Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - NBA Finals Game 7 Reaction: Thunder Win It All

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by NBA champion Iman Shumpert along with ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react live on the Paycom Center floor to the OKC Thunder winning the NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers. The guys tackle what this means for OKC going forward, the type of run the Thunder could go on, SGA’s historic year, Tyrese Haliburton’s tragic injury and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. All right. Hello and welcome to Who Collect the podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing here right under the basket, Eamon Schumpert. At Paycom Center with the Thunder are celebrating their first ever NBA championship with a strong second half performance to finish out a really strong season. The proper team won the championship, in my opinion. They were the best team all year long. They were the best team in this series. Shee-Gelsus Alexander had an excellent second half. He got great support from at Holmgren defensively and Jalen Williams scoring enough points, 20 points offensively. But I feel like tonight will not be remembered for anything the Thunder do.

I mean, when you think about it, as soon as you saw Tyrese Halliburton, we saw the pop on the slow mode, once you saw that heel completely touched floor, even like we were saying earlier, even for the Thunder players, it was like a shell shot, very eerie after that. Again, they found their rhythm in the second half. So I can agree with you. The Thunder should have won. Would have liked to see it at full strength. But, man, it was a great series.

Yeah, it was. It was truly remarkable. The Pacers had a one point leave at halftime. They were doing their Pacer thing where they were getting contributions up and down. They had successfully slowed the game to a spot where they could, especially after Tyrese went out, they really couldn't play up-tempo with them. They'd slowed the game. was 48, 47.

And then the third quarter, the worst thing you can do is turn the ball over. And basically, whoever won the turnover game, won each game in this series. There were games where the Thunder couldn't stop the Pacers with the turnovers. But the turnovers in the third quarter were eight to nothing, you know, eight for the Pacers, zero for the Thunder. And the devastating stat of the night, where the game was decided, in my view, 18 points off of turnovers in the third quarter for the Thunder. zero for the Pacers.

That's pretty much the game. Yeah. I mean, you had a second there where T.J. McConnell was trying to keep you in it, which you love to fight. He's amazing, man. You love the fight in that guy. But, you know, down the stretch or even within that flurry that he does, right? That's when you got to have a guy like Pascal Seaccom where it's like, now you got to get on the block because T.

He's going back and forth. He in a heavyweight match right now by himself. Yeah. But he's also a guy that counts by two. You know what I mean? He's not a guy that's going to hoist up a lot of threes. And a lot of the things that he does don't lead to threes unless you have a Halliburton playing alongside him or he coming in and out for him and things are moving.

Things are hopping. Things are going full court. They didn't get a lot of defensive rebounds that were going to lead to a lot of runouts tonight. They're also wearing as scrappy and getting as many deflections as they once were. the biggest stat to me that jumped out was Obie Toppin. Yeah. Throughout their ups and downs,

Obie Topping has done, I think, a lot of what Chet has done, where sometimes it might not show up on the stat line, but Obie Topping does a lot of great things for them as far as deflections, being in the right place, the right time, and then shooting the three ball extremely well. He did not shoot the ball well. He did not get into a rhythm, and he wasn't really aggressive at all.

You know what I mean? And when I say that, I look at defensive rebounds right away for aggression of somebody that jumps like that. Yeah. If he's got six, seven rebounds or defensive rebounds, I don't mind him going to the offensive board as well. But six, seven rebounds for playing 20 minutes makes sense to me. If you're sweating and you're getting in there, you're scrapping,

you're getting 50, 50 balls. I think those are the things that lead to easy points and, you know, give you a little breathing room on the offensive end. Again. That's a classic role player on the roads. situation. Yeah. You know, he had 20 points in game six. And, you know, I think a key moment, there was actually a moment in the third quarter where there was a couple of possessions where the Thunder actually were double teaming McConnell. Oh, oh, you're talking about him.

Yeah. And the reason that's relevant is because, um, here comes, uh, here comes Shea, it comes the MVP or no, he's that's Jalen Williams. Um, he look, he's got a custom, Wow, he's got a custom letterman jacket there. Yes, sir. Don't let go of that trophy. Welcome, sir. Welcome, sir. Congratulations.

