Welcome to Media Day at the NBA Finals!
The NBA App & NBA TV will have live coverage of the Thunder and Pacers beginning at 1:30 ET, featuring Sixers guard Jared McCain on the ground as this year’s first player correspondent.
5 STORIES IN TODAY’S EDITION 🏀‘
June 4, 2025
Parallel Paths: How Haliburton & Shai share a similar climb to the sport’s pinnacle
2025’s Best: OKC & Indy have been the NBA’s two best teams since January
Welcome To The Show: A new generation of players hits the Finals stage
Turner’s Turn: The longest-tenured Pacer reaches the Finals for the first time
Unforgettable: One of the greatest Finals games ever played – 39 years ago today
BUT FIRST … ⏰
One sleep away…
Game 1 of the NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV tips off Thursday (8:30 ET, ABC) as the Thunder host the Pacers at the roaring Paycom Center, marking the building’s first Finals game in 13 years.
1. HALIBURTON AND SHAI’S PARALLEL PATHS TO THE FINALS
Nathaniel S. Butler + Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images
They see the game differently. They move differently. They lead differently.
But Tyrese Haliburton and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have both elevated their teams – and their games – to basketball’s biggest stage.
And while their styles diverge, their journeys to the Finals don’t.
- Cali Beginnings: SGA, now 26, was the 11th overall pick in 2018 and traded to the Clippers on Draft night. Two years later, Haliburton – now 25 – was picked 12th by Sacramento
- New Homes: After earning All-Rookie honors, SGA was traded to OKC in a deal for Paul George. Similarly, 2.5 years later, Haliburton – also fresh off an All-Rookie campaign – was sent to Indy midseason for Domantas Sabonis
Each traded for stars before turning 22, both guards forged their own names – blossoming into franchise players as their teams rebuilt and rose to new heights.
SGA’s Arc: Over six seasons, Shai grew into OKC’s undisputed leader — a scoring force as calm as he is lethal, guiding a young core that hasn’t just come of age, but become dominant.
- Steady Rise: In Year 1 with OKC, SGA nearly doubled his scoring average from 10.8 ppg to 19.0. That upward trend never slowed – by 2022-23, he tallied 31.4 ppg for his first All-Star nod
- OKC Elevation: The Thunder improved in lockstep, boosting their win total each of the past five seasons. In 2024, they became the youngest team ever to earn a No.1 seed – but fell in the West Semis
Then, Everything Clicked: This season, Shai claimed both the scoring title and the Kia NBA MVP, propelling OKC to a franchise-record 68 wins and its first Finals berth since 2012.
- Triple Crown: Now, he’s aiming to become just the fourth player in NBA history to win the scoring crown, MVP and NBA title in the same season, joining Shaq, MJ (4x) and Kareem
- “He wants to be one of the greats,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault on SGA. “He aims as high as you could possibly aim … but he doesn’t walk around the building any different than anybody else.”
David L. Nemec/NBAE via Getty Images
Pacers’ Pulse: After being traded to Indy, Haliburton evolved into an elite orchestrator – electrifying its free-flowing offense with creativity and command.
- New Pace: In his first full season with Indy, Haliburton posted a career-high in both points (20.7) and assists (10.4) to earn his first All-Star selection
- New Heights: The next season, he averaged 20/10 again, leading the league in assists while leading the Pacers to the East Finals
- New Era: This year, he brought them back – and through – posting the second-best assist/turnover ratio (5.03) among players with 150+ dimes in a single postseason, sending Indy to its first Finals in 25 years
- “This is a franchise that took a chance on me, saw something that other people didn’t see in me,” said Haliburton after reaching the Finals. “Sometimes I think they saw more in me than I saw in myself.”
Full Circle: In 2021-22, Indy went 25-57 while OKC went 24-58, making this just the second Finals in NBA history where both teams had 25 or fewer wins three years prior.
Now, both superstars are four wins away from delivering their city its first NBA title.
But only one road ends in a parade.
2. CLASH OF 2025’S TWO HOTTEST TEAMS
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“This is gonna be my year!”
“New year, new me!”
Every year, these phrases get tossed around like LeBron’s pregame chalk as people around the world look for a reset at the start of a new calendar year.
While most New Year’s resolutions last only a few days or weeks, the Pacers have kept it up going for five months – and look to push it to six.
