Now that the Thunder has reached the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years, we can finally say they’ve proved all of their doubters wrong. One of their biggest skeptics was Magic Johnson, who out of the blue posted on social media admitting that he didn’t believe OKC had it in them.
The NBA legend was quick to offer an apology to Oklahoma City on X, just as they blew out the Timberwolves 124-94 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final series on Wednesday evening.
“I want to apologize to the Oklahoma City Thunder for underestimating them and not thinking they were ready to compete for a Championship,” Johnson wrote. However, the NBA finalists reached the final stage of the competition with the youngest squad to do so in the last 48 years.
The Thunder’s accomplishment means that the last time the league witnessed such a successful young squad was nearly 50 years ago, when the 1976–77 Portland Trail Blazers reached the final stages of the basketball competition.
The Thunder’s squad has an average age of only 25.56 years, which is only slightly more compared to Portland’s 25.03 during their championship campaign. Now the team awaits the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals, which the Pacers lead 3-1 over the Knicks.
“The focus through the distraction of a closeout game to go to the Finals is what was most impressive,” said OKC coach Mark Daigneault after last night’s win. “I mean, they were laser focused today, and that allowed our best to come to the surface.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who put up 34 points and eight assists throughout Game 5, praised their teamwork.”It almost seemed like we did everything we were supposed to do,” the league MVP expressed post match. “We made it tough on the guys we were supposed to make it tough on.”