Welcome, sir. Jayne Williams has arrived with the trophy. I told him welcome because small group. Yeah. He knew exactly what you meant. Oh, yeah. He knew when I saw the video and I'm pointing at it. Yeah, yeah.

You get to pointing at that hand, man. That's really all you do it for. That's the thing that, you know, all athletes feel accepted by that, man. Something about that championship, people are trying to figure out ways to make it rank here and do this and do that. Yeah, we do do that. Once you're in the club. But you let people do it. Yeah. Because once you're in the club, it's like Michael Jordan can see Jalen Williams.

I can see you now. That's what it mean to me. Like, once you become a champion, I don't bill Russell, Reggie Miller. all the greats. They're like, oh, no, we watched to see who won that ball. Yeah, well, the thing about it is, is that it's one of those things that you can never diminish it. Once you're a champion,

you can say a lot of bad stuff about it. Forever. And that was won tonight. These guys are basking it right now. I don't even know we should talk that much about this game, but I mean, I would just say that... It's a great game. They were double-teaming McConnell because they didn't, they had nobody else going. And, like, that's because Hallibuton was hurt,

because Seacom didn't have it going, because Hatapum didn't have going. Nemhart didn't really have it going. You want to know the possession that I think was. All right. Go ahead. They double team, Shea. Yeah. She carries. They don't call it.

Lou Dord hits a bomber three and they first started their separation. If I'm, if I'm on Indiana, I would have jumped up and down and got a technical foul and said that was a carry. But that was a very important. I didn't even notice that. He carried. and like threw it down. Congrats Mark. Corrowed it.

Got it back. threw it to the top and Lou Dort shot a three from I don't know where. He lost the pass. I remember the three. And let that three go. It was a, you know, 20 feet. I want to say it was a four point game at that time. It was either a four point.

I can't remember the last time they called a carry in a game seven. But I feel you, by way, they let shake it away. You got to call this one. Trust me, I'm very much like let them play. Right, right, right. Even Shay's face, he knew he just messed up. He knew it. And he had been taking care of the ball.

That's like he was going to be mad about it. He couldn't believe they let it go. He got rid of it immediately. Smart. Very smart. He didn't let him think about it. Not at all. And Lou Doer hoisted up, made that shot.

And I think after that, if I'm Indiana, that's a deflating shot. We did our job. No call. They keep playing. They hit a bomber. It really was a prayer. He hits it. They all exhale.

and we all just like, that's one of those plays to me. Well, Rick Carlisle was trying everything he possibly could to get a technical foul because I think he was a little exasperated in that third quarter. Because, you know, they let the, they really allowed a lot of physical play today, which you probably want in the game seven. There was a chinty call on knee-smith early in the game when he got his second foul. But really they let him play for the most part. Neesmith, I feel like plays well, even when the,

the whistle goes against him. I think he's one of the better players in the NBA plays. He files out, but I mean, when you have to guard some of these players that you have to guard, if you have,

you can't close out short. That's how a guy gets 40. You know what I mean? And sometimes it takes six foul and you don't get, you're not available tonight. You know what I mean? I think it's great that he takes on the challenge.

Of course, he's going to get way more respect going in the next year now as a defender. They're not going to call his, many tick-tac fouls on him because now you get to see how he plays. You got to see how he plays throughout a series, throughout a final series. So you start to move a lot of the Pacers elevated themselves. Without a doubt.

Yeah. You moved the needle a little bit. Like I wasn't, I didn't all the way know how a lot of these guys played. Like I knew how Siakum played. I know if he gets one dribble into the spin, he might get the call. Yeah. Because me and everybody else on Earth knows he's going to do it. You know what I mean?

