ANOTHER THUNDER AVALANCHE

AN OKC NATIVE RECALLS THE JOURNEY TO THE 2025 FINALS

By Shawn Munyan Sikes

PROLOGUE: THE STORM BEFORE THE STORM

The story of the Oklahoma City Thunder 2025 playoff run begins - at least, my experience of the journey - with a rainy drive from Tulsa down I-44. Easter Sunday. Earlier in the week, my brother-in-law and Thunder employee Micah Fryslie invited me to go to the first playoff game for the Thunder. His goal was to take every family member to a game throughout the playoffs; since I was already in town for the holiday, it made sense to check my name off the list immediately.

Hannah and I were in the thick of a house hunt; had already experienced a couple painful rejections and toured a lot of houses we didn't care about. The night before, we agreed we were ready to pull the trigger and make an offer on a house we referred to as Meg (after missing out on Jo and passing on Amy). So while I drove through a rain storm, Hannah contacted our realtor with our offer.¹ The realtor told us to keep our eyes on our phones for paperwork she would send later in the day.

We parked at the Fryslies house, rain now pouring. Hannah swapped out and drove on to my parents’ house. Micah and I hopped in his car, hit up Taco Bell for lunch, then went to the stadium. By the time we parked the weather had fortunately cleared up. We meandered around Scissortail Park and the Thunder exhibits the organization had set up before heading into the arena. Around the time I was sitting down and putting on the team-provided white out tee shirt, my phone alerted me that the home buying paperwork came in. So from a seat high up in Loud City, I put in my e-signature and sent it off.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were coming off an incredible season. One of those seasons you get to call “An Historic” season. Record-breaking. All Time. Ahead of schedule. Whatever, you name the superlative and any sports analyst actually paying attention probably used it to describe them at some point. For me, that regular season team was bar-none the best team I have ever rooted for in the nineteen years I’ve been following sports.

The season started with high expectations. The Thunder took an unexpected spot at the #1 seed in the West the year prior, becoming the youngest team to ever take the top spot. They swept the New Orleans Pelicans before taking on Dallas, where the youth of anyone without the last name Gilgeous-Alexander was evident in their 2-4 elimination.

Such is the way in the NBA - the colloquial wisdom states you must take your lumps. The offseason free agent acquisition of Isaiah Hartenstein alongside the straight up trade of Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso signaled the Thunder had every intention of holding onto the #1 seed in the West. They clearly meant to go more than just “a little bit further”. While the team preached mantras such as “be where your feet are” and keeping a “0-0 mentality,” it didn’t take much decoding to know they expected themselves to be Finals-bound down the road.

Before the season started, Hartenstein broke a bone in his hand and would miss some time. About ten games into the season their star center Chet Holmgren - showing flashes of the player the team believed he could become - took a hard tumble against the Golden State Warriors and broke his hip. Out indefinitely.

With multiple other role players out, the Thunder basically didn’t have a center to put on the floor, and expectations were understandably adjusted. Let’s just make the playoffs. Focus on that, hopefully home court doesn’t matter and they can just get back healthy by April to make the run we all believe they are capable of making.

But a strange thing developed from there. The Thunder kept winning. Like over and over. With or without their best players healthy. And not just eking out close wins. They were dominant. A couple of those historically unlikely broken records were “margin of victory” type records. It was frustrating how often the team had various players out with various hip injuries or calf strains, but you wouldn’t know that to watch the team. The players radiated an infectious energy that showed on and off the court. Even their post-game pressers with sideline reporter Nick Gallo occasionally went viral with their various endearing antics. So before even the All Star Break, Oklahoma City had become appointment viewing for the faithful.

THE GRIZZLIES SERIES

GAME ONE

Memphis went up 4-0 to start the game, but by a few minutes in, OKC led 11-9 and the game may as well have ended there. Sure, the rest of the first quarter was still technically competitive - the Thunder "only" led by 12. In the second quarter though, the Thunder demonstrated to the wider NBA viewing audience what their fans witnessed all season: unbelievably long stretches of turnover fueled lock down defense.² They opened the second quarter with a 23-2 run. While you could point to any player on the roster that afternoon as a standout player³ what will always stand out in my memory from that game is the perfect synchronicity between Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein, throwing up lobs for the other to slam home.

Somewhere in the third quarter I got the notification our offer on the house was accepted. If memory serves, I briefly texted Hannah, made passing mention of it to Micah, and then returned my focus to the game. Now the goal was to see if they could set the all time point differential record for a playoff game. They didn't, but a 51 point win⁴ is certainly nothing to hang your head about.

Sam Presti stated a year or so prior that when the team returned to the playoffs, he wanted it to be an arrival and not an appearance. So maybe they didn’t fully make the statement they wanted to in the playoffs the year before. But in Game One of their second trip back following the rebuild, they certainly let the league know what they were capable of. How often can you check the score of a basketball game in the third quarter to see one team’s score is literally double that of the other teams?

After the game, Micah and I drove back to my parents’ house for Easter dinner with the rest of the family. The downstairs was stripped bare due to water damage sustained during a February freeze, but that didn’t stop the mood from being entirely celebratory. Everyone was pumped about both the playoffs and for Hannah and I reaching the next step in the home buying journey together.

Final Score: 131-80

GAME TWO

Game Two didn’t have quite the fanfare Game One had. No driving to OKC, no watching in the arena, no houses bought or sold during gametime. This was a much quieter affair as Hannah and I watched from home in Tulsa. Again, this one was effectively over in the first, OKC held the lead from wire to wire and the Memphis deficit was fifteen down when the second quarter started. Credit to them for not throwing in the towel; in the third quarter they outscored the home team 27-20 and pulled within 8 points multiple times. It didn’t matter in the end, with the Thunder taking care of business and using their defense to bring the game to a close. Not every game can be a 51 point rout, but 19 points is still a blowout all things considered.

I wondered aloud to Hannah what my Grandma would have said about this game if she were still alive to see it.

Final Score: 118-99

GAME THREE

We invited a group of friends over for Game Three, but only Quinn and Kaylee Fields came over. After the drubbings the Grizz took in Games One and Two, ticket prices for the first game in Memphis were being posted on NBA community boards because they were so dirt cheap. The game didn’t even sell out, empty seats were visible in the lower bowls. Despite this, the Thunder came out slow and entirely unprepared. Memphis punched them straight in the mouth and went up by 29 in the first half.

Late in the second, Scottie Pippen Jr. stole a Jalen Williams⁶ pass intended for Isaiah Joe and sprinted down the court. With Lu Dort in pursuit, he passed it behind his back to controversial star Ja Morant to slam it home. Dort stopped his momentum immediately and slipped as he tried to turn backwards to make a play to stop a now mid-air Morant. The collision flipped Morant forward and knocked him hard to the ground. Morant muscled through two missed free throws so he had the chance to return to the game if the injury turned out to be not as severe as it initially seemed.

Ja Morant did not return in this game, or at all this series for that matter.⁷ The third quarter started with the Thunder 26 points down, the mood something along the lines of frustration OKC played so below their average level. There wasn't any panic for the series, but what a waste it would cause them to blow a potential sweep.

It's impossible to say how the rest of Game Three plays out if Morant wasn't injured, because as good as he is, the Thunder of 2024-2025 were notorious for the second half play. The Thunder went on to double their opponent's score in the third quarter⁸ behind 16 points from Chet Holmgren⁹. They closed the quarter with a three-pointer from JDub that pulled the game within 8. The Fields left around halftime, but Hannah and I were looking at each other like, "...they aren't seriously gonna pull this out, are they?"

They did. Within a few minutes into the fourth it was a one score game, and stayed pretty back and forth until the Thunder pulled away in the final minute. Thus ended the second largest playoff comeback in NBA history.

