The Oklahoma City Thunder authored the final chapter of its storybook season by defeating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to win the first NBA Championship in franchise history.
With Oklahoma City’s name now engraved onto the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, two former Kentucky guards will go down in history with the accomplishment, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2018) and Cason Wallace (2023) both played important roles in the Thunder’s historic success, earning their first NBA Championship rings as well.
During the regular season, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a league-high 32.7 points, five rebounds and a team-high 6.4 assists per game. As for Wallace, he factored into the team’s overall success as well, averaging 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game during the regular season, reaching a season-high 20 points on March 15 against the Detroit Pistons.
The Thunder finished the regular season with a 68-14 overall record, which tied the fifth-best single-season record in NBA history and marked the best single-season record in Oklahoma City history.
With that, the team earned the No. 1 overall seed in the west and swept the (8) Memphis Grizzlies in round one, beat Nikola Jokic and the (4) Denver Nuggets in round two and dominated Anthony Edwards and the (6) Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, winning 4-1.
Throughout the entire course of the playoffs, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 29.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists while Wallace, who was playing in just his second postseason, averaged 5.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
In the Finals, through all seven games, SGA averaged a monstrous 30.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists throughout the seven-game series, while Wallace averaged six points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
Gilgeous-Alexander was undoubtedly the main successor in Oklahoma City’s run, winning the 2025 NBA Regular Season MVP Award, the 2025 Western Conference Finals MVP Award and the 2025 NBA Finals MVP Award. SGA became the first player since Shaquille O’Neal (2000) to win both the Regular Season MVP Award and the NBA Finals MVP Award.
In the Thunder and Pacers’ do-or-die, Game 7 dual, with the pressure to complete his and the Thunder’s extraordinary campaign at a boiling point, Gilgeous-Alexander boasted a game-high 29 points, five rebounds and a game-high 12 assists, while shooting 8-27 (29.6%) from the field, 2-12 (16.7%) from deep and 11-12 (91.7%) from the free-throw line.
Wallace followed SGA’s Game 7 contributions by putting up ten points, two rebounds and three steals through 26 minutes of play off the bench, while shooting 4-6 (66.7%) from the field and 2-3 (66.7%) from beyond the 3-point arch.
The two Cats now join the list of 13 former Kentucky players that have had a chance to call themselves NBA Champions, both overruling Anthony Davis (2020 with the Lakers) as the most recent Cats to do so.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s phenomenal season was capped off with a massive payday on Tuesday as he inked a four-year, $285 million-dollar supermax contract.