But once the refs and the crowd, we all start knowing that's his game. He does that every time. nobody could stop that if he miss it nine times out of ten somebody bowed you know nine times out of ten let's just if they blare their arms they kind of sell it they're saying somebody found them because that's their bread and butter they're not going to fake it and i think a lot of the guys move the needle as far as that go especially you t j mccano if they don't have a scouting report for you next year somebody need to get fired i also thought benedick matherin played valiantly yeah that poor guy's going to be in a tub of ice right now he hit the floor

hard like five times. Yeah, the running into the post was crazy. I was reminded that he was 23 years old because right after running into that post after that travel that he did, they end up calling the foul right before the before the travel came when he took the three steps and went to the layup. But he ran into the bottom of the backboard right here. And yeah, to get back up, pop back up and just run over here and shoot two free throws is unbelievable. Enjoy your youth. It was a it was the Thunder really won this game the way they won a lot of games over the course of the season it was kind of it was a symbolic way that they did that chet played his best game in a couple of games williams had 20 she didn't you know she was less than his normal points but you know he played

you know he missed like 19 shots it was not his best game but he he he delivered what he delivered he he you know he won the his pace was there he kept people involved he played point guard tonight. He didn't shoot it well, but he played point guard. That's the thing about Shay, when he had that game where he didn't pass the ball, that's why he was so adamant about it the next game, because he knows and he knew in that game, if I don't get these guys going, who's to get them going? You know, who's to make them feel like whatever I missed before, erase that. Like, I don't care, as long as you're doing the things that we know you could do. And I think that Shay did that today. Today he didn't shoot it well, but he didn't take the bait of

I got to get myself going. I got to get myself going. No, you're going to get going. And you're going to shoot eight free throws as long as y'all are ahead. So, you know what I mean? You just try to sort of keep it to where they're giving me this.

They're giving me that. Let me shoot a couple of inside out threes. Let me get to my spots. Let me get two feet in the paint. But I don't have to force anything because other guys are making shots. Other guys are going to run. And again, they made so much offense off the defense.

They made the game easy tonight. Yeah. I like, this is what I refer to. Oh, we got McMahon. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Did McMahon sitting down? He's talking about people. It's Bam McMahon.

Howdy, partners? You didn't get any champagne on your beautiful suit? I'll be honest with you. Brother, listen, not surprisingly, that was maybe the tamest championship celebration that I've ever seen. There was a few Thunder employees who were moist. Nobody's soaked. Now, Jaylon Williams, J-Dub did report he had the first sip of alcohol in his life. The first sip of alcohol.

And put it right down. I don't know how much he had, but he seemed to be pretty coherent. So I was just saying J-Dub had the first sip of alcohol. Well, he came out here. He was stone sober. Yeah, I think it might have been a sip or two. But I went in there. And the coolers were still pretty.

damn full. Listen, this man has had a few sips of alcohol. So I think he's, I think on a visceral level, he's reacting to it. I'm the same way where I couldn't wait to not even drink the champagne. I just wanted to splash

it everywhere. Right. At least put it on the show. Yeah, I just wanted to do what I saw all the great stew. Here's the thing. It was just shocking. You know, I remember about your, so first off, I don't go into locker rooms necessarily. You had to go to cover it, but I don't like to go into locker room after the team win because I think it's their championship. It's

for you to celebrate. However, in 2016, I did go. Uh-huh. And there was, there was trash bags on the floor with champagne on the floor. Everybody almost wiped out it in five seconds, but you guys were smoking cigars.

Oh, yeah. And they were screaming at them. Do not, you're not supposed to smoke cigars. You know, California, not those smoking cigars. They did not care. When you win a championship, you don't ask for permission. Yeah, we were not, it was all forgiveness.

Yeah. It will all be forgiven. It will all be forgotten. And they'll only remember that we want. Especially when it is delivering the first championship to a city like you did to Cleveland. And like these guys did here to Oklahoma City. Look, the championship in Seattle, that is Seattle's. That's the Supersonics.

When the Sonics come back, that banner would be up there. Right. The Thunder franchise just won their first championship. I do not believe it will be the last. I think they might put together multiples here coming up near school. I got to just tell you, though, man. was that for the Pacers, was that the best playoff run

that didn't end in a championship ever? I mean, you talk about all the, the journey they went on, the miracle comebacks, the upsets they pulled off, the fight they put up against a 68 win, heavily favored Thunder team.