Final score: 114-108

GAME FOUR

Hannah and I were back in OKC for the marathon this weekend¹⁰. That morning we picked up our race packets and bibs before returning to my parents' place to watch the game with my dad and brother. The game started in the Memphis arena with even more empty seats than in Game Three.¹¹

This one turned out to be the only “traditional” game of the series in that it was neither a blowout or historic comeback. It was just a close back and forth game all the way through.

While any number of Thunderers could be shouted out for their contributions in this one, the man of the match would have to be the team leader, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, finally playing at his normal caliber of play for the first time this series by scoring 38 points and hitting the dagger at the end. The energy in the room for this one could maybe be described as "subdued belief". We all knew the Thunder could make it happen, but try being a sports fan for more than a few minutes without the game teaching you the ball just bounces funny sometimes. The ball didn't bounce funny tonight though, and despite Scottie Pippen Jr's escalated play, the better team walked away the victor of the game, closing out the series with a sweep.¹²

My brother and I expressed the same sentiment after the game: thank goodness we can just go run tomorrow without a loss and a Game Five hanging over our heads.¹³

Final score: 117-115.

Series result: 4-0

THE NUGGETS SERIES/WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMI FINALS

After waiting what seemed like forever - in reality, about a week - for the Clippers-Nuggets series to end, the Thunder were about to invite the Denver Nuggets to OKC for the MVP series.¹⁴ The odds-on favorite in this year's voting, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs Nikola Jokic, winner of 3 of the past 4 MVPs and generally agreed upon best player in the world.

Despite rostering someone who has the talent to potentially be one of the top five players of all time by the end of their career¹⁵, the Nuggets seemed like they were toast. At this point they're coming off a middling year with an interim coach. They have an injury-depleted roster that really only has six guys they can play in the post season. It took them all seven games and a miracle buzzer beater by Aaron Gordon slam dunk to escape the LA Clippers.

OKC in comparison dispatched the Grizzlies in four in whatever way they felt any given night. The injury report for all intents and purposes was empty. And the team continued to hum along in perfect harmony, before, during and after games.

OKC in 5 at worst, surely.

GAME ONE

I’ll spare the suspense. The Thunder lost this one. It started the way it was supposed to. The Thunder led by one after the first quarter. The Thunder led by 10 after the second quarter. While the Nuggets won the box score in the third, the Thunder still led by 5 after the third quarter. Even with a bit over 4 minutes left in the fourth, the Thunder were back to leading by 11.

Don’t ask me how it got from there to here, but with under a minute left, the Nuggets pulled within a single score. With 13.9 seconds left, the Thunder were up by one and the free throw chess match began. Shai was fouled and sank both, making it a three point game. Denver advanced the ball with a timeout, the Thunder fouled Jokic immediately, who also sank both of his FTs. Despite the voice of the internal sports pessimist living in my head, I’m mentally writing a text to Micah about the Thunder winning this playoff game on the court he designed.

12.9 seconds remain. The Thunder called timeout and advanced the ball. The Nuggets bench Jokic in anticipation of their need to foul so he doesn’t pick up his sixth. The ball is inbounded to Shai who had a clear path to the basket and immediately laid it in. 11.1 seconds left. Denver is out of timeouts with their best player stuck on the bench until the next stoppage in play. At this point, it looked like the Thunder’s vaunted defense would allow them to escape with a three point victory.

What happened instead was Coach Daigneault played math ball and called for the immediate foul of Aaron Gordon so he didn't have the chance to get the three point shot off. 0.4 seconds came off the clock and Jokic was granted a return to the court. Gordon hit both his shots. Back to a one point game. Westbrook fouled Chet with 9.5 on the clock and Chet missed both his attempts. Denver’s Braun secured the rebound, passed it down the court to Westbrook, who immediately threw it across the arc to Gordon. Gordon drained the three pointer with less than three seconds left.

A perfunctory full court heave by Jalen Williams hit off the backboard, and the Thunder lost by two.

Pretty devastating stuff. I had to go back to my Thunder text threads to see how I handled it and I was pleasantly surprised to see I handled it pretty well. My text to the college guys just said, "that sucked", and my texts to the family Thunder thread said I still thought they would win, but I adjusted my prediction from six games¹⁶ to seven.

It’s just hard to steal two on the road.

Final Score: 121-119, Denver

Series Record: 0-1

GAME TWO

Maybe the strange fact that every single first and second seed across the Eastern and Western Conference Semi Finals lost their home opener this year gave me a little hope. These are theoretically the best four teams in the league. Surely all four of them won’t go on to botch their series? This team couldn’t possibly lose both home games to open the series, right? Right?

Because it was on a Wednesday night - our standing weekly hangout appointment at the Boltes - I decided I would be mature and stick to the routine. The Boltes are not sports people and hanging out meant giving up the ability to find out the answer to that question by watching in real time. I figured that’s just as well, they’ll either lose and I didn’t want to see it anyway, or succeed and I can happily watch the highlights later.

Early in the game, my phone is already blowing up. First just with texts from the guys, hyping each other up by showing off their Thunderwear in support¹⁷. But then the texts start rolling in talking about how great the first quarter is, and demands that I "evangelize their asses" into watching their state team play.¹⁸

Since it was just a pure hangout night and not a TV series group watchalong night, I decided to inform the hosts that even though they don't use it, their HBO subscription provided them TNT, the station where the Thunder were playing. By the time the game was on in the second quarter, the Thunder were already twenty points up.¹⁹

The narrative on the court was a straightforward Thunder Avalanche from start to finish. In the Boltes' house, no one is evangelized as such, but there's a little chatter throughout the night where Hannah and I get to educate everyone about the Thunder's "an historic" season.

On my phone, both the Thunder groups²⁰ are talking about jinxes, and when it's appropriate to declare confidence in a lead^{21, 22}.

By the end of the game, the Thunder had set multiple records. Most points in a half with 87 in the first. Highest ever +/- in the playoffs by a player with Shai a +51. Lowest ever +/- for Jokic²³, who was a -36.

As the players walked off with the victory, they all pointed at the court, designed by Micah Fryslie, then looked up at him and shouted, "This one's for you, Micah."²⁴

Final Score: 149-106, OKC

Series Record: 1-1

GAME THREE

A lesson that sports fans can never truly learn: sports do not care about your feelings. It can be learned temporarily, after a thrilling underdog win or a heartbreaking loss that comes from out of nowhere. We reference this idea often in phrases like “any given Sunday,” “they’re a great team on paper,” or “that’s why you play the games.” But I think if we as sports fans truly, deeply grasped that our love and devotion to our teams only runs parallel to what happens on the court and isn’t intertwined in their success or failure, we’d get up from our coaches, turn off the TV, and spend our time engaging with something, anything, more concretely productive (crashing millions of dollars in beer, gambling, and ad revenue in the process).

Before Game Three, Kevin McKee and I met up at the Tucker's Onion Burger that expanded into Tulsa.²⁵

As always, we talked on a wide range of subjects, but when the talk is on the Thunder, we can't help but make predictions. Kevin was optimistic and flexible in his prediction - the Thunder will win the series if they win one of the next two games, which he believed they will do. I agreed, in large part because it's generally a good idea to agree with Kevin on his sports takes. He's right more often than he's wrong. Privately, however, I believed it's this one or bust. Fortunately, I was also still riding the blowout high, and I fully felt they've got this one.

Kevin followed me back to the old place, where I spent a frantic fifteen minutes or so trying to find someplace to pirate the games.²⁶ I finally got the game going on my laptop and cast it to the TV.

The entire game was back and forth, the Thunder winning the box score in the first, the Nuggets took the second. When Kevin peaced out at halftime, the Thunder were five points to the good.

