Tyrese Haliburton Offers High Praise to OKC Thunder Superstar

The Oklahoma City Thunder captured its first NBA Championship in team history by knocking off the Indiana Pacers in seven games during the 2025 NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City was powered by superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who turned in not only an impressive Finals but a historic season. Gilgeous-Alexander captured the NBA MVP award, Western Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP after leading the OKC Thunder to a 68-win regular season and becoming the scoring champion averaging 32 points per game.

On Tuesday, Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton joined ESPN's The Pat McAfee show to dive into his season which sadly ended in devestation with him popping his achilles during the first quarter of Game 7 in the NBA Finals.

During the show, McAfee shifted the conversation to the Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander.

"He was unbelievable to watch," Host Pat McAfee said, "I saw [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the hotel] and I just stared at him for like five seconds...and I said 'Could you have [expletitive] missed? That would've been cool' I don't think he missed, could you guys feel that when playing against them?"

The performance from the OKC Thunder and its superstar did not catch the Indiana Pacers off guard after the 2024-25 campaign that the Thunder turned in. Oklahoma City went wire-to-wire as the best team in basketball while the Pacers hit their stride at the turn of the calendar year.

"Yeah for sure, we definitely expected that. [The Thunder] were the best team in the NBA all year...Shai is the MVP for a reason. I think that he gets paint touches at an elite level. Does a great job of getting to his spots, can score at all three-levels. The season he put together is one of the greatest seasons in NBA history," Haliburton explained.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton will soon share the screen in October on Netflix's Starting 5 series, giving fans a behind the scenes look at both players elite-level season.