- On New Year’s Eve, the Pacers closed 2024 by allowing the Bucks to make a 19-point comeback, falling to 16-18 on the season
- Two days later, the Pacers opened 2025 by racing past the Heat in Miami for the first of six straight wins to open the new year
- And it didn’t stop. The Pacers went 34-14 to close the regular season before putting together a 12-4 run to the NBA Finals
Indiana’s combined 46-18 (.719) record is second only to one team – the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have a combined 53-13 (.803) record since the calendar flipped to 2025.
- What Changed: Indy’s offense rose from 11th in scoring and 10th in assists in 2024 to 5th and 2nd, respectively, in 2025 – making an increase of 4.7 ppg and 2.5 apg to close the regular season
- The Catalyst: Tyrese Haliburton – Indiana’s engine – increased his scoring by 1.9 ppg and points created with his assists by 2.2 ppg in 2025. His combined 4.1 ppg increase in generated offense nearly matches Indiana’s 4.7 ppg leap in 2025
“New year, same us!”
While Indiana needed a new year’s spark, Oklahoma City closed 2024 on a roll and looked to maintain that momentum in 2025.
- On New Year’s Eve, the Thunder defeated the Wolves – their eventual West Finals opponent – for their 12th straight regular-season win
- They opened 2025 by pushing that win streak to 15 games – the longest in franchise history
- After holding the NBA’s second-best record in 2024 (27-5), OKC closed the regular season 41-9 for a league-high and franchise-record 68 wins before matching Indiana with a 12-4 run to the Finals
How Did They Do It? The keys to OKC’s sustained excellence throughout the 2024-25 season have been Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading an efficient offense and a collective commitment to disruptive defense.
- SGA was one of four players – along with Giannis, Kevin Durant and Paolo Banchero – to score 20+ points in 20+ straight games this season. SGA’s 72-game streak was longer than the other three players combined (70)
- OKC’s defense ranked in the top five all season long, while leading the league in steals (10.3) and points off turnovers (21.8). Both of those numbers are up in the Playoffs – 10.8 spg and 23.8 ppg off turnovers – as OKC enters the Finals
Both teams have shined during the 2025 portion of the 2024-25 campaign. Which teams will have the best close over the next two weeks?
3. A NEW GENERATION HITS THE FINALS STAGE
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- Welcome To The Show: Numerous Finals debuts are in store as only four players in the series – three for Indy and one for OKC – have played in the Finals, with a combined 18 games of experience
- Youth Is Served: The combined average age of 26.3 between the Thunder (25.6) and Pacers (27.1) makes this the 2nd youngest Finals since 1954-55, trailing only the 1977 Finals between the Trail Blazers (25.03) and the 76ers (26.2)
- A New Champ: For the first time ever, the NBA will have a different champion for seven consecutive years. The Pacers seek their 1st title in their 2nd Finals appearance, while the Thunder seek their 1st title of the OKC era in their 2nd appearance
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Both the Thunder and Pacers built their rosters in similar fashion – trading for a promising young point guard that developed into a superstar, adding talent through the Draft, and making key veteran acquisitions to add champion experience to the young core.
- In Jan. 2024, the Pacers traded for Pascal Siakam – an athletic and versatile forward, who won the 2019 title with the Raptors and complemented the style of offense led by Tyrese Haliburton
- 🗣️ Myles Turner on Siakam’s Impact: “We brought in someone who’s been there before … When you have someone that’s actually been in those trenches, who’s felt what it feels like. It’s so underrated the emotions this time of the year.”
- In June 2024, the Thunder traded for Alex Caruso – a two-time All-Defensive Team guard, who won the 2020 title with the Lakers and fit in perfectly with OKC’s desire to make defense its calling card
- 🗣️ Caruso on OKC’s Difference Maker: “Our defense is our superpower. When we’re locked in on that side of the ball, we’re an unstoppable force.”
- Indy’s Trio: In addition to Siakam, the Pacers feature West Finals Game 1 hero Aaron Nesmith (who reached the 2022 Finals with Boston) and Thomas Bryant (who won the 2023 title with Denver)
Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty Images
The connections don’t stop there, with five players entering the league on the same night and four hailing from the same country.