Neither team led by more than 9 at any point, there were 15 lead changes, and 12 ties. The Nuggets won the third and fourth quarters by marginal amounts. But the marginal amounts were still enough that the game headed to overtime. The Nuggets finally pulled away, scoring 11 points to the Thunder’s… oof… two points.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was photographed walking off the court smiling after the loss. He was subsequently raked over the coals online.

That night I had trouble falling asleep. After tossing and turning for a while, I sat in the garage and cracked open a beer. While doing so, I scrolled through some photos that might make me feel something other than miserable. I came across one of me and my dad on my wedding day. At the left edge of the photo is my mom walking to her seat after embracing me; Dad and I are just off-center to the left, mid-embrace. My back is to the camera. I allowed myself on this evening of misery to live in the photo for a moment.

I caught a detail I hadn’t before. In the background and to the right of my father and I, just barely out of focus is my grandfather, Dad’s dad, looking on at us. After Grandpa passed, I lamented not requesting a photo of the three of us together that day. I don’t know how I ever missed it, it’s a major part of the picture. But I was grateful to have found it now.

I scheduled for the photo and a text to be delivered to Dad the next morning with this caption: “Obviously couldn’t sleep last night, but I did look through old photos and found this one. Hadn’t noticed Grandpa in the background before. So that was nice that even though I didn’t get the photo of the three of us like I wanted, we’ve got this one. Also I’m calling Game 4 a must win.”

Dad responded the next day, “No doubt”.

Final Score: 113-104, Denver

Series Record: 1-2

GAME FOUR

Game Four brought us back to OKC for Mother’s Day. As Dad and I set up for lunch, we’re making our peace with the cruel reality of sports. As much as we thought we had a shot this year, it’s slipping away. I told him about how after Game Three, I woke up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep. Normally the day comes to me slowly, in fragments. But this time a fully formed thought presented itself the moment consciousness returned to me. “The Thunder lost last night. And they’ll probably lose the series.” I was unable to fall asleep the rest of the night. I kid you not.

Sports wraps its firm grip around your heart, and is indifferent as to whether it will shield it or rip it out. Nothing you feel impacts this decision. Dad and I tried to convince ourselves that maybe we’ll get next year, and that it’ll be nice to root for Westbrook to get a ring.

After Mother's Day activities, everyone headed upstairs to watch the game in the theater room. Micah provided a thoughtful surprise for everyone by shirting the seats with extra shirts from Games One and Two of the Denver series he brought home from work.²⁷

The game started well enough, holding Denver to only 8 points in the first quarter. But the Thunder themselves only put 17 on the scoreboard, somehow making their defensive efforts feel like a wasted opportunity. The Nuggets closed that gap by 3 in the second, and in the third they went off. The score going into the fourth quarter flipped from a six point lead at half for the Thunder to a six point deficit.

Around seven minutes left in the fourth, the Thunder fought back into it, and on a Cason Wallace three ball, regained the lead. I did not allow myself to believe. I feared that hope will only set me up for disappointment, perhaps another night where I wake up at 3 am thinking about the inevitability of losing this series and not advancing even a game further than they did last year.

But here’s the thing. Sports don’t care about how you feel. The Thunder took a two score lead not long after, and while the game remained close, they held it to the final buzzer. I’m not sure it ever became a one-score game in any meaningful fashion. With 8 seconds left and 6 points up, the Nuggets won a jump ball and Aaron Gordon banked in a three, but the amount of clock it took to make this happen drained the remaining time to 1.6 seconds. Jalen Williams was fouled and hit both his free throws, officially sealing the victory.

As the whole family finally got up from the seats they’d been glued to, Mom quipped she’s grateful they won so it wouldn’t ruin the holiday with a bunch of mopey sports fans. I didn’t admit it, but we probably would have been.

On the drive home, I talked to Hannah about the history of sports pessimism passed down from Grandpa Sikes to my Dad, and from my Dad on to me. I wondered aloud to Hannah what Grandma would have said about this game.

Final Score: 92-87

Series Record 2-2

GAME FIVE

Lu Dort was not having his best series. There were cries from some corners of the fanbase to bench him. There were even “reasonable” presentations of this case based on the idea that he was just not suited to this series. He should be sat or only get spot minutes, pulling him if it’s clear he doesn’t have it that game; he is welcome to his starting spot back in the next series because he’s a great player, just too exploitable in this one. These fans presumably pointed to their foreheads and tapped on the corner then said, “he won’t play at all in the next series anyway if he costs them this one.”

Hannah and I were back in Tulsa watching the games by ourselves. Dort is not benched; he's one of Mark Daigneault's guys, and as experimental as Coach Daigneault's willing to be, he stands by his guys. The game is close through the first half²⁸. In the third Denver stretched their lead to eight and that familiar feeling came back, the one that says, "Not your year."

I gave up, and declared as much to Hannah. She disagreed and went to bed. Dort promptly hit a three, cutting the lead from 9 to 6. Less than a minute later he hit another, bringing the lead down to five²⁹. He did it again with six minutes left, and the Thunder were in striking distance. One score game. It stayed neck and neck, both teams tying or briefly taking the lead until about two minutes left. Then Shai hit an and-1 off a pull up jumper to take a three point lead. Jokic responded by hitting his patented, spirit-deflating Sombor Shuffle right over Holmgren and knotted the game at 103-103.

But on the next possession Shai found Dort at the top of the three point arc. Dort made the extra pass to a wide open JDub for a corner three. He buried it, and the crowd exploded. In real time on TV, Williams pulled his right wrist right to his face and shouted at it. It doesn't take an expert lip reading to see what he screamed: "LET'S GO MOTHERFUCKER!!!!"³⁰

The Thunder poured it on for the remaining 90 seconds, the Nuggets final points were a two-point garbage time layup. Against my better judgment, I woke Hannah up to tell her the Thunder did indeed win.³¹

Timothy texted me and asked to call since he watched the game on his own. I welcomed the call since I knew I would need some time to come down from the high of the comeback victory. Even after the call, I think I was up past 1 am before finally crashing.

Final Score: 112-105, Oklahoma City

Series Record: 3-2

GAME SIX

Didn’t watch it, and just as well. DND was scheduled at Scott Street’s house that night. I kept up with the box score and it looked good until it didn’t. The outcome was official before we even left the Street’s house.

Bring on Game Seven, and the stress and despair of a potential second consecutive Conference Semi-Finals exit.

Final Score: 119-107, Denver

Series Record: 3-3

GAME SEVEN

The day prior to Game Seven, my dad invited himself and my mom over to watch the game. With the Thunder starting off flat as days old cola, it was a welcome presence, misery loves company. There was some news between Games Six and Seven that Aaron Gordon suffered a grade two hamstring strain, but planned to play anyway. Early in the game it looked like that was a bunch of smoke. The Nuggets flew out to an 11 point lead early.

Before the first quarter was over, I knew (I felt) in my heart this is where the Thunder season ends. That the best team I ever watched would only advance one game further than they did last year.

At the end of the first the Thunder scraped together a few scoring plays and brought the game within five points. Okay, that’s something, I guess. But then the second quarter happened. OKC didn’t just start playing winning basketball, they transcended. If you watched the entire seven game matchup, what played out for the rest of Game Seven was some strange alchemy where the losses and failures the Thunder players experienced the past week transformed into perfectly executed play making. Caruso was put on Jokic and somehow made his life miserable. Caruso said after the game he was ready to die on the court.

The Thunder racked up 16 total steals in the game. Cason Wallace contributed a couple of those and even posterized Jokic for good measure. Sure, Aaron Gordon was playing injured (it started showing around the second quarter), and that probably feels unfair for Denver fans, but what do those feelings have to do with the results? Nothing.

