On the surface, the personalities of Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his counterpart, the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, may be dissimilar, yet they have much in common in uplifting their respective teams to the NBA Finals.
Both are part of Generation Z (Gen Z). Their ages are separated by 18 months. The older star, Gilgeous-Alexander, often referred to by the acronym SGA, is 26 and will turn 27 in July. He is native of the Canadian province Hamilton located in Ontario, just outside of Toronto and played his final years of high school basketball at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is thoughtful, speaks in a measured manner and presents as a wise soul.
The 25-year-old Haliburton, raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, gregarious, bright and often reactionary, is a master troller, often clapping back against his critics with explicit or comically nuanced responses. He won’t turn 26 until February.
Employing naturally different approaches that have yielded comparable outcomes, SGA and Haliburton are respected young leaders at the dawn of the primes who represent small-market franchises that are emblematic of a new paradigm expected to be modeled by most teams in the years ahead: moving away from having a top heavy roster with a so-called “big three” of established megastars in favor of constructing a collective with two elite performers and impactful depth with multiple two-way players. Alexander, this season’s league MVP, and 24-year-old All-Star forward Jalen Williams, anchor the Thunder, the Western Conference champion which had the NBA’s best regular season record at 68-14 and are the favorite to win the title. Haliburton and 31-year-old frontcourt body snatcher Pascal Siakam, a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection, form the nucleus of the Pacers. These duos are surrounded by a mix of young and veteran players that possess skill sets that compliment them.
The Thunder’s head coach 40-year-old Mark Daigneault, a UConn alum, and rising young sideline general, and the Pacers’ certified championship commander, Rick Carlisle, who guided the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA title over LeBron James and the Miami Heat, have masterfully maximized their rosters. The Pacers play fast and uptempo, pushing the ball on offense and pressing and trapping on defense, using a style unique to today’s NBA game to vanquish the Knicks 4-2 in the conference finals.
The Thunder, the league’s best defensive team that can play big, small, rapidly or methodically, can match any system or tactic employed against them. They dismissed the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 in the West finals.
The best-of-seven series could emerge as one of the most entertaining in Finals history with the pick here the Thunder, holding home court advantage, winning in seven.