The NBA got the maximum entertainment value for its fans on Sunday night, ending the 2024-25 season with a new champion. The Finals series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers went the distance, going seven games to determine the new NBA title winner. A new champion was crowned for the seventh straight season when the Oklahoma City Thunder hoisted the trophy before its home crowd. After a slim first-half lead, the Pacers fell to the Thunder 103-91 in Game Seven, finishing a grueling series to end the season.

Leading the way for the Thunder in their remarkable run was league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 29 points with 12 assists in Game Seven and was named  MVP of the Finals. SGA joined an elite group of Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal to win the MVP, the scoring title, and the Finals MVP in one season.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the Finals MVP. “So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of belief. It’s crazy to know that we’re all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours and we deserve this.”

Going into the series as the number four seed, the Pacers were the heavy underdogs in the battle. In pushing the series to seven games, Indiana showed grit and determination. If not for a crippling injury to their star player early in the game, the outcome could have been drastically different. Questionable for Game Six, the Pacer’s Tyrese Haliburton battled through a calf injury to force a Game Seven on Sunday. Seven minutes into the first quarter suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. The Pacers still led at halftime 48-47, but OKC returned in the third quarter, outscoring the Pacers 34-20.

“My heart dropped for him,” said SGA about Haliburton. “I couldn’t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. I just felt so bad for him. Prayers go out to him for sure. Hell of a player.” Haliburton is expected to miss the entire 2025-26 season. He is one of three key players wearing the number “0” to have suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in this year’s playoffs, joining the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum and the Bucks’ Damian Lillard.

With their first NBA championship, the Thunder, at an average age of 25.6 years, are the youngest team in nearly half a century to win the NBA title, dating back to the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers. The days of the dynasty are all but gone, with the Golden State Warriors the last team to win back-to-back titles eight years ago. Also gone are some household names that once graced the teams with the league’s star players. In this series, names like Daigneault, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Haliburton were in the spotlight.

“They behave like champions. They compete like champions,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault about his team. “They root for each other’s success, which is rare in professional sports. I’ve said it many times, and now I’m going to say it again. They are an uncommon team, and now they’re champions.”  

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