With about nine minutes still left in the game, the Thunder had such a commanding lead the Nuggets threw in the towel - in a Game Seven. Toward the end of the broadcast, the camera cut to a couple Denver fans, sitting down in enemy territory. One stared blank facedly forward, while the other put his arm around his pal and took a big swig of beer. Somewhere out in the ether, there is a gif of this, and I hope to find it someday. It’s perhaps the most perfect vignette for the comradery we find in sports loss and suffering.

But in Thunder Nation, such a gif wasn't needed today. Instead, we took my parents out to eat and then drove them by the new place to celebrate³².

Final Score: 125-93, Oklahoma City

Series Record: 4-3, OKC advances to the Conference Finals

THE TIMBERWOLVES SERIES/WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

A much shorter interlude between series this time. The Warriors-Wolves series ended in the gentleman’s sweep for the Timberwolves days before Thunder-Nuggets resolved. Thunder fans found themselves in a weird place. Obviously they were feeling good about taking the Nuggets series, especially after winning Game Seven so decisively. On the other hand, it took all seven games, and a few of them weren’t pretty.

The regular season is not really a great indicator as to what to expect in the playoffs, and the information from their meetings this year was especially not helpful. The Thunder split the four game series against them 2-2. This included the only Thunder meltdown from the regular season in which the Wolves overcame a 25-point deficit to beat the Thunder in overtime. The Thunder wouldn't be playing the best player in the world this round, but the Timberwolves were significantly less injured and considered much deeper. Mike Conley, Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert, Donte Divincinzo, Julius Randle, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker³³ all contributed to a roster helmed by the young NBA darling Anthony Edwards. He led them to the Conference Finals the year prior, and while the Thunder were still favored in the series, the Wolves and ANT were considered hungry to prove everyone wrong.

GAME ONE

On May 20th, the day of the series opener, I took a long lunch to buy a house. Yup, we opened the playoffs getting our offer accepted, and the day we closed we started the Minnesota series.

The Thunder played most of the first half marginally behind³⁴, but they'd been a second half team the entire season. Down by four at the start of the second half, OKC outscored Minnesota by 14 in the third and 16 in the fourth - while holding ANT to zero points in the final 12 minutes of the game.

Just because I don’t know that there will be another opportunity to give him credit for his play - or that ever indefinable but probably real force known as “veteran presence” - Kenrich Williams deserves to be mentioned for the stabilizing force he brought to the game in the third quarter. Enough so that Charles Barkley went on to compliment him on air the next day for “balling out,” demanding to know who #34 was during the SGA’s MVP interview.

Final Score: 114-88, OKC

Series Record: 1-0

GAME TWO

After Game One, Shaivante Acian Gilgeous-Alexander was finally named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. He was officially announced on TNT's INSIDE THE NBA by Shaq, who despite being a SGA backer for two years, could not bother to learn to pronounce "Gilgeous" correctly³⁵.

Later that day he gave a thoughtful and vulnerable acceptance speech, which made Hannah and I both a little misty behind the eyes.

Before tipoff, Adam Silver presented him with his trophy. Shai allowed his teammates about five seconds of celebrating before telling everyone to simmer as the game started.

Game Two played out largely the same way Game One did, with the exception they played the first half from a marginal lead instead of a marginal deficit. The Thunder, ever the second half team, went on a Thunder Avalanche Bolt³⁶ in the third, creating a 24 point surplus with less than a minute left. The Wolves did what they could in the fourth, ultimately chewing the lead back down to 15, but the victory was never in question.

After the hair pulling tension and stakes of the Conference Semis, it was nice to start a series with just the right amount of stress. “I didn’t like that they started so slow, but they ultimately took care of business in Game One.” and “I’m so glad they didn’t lose Shai’s MVP game.”-level stress. Enough spice to give it flavor, not enough to make you actually sweat.

Not for the first time, I found myself wondering what it would have been like to watch the game with my grandparents.

Final Score: 118-103, OKC

Series Record: 2-0

GAME THREE

If it seems like there was less personal reporting and in-game tension over the last couple games, it was just the calm before the proverbial and literal storm. We woke the morning of Game Three, Saturday, May 24th, to discover we lost power. The storm we drove through to start the playoffs was just one of many during an especially long Oklahoma storm season. This most recent one knocked out the power to a decent chunk of Midtown in Tulsa, where we were still living full time. We decided we’d slowplay our moveout and gave ourselves permission to not stress ourselves out with a big move.

The downside of this choice was that while the new place still had power, it was entirely unfurnished. Into the car we crammed: the dogs, everything from the refrigerator/freezer, camping gear to sit and sleep on, Hannah’s sewing room TV plus the antenna, and headed to the new place.

We watched Game Three in camp chairs with a TV propped up on the fireplace. The game was a complete bust, but hell, even that loss - while obviously not a good time - was so disastrously bad it was hard to take seriously. The day before I had the bright idea to enlist my family in Thunder Bingo, creating their own squares sheet for their gametime predictions - in game or at the watch party. This meant despite the near certain loss promised to the Thunder by halftime, I was forced to keep the TV on and monitor to see who got what squares crossed off.

Hannah created two about me; that I would get irritated and turn the game off at some point, then subsequently turn the game back on with the volume off. She crossed off both squares by the end of the night.

Kimberly correctly predicted Mom would take Bingo too seriously, I called that too much food would be made at the OKC watch party, Micah knew that Leah would say she just doesn’t understand what a foul is, and my mom and sisters all had some form of dad saying he was stressed. I don’t want to romanticize it too much, because again, the experience of watching Game Three was miserable. But still, it was fun to see the ways in which your people know each others’ patterns so well.

Martin and Miranda, also victims of the power outage, swung by to drop off their own endangered frozens. They stayed to hangout a bit and caught some of the game early on. Miranda pointed out games like this are why her mother literally forbids her from watching Thunder games - bad luck.

Final Score: 143-101, Minnesota

Series Record: 2-1

GAME FOUR

Power was restored by Game Four and we were re-settled back at the old place. It’s hard to explain how with my history of sports pessimism I wasn’t more unsettled by the 42 point loss, but the reality is, I wasn’t. Nervous, absolutely. But there was a certainty in the flukiness of Game Three. I was ready for OKC to start the next one and wash out the bad taste of the previous loss. Thunder in five is still on the table.

Every drop of that confidence was gone when I turned on the game before tipoff. I texted my friends how much I hated the sense of dread I get before big games - but that could have been said about any game in the playoffs after Game One against Denver. I think a major part of the dread is the expectation of victory fully believing you’re the better team. Even if you expect victory as the underdog, you know you’re playing with house money. When you expect victory because you really should win, the only thing you’re gambling with is your own emotions.

The Thunder started out much better in this first quarter, pulling out to a seven point lead around eight or so minutes in and keeping it there until the quarter ended. The Wolves were unable to make a run at them in the second, but didn’t let the game get out of hand either. At halftime the score was 65-57.

A nine point run by the Wolves early in the third brought the game within two points, so the Thunder countered with a 7 point run of their own. The Wolves went on an 8 point run not long after. The Midrange Maestro³⁷ stopped the bleeding with a 11' turnaround fadeaway. Divincenzo responded with a three, and the game was tied at 79 apiece. OKC was able to go on one more short run for another seven points, and with the rest of the back and forth, the score at the end of the third was a too tight 90-85, OKC.

In the game threads, no one is having a good time.

The entire fourth quarter was neck and neck. Looking back at the play-by-play, the longest set of “runs” was 6 points on 3 baskets by the Thunder, immediately followed by two Wolves threes. Another way to put it, it was an instant classic for neutral fans. A nail-biter for fans of Oklahoma City and Minnesota.

