stand the test of time, and compares with anything any of the greats his performances have got him lumped in with so routinely this season. 

“It's hard to believe that I'm part of that group. It's hard to even fathom that I'm that type of basketball player sometimes,” he said. “As a kid, you dream. Every kid dreams. But you don't ever really know if it's going to come true. I'm just glad and happy that my dreams have been able to come true. That's a 'thank you' to everyone that's been in my corner that helped me get there."

Among them are his teammate, Montrealer and fellow Olympian Lu Dort, who has been doing the heavy lifting on defence alongside Gilgeous-Alexander for six seasons. Dort finished with nine points, seven rebounds and three steals, and took post-game questions wearing Haitian and Canadian flags stitched together. 

“It’s huge man. I’m proud of my brother [Gilgeous-Alexander], honestly,” Dort said. “He worked hard, we worked hard. Could we believe we get to this point, maybe not, but we put the time in to just try and achieve that and when we got the opportunity it was just ‘let’s go get it.” 

Their win means that two other Canadians playing for the Pacers — fellow Olympian Nembhard and Montreal’s Bennedict Mathurin, who missed the Olympics last season with a shoulder injury — were denied their chance at a title.

Nembhard had a breakout series, cementing his growing reputation as a playoff force. Mathurin led the Pacers with 24 points and 13 rebounds off the bench in Game 7. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and helped Indiana pull within 10 with 2:16 left in the game. Meanwhile, as the primary defender on Gilgeous-Alexander, Nembhard was a big reason the Thunder star’s offensive efficiency dipped so significantly, from an effective field goal percentage of 56.9 in the regular season to 46.8 in the Finals. 

“It was super fun to play with someone you grew up with, a dream come true,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “It was a hell of a battle, a dog fight. He’s a hell of a player.

Said Dort of his countrymen on the Pacers: “They’re competitors, they’re real hoopers, honestly. I’m happy that we mean a lot for Canada, and especially me and Benn, for Montreal, that means a lot.” 

It all means a lot. The win by the Thunder over the Pacers is a victory for small markets and evidence that well-run teams can compete without the benefit of beaches and favourable tax codes. The performance by four Canadians, all in key roles on basketball’s highest stage, is another signpost for the sport in Canada. 

And having Shai Gilgeous-Alexander widely recognized as the best player on the league’s best team, and a team that can easily be projected to be in that conversation for years to come, is meaningful too. 

Buy all the champagne. Put a Canadian flag on a few cases, or a few dozen cases. Ship it to Oklahoma City. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his guys are going to be needing it.