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SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER AND THE OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
One of the great long-term rebuilds in sports history has arrived at the mountaintop. The Thunder are NBA champions after a hard-fought 103-91 Game 7 win over the Pacers, a game that showed the beauty and agony of sports.
Just over halfway through the first quarter, Tyrese Haliburton crumpled to the court after sustaining an Achilles injury. The replays tell us to prepare for the worst, and we’ll hit on the Pacers and their star point guard in a bit.
If you thought Indiana would go away, you haven’t been paying attention. Luckily for Oklahoma City, it has Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He kept the Thunder afloat early as several teammates struggled, perhapds under the immense weight of a Game 7.
Indiana led 48-47 at halftime before Oklahoma City put together one of its finest quarters of the postseason, outscoring Indiana 34-20 in the third. The Thunder forced eight turnovers and turned those into 18 points, with Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren coming alive. Indiana scratched and clawed but simply didn’t have enough, and Oklahoma City won going away, a raucous crowd cheering on the city’s first NBA title.
- Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points, 12 assists and five rebounds, the first such statline in a Finals Game 7 since Walt Frazier in 1970.
- Gilgeous-Alexander joined Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to win a scoring title, NBA MVP and Finals MVP in the same season.
- Williams scored 20 points, and Holmgren finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and five blocks, the most rejections in a Finals Game 7 since individual blocks became official in 1983-84.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the oldest of Oklahoma City’s “Big Three” at the ripe old age of … 26. In fact, the Thunder have just one player — the invaluable Alex Caruso — over 30, a ton of players on team-friendly deals and an absurd amount of draft capital. All 15 current players are under contract next season.
This marked the seventh different NBA champion in seven years, but if there’s a team that can be a dynasty in this era, it’s the Thunder, Sam Quinn writes.
But cherish this now, Thunder fans. Titles are often few and far between. They require a lot of things to go right. This team was marvelous. Think of the huge performances not just by the “Big Three,” but by Caruso and Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Hartenstein and Cason Wallace. Just because they’re all back next year doesn’t mean the result will be the same. This feeling right here is as good as it gets. Embrace it.
This franchise saw another star young trio never get over the hump. This franchise won 24 games three seasons ago and 22 the season before, trotting out glorified G-League lineups.
Things change quickly, but here’s one thing that can’t change: The Thunder are world champions.
Here’s more:
Honorable mentions
💔 And not such a good morning for …
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TYRESE HALIBURTON AND THE INDIANA PACERS
Haliburton knew it as soon as he went down. The Pacers’ exuberant star who authored so many magical moments wouldn’t get a chance to produce a storybook ending. It’s all the more agonizing that he had gutted through a calf strain and started red hot with three 3s in the first seven minutes.
It’s hard not to think of Kevin Durant‘s Achilles tear in the 2019 Finals — as Draymond Green did as reactions from NBA stars poured in — or of Damian Lillard‘s or Jayson Tatum‘s this postseason alone
Haliburton’s injury is truly devastating because of the marvelous run that had preceded it, Brad Botkin writes, and it has massive impact on the Pacers and the NBA, too, Sam notes. The East is wide open.
But let’s stay in the moment here. The Pacers were as enthralling a playoff team as I can remember. The crazy comebacks. Haliburton re-creating the Reggie Miller choke sign. The joy with which they played. The castoff players who became mainstays. The team’s collective spirit. Even in Game 7, when they could have fallen apart, they kept fighting. They relished the odds being against them.
No, Indiana, your dreams of your first NBA title didn’t come true. But as Teddy Roosevelt said in a famed speech, “the credit belongs to the man … who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
The Pacers triumphed many times, but ultimately left with the bitter taste of failure. Still, we as sports fans should celebrate and appreciate them daring greatly.
😕 Not so honorable mentions
🏀 Rockets acquire Kevin Durant from Suns for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, picks
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The Rockets are prepared for takeoff. Houston acquired Kevin Durant from the Suns, cashing in on their immense war chest of picks and young players to outbid several teams. Here are the details:
- Rockets get: Kevin Durant
- Suns get: Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, No. 10 overall pick, five second-round picks
Durant, 36, is a 15-time All-Star, two-time NBA Finals MVP and 11-time All-NBA selection. Though he’s not the all-around force he was in his prime — one of many reasons he didn’t fetch a huge return — he remains a remarkably consistent scorer. In fact, he has averaged 25 points on 38% 3-point shooting each of the past five seasons, the only player to do so.
