OKLAHOMA CITY — Last March, during a few days in Oklahoma reporting out a magazine story, I asked Thunder officials a question: Who is the wild card? On paper, Oklahoma City was a juggernaut, a 68-win freight train, with the MVP leading the offense, waves of defenders backstopping the league’s stingiest defense. But the Thunder were young and inexperienced, and the Western Conference playoff field was filled with teams older and more experienced. Someone had to exceed expectations, I reasoned.
One by one, I was given the same answer: Jalen Williams.
The Thunder are one win away from their first (Oklahoma City) NBA championship after a 120–109 Game 5 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday, and Williams is the reason why. He scored 40 points, collecting six rebounds and four assists. He was 14 for 25 from the floor and 3 for 5 from the three-point line. He scored 10 points in the second quarter, when the Thunder built a 14-point first-half lead. He scored 11 in the fourth quarter, when Indiana made its inevitable run. With eight minutes to play, the Pacers cut the lead to two. On the next possession, Williams knocked down a three to push the lead to five. Indiana never got closer.
“That was,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, “an unbelievable performance.”
It was, one of many from Williams this postseason. There was the 24 points in 33 minutes in Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets in the conference semifinals. A 34-point outburst against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. Williams averaged 18 points in the first two games of this series. Over the last three, he’s averaging 31. There have been just two players younger than Williams to score 40 points in an NBA Finals game since 1980. One was Russell Westbrook, in 2012. The other was Magic Johnson.
“I’d be lying if I said I could imagine doing what I did tonight,” Williams said. “I definitely could have seen myself here a long time ago, I just didn’t think it would happen this fast and I didn’t think it would be with a group of guys that I truly am grateful to be around.”
In some ways, building a winner in the NBA is complicated. Tax aprons, picks, swaps—making trades seems like they need a CPA as much as a general manager. But it’s also simple. The teams that hit on their draft picks win. The teams that don’t, lose. Two All-Stars have emerged from the 2022 NBA draft class. Paolo Banchero, who went first overall, is one. Williams, the 12th overall pick, is the other.
Want to cringe? Take a look at the players drafted before Williams. The Detroit Pistons took Jaden Ivey at No. 5. The Washington Wizards selected Johnny Davis at 10. The New York Knicks, reportedly disenchanted by the talent in the late lottery, shipped the 11th overall pick to Oklahoma City. The Thunder took Ousmane Dieng in that spot. With the next pick, they grabbed Williams.
Oklahoma City did its homework on Williams. On tape, Thunder officials loved his unselfishness. In his workout, they connected with his competitiveness. When Thunder general manager Sam Presti got an endorsement from Santa Clara head coach Herb Sendek, it resonated. Why? The last player Sendek cosigned to Presti: James Harden, whom Sendek coached at Arizona State.
In three years, Williams’s rise has been meteoric. He was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year in his first season. He averaged 19.1 points per game in his second. This season, he bumped it to 21.6, earning an All-Star nod at midseason and All-NBA and All-Defensive team spots at the end of it. “Gutsy” was how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander described Williams’s performance in Game 5, adding, “Felt like every time we needed a shot, he made it.”
Daigneault’s history with Williams dates back to his draft workout, which yielded a now famous story: Daigneault ran the group session. Williams had no idea who he was. When Daigneault talked a little trash to Williams, Williams chirped right back. Later, when Williams figured out that Daigneault was the team’s coach, he called his agent in a panic. Daigneault, though, loved it. “Hell of a workout,” he told me in March. “And a lot of fun.”
Daigneault has admitted that Williams has exceeded his expectations. As a scorer, as a playmaker. It’s a credit, said Daigneault, to Williams’s willingness to work. Last year, Daigneault noted that opponents were basically daring him to take threes in the playoffs. Daigneault pushed Williams to improve his perimeter shot. Early this season, Williams had gone the other way and become a little too jumper-heavy. On Monday, on his walk back to the Thunder locker room, I asked Daigneault if Williams continued to surprise him.
“He’s a third-year player that’s had a great first two years and comes into the season with all the same aspirations that anybody in his position would have individually,” Daigneault says. “He’s still on a rookie contract. Never been an All-Star, never been All-NBA, never been All-Defense [before this season]. And in the face of all those things, he focused on improving.
“I mean, he had games where he’s driving the ball in there, not getting calls, not finishing plays. Some of them look ugly, especially around December. Put a lot of pressure on him to do that and he embraced that. And you’re seeing kind of the fruits of that labor right now. But I give him credit because he was willing to take one step backwards to take two steps forwards, even in the face of all of his ambitions, which I think is incredible.”
In the aftermath of Game 5, Williams’s teammates were quick to praise him. “He can shoulder a load,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’ve said this before. He does so many things for us as a basketball team on both ends of the floor when he’s the best version of himself.” Said Chet Holmgren, “We don’t get here without him playing as good as he’s playing.”
When it was his turn at the podium, Williams was having none of it. Asked about the statement he made with 40 points, Williams said, “My answer’s going to suck because it’s kind of going to negate your question.” Asked about taking control of the game, and Williams shrugged it off, saying, “I’m just out there being aggressive.” Getting three wins in this series is nice. But the reward doesn’t come until after four.
“I won’t really have much of a reaction,” Williams said, “until we handle business.”
Still, if the regular season established Williams as an NBA star, the playoffs have pushed him to another level. Each round has been highlighted by a stellar Williams performance, and the Finals have been no different. Oklahoma City saw the birth of one superstar in the regular season in Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP. The postseason may be creating another.
“I’m not surprised by his performance,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Like, the kid works super hard. He has the right intentions. He deserves this moment.”