I really think that might be the best non-champonship playoff road we've ever seen. They were head at the half. Yeah. I mean, that's crazy. And I, unfortunately, like, listen, the what is with Halberton, he was, he came out of hot, too, boy. Like, he was, he was hitting from deep. This is a gigantic.

I'm trying to walk the line here because you know how I feel about the Thunder. Yeah. You know how I feel about organic championships where a team built it from scratch on their own. They didn't have free agent come in. They didn't have a player to force his way there via trade. Right. Organic championship, which is what we have here. I want to give that the most respect.

Yeah. They could win two or three more titles over the next five, seven years, and it will not feel as good as this one. Right. Because the first one, just like Cleveland with another championship will never be like 16 because you guys are down three one. That will not be duplicated. So I do not want to take a syllable away from the thunder. But at the same time, I'm having a hard time not just saying what if. Well, and honestly, you got to have sympathy for the pay, especially for Tyree's help.

Because listen, Nane, like he talked about. before game six, he talked about like understanding the risk. And when you have a calf strain, you know what the risk is. We've seen this happen with Kevin Durant in the finals. Unfortunately, everybody knew exactly what the risk is. We saw the risk play out in really painful, tragic fashion. There on the other end of the floor, how can you not feel sorry for the guy? But there's like, there's no way you're not going to play in games.

six and seven of the NBA finals. Forget about it. We were talking about it after game six. He made movements over and over that we all thought this could be it at any moment. When he got through game six, after he hit the second three in here, I forgot about the calf. I'm telling you. I forgot about the calf muscle. I just started rolling with him.

And they were like deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. Start talking trash into that timeout. I said, hey, man, I don't know what drug they gave that. man, but he don't feel that calf. And then it was like right after that, you have that disheartening, you had the confirmation from him saying no, no, no, no, like not right now.

Yeah, that's tough. But honestly, if I'm the OKC Thunder, there's zero chance that anybody thinks that I care that somebody went down. No, I promise you. And they shouldn't. And I'm not saying. To my standard, I don't feel like we should have lost

the first championship. Kyrie halved his knee. I had my shoulder out of place. J.R.'s back was messed up. Kevin Love's back was messed up. LeBron's... No, Kevin Love's shoulder was out. The shoulder was out.

I can't remember what LeBron's issue was, but I believe he went and got some back operation after that before the next season. You might have just broken news, but we'll just move past that. Terrible. Everybody was terrible after that. Well, and we're revisiting old 10 years ago, But I mean, it's just injuries come with it. Yeah.

Like, that's my own thing. Well, part of winning the championship is being able to get through. Got to get healthy. Tim Bond-Tumson's here. That's, oh, you said standby. Yeah. You're a good, you got to be healthy and you got to be lucky. You do.

You do. It's a huge part of it every year. A lot of that is luck, seriously. Yeah. And the next year, Bogot got hurt for them in the playoffs. Yeah. And that was a huge factor, Bogot getting hurt. Without it out.

And then Draymond Green got suspended. Right. I don't know why he did that, but thank you. Thanks. Thanks. And that's what that's all I mean. Like with the thunder, it can't be one of those things where it's like. I have a saying for this.

Oh man, you know, y'all didn't beat them when they were full strength. I don't care if they. I have a saying for this. Go for it. Winning means never having to say you're sorry. Nope. So that will come into full effect. Sure.

And here's what scary. The thunder should be better next year. and the year after that, and their MVP is still an ascending talent. The only player in their regular rotation, who you can say is maybe on the back end of his prime, is Alice Gruso. Jay and Williams gets better week after week after week. Chet was bedridden for much of the season. Like, banged up as hell, Chet's going to get better, especially on the market's dead. They got two players over 27, the second youngest team to win a title ever.

And they have everybody under contract. They have the most assets in the league. They've got the best management team in the league. They are as set up as you can be, as we've said, all playoffs, to be the next dynasty in the NBA. Now, like you said, Chump, you've got to get lucky. You've got to stay healthy. A lot of things have to fall into place.

