The NBA season ended Sunday night with ecstasy for the Oklahoma City Thunder and pain for the Indiana Pacers. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Before the NBA crowned a new champion, another all-star had to suffer. For Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, Game 7 turned into a tragedy, his toughness and determination bringing him this far, only to thrash his right Achilles’ tendon in the first quarter of the most important game of his life.
It was such wicked symbolism. Star culture is changing, perhaps even eroding, because NBA team-building rules now demand it. Star influence is shrinking. Although Haliburton operates with neither the ego nor the ball-dominant playing style of other leading men, fate sent one more painful message about the shift. The story of the playoffs wasn’t just that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder were too great to be denied. It also mattered that most everyone else was too unlucky, too ill-conceived or too imbalanced to survive a postseason of alarming attrition.
The past two months have punished some of the biggest names in the sport. Competition was costly. We probably won’t get to see Haliburton, Damian Lillard or Jayson Tatum next season because they all blew out their Achilles. They all wear jersey No. 0, too, which makes you fear misfortune is about to attack stars in numerical order. The playoffs also tortured us with injuries to LeBron James (sprained knee), Stephen Curry (hamstring), Ja Morant (bruised hip) and Aaron Gordon (hamstring). The ailments came after a regular season in which Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving were among the prominent players whose bodies couldn’t withstand the 82-game slate.
It illustrates the strain felt by elite players who must conceal their franchise’s shortcomings more than ever. Their teams are getting thinner at the top because of stricter salary cap rules intended to inspire parity. Many stars and organizations have yet to adjust. Some players are doing too much. Some are growing disenchanted and hoping to flee their situations. Some are just in pain.
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And then there is the Thunder, a champion for the first time and blessed with the youngest roster to win a title since the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers. Oklahoma City has ample star power, tiers of young greatness, from the established Gilgeous-Alexander to the soaring Jalen Williams to the emerging Chet Holmgren. Currently, Gilgeous-Alexander stands atop the entire league after becoming the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 to win the regular season MVP, the scoring title and the Finals MVP in the same season.
But for as much as the Thunder has relied on SGA scoring 30 points per game the past three seasons, the roster is more complete than his offensive dominance indicates. Gilgeous-Alexander shot 8 of 27 in a winner-take-all championship game, and his team still pulled away in the second half.
“We prioritize winning,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We don’t prioritize anything else in this game.”
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OKC is a dominant team because of its defense, connectivity and extreme energy, the latter of which is the benefit of youth. Sam Presti, the executive vice president and general manager, has spent the past six years constructing a juggernaut with patience, a keen eye on skill and intangibles and a commitment to building through the draft.
Oklahoma City basically has 14 players with traditional contracts. The front office drafted eight of them, and the Thunder signed a ninth, defensive ace Lu Dort, shortly after he went undrafted in 2019. Three players — Gilgeous-Alexander, Kenrich Williams and Alex Caruso (who once played on OKC’s G League affiliate) — arrived via trade. Three years ago, Presti signed sharpshooter Isaiah Joe as a free agent, recognizing the talent of a young player who averaged 3.7 points per game at the time. Isaiah Hartenstein, the center who agreed to an $87 million deal last summer, is the only major free agency purchase.
With the entire roster under contract for next season, the Thunder may not have room for its two first-round picks in Wednesday’s draft. In every way, this is a remarkable roster that seems impossible to duplicate.
“I’ve called the guys uncommon many times, but I really believe that,” said Thunder Coach Mark Daigneault, an exceptional strategist at just 40 years old. “Just the way they operate, the way they behave, the way they compete is uncommon in professional sports. It just is.”
Daigneault was able to do something rare himself. In his first NBA head coaching job, the former Oklahoma City Blue G League head coach took the team from reconstruction to paradise. Most builders aren’t great at finishing. Daigneault is an exception.
After he took over for Billy Donovan in 2020, the Thunder went 22-50 and 24-58 his first two seasons. By Year Five, Daigneault guided the team to a 68-14 record. Winning the championship took two Game 7 triumphs along the way, but the Thunder finished 84-21 counting the postseason, tied for the third-most victories in league history.
At times, the players looked like regular season giants who might shrink under the playoff pressure. Ultimately, their depth and defensive intensity propelled them. For certain, they had Gilgeous-Alexander to provide tough buckets and playmaking. But even with him, they weren’t built to need a savior.
“One thing I learned is, it’s hard to get to your ceiling as a team in the playoffs when you’re playing great teams over and over again,” Daigneault said. “It’s really about how high your floor is.”
It’s the perfect way to think about the postseason and survival overall in the apron-era NBA, where competitive balance is here to stay. The two teams with the highest floors made it to the Finals. The Pacers play a different style, but they were built with a similar approach that enables them to be younger, deeper and scrappier than their opponents. Despite all his court presence and clutch play, Haliburton doesn’t have to be a savior, either. He’s the ultimate floor general, and his altruistic approach empowered Indiana to play well even when he was off the court.
After Oklahoma City’s 103-91 victory in Game 7, Haliburton stood outside the locker room and greeted his teammates. He was on crutches. He was not going to let them hurt in isolation.
“One of the greatest human beings I’ve come in contact with,” backup point guard T.J. McConnell said.
The rest of the NBA must follow these examples because the old, top-heavy way of building a contender is more likely to create the Phoenix Suns with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal than to replicate the Big Three the Miami Heat formed 15 years ago.
It was fitting that, on final day of the 2024-25 season, Durant was traded to Houston. The Game 7 buildup had to compete with thoughts of whether the Rockets, who now have the league’s most efficient scorer to go with all that young talent, are the right team for the 36-year-old superstar.
Maybe it will work. As great as Durant is, you have to stop at maybe. It has been nine years since he shook up the league by leaving Oklahoma City for Golden State. A lot has changed since then, much of it to ensure that superstar whims don’t have a significantly larger impact than conscientious team building.
The Thunder is the standard. On his fifth team, Durant is again trying to find his place.
It can be hard out here for a standout. No matter your talent level, the NBA is now about fitting in.