Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams to have surgery on right wrist after playing entire postseason with the injury
Jalen Williams #8 of the Oklahoma City Thunder looks on during the press conference after defeating the Indiana Pacers in Game Seven of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 22, 2025 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams will undergo surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist, Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti told reporters on Monday.
Williams, 24, is expected to be available for the start of the 2025-26 NBA regular season, Presti said.
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Presti discussed the injury as part of his end-of-season media availability on Monday morning, putting a bow on Oklahoma City's first NBA championship — a title run that Williams completed, it turns out, while playing with an injury to his shooting hand.
The injury happened during a victory over the Phoenix Suns in the final week of the regular season, according to Thunder podcaster Andrew Schlecht. Williams finished that game with 33 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 turnovers in 36 minutes — a do-it-all performance emblematic of the all-around impact he had throughout a campaign that earned him the first All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive honors of his young career.
At times during postseason practice sessions and shootarounds, Williams could be seen wearing a brace on that ailing right wrist. He didn't miss any time, though, and while his production at times waned — he shot under 40% from the field in nine of Oklahoma City's 23 playoff games — he continued to shoulder a significant two-way burden for Mark Daigneault's squad without complaint.
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'The part that I'm most impressed with is in our modern era, when someone has a poor performance, or they're not playing to their capability in a game and there's a lot of attention on it, you often see a little birdie make sure that everybody knows that the player is not 100%,' Presti said Monday. Never happened with this guy. Not one time. He powered through. He showed incredible mental endurance and security in himself."
Despite suffering the injury just before the start of the postseason, Williams shined throughout Oklahoma City's playoff run, averaging 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.4 steals in 34.6 minutes per game as the Thunder won the Western Conference crown and outlasted the Indiana Pacers in seven hard-fought games in the 2025 NBA Finals.
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