But there haven't been many times in history of the league where a team has been this set up to be good for a long time. Like the ThunderR, you've got to get one and now they got it. Yeah, so you've been talking about this. So this is the seventh consecutive year of a different champion, which we've never seen before. It's the ultimate area of parody. in the NBA. We've seen 11 out of the 14 potential teams in the finals being different teams.

That's never happened before. Seven years a row with a champion. It's never happened before. It also feels like that era is over. It feels like we're about to walk into the era of OKC. Set the over under on how many championships this Thundercore wins. That's going to get. That's going to get us in trouble. No, it's not. I mean, if I say 2.5, you take an over shump? Over under, 2.5 titles for this group. I say under. Oh, really? I thought that was pretty kind of low.

The reason I say under is what I do know about winning the championship is as much as people thought you were good, now people practice for you. Yeah. Like it's not, it's no longer he's good, he's getting there. It's, nah, it's them. So we're going to run stuff to deal with that. we're going to add people to our roster. More Hoop Collective podcast after this.

This is not the first time Alex Crusoe said alcohol. Look, we haven't seen a team get out of the, we haven't seen a team win a title and get out of the second round of the playoffs since 2019. Wow. So like you're talking since the Warriors got to the finals and lost with Katie and those guys in 2019, every team that's won is lost in the second round or earlier. So, you know, again, you're talking about just. repeating is hard, let alone having a dynastic run.

But again, they're just, these guys are set up in a way nobody has been. And, you know, to your point, big man, that's going to start being the talk. Like, they are the big, bad, dominant team now going forward in the league. And like you said, jump, going forward, that's the team everybody's going to be aiming at and looking at how to beat them and how to take them down. And, you know, they're going to be the gold standard going forward. One wrinkle about that, the gold standard, basketball's going to get good. Oh, yeah. Because you no longer could beat them the other way.

And listen, they are going to be, these guys are such boy scouts. Alex Caruso's back there saying, no, look, guys, this is how you open a champagne bottle. Okay. Was that seriously going on? Yeah, that's what Rachel Nichols just tweeted. Jathan Williams is his first little sip of alcohol. Yeah, they're like, they're like real good kids. But they're going to become.

During the trophy set presentation, somebody was messing with Alex, his hair. And he goes, stop it. Or his head, not his hair. I was going to say, what? I was like, stop it. I was going to say in his beard. No, but, but my point is this. bunch of Boy Scouts that are going to become villains to the casual NBA fans.

Obviously, they've got an unbelievable fan base here, but it's going to be either you're with them or man, you want to see him get knocked off. And that's going to be like we, I've talked about how do you market the Oklahoma City Thunder you market them? Is there the big dogs? Everyone's trying to knock off the block now. We have the camera. We can just show Mark Dagonal just casually talking to Bob Myers over there.

Like, he just became a championship coach. He's just hanging out over there. Yeah, with shorts on. I thought Mark was going to kind of smile up on the podium. He kind of smiled. He doesn't even, his hair isn't out of place. Listen. Well, listen, we don't want to talk about Dagonal's hair because I do still think he's,

well, now that Tibbs is gone, I think he's got the worst hairstyle of any active NBA coach who can grow hair. That was uncalled for. But, but hell of a coach. By the way. I can think of some that are worse, but I'm not going to say that because I'm not going to slander anybody. Listen, I did invite. I congratulate Sam Presti, who obviously he's done an unbelievable job. Yeah, he's on Scott Van Pelt right now.

Since he's been the GM here, but especially in this rebuild, right? We go back like the trade where he trades Paul George and somehow the rights to the reigning finals MVP, Kauai Linder, that he never had on the roster to get SGA, a hall of picks, one of which is Jay Williams. Anyways, I congratulated him. I did extend an invitation to join us to the tips of Tiki. Oh, are you going there tonight? No, I'm not. Okay.

But I invited Sam out there. So I mentioned this on Van Pelt afterwards, and it's going to be in some stuff I'm doing after the series. When Woge broke the story that Paul George is being traded and going to with the Kauai to the Corpus. Shea Gilgildos Alexander's name was in the fourth paragraph. Oh, man. Fourth paragraph.

