Latest / Bleacher Report / Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Jalen Williams Talk Advancing to the Finals _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Jalen Williams Talk Advancing to the Finals _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder All Star and All NBA duo Shaye Gilgess,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Alexander and Jalen Waite.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Shaye Mark said that you and Lou really helped set
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: a tone right from the outset of this one is
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: the two longest tenured guys.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: On this team.
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  Speaker 2: Just what did you feel, maybe as a connection between
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  Speaker 2: the two of you to be in the frame of
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  Speaker 2: mind you needed to be for this closeout game?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Me me personally, I I wanted two things I wanted.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to go back to Minnesota. Travel was
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: and then I wanted the fans to be able to
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  Speaker 3: enjoy enjoy the moment with us.
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  Speaker 4: I wanted them.
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  Speaker 3: To be able to see it unfold in front of
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  Speaker 3: their eyes. I want them to be able to celebrate
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  Speaker 3: tonight in our building, go home, get drunk, whatever they do.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I want them to have fun with the moment. And uh, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it was, it was. It was good. I just wanted
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that, like above all, I could give
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: my energy and my effort to try to give these
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  Speaker 3: fans what they deserve.
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  Speaker 5: Shaane. One of the first things over to your right.
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  Speaker 5: One of the first things you did when you got
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: the finals and VP Conference Finals and VP Trophy tonight
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  Speaker 5: was handed over to your teammates. Even outside of the
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: game of basketball. What does this group of guys do
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  Speaker 5: for you in your life?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're special they I think, like the biggest thing
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  Speaker 3: is like they make the NBA like not feel like
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  Speaker 3: a job.
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  Speaker 4: And it can at times with.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: All the travel and all the hard days ups and downs. Now,
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  Speaker 3: I know I sound spoilt being in the NBA and
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: complaining about hard days, but these guys really make it
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: feel like I'm a kid playing au basketball and fifteen
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  Speaker 3: years old again, Like they make it seem like it's
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  Speaker 3: just fun. And I think that's what makes us really good.
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  Speaker 3: Like we have so much fun being out there together.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm sure we all know, like when you're having
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  Speaker 3: fun with things, you give it your all and you
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  Speaker 3: excel at it because you enjoy it. Now, whether that's
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: your job or not, but whatever you have fun with,
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  Speaker 3: you excel at And that's why we've excelled for sure.
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  Speaker 6: I'm not sure either of you right here, I'm not
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  Speaker 6: sure either of you knew this. But for the last
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: time the Thunder had a chance to clinch at the finals.
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  Speaker 6: Birth was nine years ago today, the Clay game six
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  Speaker 6: in twenty sixteen. Obviously, now you guys kind of give
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  Speaker 6: this day new meaning for the franchise. What is that
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  Speaker 6: like to sort of be part of the second chapter
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  Speaker 6: the Second Mountains?
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  Speaker 4: Sam likes to say for the franchise.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no correlation at all. We didn't even think
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  Speaker 3: about that coming into the game. That's something that, like
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  Speaker 3: you said nine years ago, we have no control over
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  Speaker 3: unfortunate in event, obviously, but all we can do is
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: come here tonight and control our energy and our effort
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  Speaker 3: and our focused level to get these fans what they
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  Speaker 3: deserve and then our families what they deserve.
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  Speaker 4: Everyone that's sacrificed for.
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  Speaker 3: Us, they deserve this moment to be able to celebrate
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  Speaker 3: at home.
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  Speaker 4: We took care of business from the jump.
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  Speaker 3: We were focused, we were together, We're energetic, we're aggressive,
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  Speaker 3: and the game turned out the way he did because
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  Speaker 3: of that interstle.
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  Speaker 4: Like with the Athletic this can be for both of
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: you guys.
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  Speaker 7: But when Sam kind of laid out the vision for
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  Speaker 7: what you know this team was going to be, you know,
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  Speaker 7: can you tell me a little bit about that from
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  Speaker 7: both y'all's perspectives, and then what does it mean to
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  Speaker 7: actually see it, you know, start to happen.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Sam didn't lay out no vision for me. He just.
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  Speaker 3: He traded for me. We had a few conversations. I
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  Speaker 3: realized he knows what he's doing very quickly, and then
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  Speaker 3: I just trusted him and controlled it I can control.
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  Speaker 3: And as you guys can see, he's done a great
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  Speaker 3: job of doing his job and has turned things around
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  Speaker 3: here very quickly.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, I think it's.
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  Speaker 3: It just it speaks to the tone that he set
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  Speaker 3: across the across the organization. He controls what he can control,
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  Speaker 3: and we do that all the way down the ladder,
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  Speaker 3: and I think that's why we've been able to have
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: access so quickly.
