Goodbye to an NBA curse? The decade-long hoodoo that could be broken this year
When the Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Finals, a 10-year-old championship curse could be banished.
After overpowering the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder are through to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012.
In the 2025 championship series, Oklahoma City will take on Eastern Conference winners the Indiana Pacers, who booked their spot in the Finals with a 4-2 triumph over the New York Knicks.
Shai adds Western MVP trophy to league award
During the Thunder’s 4-1 series win over the Timberwolves, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved the standout performer, averaging 31.4 points, 8.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. The Canadian point guard was named Western Conference Finals MVP.
This accolade followed on from the major achievement he secured ten days ago: on May 21, Gilgeous-Alexander was named the league’s MVP for the first time in his career. He clinched the highest individual honor in the NBA after averaging 32.7 points with the Thunder, who finished the regular season as the best team, with a record of 68 wins and only 14 losses.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP award brought with it a double curse - but the 26-year-old is now halfway towards banishing it. After leading the Thunder past the Timberwolves in the Conference Finals, he is the first MVP winner to reach that season’s NBA Finals since Stephen Curry in 2016.
Nine years ago, the Golden State Warriors’ point guard became the first and only unanimous MVP, with all 131 voters selecting him as their top choice for a total of 1,310 votes. It was a season in which the Warriors registered a 73-9 regular-season record, but eventually missed out on the title after succumbing to a Finals comeback by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Can Shai emulate Curry’s 2015 double?
Now, Gilgeous-Alexander has the opportunity to break the other half of the curse and become the first MVP holder to win the NBA championship ring since Curry in 2015. A decade ago, the Warriors defeated a depleted Cavaliers team in the Finals to lift the title for the first time in 40 years.
Since then, no MVP holder has got his hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Curry himself failed in 2016, but at least he reached the Finals. The others didn’t even get that far. Russell Westbrook and the Thunder were eliminated in the first round in 2017, and James Harden and the Houston Rockets fell to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals in 2018.
The Eastern Conference Finals in 2019 and the Conference Semi-Finals in 2020 then proved a step too far for back-to-back MVP recipient Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks proceeded to win the championship in 2021, when Nikola Jokic was named the best player in the NBA. Jokic’s Nuggets exited in the Western Conference Semi-Finals that season, and in 2022, with the Serbian again voted MVP, Denver bowed out in the first round.
In 2024, the third time Jokic scooped the individual accolade, the Nuggets were denied a place in the Conference Finals by Minnesota. In 2023, Joel Embiid and the Sixers stalled in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
When do the 2025 NBA Finals start?
The 2025 NBA Finals kick off on Thursday, June 5, when the Thunder host the Pacers at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Tip-off in Game 1 is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT.
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