And like, I'm not even taking a shot. Like he was a prospect. Well, he was coming off, I believe, a second team all rookie season. Like he wasn't, he was like a nice prospect. but he wasn't like, you know, a crown jewel. This year he won four trophies. You ain't going to let that go. No, I just think it's amazing.

No, it is. It is. It is. I mean, that was a great rookie class, really great rookie class. And he was, you know, a secondary player on a pretty deep Clippers team, right? He had a lot of promise, but nobody, I mean, he was, it was the draft picks in Che. But nobody thought that Chee was going to be, you know, like being an All-Star. Maybe like Tyrese is on Philly, right?

But nobody thought he was going to be the best player on the planet, man. I always tell this story, Shump, that when did the Cavs start getting LeBron back in Cleveland? The answer was they started getting him back the next day because they did, they forced Miami to do a sign and trade, which they got assets back for, which they ended up using to trade for Kevin Love, which helped them four years later. When did the Thunder begin winning this championship the day they broke up their previous team? Because they traded Paul George and then a couple of days later treated Russell Westbrook, but the Paul George trade brought back Shea. And the draft pick that was Jaylon Williams and stuff that's down. Well, and it led to that, like, they were competitive that year, but then it led to a tear down, a tank.

You know, not. It is what it is. I'm not crazy. They admit it's a tank. Well, Sam, at the time, wrote a letter to the Oklahoma home and the paper here. And in it, he said, the next, and saying goodbye to our past, we have to chart our future. The next great Thunder team is out there somewhere, but it will take time to seize and discipline to ultimately sustain.

And it took six years. Six years. And it was. And now it could be sustained for a very long time. The great Thunder team. It was really a three-year rebuild. And then, you know, just taking a... They have been double-figure leaps the last three seasons for this team.

That's crazy. From 24 to 40, from 40 to, 57 to 57 to 68. It's hard to double-figure leap from 57. There's only been one champion in the NBA history who won more games than the Thunder this year. 84. Only there was one Jordan Bulls team that won more than 84 games. Now, there was a 73 win Warriors, but they weren't a champion. Only one champion in NBA history has more wins than this Thunder team that two years ago won 42.

That was 24. 42 to 68 win champions in two years. 42 to 84. That's doubled it. That's pretty good. All in these numbers, man. They get all the numbers, man. They just compare these to the Bulls, man.

Oh, see, Shump's from Chicago. Listen, and here's the thing. Single season, you can talk about the single season statistical comparisons. Right. They've got to, and look, if we're going to compare them historically, you got to compare eras. And that's when you talk about multiple titles. That's when you talk about, can this team, you know,

the Bulls stack together six? Can they get in that kind of conversation? Can they get in the Showtime Lakers? Five, you know, can they get in those kind of conversations? I'm just saying they got to get a lot meaner all of those well they were the number one defense in the league

by a wide margin they did lead the league in turnover's force by a wide margin you can't take none of that which you go to the next year and then when you got that target on your back they're also just way ahead of schedule too you're not supposed to win the title when you got all these guys who are 22 they've got like two guys in the roster have hair on their chest

I'm just saying shump is learning oh we haven't had you on these shows for the last couple of rounds. Shump's just learning. McMahon is all over the place. You can't handle it. What? This is what we do all the time, Shump.

This is every day with us. It's all the time. I'm that kid in the classroom that if we friends, y'all can't laugh and look at me. I'm not the kid that y'all look at. I was born who sat in the back of the class room, made a bunch of bad jokes and ended up getting kicked out. I would laugh at the bad jokes.

Shump, he got kicked out of multiple schools. Hey, Jay, what were you sipping on? bro i had uh champagne i've never had any alcohol champagne count is alcohol yes it does sir how much disgusting is crazy yeah j will's trying to get me to drink tequila so we'll see how the night i wouldn't see how the night goes that could not go well that could that could go very poorly maybe i don't i'm i'm bet keel of first i'm gonna put the over under on his tequila shots at point five and take the under he needs you to go out with him tonight and no he doesn't know he does Not.

