Berry Tramel
Paul George requested a trade from the Indiana Pacers. Granted.
Paul George requested a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Granted.
The Thunder and the Pacers are in the NBA Finals. It is not a coincidence.
Sometimes the sun goes round the moon, and sometimes what seems like despair is a blessing. The Pacers and Thunder are 2025 conference champions, not despite trading PG-13, but because they traded the superstar forward.
The Tuesday ScissorTales salute OSU golf’s latest NCAA championship, appreciate the American Athletic Conference’s decision on where to play its future basketball tournaments and discuss the charms of college softball. But we start with the similarities between the Thunder and Pacers, who both got to these NBA Finals by trading Paul George.
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The Pacers’ foundational star, Tyrese Haliburton, is in Indianapolis indirectly because of the George trade back in summer 2017. The Thunder’s foundational star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is in OKC directly because of the George trade back in summer 2019.
The Thunder trade FOR FOR FOR FOR FOR FOR George provided the Pacers the means to eventually trade for Haliburton.
The Thunder trade of George brought not only Gilgeous-Alexander, but a king’s ransom of draft picks, one of which already has reaped Jalen Williams, who this season was third-team all-NBA in just his third season out of Santa Clara.
Not to pile on George, but in the three years that Williams has been in the NBA, he’s scored 3,901 points. George has scored 3,668. Sure, part of that is because of George injuries, but that’s part of the point, too. Give up a bounty for a superstar, and you need him to play. Besides, in those three years, Williams has shot better (.512/.458) while also shooting virtually the same as George on 3-pointers (.388 for PG-13, .382 for Williams).
In 2017, George grew disenchanted with the Pacers and asked for a trade. That was during the height of the NBA’s superteam era. George sought partnerships with fellow elite stars. He found that with Russell Westbrook in OKC.
The Thunder sent Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to Indy for George. Oladipo got off to a smashing start, but injuries eventually derailed his career. Sabonis became an all-star (2020, 2021) center.
That set up a blockbuster trade in February 2022. Sacramento sent Haliburton to Indianapolis for Sabonis. The Pacers also received Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson; the Kings also got Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a second-round draft pick. But this basically was the resetting of two franchises. Haliburton for Sabonis.
That’s an NBA rarity, players of that quality traded for each other. Just like Paul George, teams usually trade stars because they have to, not because they want to.
Sabonis has been excellent with the Kings. He’s as accomplished as Haliburton; both are two-time all-NBA since the trade.
But Haliburton has given the Pacers an identity. He’s the engine of an uptempo offense that takes care of the ball. A point guard quite capable of scoring big, who plays with an attitude and a spirit that has produced back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals teams, including this one that stands in the Thunder’s way for the NBA championship.
Gilgeous-Alexander, you know all about. Just as the Thunder got out of the superstar business, here came SGA, and he’s developed into one of the world’s best players, with numbers straight out of Michael Jordan.
George? Well, he’s still been a good player. Made the all-star team in 2021, 2023 and 2024 with the Clippers. Made third-team all-NBA in 2021. George fled the Clippers last summer and signed a free-agent contract with the 76ers.
PG’s first two Clippers teams were successful. They made the Western Conference semifinals in 2020, then the West finals in 2021. But the Kawhi Leonard/George pairing stayed in constant injury mode, and the Clippers didn’t even make the playoffs in 2022, allowing the Thunder the lottery pick that became Williams.
So for giving up SGA, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round draft picks and two draft swaps, the Clippers have three playoff series advancements. The Thunder has four in the last two years.
And the Pacers have five in the same span.
There was success beyond Paul George. Turns out, abundant success.
Bratton proud of OSU golf title
Alan Bratton was on the 16th green with OSU golfer Ethan Fang in the match-play finals of the NCAA Championships. Bratton could see Cowboy assistant coach Stratton Nolen counseling Eric Lee on the 18th green, about 150 to 170 yards away.
Nolen played on Bratton’s 2018 NCAA title team. Bratton, of course, also played on OSU’s 1995 NCAA championship team.
And when Lee closed out Virginia’s Josh Duangmanee 2-up to secure the Cowboys’ 12th NCAA golf team title, Bratton felt extra rewarded.