The play of the game happened with 3:41 remaining, Thunder up 113-109. SGA drove into Rudy Gobert. Shai’s right foot slipped on him, causing him to do the splits. He somehow kept his left pivot foot from coming up off the floor just long enough to shove a pass as he fell down, right between Jaden McDaniels’ legs. JDub was open above the three point arc and drained it to complete the bailout for Shai.

McDaniels hit a layup with about a minute left to cut the lead to five, and then with :23 seconds left, he hit another three, officially triggering the free throw chess match.³⁸

SGA was fouled at :14, making the lead a full score out of reach at 4. The Wolves took 5 seconds and two putbacks to get a Gobert dunk in. Less than a second later, Shai was fouled again and split the pair, opening a window for the Wolves. The Thunder then fouled Naz Reid intentionally to prevent them from being able to attempt a three-pointer. He made them both and it was a one point game.

Another second off the clock, another foul on SGA, this time he made both. Perhaps learning from Denver Game One, Coach Daigneault had Caruso allow ANT to bring the ball up the court just a ways before fouling, taking a few more seconds off.

Edwards successfully hit the one he wanted to hit and missed the free throw he tried to miss. In the scramble to secure the rebound, SGA ended up on the ground and gathered the ball. He had the wherewithal to heave the ball up into the air to avoid being fouled before time expired.

It’s hard to fully explain the chaos which followed, but as succinctly as I can: The ball may have been tipped off of Gobert’s pinky, but it was not reviewed. A fan may have stepped over the sideline hashmark in order to grab the ball, but his positioning was not reviewed. That fan definitely did grab the ball, but at exactly when was unclear. This was also (all together now) not reviewed. The refs simply put 0.3 seconds back on the clock and gave the ball to Minnesota. Infuriating.

Nothing of consequence happened, regardless. Jalen Williams skied to easily intercept the sideline out of bounds pass and that ended the game.

The new Thunder Big Three contributed 95 points towards the victory - SGA at 40-9-10, JDub at 34, and Chet at 21 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 3 blocks in his home state.

The nail-biting tension made the game an instant classic and sent a message from OKC. Despite the Wolves never fading away, the Thunder had an answer for everything their opponent threw at them.

Final Score: 128-126, OKC

Series Record: 3-1

GAME FIVE

The vibes were immaculate. God, I don’t even know where to begin. Julius Randle opened the game with a three, but from there… The Thunder did not let them score again for another five minutes of game clock. The Thunder only allowed the Wolves to score only four times total in the first quarter. Capped off by a Cason Wallace three pointer as time expired, the Thunder led 26-9.

Things got better in the second quarter for Minnesota, and by that I mean the Thunder only increased their lead by 16 instead of 17. Much like the Denver blowout game, there was much chatter in the threads about when it would be okay to start celebrating. But unlike the Denver game, everyone but Daniel Sikes agreed that by early in the third, this thing was over³⁹.

The subs were in with six minutes still left in the game. Every single starter finished with a double digit plus-minus. Alex Caruso played like a demon hand crafted by Lucifer himself, designed to make opposing players question the existence of a God who would allow an athlete to play such smothering defense, amassing four steals. Isaiah Joe went 4-4 from three. Even Ous hit a garbage time three. The crowd sang Na Na Hey Hey⁴⁰. Hannah and I used old sparkling grape juice leftover from NYE and poured moonshine in it to celebrate.⁴¹

Like I said, the vibes were immaculate⁴². During the Western Conference Finals trophy presentation, the team presented themselves as joyful and endearingly self aware. Coach Mark Daigneault lauded his players for being team-first, professional, high-character idiots en route to asking the crowd to rest up for Game One of the Finals. WCF MVP winner Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as Chet and JDub all acknowledged their gratitude for the moment - Chet being reminded by Lisa Salters there were two months earlier in the season he couldn't even walk - but also that this was just a step in the journey.

There was one more trophy they wanted to collect.

Final Score: 124-94, OKC

Series Record: 4-1, Thunder advance to the NBA Finals

THE FINALS/THE PACERS SERIES

I rooted for the Knicks to extend the series to seven to exhaust whoever emerged from the Eastern Conference. They pushed it to six before faltering to this year's giant killers, the Indiana Pacers⁴³.

God, the wait between the end of the WCF and the start of the Finals was so long. I maxed myself out on NBA content, trying to find more and more certainty Oklahoma City would be hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy within two weeks. The excitement and confidence felt after moving onto the championship slowly drained until it hit a plateau right at the line of tension between certainty and doubt. I felt like Mulder walking around, at times certain there were larger forces at work here, at others wanting to believe more than I actually truly did believe.

The overwhelming opinion was the Thunder would run away with it. One sportswriter for The Ringer whose name I have unfortunately forgotten claimed this was the closest the Thunder has ever been to a championship - and he made certain to note this included the 1-0 start against prime LeBron James and the Heatles in 2012⁴⁴. Zach Lowe said anything more than a Thunder in 5 prediction is a supreme vote of confidence in the upstart Pacers.

Dort wrote for The Players’ Tribune an essay titled Earned, Not Given that nearly made me predict Oklahoma City in three. I ultimately settled with Thunder in 6, citing the Pacers pluckiness and excellent three point shooting.

On Thursday, June Fifth - Game One - I got home from work and searched the house up and down for my full sized Oklahoma City Thunder flag. Nowhere to be found. Don’t let anyone ever tell you there’s no such thing as bad omens in real life.

GAME ONE

There was some pregame buzz with the news Coach Daigneault was starting Cason Wallace over Isaiah Hartenstein. Thunder began the game with a 7-1 lead, and while the Pacers tied it up at ten, Oklahoma City controlled the game. They continued their defensive mastery, forcing nine turnovers in the first quarter alone. They won the first and second quarters to take a 12 point lead at the half.

The Pacers made multiple runs at the Thunder throughout the game, even winning the third to shave three points off the lead. Oklahoma City absorbed each of these, eventually expanding the lead out to fourteen with just under nine minutes in the fourth.

In a mic’ed up moment that went semi-viral after the game, Jalen Williams warns his teammates that this is where the Pacers are comfortable. And that’s exactly what happened.

At seven minutes the Pacers are ten points down, then hit a three to make it seven. With five minutes left, they’re only down six. By four minutes, it’s four. I’m not even gonna bother to go back and find which Pacers I need to credit with the comeback because I swear it was all of them.

With a little over 27 seconds left, the Thunder were clinging to a one point lead. JDub missed a short jumper; Wallace and Pascal Siakam went tumbling for the rebound. The ball was called off Siakam. The Pacers even lost a challenge to overturn the call. The Thunder passed the ball in to Shai, who took the shot with four seconds left on the shot clock and about ten seconds left in the game. The Midrange Maestro came up short. Nesmith taps the rebound to Siakam, who passes it to Toppin, who gets the ball to Haliburton and everyone knew what would happen next.

It did.

Haliburton drove across the court on Wallace and got just inside the three point arc. He shoots and drains a long two, putting Indiana up one with 0.3 seconds left on the clock. I shouted the loudest, angriest single swear word I have ever shouted in my life.

The Thunder were unable to make the impossible happen with their attempt at a tip-in, and the game ended. I tossed my phone in disgust onto the rug, I slammed the power button on the remote with an unreasonable amount of force, as if the players could feel my disappointment at being turned off so abruptly.

Don’t know how long I sat there. I vaguely remember Hannah picking my phone up off the floor for me. A harmless act on her part, but one that crystalized the shame starting to sink in. Children throw the tantrums and the adults pick them up.

The hell is wrong with me? This is one game in a best of seven series. My team played better, and their play travels well - 4-2 on the road so far. There's no reason to believe this thing is over. Why was I so upset about a dropped Game One? I didn't act like this against the Nuggets. I wasn't sending texts to friends and family telling them “I've seen this movie before.”