That's exactly the wrong thing. I can tell right way he's joking. The night you won the championship went to Vegas. What was that night like? It was crazy because we went to sleep on the plane thinking we were going to Cleveland. Oh, wow. So we was already kind of a little out of it. And then I'm like, all right, I'm going to just get some rest because I know this parade about to be crazy.

Which it was. You wake up and like, what? And the owner's like, we're in Vegas. His eyes lightened up and like, yeah, everybody get up like, oh, we go to Vegas. Left our bags. on the plane. I think I had like one of my phones. Probably got back on with one sock or something.

It was a good time. It was a good time. I saw, I never seen so many, so many of the people that helped us in the arena. They brought them on the plane. And a lot of the people that, just faces that you saw throughout the year that helped that was around to be in Vegas,

and to see them, embrace them, see how they acted outside of their uniform for a change. I mean, that was probably one of the most magical experiences that I got. I mean, I haven't won a title, but I've been in a lot of these games now. And that is the best part about it is seeing, like I went back and saw a bunch of the Thunder executives who I've gotten to know over the years.

And like, like, you live through it. Like, you see teams like this, Oklahoma City, these guys have been here 10, 15, some of them all the whole time with Sam. 17 years. They lost in the finals. they lost in the conference finals. They had Durant leave.

They had to rebuild. And like, it's fun to see teams fight through all this adversity and get to the finish line and get to experience this and see what it's like because it's just extraordinarily hard to do. And everybody who's done it, like you've done it, like you've wearing that ring. Like it, you appreciate how difficult it is to actually get here. I know we're talking about these guys maybe winning several, but you got to win one to win several. And it's cool to see these guys finally get there. I mean, I did win a pickup championship during these playoffs.

I mean, today, well, Shamba, I'm just going to tell you I was dominant. Shuff, he's out here talking about how he's got triple doubles and pickup. Absolutely. You're damn right. You're damn right. That's how you're supposed to be coming, man. That's how you're supposed to be coming. Hey, these guys are going to go out there today.

You guys have some of the same, you guys have some of the same club, you guys. Cover the same club, that's right. We prefer to call that swag. You know, Shump, though, here's the thing. You were, you play point card. You passed the ball. Yeah. He doesn't.

I'm point center, baby. What you're talking about? Give me the ball right up there at that elbow and just work off me. Boy, sitter. Come on. Boy, sitter. All right. We're, we're going to, that's going to be enough.

Shump, you've earned some, you've earned 0.05 tequila shots. You're on suspension. I'm used to it. All right. All right. Thank you to Bontems. Thank you. Just real quick before we go, because it's the end of the finals.

Yeah. It's been very awesome during the playoffs to have all these people come up and talk about how much they enjoy the pod. Everybody's listen, obviously. this. It's been great having Shump on, but it's been, it's just very cool to see how people have embraced Pod over the last couple of years. Yeah, Shump, you're a star. You've got to come back next season. I appreciate you. That's another thing, man. I came on to this originally just to do the stuff with Vanessa. So I appreciate y'all even allowing me to come sit down with y'all.

We don't make a decision. That's right. I don't, I don't think I've had more fun talking basketball. I mean, the only thing that would make this better for me is to bring my brother and bring my father up on the show with us to let them argue too. It's on the table. Yeah, they love to talk basketball, but I mean, that's what it makes me feel like. I love this, the, you know, the kickback, chill vibe of it, but we just talk sports, talk hoops.

Get to talk the ups and downs of fans don't get to see. So again, thank y'all for having me around. Thank you to everybody watching the hoop collective, man, for helping us go viral, everything y'all got going on, man. As long as y'all continue to like it and learn from it, you know, we're going to keep talking. All right. Jackson and Roth, our producer, thank you to Blair back there.

Thank you to everybody who helped us out here on this six-week-long finals. It felt like six weeks. Wow. All right. And we got the NBA draft coming up. We're going to have 40 hours. Yeah, it's pretty soon. And we got a whole bunch of stuff coming up.

We got Summer League, blah, blah, blah. All right. Thank you for watching. Adios amigos.