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  Speaker 8: There's questions for both of you guys, knowing that you
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  Speaker 8: have four more wins to get what's the journey been
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  Speaker 8: like from you guys from the Dallars series into now?
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  Speaker 4: What lessons did you guys.
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  Speaker 8: Learn from that and how did you guys apply thatfter
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  Speaker 8: this year and getting to where you guys are now?
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  Speaker 1: Just have we just have more more experience, more games
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  Speaker 1: under our belt, more ups and downs through season. Just
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: looking back at the last year, we just a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us have never been in that situation except for
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: maybe like two of us. So we just have more experience.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen a lot more things. Most importantly, you've been
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  Speaker 1: able to grow through the experiences and not get stagnant.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's why we're getting a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the great results that we are right now.
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  Speaker 5: Shay.
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  Speaker 9: I know you said a load of a lot of
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  Speaker 9: family and friends. But right after or before the ceremony
• 5:01
  Speaker 9: went over and saw your wife and your son, what
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  Speaker 9: did that moment mean?
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  Speaker 4: You know?
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  Speaker 3: I think the best thing about that moment is that
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  Speaker 3: he has no clue what's going on, and he's just
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  Speaker 3: happy to see me. Like you get caught up in
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  Speaker 3: you could in life in general, you get caught up
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  Speaker 3: in so many things that like don't actually matter. And
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  Speaker 3: that's the biggest thing with having my son in the
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  Speaker 3: past year, Like he's put on the forefront, Like he's
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  Speaker 3: showed me everything that actually matters in life, and he
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  Speaker 3: reminds me of that every day I wake up.
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  Speaker 4: Every day, he wakes me up.
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  Speaker 3: Every day he cries and wakes me up in the
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  Speaker 3: middle of my sleeve like he's amazing. He'll see this
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  Speaker 3: one day, I guess, but yeah, he he puts everything
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  Speaker 3: into perspective for sure.
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  Speaker 9: Can I ask both of you there at the end
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  Speaker 9: of the game, as the starters around the bench, you
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  Speaker 9: guys were sitting by each other. I don't know what
• 6:00
  Speaker 9: the conversation was like, but what was that like to
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: sort of find the two of you sitting by each
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  Speaker 9: other watching this game and realizing the next step was
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  Speaker 9: an NBA Finals.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, honestly, we're always together, so the conversation wasn't much
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  Speaker 3: different than it always is. Obviously happy for the moment,
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  Speaker 3: but like, this isn't our goal, this isn't the end
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  Speaker 3: of the road, This isn't There was no special conversation.
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  Speaker 4: It was just let's keep getting better. One more series
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  Speaker 4: to try to go in. Don't people won't clutch points?
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  Speaker 10: Shay, I noticed you had a moment briefly after the
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  Speaker 10: trophy ceremony with Kendrick Perkins last time thunder Mad Finals.
• 6:42
  Speaker 10: He was part of that teams also two thousand and
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  Speaker 10: eight championship champion. Excuse me, what was that conversation like
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  Speaker 10: with Kendrick?
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  Speaker 3: He just said he's proud of me, told me to
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  Speaker 3: keep going. I said, I appreciate it. Yeah, that was
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  Speaker 3: pretty much. Nothing long, just nice, short and speek.
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  Speaker 11: Jalen, When became a reality that you're going to the finals,
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  Speaker 11: how did it hit you? Did you have a moment sure,
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  Speaker 11: something you dreamed about?
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  Speaker 1: It feels very surreal. I know that's like a pretty
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  Speaker 1: typical word that people say, but that that is what
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  Speaker 1: I'm feeling. Like I haven't really been able to like
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  Speaker 1: wrap my head around it. I think just from like
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  Speaker 1: this being my third year, kind of happened pretty fast,
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  Speaker 1: so I'm like trying to like put all of it
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  Speaker 1: into perspective. Like my brother got into the NBA this year,
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  Speaker 1: like his first year is already done. So there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of like other things that go on that make
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  Speaker 1: me think like how fast and how blessed I am
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  Speaker 1: to like get to the point that I'm at now
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  Speaker 1: and who I'm getting to the finals with, So that
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  Speaker 1: went more into my mind just a by lucky I am,
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  Speaker 1: and how like special this moment is.
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  Speaker 11: Do you reflect on your journey much coming from unheralded
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  Speaker 11: and Santa Clair to be in here now?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I try not to forget it, just because obviously
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  Speaker 1: that's a long long way. A long way is a
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  Speaker 1: long time from now already, but yeah, I try and
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  Speaker 1: keep it in the back of my mind just as
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  Speaker 1: a reminder of the progress that I made and again
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  Speaker 1: just how blessed I am to kind of get to
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  Speaker 1: where I'm at.