At some point I pulled myself up from whatever I was feeling. I apologized to Hannah and went to bed. It was a bad night of sleep, ended early by 4 am thoughts of the failures of the night before.

Final Score: 111-110, Pacers

Series Record: 0-1

GAME TWO

Game Two didn't tip off for three days, leaving plenty of time for processing. It took place in person and in the text threads the next few days, lots of consoling and rationalizing and bargaining⁴⁵.

Hannah was scheduled to attend an optometry conference that weekend, so I was fortunately distracted with travel and playing the new Switch 2 and Mario Kart World in our rental. Earlier in the week, we figured out Game Two was the only game we could feasibly go to, but I was way too far back in the virtual queue to get first run tickets, and by the time I was up, all the second hand tickets were about twice what we said we’d be willing to pay. So on Sunday after Hannah Munyan, OD finished her final lecture, I drove us back straight to Tulsa and tried not to think about the game later that day. It went about as well as you’d imagine.

By the time we were home I was so nervous I intentionally didn’t turn the game on until sometime in the second quarter. This too felt awful - my team is in the Finals, the opportunity every fan dreams of and I’m “too nervous to watch”? Lame.

When I did finally turn it on, the Thunder were ahead, and they remained that way the entire game. Turned out a flurry of Chet points in the final minute of the first gave the good guys a 26-20 lead. In the second, OKC went on another Thunder Avalanche (33-21) for an 18 point halftime lead. The Pacers, God bless them, refused to go away, requiring the Thunder to keep up with them throughout the third (34-33) and the fourth (30-33), but with around four minutes left in the game, the Pacers put in the white flag and sent in their subs. The home team successfully mitigated the damage and would head to Indianapolis tied up 1-1.

Going into the fourth, Jalen Williams was asked how they were able to contain Tyrese Haliburton so effectively after he ruined their night on Thursday. His answer: "Lu Dort." And the stats show it; Hali was held to 17 points⁴⁶ on 7/13 shooting and only 5 assists, while committing 5 turnovers and a -5 plus/minus. Aaron Wiggins saved basketball, hitting 5 threes. Alex Caruso also scored twenty off the bench. SGA continued to make history, tying Wilt Chamberlain⁴⁷ for nine straight home playoff games with over 30 points.

Plenty to celebrate. The Thunder only needed to win a best of five series now, without homefield advantage. While Games One and Two played out the same way as the Denver series - a close loss in One, followed by a Thunder Avalanche game in Two - I didn’t have the same optimism or even neutrality I mustered following that series’s turnaround. Logically, I knew the Thunder proved over and over throughout the season the capability to steal one on the road. Emotionally, the Game One loss just felt too fatal, still.

Final Score: 123-107, OKC

Series Record: 1-1

GAME THREE

The only interesting storyline from Game Three - as far as I'm concerned - is that Micah was flown out to Indianapolis by the Thunder organization with tickets to the game. Ask him about the drunken escapades during Game Three sometime⁴⁸.

I gave up after this one, and basically told everyone as much. It was another nearly sleepless night, another early morning, another head full of doubts.

Sometimes you just feel cursed as a sports fan.

Final Score: 119-107, Indiana

Series Record: 1-2

INTERLUDE

A day or two later, my parents brought Coretta to visit the Jenks Aquarium. They wanted to see our new place, so we picked up some takeout to eat at the card table and folding chairs we brought over. On a whim after dinner, I pulled my dad into the garage. I don't know why, I think I just needed to talk to the only other person I knew who was losing their mind over this nearly as much as me⁴⁹.

I came right out with it. I told him that I felt like I was losing my mind during this playoffs. He knew how deeply I meant that. Not because he was feeling it, but because he wasn’t feeling it. My dad and I are often of an emotional accord when watching games - just about the same levels of upset or excited or nervous. But I was really struggling with this, and it was obvious it was a level beyond normal. We talked about the idea of sports based magical thinking - that if my team just wins the title, then all will be right with the world. He knew this idea well, and we laughed about the bald ridiculousness of it. Then I admitted what I thought my own sports based magical thinking was rooted in.

I missed my grandparents, who both died the summer before.⁵⁰ My grandfather went first, in April, less than a month after my wedding. I wrote and gave his eulogy. Grandma survived for a couple hellish months, then passed in June. Her anniversary was coming soon - in between Games 5 and 6, if the series even went that long. I wrote and delivered her eulogy as well.

I admitted to Dad I didn’t know either of them as well as I wish I did. There’s probably a thousand reasons for this, some of them my fault, some of them theirs, and some of them nobody’s. Doesn’t matter now. Basically my only touchstone in my relationship with my grandpa was that he was a Dallas Cowboys fan, handing this down to my father and myself. I may have known my grandma better than any of my grandparents, but still, that’s an unfortunately low bar to clear. I only learned in her later years how much she loved basketball. It was a strange factoid about her that screwed in further the fact I didn’t know them as well as I wanted.

You want to know a funny thing about this conversation? The only things I remember are asking to have it and the way my dad responded when I admitted I didn't know Grandpa as well as I wish I did. The rest I had to call my dad and ask how our conversation led to that point. And I suppose while I'm admitting what I don't remember, I might as well confess there's another place I've taken some mild artistic liberty throughout this memoir. Those times I said I talked to Hannah about wanting to talk to my grandma about the games? No idea if they actually occurred in those moments. I don't recall even saying those types of things, honestly. But when interviewing Hannah, she told me I brought up how much I wish I could talk to my grandma about these games regularly⁵¹.

If you want thoughts on what this unintentional forgetting means about the nature of grief, you’ll have to look elsewhere. I don’t know. I just know that I do remember feeling that way throughout the playoffs - but apparently I just dismissed them as nothing of consequence. Even in this conversation with my dad I don’t think I called them grief. Just sports based magical thinking. If the Thunder win the championship, I can share the victory with my grandparents, and all manner of things will be made well.

To hear my dad tell it, when I finished explaining what I thought was going on with me, I told him I just felt like I should share that with him. I wish I could remember how the rest of the conversation went. Knowing my dad, there were probably some words of wisdom and heartfelt connection. But for whatever reason, all that really stuck with me was the empathy and validation in my dad’s response. “He was a hard man to get to know.”

GAME FOUR

Back in happier times, the guys group agreed to gather together for Game Four - partly in case The Impossible Dream happened - a four game sweep - but mostly because it was the only game not scheduled on a work night. Kevin and I drove into OKC together that Friday afternoon. He insisted that whoever wins Game Four would go on to win the whole thing; therefore the championship hope remained alive. I did not share his optimism. Still, I was grateful to share his company, as well as Brett's and Steven's.⁵² I can only imagine the depths my soul would have sank to if I watched alone, because my Lord, that was a rough, rough, rough, rough game.

If the facts didn’t prove me wrong, I would swear the Pacers jumped to a ten point lead, held it, and ran with it for nearly the whole game. In reality, in the first half the Thunder led on occasion and were in striking distance the entire time. Much of the third played out the same; it wasn’t until the final minutes of the third quarter did the Pacers hit that ten point advantage. But the whole game just felt like the Thunder were playing some of their worst basketball. Felt like they had to work for everything while the Pacers were making whatever they wanted. Atrocious inbounding that led to Pacer points. The Thunder hit three three pointers the entire game. Shai had zero assists. The entire team only had ten. I spent most of the game in the most slouched position imaginable on Brett’s couch.

