With the entire sports world's attention on the 2025 NBA Finals, Jalen Williams has come a long way over the last four years from small-school Santa Clara, which likely only had a couple thousand people in the stands,

The Oklahoma City Thunder finds itself trailing the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals after a clutch-time Game 1 thriller on Thursday night. All-NBA forward Jalen Williams gave Oklahoma City a game-high 15-point lead with a breakaway dunk early in the fourth quarter — but scored 11 points on his other 18 shots from the floor.

Any doubts about the Thunder entering the playoffs seemed to have been wiped away before the NBA Finals tipped off. Nobody had really questioned MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the Thunder defense had more than lived up to its fearsome reputation.