Does the better coached team always win? No, sometimes the younger team wins because a star on the opposing team gets injured.
That’s not to take anything away from what the Oklahoma City Thunder just accomplished. Winning an NBA championship is never easy, no matter how stacked the roster, no matter how fresh the legs. But let’s not act like this Finals series didn’t turn on one key moment — the second Tyrese Haliburton crumpled to the floor in Game 7, clutching his Achilles.
It wasn’t just the end of the 2024–25 season for Haliburton — it was also the end of his 2025–26 season before it even starts. And man, it changes the tone of this title win just a bit. Because up until then, the Indiana Pacers were hanging in, competing at both ends, and getting just enough magic from their All-Star floor general to push a supremely talented Thunder team to the brink.
Let’s back up for a second.
This was always going to be a series about youth versus experience — or, more accurately, youth versus momentum. The Thunder came into these playoffs as a team on the rise, filled with homegrown stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and of course, the long-limbed unicorn that is Chet Holmgren. The Pacers, by contrast, had that scrappy, gritty, mid-major identity. They ran, they shot, and they played with a certain looseness that belied how calculated their sets really were under Rick Carlisle’s guidance.
Haliburton was at the heart of it all. Every lob, every no-look, every behind-the-back three in transition — it ran through him. But after suffering a right calf strain in Game 5, he was clearly hobbled. Still, he played through it. Game 6 in Indiana was heroic — a 15-assist night that kept the Pacers alive.
And then came Game 7.
Haliburton went down early and stayed down. Achilles. The hush inside Paycom Center said it all — even Thunder fans knew what this meant.
From there, the game tilted. The league, as much as it tries to maintain the image of impartiality, didn’t help itself here. The referees were tight with the whistle every time players on both teams tried to get physical on defense. Social media exploded with accusations of league bias. “The league wants its youngest champion,” one fan said in the comments of a Facebook post.
The NBA is a business. A champion like Oklahoma City — loaded with charismatic, marketable stars in their early 20s — is a dream for the league. The Thunder play a beautiful brand of basketball. They stretch the floor, they drive and kick with precision, and they defend like their jobs depend on it. That’s not a coincidence — that’s coaching, and Mark Daigneault deserves all the flowers for keeping this group grounded through four tough rounds.
But when Haliburton left the floor, it was as if Indiana’s air got sucked right out of the building — even in Oklahoma City. Pascal Siakam did his best. Myles Turner played big. Andrew Nembhard showed flashes of why Indiana trusts him as a backup point guard. But without Haliburton, there was no maestro to orchestrate that Pacers pace-and-space symphony.
Meanwhile, Shai did what stars do. He took over. You could tell he saw the moment open up when Haliburton limped off — his eyes got sharper, his drives more aggressive. Jalen Williams was the perfect complement, scoring at all three levels. And Chet Holmgren? That kid was a monster in the paint — six blocks in Game 7, countless altered shots, and even a couple of threes that made it feel like the Thunder were just playing their brand of basketball while the Pacers were trying to stay afloat.
Game 7 ended 103–91. The third quarter started awfully slow, with neither team scoring for nearly five minutes. But then Oklahoma City started to pull away and never looked back.
The aftermath was bittersweet. Thunder fans were jubilant — how could they not be? Their team just became the youngest in league history to win it all. But you could feel it from the analysts, the coaches, even the players in the postgame interviews: this win came with an asterisk. Not a real one, not the kind that shows up in the record books, but the kind that sticks in your head when you think back on this Finals years from now.
What if Haliburton hadn’t gone down? What if the refs had called things a little more evenly? What if Indiana had been able to run their offense through the guy who led them all season?
But that’s sports, isn’t it? Injuries, officiating, momentum swings — they’re all part of the game.
So let’s give the Thunder their due. They survived a gauntlet out West. They took down a veteran Nuggets squad in the conference finals. They fought through adversity in the semis against Minnesota, where Anthony Edwards looked ready to take the torch himself. And when the lights were brightest, they delivered.
Shai is him. Let’s not forget that. This wasn’t some fluke championship where a team backed into the trophy because the stars aligned. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 29.9 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.3 rebounds per game in the playoffs according to StatMuse. He was the Finals MVP, and he earned every bit of it.
And then there’s Chet Holmgren. The last time a rookie big man had this kind of impact on a Finals was Tim Duncan in 1999. Holmgren didn’t just block shots — he intimidated. He changed how Indiana attacked the basket. And when he wasn’t protecting the rim, he was pulling Myles Turner out to the perimeter and creating space for SGA to go to work. That’s modern basketball, folks.
Let’s not ignore Jalen Williams either. The kid is a star in the making. His midrange game is lethal, and he’s unafraid of big moments. Several of OKC’s comeback runs throughout this series were keyed by his timely threes or baseline drives.
And the coaching staff — my goodness. Daigneault had these guys prepared for every single wrinkle Indiana threw at them. Zone? They diced it. Full-court pressure? SGA handled it. Off-ball motion? They chased and rotated like a group that’s been defending together for a decade.
You can’t shake the feeling that something was lost in this championship. Not for the Thunder — they’ll celebrate this for years. But for NBA fans? For lovers of the game who wanted to see a battle of wits, a clash of systems, and two teams at full strength pushing each other to the edge?
We were robbed of that by a calf strain that turned into something much worse. Haliburton had been fighting through pain since Game 5, hoping to gut it out for just a few more days. His leadership, his flair, his poise — they’re irreplaceable. And now, with a torn Achilles likely confirmed, his future is clouded. Reports are already circulating that he may miss all of next season unless Indiana makes a very deep playoff run, which, without him, feels like a stretch.
The league, for its part, will likely lean into this Thunder narrative. Young team, built through the draft, not a single “superteam” move. It’s a marketer’s dream. You’ll see Chet and SGA on shoe billboards, Gatorade ads, and late-night talk shows all summer. The league will use this moment to say, “See? The system works.”
But basketball purists know what they saw. They saw a series turn not on a brilliant play, but on a body giving out. They saw a team win, but not beat the best version of its opponent. And that’s the harsh reality of the sport.
Here’s the thing, folks: The Thunder are champions. And they earned that title with their defense, their depth, and their fearlessness. They’ll be back. Probably a lot. This could be the start of a dynasty.
With that, the Pacers have a long summer ahead. Rehab for Haliburton. Roster questions. And a lot of what-ifs. But no matter how this Finals will be remembered — through the lens of triumph or what could’ve been — there’s no doubt it was one for the history books. Even if the book feels like it’s missing one last, heartbreaking chapter.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them.