Houston finished a good-but-not-great 12th in offensive rating in the regular season and struggled on that end in the playoffs, scoring fewer than 100 points in three of their four losses to the Warriors in the first round. Now, they add an all-time great scorer to a core that still includes …
- Rising stars Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun
- Steady point guard Fred VanVleet
- Supporting pieces Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and Steven Adams
- Last year’s No. 3 pick, Reed Sheppard, who hardly played as a rookie
As such, Houston ends up among the “winners” of Sam Quinn’s winners and losers and earns a strong mark in Brad’s trade grades.
- Botkin: “Rockets: A | You can talk all you want about how Durant is maybe not quite the same player heading into his 19th season, but listen, the man was the league’s seventh-best scorer last season at better than 26 points per game with a better true shooting percentage than Stephen Curry. … Houston is taking its shot with an elite coach, elite defense and now an elite superstar scorer, and it has done so without compromising really any of its core future plans or assets.”
Zoom out, and this trade represents the Rockets ascending as the Suns go down, James writes.
Durant is a winner, too. He held all the sway to go where he wanted, and in Houston, he not only gets the chance to play for a bonafide title contender, but he gets the chance to add to — and even rewrite — his legacy, Brad writes.
- Botkin: “After latching onto something Curry had already built with Golden State, Durant joined forces with Kyrie Irving and, subsequently, James Harden in Brooklyn, and Devin Booker, and subsequently, Bradley Beal with the Suns. In Houston, he’s the lone superstar. And as such, if the Rockets were to win it all — which is an extremely tall order in the deepest and most equitable competitive landscape in NBA history — he would be in line for the lion’s share of the public credit.”
Here’s more:
🏀 2026 NBA champion odds: Thunder favored, Rockets soar
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Even after a wild NBA Sunday, we hardly have time to catch our breath — the draft starts Wednesday, after all — but it’s never too early to look ahead. The 2026 NBA championship odds are out, and here are the five shortest odds:
- Thunder: +220
- Knicks: +650
- Cavaliers: +650
- Rockets: +850
- Magic: +950
The Pacers were +1200 entering Game 7 but fell to +6000 — the same odds as the Pistons — after Haliburton’s injury.
🥊 Jon Jones retires, Tom Aspinall now heavyweight champion
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It’s the fight that never was and, apparently, never will be. Jon Jones retired from MMA, elevating interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall to full champion. The two had been slated to fight for years, but Jones revealed he had no desire to fight with Aspinall (or anyone) a few days before calling Dana White to inform him of his retirement.
Jones and White both deserve blame for the fight never happening, one of the most disappointing situations in UFC history, Brian Campbell writes.
- Campbell: “Jones kept up the illusion that the fight was still possible, even as he regularly talked down about Aspinall’s commercial value and lack of an elite resume … UFC didn’t just mess with the patience and tolerance of its own fan base while stealing a sizable chunk of Aspinall’s fighting prime and earning power, it also unnaturally altered its own heavyweight history by so haphazardly stalling the division and the best-laid plans of its top contenders.”
That’s just one piece of a complicated legacy. Jones, 37, is arguably the greatest UFC fighter ever, a champion at the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. His 12 successful title defenses are the most in UFC history. He owns a 28-1-0 (1 NC) record. His lone loss, to Matt Hamill in 2009, came via disqualification on a move that’s now legal.
However, Jones was stripped of titles three times due to failed drug tests and arrests and had several personal and legal transgressions. In fact, shortly after White’s announcement, news arrived that Jones faces a misdemeanor charge for allegedly fleeing the scene of an accident in February.
⚾ MLB weekend roundup, Power Rankings
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Another weekend down means another version of Matt Snyder’s MLB Power Rankings. Here’s his top five:
- Tigers (previous: 1)
- Dodgers (4)
- Phillies (6)
- Cubs (3)
- Yankees (5)
But it’s the No. 6 team that gets some love from Matt this week: The Astros keep on keepin’ on and once again lead the AL West, the division they’ve won four straight years. Doubt Houston at your own risk.
Here’s more:
📺 What we’re watching Monday
⚾ Mariners at Twins, 7:40 p.m. on FS1
⚾ Red Sox at Angels, 9:38 p.m. on MLB Network