- Class Of 2022: OKC’s Chet Holmgren (No. 2 overall), Jalen Williams (12) and Jaylin Williams (34) as well as Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin (6) and Andrew Nembhard (31) were all part of the 2022 NBA Draft
- Oh, Canada: Each team features two players from the Canadian National Team – OKC’s Lu Dort and SGA and Indiana’s Nembhard and Mathurin – including two from the same city going head-to-head
- “Two kids from Montreal in the Finals will be huge.” – said Dort on facing Mathurin
4. TURNER’S TURN: A FINALS TRIP 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING
When the Pacers clinched the East to reach their first NBA Finals in 25 years, the first player to hoist the Bob Cousy Trophy was the longest-tenured Pacer – Myles Turner.
Turner endured nine years of coming up short.
The Pacers reached the Playoffs in each of his first five seasons, but never escaped the First Round. The following three years, they didn’t reach the postseason.
Even after Indiana was swept by Boston in the 2024 East Finals, Turner was keen to stay put.
So when the final buzzer sounded Saturday, sending his team to its first Finals since 2000, it meant that much more to him.
- “Nothing but joy,” Turner said. “Pure excitement. Pure validation. All the years, all the hate, all the love, everything in-between – it just makes so much sense in that moment.”
- Staple: Among active players, Turner’s 10-year Pacer tenure is topped only by Steph Curry’s 16 and Draymond Green’s 13 with the Warriors, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 12 with the Bucks
- At Long Last: But out of all three of them, the seasoned center has waited the longest to make his Finals debut
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
In Jan. 2023, Turner signed a two-year extension after Indiana finished 13th in the East in 2021-22. It would eventually finish in 11th that season.
That decision to avoid free agency came at a major turning point in his career.
- The Foundation: During his first seven seasons, Turner was primarily a standout shotblocker with two-way upside. He led the NBA in blocks for 2018-19 and 2020-21
- Adjustments: But in 2022-23, second-year coach Rick Carlisle put the ball in Turner’s hands and challenged him to expand his scoring arsenal
- Player Reborn: That season, the Texas product produced 18.0 ppg, 11.8 FGA and 61.2 eFG% – all career highs
Indiana’s midseason trade for Tyrese Haliburton during Carlisle’s first year was an impetus for Turner’s transformation.
- New Life: The guard’s passing skills facilitated opportunities for the center to get active in the paint or from midrange
- Steady As He Goes: Turner’s eFG% has dipped no lower than 57% through three full regular seasons alongside Haliburton, and he shot a career-best 39.6% from 3 this season
The veteran starter sensed that something was different about the group around him well before they booked their Finals trip.
“We were in Nashville two years ago, just playing pickup… Seeing the dedication… everybody showed up,” Turner said. “That was a first for me. That’s when I knew.”
5. UNFORGETTABLE: INSIDE A FINALS CLASSIC, EXACTLY 39 YEARS LATER
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Many in Boston Garden that night called it the greatest game ever played.
On the broadcast, Rick Barry described it as “the most exciting basketball game I’ve ever seen.”
On June 4, 1976, Game 5 of the NBA Finals delivered a triple-overtime thriller between the Celtics and Suns. With the series tied 2-2, neither side gave an inch — and the chaos that followed became legendary, resulting in one of the longest games in Finals history.
Boston won the title two days later. But for many, the series peaked that night. Here’s how it went down through the eyes of that year’s Finals MVP Jojo White:
“It’s like as if it was yesterday … It was the longest game I’ve ever been in. The most excruciating game … The ending of regulation, we thought the game had ended and went back into the locker room. I cut my tape off because we thought the game was over. And then we were notified that we had three more seconds left on the clock.
“So our thinking was, ‘what could happen in three seconds?’ We go out and play three seconds of defense and the game’s over. As you know, we played three more overtimes.
“As it got closer to the end of each overtime, I would mention to the doctor that I was getting cramps in the back of my legs … He kept telling me, ‘You have two minutes to go, Jojo – just hang in there.’ Then we’d end up going to another overtime.
“By the time I sat on the floor, was the time that I felt that we had a handle on the game. It was a welcomed sit-down.”
White sitting on the parquet became an enduring image – the Finals MVP spent, the Celtics triumphant and Boston on top with its 13th NBA title.
