How Paul George helped the Thunder and Pacers reach the 2025 NBA Finals
How Paul George helped the Thunder and Pacers reach the 2025 NBA Finals
At this point in the playoffs, teams parade around celebrities as their pseudo-mascots. You see it all the time with Los Angeles and New York. Smaller markets like Oklahoma City and Indiana rely on former players to show up and give home crowds an extra shot of energy.
As the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers prepare to square off in the 2025 NBA Finals, they could make like a pair of divorced parents and share that honor with Paul George. In Game 1, he could be courtside at OKC. Game 3, the same deal at Indiana. While not intentionally, the future Hall-of-Famer helped both franchises reach this point.
No matter who wins the NBA Finals, a franchise will experience its first championship. The Thunder punched their first ticket back to the championship round since 2012. It was an even longer gap for the Pacers from their last visit in 2000.
Both NBA franchises are forever linked because of one player — George. The multi-time All-Star is one of the defining players of the 2010s. He was a consistent 20-plus point scorer who was viewed as one of the best defenders on several title contenders.
But his biggest contribution to a championship may be his trade value. Not his on-court production. Both the Thunder and Pacers have had several George trades that catapulted them to this space. A modern-day Herschel Walker, here's how George helped OKC and Indiana get to the NBA Finals:
The original PG trade
Before we dive into George's contributions, let's look back at when he was first traded. The Thunder and Pacers shocked the NBA world when George was traded to OKC in July 2017. After openly flirting with the Lakers, Indiana did what was best for itself.
George was traded to the Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. That's it. Fresh off his MVP season and a Round 1 exit, Russell Westbrook was paired back up with a perennial All-Star forward. The move was needed as the Thunder had no other way to upgrade their roster and not waste the prime of one of the best players.
Meanwhile, the Pacers went with two franchise cornerstones with room to grow over draft capital. Oladipo was fresh off a bad year but was rejuvenated in Indiana. He enjoyed his best seasons there with two All-Star bids before injuries cut his career short. Sabonis grew from a forgettable rookie to one of the best players.
How PG helped the Thunder
On a one-year rental, the Thunder went out of their comfort zone and took a massive gamble. George was only under contract for his first season. He was set to be a free agent after the 2017-18 campaign. OKC understood the risk of him walking away with nothing in hand and had full confidence that its culture would be enough to convince him to stay in his year.
The bet paid off. George stayed in OKC on a four-year, $137 million deal. The Thunder celebrated the massive franchise moment with a party. It was a bit of redemption, as only two years had passed since Kevin Durant left them at the altar.
George went on to have a career season in 2018-19. He averaged 28 points and 8.2 rebounds, which was enough to finish third in the MVP award. Despite his individual success, the Thunder had another Round 1 exit. With the highest payroll ever, OKC felt cornered on what it could do to improve its roster.
In comes the Clippers. Needing George to convince Kawhi Leonard to sign, LA gave up a historic draft package that headlined a blockbuster deal. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari were also part of the deal. Let's just say that LA didn't get its bang for its buck. It only had one Western Conference Finals appearance in the Kawhi-PG era.
Meanwhile, the Thunder went out like bandits. Gilgeous-Alexander blossomed into an MVP winner. The Clippers gifted Jalen Williams to OKC with their 2022 lottery pick. We're still waiting out the final details of the five-year-old trade as the Thunder could still own LA's 2026 first-round pick.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams are the Thunder's two best players. They were All-Star teammates. Both were given to them by the Clippers in the modern-day Herschel Walker trade. OKC is now four wins away from running another victory lap around Intuit Dome.
How PG helped the Pacers
This one takes a couple of extra steps. There's no direct lineage between George and the Pacers' current run, but he was the first part of a two-part transaction sequence that has led Indiana back to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years.
While Oladipo was the immediate prize, Sabonis quietly developed in the background. He eventually usurped his teammate as Indiana's best player. Turns out, OKC trying to make him a stretch four probably wasn't his best developmental plan.
Sabonis turned into an old-school, back-of-the-basket player. His first two All-Star bids were with the Pacers. He turned into a double-double machine that could facilitate in the post. He averaged 16.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists at Indiana. Really solid numbers that put him among the 30 best players.
Shaking things up, the Pacers shocked the NBA world again. They traded Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for Tyrese Haliburton in a multi-player deal. It was a soft rebuild for Indiana as tanking is a foreign concept to the franchise.
Haliburton was in his second season. He finished third in Rookie of the Year. He was viewed as one of the best young point guards in the league at the time, but De'Aaron Fox's presence made it an awkward backcourt fit. The Kings pivoted and made a deal to bolster their frontcourt.
The trade was viewed as a win-win for a while until Haliburton slowly sprinted past Sabonis among the NBA's best players. The two-time All-Star has been the Pacers' franchise player for the last few years. He's been one of the best playmakers in that period. He's averaged 19.5 points and 10.1 assists in Indiana.
Catching fire at the right time, Haliburton has headlined the Pacers' miracle run to the NBA Finals. Late-game heroics and a scorching-hot offense have helped Indiana return to basketball's biggest stage. They also enjoyed a little bit of luck along the way.
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