“Seeing our crowd on the hill, knowing that’s a guy I coached, Stratton, filling Eric with confidence that he could pull that shot off in a crowd … really rewarding for me as a coach,” Bratton said.
That is OSU golf in a nutshell. Tradition. Legacy. Expectations. Championships.
That victory last Wednesday at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, capped quite a week for the Cowboys. OSU beat OU in a Bedlam quarterfinal, then survived a nerve-racking, extended semifinal against Ole Miss.
“That was really fun. Really fun,” Bratton said. “Obviously, our goal is to be in the thick of it every year. That is the expectation. I think there’s a comfort in that.
“I like connecting our guys to the past, players, coaches, everyone involved in the program. The more you hear about how those guys got it done, the more powerful and easy it is for the current guys to get it done.”
Culture, I think they call it.
The 12th championship moves OSU into a tie with Princeton for third-most in NCAA golf history. Only Yale (21) and Houston (16) have more.
Once Bratton solidified his lineup in late October, the Cowboys rode high, winning six tournaments before the NCAAs and never finishing lower than third.
Individually, Preston Stout won two tournaments; Lee and Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson won one each. Fang and Stout posted round averages of 70.3.
In the NCAAs, Stout placed third at 7-under, Fang 15th at 1-under, Lee 38th at 4-over, and Fahlberg-Johnsson and Gaven Lane 60th at 9-over.
In the three rounds of match play, Fahlberg-Johnsson went 3-0, Lee 2-0-1, Fang and Stout each 2-1 and Lane 1-2.
Fahlberg-Johnsson is a freshman. The others are sophomores. Cowboy golf still rolls along.
AAC keeps neutral-site format
The American Athletic Conference, which includes the University of Tulsa, constantly fights to maintain its credibility and status in the college basketball hierarchy, but the AAC made a solid move on that front last week in awarding its conference tournaments to Birmingham, Alabama, in 2026 and Tampa in 2027 and 2028.
Birmingham and Tampa are AAC cities — Alabama-Birmingham and South Florida are AAC members — but those tournaments will not be held on campus.
Birmingham will host the tournament at the 18,000-seat Legacy Arena; Tampa will host at the 10,500-seat Yuengling Center.
Neutral-site conference tournaments are the calling card of a quality basketball league. Many of Division I’s 32 conferences play their tournaments on campus. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it’s much more competitive and balanced to play on neutral sites.
The AAC has played the last five seasons at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The AAC has a history of playing its tournament at neutral sites. The only exception was two years in Memphis’ FedEx Forum, which is off campus but is the homecourt of the Memphis Tigers, as well as the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.
The AAC plays solid basketball and is making solid decisions. Seems like the conference is in good hands with commissioner Tim Pernetti.
The List: Total wins by an NBA team
The Thunder has 80 games this season — 68 in the regular season, 12 in the playoffs. If the Thunder wins the NBA championship, it will rank third all-time in victories for a season. Here are the 10 teams with the most victories in an NBA season, including playoffs:
88: 2015-16 Warriors, lost in NBA Finals
87: 1995-96 Bulls, won NBA Finals
84: 1996-97 Bulls, won NBA Finals
83: 2014-15 Warriors, won NBA Finals
83: 2016-17 Warriors, won NBA Finals
82: 1985-86 Celtics, won NBA Finals
82: 1991-92 Bulls, won NBA Finals
82: 1999-2000 Lakers, won NBA Finals
82: 2012-13 Heat, won NBA Finals
82: 2007-08 Celtics, won NBA Finals
Mailbag: Charms of softball
There’s no doubt that softball has its clutches in Oklahomans. Sometimes, we need to take stock of why.
Nick: Just for the record, at my age, the college softball teams are easily more entertaining than football. Those people like each other and are cheering for each other, creating some form of life that has been lost in football for sure.”
Berry: Well, I love me some softball. Whether it’s the Cowgirls, the Sooners or Tribute 09 16-U. I’m still more addicted to college football, but that’s no slight on fastpitch. The spirit of the players indeed is intoxicating. Don’t indict the football players too much. They’re trained to act differently, and if we see too much glee from them, we don’t like that, either. The softball chants are charming and likely stem from a culture that began when girls didn’t have much support and had to create their own. Mission accomplished.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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