When the OKC Thunder won the 2025 NBA Finals, it was a shoe-in that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would be the Finals MVP. However, there were a few moments where it looked like SGA\u2019s teammate Jalen Williams was just as deserving, especially after his big 40-point Game 5 performance.<\/p>\n
One person who was certain that the honor would go to Jalen was NBA legend Tony Allen. The 2008 champ spoke to Williams<\/a> about it during a recent interview on his\u00a0Out The Mud\u00a0podcast. Allen brought up the 40-point bomb, and it took off from there.<\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t gonna lie bro, I kind of thought, \u2018Damn this man might f****** steal Finals MVP.\u2019 That\u2019s what I thought,\u201d admitted Allen, who remembers how well Jalen played in the championship series.<\/p>\n This brought a smile to Jalen\u2019s face. \u201cNaw, brother. I remember Stephen A. said the same thing. SGA averaging 30-something right now,\u201d he laughingly responded. It\u2019s honestly not the craziest thing if Jalen took the award from SGA<\/a>. It wouldn\u2019t have diminished anything Shai did for the Thunder by any means.<\/p>\n Jalen then shifted to speaking on his Game 5 pop-off. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy cause I can barely watch the highlights. It\u2019s hard to watch still. My mind goes, \u2018One shot you miss, could be a completely different series.\u2019 But I was just flowing,\u201d revealed<\/a> J-Dub.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just out there. I kind of got lost in competing,\u201d he added. \u201cSuperstitious? I didn\u2019t do nothing different. I listened to my music I did every other time. I always got four songs I play right in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Allen was curious as to who was on Jalen\u2019s playlist. J-Dub mentioned some classical bangers, including Lauryn Hill, before finishing his thought about Game 5. \u201cThe 40 I was just flowing, brother. I was just playing. I was playing hard as sh** on defense. I found a couple of easy buckets on O.\u201d<\/p>\n SGA may have taken home Finals MVP, but the fact that voices like Tony Allen and Stephen A. even mentioned J-Dub shows how much he\u2019s arrived.<\/p>\n