While the team never truly found a rhythm, guys like Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso⁵³ kept them in it until they pulled into a tie by eight minutes remaining in the fourth. Shai clawed them back from there. By now I'm up from the couch and actively pacing around an unfamiliar living room. SGA and JDub found a two man rhythm, and on an assist from Williams, Gilgeous-Alexander hit their third and final 3-pointer to bring the game within one. Three minutes left. A moment later on a controversial double no-call, The Mid-Range Maestro hit a two-pointer to take a one point lead. The league MVP scored fifteen of his 35 points in the final four and a half minutes. Two minutes of Mathurin bone-head plays and missed free throws later, the Thunder completed an absolute heist to take Game Four. We all quietly⁵⁴ freaked out and hugged it out, unable to contain our tremendous disbelief.

That unexploded excitement likely spurred on this next decision: we hopped in Kevin’s car and drove to the airport with the other throngs of the Thunder faithful to greet the team, Kevin’s 3-gallon bag of movie theater popcorn in tow. By the time we finally found where to park, we learned the arrival time was not actually 1:30 am, but more like 2:30 am. Brett and Kevin decided this surpassed their level of celebration and took off.

That left Steven and I to spend somewhere around three hours standing in tight quarters on a hopelessly muggy Oklahoma night. At one point I heard a child’s mother encourage him to lie to me and say his mother was up at the front so he could move up further. When he eventually tried this maneuver I told him I had heard him scheming. His mother had the audacity to try to shame me by asking what SGA would do. I was bailed out by a taller man next to me offering to put the kid on his shoulders.

The team finally arrived after three in the morning. We shouted and cheered at the players for about four minutes, separated by a fence and at least four rows of people. Steven and I then had the privilege of paying $43 for an Uber driver who drove 60 mph on city roads and had no love lost for Kevin Durant to drive us home.

Even after getting home, there was no rest for the weary. The parents’ downstairs was being refloored and the fumes were atrocious, even upstairs. Couldn’t stay in the camper due to some detector beeping every few seconds due to low batteries. Around 5 am I fell asleep next to an open window in the theater room.

On the whole, the evening sucked. It was awesome⁵⁵. I'll never do it again.

Final Score: 111-104, OKC

Series Record: 2-2

GAME FIVE

Zach Lowe after Game Four on SGA: “It wasn't pretty. None of it was easy. You go look back at his baskets, his fouls, almost none of them were easy. Very few jailbreaks… and he summoned what MVPs are supposed to summon. He summoned enough energy, enough resourcefulness, enough tough jumpers to get them over the hump in this game. Not a lot of highlights, it doesn’t necessarily (feel) like a performance that makes you feel super confident about the next game. But it was everything they needed to survive that game, he gave them.”

Nestled in that glowing review was a harsh truth. It took the Thunder, and SGA specifically, to muster up a nearly magical performance in a road win to keep them from being banished to a nearly insurmountable 1-3 start. 2-2 felt so much better than 1-3, but it was also not the 3-1 start most everyone predicted. The room to breathe again was welcome, but I work in the feelings business and I don’t know too many people who feel all their problems were resolved just because they could breathe again after a panic attack.

The Thunder quelled any concerns of a second consecutive sloppy performance early on, as they exceeded the number of 3-pointers made all game in Game Four by hitting four in the first quarter of Game Five. The role players stepped up at home and Jalen Williams began to cook up something special. They were ten points up by the end of the first; 14 by half.

Cause for concern returned in the second half. In the absence of any good play from Haliburton, TJ McConnell stepped up. The Pacers took six points off that lead in the third, and while the Thunder did what they could to stave it off, Siakam hit a three at just above the eight minutes left mark to make it a two point game. The Pacers did this so many times throughout the playoffs - once already in this Finals series - that I told Hannah with confidence that it’s happening again.

She told me it won’t. I didn’t believe her. I felt in my bones this one was over.

Cue another Thunder Avalanche. Up only two points, JDub made a second chance three scoop in. Then Cason Wallace stole a bad pass from Nembhard and slammed it home with Haliburton in pursuit. Pacers made two free throws. Dort hit a three. Two more Pacer free throws. The Thunder just kept coming though. A JDub two. A Shai steal to an and-one layup. Another Shai steal, this one off Haliburton, and JDub converted on a high off-the-glass layup. Caruso broke up a pass and dove to the floor to claim possession. He passed up to JDub, who was fouled by Nesmith⁵⁶. The Thunder restored the 14 point lead. Dort put Haliburton in the Dorture Chamber on the next possession, disrupting the pass and taking the turnover. SGA knocked down two free throws. A Siakam two ended the Thunder Avalanche, but by this point it was too late.

By the end of the game, the Thunder held Haliburton to 4 points on 0-6 shooting. They turned the Pacers over 22 times. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completed ten straight home playoff games with 30+ points⁵⁷ and Jalen Williams put himself into rarified air with a 40 point game.

After the game, the players said everything you’d want them to say, channeling the Kobe Bryant “job’s not done” mentality. They were convicted in their interviews that the series isn’t a first to three. They needed to go get it in Indiana to slam a lid shut on this thing, and it felt like that’s exactly what they were poised to do.

Final Score: 120-109, OKC

Series Record: 3-2

GAME SIX

A lesson that sports fans can never truly learn: sports do not care about your feelings. No amount of confidence, or lack thereof, is a factor in the final outcome of the game. It isn’t even a factor in the process of the game.

So in the end it didn’t matter how many analysts or fans said the Thunder felt poised to close it out, or how bleak Pacers fans must have felt learning Haliburton’s awful play in Game 5 was because of a strained right calf, or how vividly I dreamt of mowing my yard that weekend basking in the warm glow of the Larry O’Brien trophy.

The Thunder surged to a lead to start the game. The Pacers went on a run of their own, spurring them on to reclaim the lead. By the end of the first, the Thunder steadied themselves and closed the gap to a single score. But that’s where any reason for optimism died.

In the first few minutes of the second, the Thunder kept it close, but somehow the never-say-die Indiana Pacers found another gear. Between the coaching process of Rick Carlisle, the willpower of an injured Haliburton, and the pesky tenacity of TJ McConnell, the Pacers closed the half with a 23 point lead. I had already turned the sound off, now I turned the TV off entirely.

I went for a short walk with Hannah, my head throbbing. I could not believe the absolute meltdown I was watching. It’s impossible to have historic comebacks without starting off with a major setback, but there was nothing in the first half performance that indicated this could be turned around. The walk was entirely unsuccessful at easing my mind - perhaps my fault for making zero attempts to let go or be mindful. When I got back I turned the TV back on, then off again. It hadn’t gotten better.

My night as a sports fan ended in the bathroom, dry heaving over the toilet.

Final Score: 116-107, Pacers

Series Record: 3-3

INTERLUDE, Part Two

A brief history of sports pulling the chair out from under me. Boise State’s Hook and Ladder maneuver against OU. Dez Caught It. Game 6 Klay. The 13-3 Dallas Cowboys loss to the NY Giants in the playoffs after beating them twice in the regular season. Romo’s The Bobble in Seattle. Patrick Beverly’s dirty play on Westbrook, injuring him and ending the Thunder’s season early. KD leaving for the Golden State Warriors after he blew a 3-1 against them the year before. Hell, I’ve even seen my own team lose four straight in the Finals.

I know well that sports will break your heart.

You go all year watching the team you thought of as the best team you may ever root for. This is the one. They’ll bring me the title I’ve always wished for. This team gave me hope throughout the season. And in the post season all that translated into was a seething tantrum of want. I wanted the championship to make everything okay, I wanted this thing that I could pretend to share with my deceased grandparents. And in Game 6, I could feel that being taken away from me. Turns out just acknowledging your grief doesn’t automatically lead you to enlightenment. It’s not that linear.

The Thunder lost Game Six on a Thursday night. Friday morning I went to work and in the afternoon came home. I grabbed the wedding photo book Hannah put together for us. I took it to bed and flipped through it for photos of my grandparents. My wedding was the last outing they ever took. I sat with the photos and thought about my grandparents, and finally cried. I was in and out of sleep until Hannah came home.

