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After Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams revealed a hand injury regimen he dealt with throughout the 2025-26 championship run, he reflected on the taxing seven-game Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets. Williams’ 37.5% shooting clip against the Nuggets was a postseason low. However, he refused to use the torn ligament in his shooting hand as an excuse for subpar performances.
Instead, Williams says he did his best to bounce back without the media knowing anything about his condition, despite the harsh criticism that came hand in hand with his underwhelming shooting.
“I didn’t want to tell the world that I was hurt, and so the world just ganged up on me about how I wasn’t ready to handle the moment, which is, obviously, wrong now,” Williams said. “But that was the most annoying thing. Human nature, you want to scream that you’re hurt. I was able to lock in and not use it as an excuse, and just play the series.”
After finishing with six points on 3-of-16 (18.8%) attempts in a 119-107 loss in Game 6, Williams bounced back by scoring 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting, seven assists, and five rebounds in a 125-93 series-clinching win in Game 7 against the Nuggets.
“The Denver series made me grow up as a player. The Denver series was, by far, the most painful series I had,” Williams said. “I got my hand stepped on. The Aaron Gordon play. I took a weird fall and tried to brace. So, I was messing my hand up that whole series, and I was playing Aaron Gordon and guarding Jokic, and I’m guarding these guys, where it’s like physical, and I’m constantly banging my hand.”
“So, that one made me grow up as a player, and just, honestly, as a man. I just had to man through a lot of the pain that I was experiencing,” Williams concluded.
Jalen Williams reveals Kobe Bryant inspiration amid Thunder run
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams pulled off a Kobe Bryant move circa 2010 en route to the Hall of Fame guard’s fifth and final championship. Without wanting to turn his experience into a Kobe-inspired decision, Williams says his trainers mentioned Bryant as an example of a player playing through a hand injury that yielded a championship.
“I don’t want to make this a Kobe thing, but that was one of the people that they brought up that had done it before and played through it. So, they were saying it was doable,” Williams said. “Throughout the week, I basically changed my jump shot.”
Williams shot in a way that required touch and only used his fingertips instead of a full follow-through motion.
