The Oklahoma City Thunder broke away from several adages last season when they dominated their way to an NBA championship. Need plenty of playoff experience to win a title? Nope. Need to take things more seriously off the court to instill fear? Not really. Need consistent outside shooting? Eh.
After a summer filled with celebration and wrist rehab, Jalen Williams debunked another common saying. The 24-year-old battled through a wrist injury in the playoffs that later required surgery. Despite that, he dropped a legacy-defining 40 points in a Game 5 win in the 2025 NBA Finals.
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When you win an NBA championship, the off-court celebrations soon follow. One for Williams was being on the ‘SLAM’ Magazine cover. In his featured story, he dismissed the myth that you need a bunch of veterans to win at a high level. The Thunder are the second-youngest NBA champion in league history.
“I don’t think you need a bunch of veterans to be successful,” Williams told SLAM. “I think they’re definitely useful. But…I learned how to be a professional before I even signed paperwork to be on the Thunder. You go in there, and every single basketball on the ball rack is facing the exact same way; we tuck our shirts in for practice; we’re not wearing jewelry for practice. That stuff was ingrained in me since I’ve been in the organization. So we haven’t had to have vets teach us how to do things. We matured faster, because that’s the environment that we’ve been in.”
The proof is in the pudding for the Thunder. Most folks believe they were too young to succeed at the rapid ascension they had. The oldest player on last year’s squad was a 31-year-old Alex Caruso. And while his presence marked a shift in locker room vibes with his championship pedigree, OKC already did a stellar job of being an all-business team that rolled up its sleeves to go to work.
Some might point out that this could be a subtle shot at Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, but that doesn’t reflect reality. They seamlessly fit into the Thunder’s culture. To the point that their teammates, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti gushed over it all year long.
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Instead, the point Williams made was how locked in everybody was last season. From the top to the bottom of the roster. That type of rare synergy is an intangible every organization tries to capture. A historic 68-14 regular-season record and the greatest point differential of all time show that. A playoff run that finished with the Larry O’Brien trophy showed the results of an everyday process in OKC.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Why Jalen Williams believes Thunder didn’t need veterans for success