We talked about what was going on with me. It was nice. I remember at one point that evening Hannah smiled at me. When I asked what this was about, she answered, “I’m just glad you’re figuring things out.”

And what had I figured out? I’ve said over and over, sports don’t care about how you feel, and yet for going on two months of playoff basketball I counted on sports to heal me. Sports isn’t your therapist, and it can’t be counted on to produce any specific feeling.

Maybe I’ve been too critical or cold when I’ve said sports don’t care about how you feel. The more charitable read may be this. Sports’ job isn’t to make you feel any one thing, its job is simply to make you feel. To give you the gift of mindfulness, to connect with others over the shared thrills and agonies, to experience pure, uncut, present moment emotionalism. It's the opportunity to learn to handle the chemicals that pump through your central nervous system as you process the feats you're witnessing in real time.

Sports, as it turns out, may not care about how you feel, but it cares deeply that you let yourself feel.

GAME SEVEN

It’s only a game, right?

Everything came down to this one. Even after my Game Six breakdown and subsequent breakthrough, there was still an entire Saturday and most of Sunday to just wait through nervously.⁵⁸

There's no use pretending I wasn't nervous or that I was completely at peace with whatever outcome would take place. The more honest way to say it was that I was at peace with being nervous, and at peace with not being at peace over the outcome. The outcome would be what it would be, and as my brother said, you have to hold both outcomes in your mind until you find out which one it is.

After Game Six's heroic performance, Haliburton came out firing⁵⁹. The Thunder kept up, the game knotted at 16 with about six minutes left in the first when in a single moment this game became one of the all time "What if…?" games in all of sports history. Dort closed in on Toppin forcing him to pass back to Haliburton. Haliburton pushed off his bad leg to try and drive on SGA. He immediately crumbled to the ground. As Shai grabbed the loose ball, you can see Haliburton slam his hand on the ground and scream in agony⁶⁰. Replay review showed with unsettling clarity that the achilles on his bad leg simply popped as he pushed off.

An announcer called it the only time in the playoffs he heard the OKC arena get quiet as Haliburton was tended to and helped back to the locker room.

Both teams seemed rattled as they finished out the first. But the Pacers held it together throughout the second, and took a one point lead back into the locker room. If the home team was going to win, they'd need to be the second half team they'd been all year one more time.

The second half began. The Thunder took a one point lead off a Chet putback, then blanked the Pacers on the next possession. Dort hustled for an offensive rebound and due to some ball mishandling ended up with the rock at the edge of the logo with about one second left on the shot clock. He heaved the highest arcing moon ball three in possibly all of history⁶¹. It swished.

Another Thunder Avalanche was started.⁶² The defense was on point the entire game, and they only cranked it up from here, forcing eight turnovers in the third. It would have been over sooner if not for some McConnell Mayhem. TJ was the only Pacer to score in the final seven minutes of the third quarter with 12 points.

Shai opened the fourth with a three, and the final Thunder Avalanche of the season broke the rest of the way open. The 13-point lead they ended the third quarter with swelled to 22 with 7:40 left in the game.

And still the Pacers refused to go away. At one point they cut 12 points off the lead to bring the game to ten points at 2:32. But the efforts failed to be enough to mount any real comeback.⁶³ The Thunder held on.

When the clock hit 00:00, Oklahoma City was ahead, 103-91. I screamed as Mike Breen called on TV, "The Thunder have taken the NBA by storm. For the first time, the NBA champion resides in Oklahoma City. The storybook season is complete."

Hannah jumped on me in celebration. The guys' text thread was blowing up. I immediately called my dad to share in our celebration. Coretta was shouting in the background that OKC were the champions. I didn't bring it up on the call, but I wish I had reminded him the first thing he told me when the city was awarded a team⁶⁴ that it'll be nice since it means "we can see guys like Kobe when they come through." Translation: This team will never be good.

We had a champion less than two decades later.

I binged on the trophy ceremony, postgame interviews, Leah’s snaps from the arena, and the Thunder subreddit until late at night despite having work the next morning.

In Jalen Williams’s postgame interview with Scott Van Pelt, he asked JDub what he is most satisfied with in terms of his contributions to the team on this Finals run. JDub answers immediately, “Nothing’s more precious than time.”

There’s nothing more precious than time. And with the Game Seven victory, the Oklahoma City Thunder preserved a tiny but golden sliver of that for a city, for their fanbase, a moment in history to be shared for as long as basketball is still played.

For one last night of this playoff championship run, I had a hard time falling asleep. It’s the first time in my life my team won their final game of the season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, my hometown team, are the 2025 NBA Champions.

EPILOGUE: AFTER THE STORM

“It’s going to be a good summer.” - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, post-game interview with Scott Van Pelt

The bus - maybe even the same bus from that other viral Thunder championship bus photo, though who could know⁶⁵ - is framed directly in center, driving toward the photographer. The crowd lines the streets creating a border outlining the bottom third of the horizon. Rising up behind them is one of the Gates of Time at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. The inscription is perfectly legible.

The bus is an open roof double decker, and yes, wrapped in blue it clearly states “2025 Champions” with the Finals trophy and the Thunder logo right up front. There is a mass of players, guests, and personnel on top of the bus celebrating. Frontmost on the top, his back to the camera, is the man himself, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s taken off his shirt and is left in a white tanktop, a Canadian flag tied around his waist. His arms are spread in an open and up gesture, as if paying reverence to the memorial and what it represents to the city.

Look closer and you’ll see that’s just coincidence, he is doing no such thing. The way his head is angled, it’s almost certain his attention is focused on something going on where his feet are. Posing for a camera in front of him, perhaps, or showboating with those around him seems most probable. But still, he’s clearly celebrating, so the effect comes to the same. Oklahoma City’s worst, most horrific moment juxtaposed in the background against its new best.

The photo was added to the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum within days. The caption next to it simply states HOPE WINS.

It also hangs in the entertainment room in our new house. Yes, the one we offered on the first day of the playoffs a million years ago. I was unfortunately unable to make it to the parade myself⁶⁶, but overall the Sikes family was well represented there. I've got the photo in a shadowbox with a glut of parade confetti my mother accidentally came home with after it got folded up into her camp chair. It hangs in a corner of the entertainment room with some other Thunder propaganda. It took all summer and into the fall, but we finally closed, moved out, moved in, and around early October the place finally felt like our new home. We've even watched a few OKC basketball games in the new place by now.

There's been a billion other life developments since. In Thunder world, the team re-signed their Big Three to massive contracts. Not long after that, Jalen Williams announced he played the entire postseason with a torn ligament in his wrist⁶⁷. The team is off to a killer start to the season⁶⁸, and some of their upcoming draft picks held by other teams are looking pretty good. In personal life, Dad is set to retire. He and mom took the whole family to Alaska for a couple weeks in the summer. I sent out around twenty candles and letters for my Thunder championship gratitude project. Work continues to be a challenge. Both houses have an infinite amount of projects to fill our time. Our dog Chroma continues to be a nuisance. Our dog Dipper continues to be perfect. Hannah and I have even started preliminary discussions on family planning.^{69, 70}

You know. Just all the normal life stuff. The entertainment room is usually where I go to shut all that stressful, fun, irritating, beautiful, never-ending life stuff out.

Sometimes when I'm alone in that room I'll catch myself staring at the HOPE WINS photo. Sometimes I'll find myself wondering about what my grandparents might have said about it, or thinking about the sheer impossibility of something like this happening from a 1995 POV⁷¹, or about how the Sikes went from having two sports fans in it to basically everyone in it converting to the Thunder faithful, or a thousand different things.

But mostly when I look at it I’m not thinking. I’m only feeling. And what I feel is good.