The climb is complete. The rebuild is done. The Oklahoma City Thunder are champions.
In a series that has defied expectations, the Oklahoma City Thunder just captured their first championship in franchise history. The Thunder were the best team in the league during the regular season, finishing with a franchise-record 68 wins. OKC’s core players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren, are relatively young, suggesting the possibility of more championship runs in the future. Fans in Oklahoma City celebrated the team’s first championship since the move from Seattle. Mount Vernon’s Gus Williams, known for his volume scoring and electric on-court style, who in 1979 helped the Seattle SuperSonics win their only championship. The SuperSonics, a historic NBA franchise, moved to Oklahoma City in 2008.
The best team all season was the best team at the end, bringing the NBA title to Oklahoma City for the first time. Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with 29 points and 12 assists, and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers — who lost Tyrese Haliburton to a serious leg injury in the opening minutes — 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
“It doesn’t feel real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the Finals MVP. “So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of belief. It’s crazy to know that we’re all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours and we deserve this.”
Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who finished off a season for the ages. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for the third most in any season. Only Golden State (with 88 wins in 2016-17) and the Bulls (with 87 wins in 2015-16) won more. A major accomplishment for the team that had a 22-win season in the 2020-2021 season, under coach Mark Daigneault’s first season as head coach. Followed by a 24-win season in 2021-2022. In 2025, the Thunder achieved significant success, culminating in their first NBA championship win.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) also made NBA history. Winning the NBA Finals and Finals MVP, he joined a very exclusive club of players who have won both the regular season MVP and Finals MVP in the same year. Gilgeous-Alexander is the first player since LeBron James in 2013 to win both the regular season MVP and Finals MVP in the same year. This should also solidify his place as the greatest player in Thunder history, surpassing Russell Westbrook, making him the first player in Thunder history to lead the franchise to an NBA title, further cementing his legacy.
Furthermore, winning the Finals makes the three-time NBA All-Star and three-time All-NBA First Team member only the fourth player to achieve a scoring title, MVP, and hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy in the same season, alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971, Shaquille O’Neal in 2000, and Michael Jordan four times, in 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1998.
Oklahoma City’s KOCO 5 News SKY 5 captured fans taking to the streets in downtown Oklahoma City to celebrate Sunday night’s win against the Indiana Pacers for the Thunder’s first championship.
Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto team that won in 2019, Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Los Angeles Lakers team that won in the pandemic “bubble” in 2020, Milwaukee won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in 2023, and Boston won last year’s title.
And now, the Thunder get their turn. The youngest team to win a title in nearly a half-century has reached the NBA mountaintop, and SGA may have arguably made the case as the greatest player in Thunder history!
The Thunder are the second-youngest team in at least the last 70 years to win a finals, with an average age per player of 25.56, when weighted for playoff games played, according to the league. Only the 1976-77 champion Portland Trail Blazers were younger, by an average age of about half a year per player.
Last year, with Holmgren on the court for 82 games, Oklahoma City became the youngest team to ever finish first in the conference. After a disappointing — but perhaps necessary for learning purposes — loss in the second round in 2024 to the Dallas Mavericks, the Thunder returned this season stronger by adding Caruso and Hartenstein.
Again, this is the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in 1979, but there’s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title. In October, a championship banner is finally coming. A Thunder banner.
