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Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams reflected on the grueling seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. Williams revealed he suffered from a wrist injury in pursuit of his first NBA championship. He underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist. Jalen also mentioned a Pacers guard whose defense annoyed him throughout the NBA Finals: Indiana’s TJ McConnell.
Williams respects McConnell’s approach as a stifling defender who gets under his opponents’ skin; it wasn’t always fun to play against amid the 2025 Finals, he said, per The Young Man & The Three podcast.
“Dude is so annoying. Special player, though,” Williams said. “What’s cool is like looking back at it. And I was able to share a couple of moments with him, like during the game. He was really cool to me when I got drafted. So we’ve always kind of kept in touch, and every time we play it’s cool.”
As a University of Arizona product, drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2015, TJ McConnell played near Williams’ hometown of Gilbert, Arizona.
“I mean, he played there obviously, and I’m from there. He knows the areas. I think he knows a little bit about the WCC, too. He’s just a good dude,” Williams added. “Obviously, you’ve been around TJ. Like him and AC, I think, are cool, too. He’s a special player, but he was very annoying during that series.”
Even in the final minutes of Game 7, Williams recalled McConnell never let up as the Pacers trimmed their double-digit deficit from 21 down to 10 with 2:32 left. But couldn’t muster up a run to pull ahead.
Jalen Williams claps back at Thunder championship parade claims
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams took the time to clap back at a false narrative about his team’s championship parade in Oklahoma City. While a social media trend suggested a light crowd of fans showed up to celebrate the Thunder’s first title in franchise history, Williams set the record straight about the overall attendance.
“The parade, I don’t know why everybody was doing the thing where I don’t know why it was a trend to like say that there wasn’t a ton of people out there, but it was actually overwhelming how many people were there,” Williams said. “But I mean, I enjoyed it, Oklahoma enjoyed it.”
From Williams and his teammates’ champagne bottle-opening tutorial from Alex Caruso to thousands of Thunder fans waiting toward the parade’s finish line, this was a first-time experience for all parties involved, and it showed.
