NBA finals: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gives the maximum-e gives Oklahoma City his first championship after the exhausting game 7

Oklahoma City – Luguantz Dort has flexed and prepared, and Alex Caruso has put his shirt on the crowd. In the meantime, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander barely managed to collect a smile, the most precious player so exhausted, so emptied that he cannot lift his head, his eyes fixed through his family.

But he had the time for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy a few minutes later, fortified by Triumph, as well as collecting the Bill Russell Trophy who indicated his personal place in history as one of the few to win MVP of the regular season and MVP of the finals in the same season.

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No moments of memes, no super celebration in program-tired program.

“Yes, it was a long journey. Long season,” said Gilgeous-Alexander in Yahoo Sports, almost two hours after the game, still on the post-game media circuit. “Many games. I just wanted to go out and give my best tonight. And I think I did it.”

What an emotional night, that three weeks long, 14 years for the Thunder of Oklahoma City, the distinctive roar – a cathartic version of a fan base that believed that it would be in June every year with a franchise that had done everything well despite the disadvantages of the market and financial that proved difficult to overcome.

It took seven games, a heartbreaking injury and a game challenge from a team from the Indiana Pacers who refused to come out promptly on stage, but the first championship in the history of Oklahoma City was conquered on Sunday evening with a victory of 103-91 at the Paycom Center.

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Gilgeous-Alexander had one of his least efficient games in the series and was clearly fatigued in the stretch after 40 minutes of interruption, but he put around 29 points and 12 assists, including the decisive section in the third quarter which transformed a half-time deficit into a two-digit advantage.

The shooting line (8 by 27) recalls the 6 out of 24 performances by Kobe Bryant in match 7 of the 2010 finals, but the efficiency is damned in these points: a championship must be won, with any necessary means.

“So much weight from my shoulders. So much stress raised,” said Gilgeous-Alexander in his press conference. “It doesn’t matter what, go every evening to want to win. Sometimes it doesn’t go on your way. Tonight he could have been one of those nights in which we found a way.”

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Giving everything you have is romanticized in professional sports, without the promise of a payoff. But hearing him, while also knowing your main counterparty probably gave his Achilles to the game, to the series, to history – puts a different tour of the sentence.

Tyrese Haliburton has looked at the game for the moment. He seemed ready throughout the Glorious Game 7 which he had to offer, the opportunity to beat a favorite team on the road, in their building-running three first triples, all well the line.

He was talking, he was barking – a primordial scream to the overwhelming fans who wore yellow peace in the stands. In game 6, he looked at the skies after making his first triple, the opening of the doors.

In the game 7, he twisted himself in agony, banging his punch on hard wood, shouting because he knew that his injured calf gave way to something much more serious.

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He knew it.

As Kevin Durant did in 2019 – almost the same way, hitting the leap shots on the road, giving his life to the team. So his leg gave and the story was changed forever in that moment in Toronto.

Unfortunately, the story of the NBA finals cannot be told carefully without noticeing the toll. For all its beauty, the brutal reality is in the cost. The best of Klay Thompson. The best of Kevin Durant.

In a sense, he leaves you with the same feeling, that you would have liked that the series had ended previously, that even with thunder, being worthy samples that deserved every ounce of praise they will receive, that the series did not have to claim arts and careers.

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Before the Pacers gathered around Haliburton, a thunder player came to control him, knowing that he was not well-Gilgeous-Alexander.

These two teams are partners in history, forever linked by the competition and, unfortunately now, trauma.

“I just asked him if he was fine. It seemed that he suffered,” he said. “He just hate to see him in sports in general, but at this moment, my heart has fallen for him. I could not imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that. It is not right. But the competition is sometimes not right.”

Game 7 is never really right or cute. The body is beaten and atrophized after nine months and over 100 non -stop competition matches – nobody is fresh or better.

But the last few years have produced satisfaction for suffering or tortured franchises, luck smiling after frustrating years for the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nugget and Boston Celtics. He showed which team building, continuity and learning through pain can produce.

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“This type developed quickly,” said the general manager of Thunder and the executive vice -president Sam Presti to adornic fans in the immediate wake of the victory.

Call this the euphemism of the decade.

Gilgeous-Alexander was the first step in this turnaround, in officially removing all the residues from the years of Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook, even if the scar tissue has remained with all those who live in Oklahoma City.

In a sense, the fans seemed happier than the players – so much, the players did not know how to open the cork on champagne in the changing rooms. But the anguish of the city has never been transferred to the players. Also the same Presti, owner of all the draft choices of each team for the near future, had to have the tag of being the best manager in sport without the final prize.

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There is no longer.

“Not at all, honestly,” said Gilgeous-Alexander in Yahoo Sports when he was asked if there was an extra weight on the players due to the history of franchise. “They don’t put pressure on us, on fans, on the organization, on the front office. They allow us to be us. They tell us, if we want to win we should win. And that’s what we did.”

The Thunder are champions because they were the best team throughout the season, overcoming everyone in the western conference and did enough to retain the pacer. They will go down in history as one of the best teams of a single season in the history of the League, while they will have to scratch everything in this winning game 7.

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If nothing else, they avoid ignominy.

“Going to the first half was not letting go why [Haliburton]He doesn’t play, “said Thunder Jalen Williams striker.” Then, even don’t panic. When you are so close to a goal, but you understood that the other team feels in the same way we are. “

The Thunder followed one in the middle after Andrew Nembhard hit a triple of a leader, but soon he unleashed a mini-check of their 40-minute defense to start the third quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Chet Holmgren-I three stalwarts-and the key to changing the complexion of the game while Dort and Caruso persecuted anyone who wore a golden jersey.

Williams closed with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists and several explosions full of emotions, the moments overwhelm him almost.

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Eight turnover of Pacer led to 18 points and the Thunder was able to resist another race from Pacers Reserve Tj McConnell (12 in the third). So swept via McConnell at the end of the night, he wore the night in the face about 90 minutes after the cyclino played.

This is the minimum of what thunder requires, just to compete with them, let alone beat them.

Bennetic Mathurin tried to bring the pars to the fourth, ending up with 24 points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive), but were overcome by the lack of fire power. They were not overcome by the lack of spirit or heart.

The Thunder did not bring out the Pacer: they passed them in a boxing game of 15 rounds of the old school and won on the cards.

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“Look at any game 7 of a final, any period 7, but the game 7 of the finals, is a different feeling, a different level of pressure,” said Thunder Mark Daigneault coach. “The gravity of the game is overwhelming for all participants.”

Daigneult is now in the elite category, a young coach of the G League torn from Presti years ago to lead this accelerated march to the dispute – and now history.

Their structure is the reason why Gilgeous-Alexander had the clairvoyance to engage in franchise soon and not once he has ever pronounced a desire elsewhere.

“Sam and Mark. Their approach. Winning mentality,” said Gilgeous-Alexander in Yahoo Sports. “Building habits. The things that give priorities are winning things and it is not a coincidence that we are winners.”

They are not just winners, they are exhausted champions, engraved in history.