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  Speaker 12: Jalen, You've stepped to this role alongside, right next to you,
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  Speaker 12: right behind however you want to term it, Shay the
• 8:27
  Speaker 12: guy sitting next to you. And since Game seven of
• 8:30
  Speaker 12: last series, your numbers have been pretty incredible. You had
• 8:33
  Speaker 12: some ups and downs before then. What did you find
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  Speaker 12: in yourself sort of in these biggest moments where now
• 8:38
  Speaker 12: you say, oh, yeah, I'm ready to do it on
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  Speaker 12: the biggest stage that there is in the NBA Finals,
• 8:42
  Speaker 12: show up consistently because you have.
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  Speaker 1: Been I think you kind of said it, just life
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  Speaker 1: is ups and downs. Same thing with basketball. I know
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  Speaker 1: I put the work in to be good in those moments,
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  Speaker 1: So you try not to get too high or too low,
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  Speaker 1: and you you have a off night when you do
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: play well, like you always trying to get back to
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  Speaker 1: zero and just center yourself. And that's what I've been
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: able to do. Makes it easy, like you said, when
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  Speaker 1: I'm playing alongside him to be able to do that.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of it is just like rolling with
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  Speaker 1: the punches and trusting the work that I put in
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  Speaker 1: over and over again.
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  Speaker 13: Say how much do you do you reflect on the
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  Speaker 13: twenty two twenty four one seasons you had and where
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  Speaker 13: you were then and now you're the MVP of the Sage,
• 9:23
  Speaker 13: MVP of the Western Conference Finals. I mean you reflected
• 9:27
  Speaker 13: all in those those tough years.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Every now and then, those.
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  Speaker 3: Those moments like help shape my character, I guess as
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  Speaker 3: a basketball player, help me to be humble and success.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Like it's kind of a common theme, but like this,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: there's so many ups and downs in a career and
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: a season and a game in basketball in general, and
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: those experiences, those hard times have just shown me, like
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: you say, humble, you persevere, you can turn things around.
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  Speaker 3: You do the right things. And I always, like I
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: whenever I get too emotional or too ahead of myself,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: so I channel back into those memories just because they
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: keep me grounded.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: And uh, I guess where it all started.
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  Speaker 8: It did it help at all?
• 10:18
  Speaker 13: You did have a forty four one season, the bubble season,
• 10:21
  Speaker 13: he went to the playoffs, your rookie true rookie season
• 10:23
  Speaker 13: with the Clippers. That did that help you kind of
• 10:25
  Speaker 13: get through that and then maybe say, hey, you can
• 10:28
  Speaker 13: get to this point. Did it help the fact you
• 10:31
  Speaker 13: had some winning seasons like the forty four Bubbles one
• 10:33
  Speaker 13: season the Bubble season and given your rookie season you
• 10:36
  Speaker 13: went to the Yeah.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, those those two years I had, like the guys
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: on those teams were like.
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  Speaker 4: Like real NBA veterans and guys that it kind of
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: showed me.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: In certain ways what it's gonna take to excel in
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  Speaker 3: this league, and that you can't recreate or you can't.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: We teaches us an experience and you go through it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: And I was blessed to be on those teams with
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: guys like that. So yeah, those years definitely helped for sure.
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  Speaker 10: Shay Mark said he thought that the first half in particular,
• 11:12
  Speaker 10: was pretty close to the best this team can play.
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  Speaker 6: What stood out to you about.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Your team's performance and your performance.
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  Speaker 4: And that half, Yeah, the way we got stops.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: I don't know how many they had it half, but
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: it was very few, and we did a great job.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: It just it almost seemed like we did everything we
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: were supposed to do defensively, like we made it tough
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: on our guys we were supposed to make it tough
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: on and then from there, oh, it felt like it
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: was tough on everybody, but we were clicking on all
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: cylinders as far as what their tendencies are, what our
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: game plan is, how we want to impact the game,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: how we want to impact the ball, and then from
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: there we were able to just run and have fun
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: and be ourselves. Offensively, it always starts with defense for us,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: and we were pretty good, but really good on that
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: end in the first after.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Sho This is for either of you guys.
• 12:00
  Speaker 14: Throughout the regular season, you guys ran away with the
• 12:02
  Speaker 14: Western Conference and you know, with sixty eight wins, all
• 12:05
  Speaker 14: the double digit wins and everything else.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Was there a point.
• 12:08
  Speaker 14: Throughout the regular season where you guys figured out you
• 12:11
  Speaker 14: were as good as the record said you were.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: The playoffs? I think you just I don't even remember
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the regular season, bro. Honestly, the playoffs are like a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: good challenge, especially like the first round, because you can
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: kind of like the regular season doesn't really matter, And
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think we did a really good job of like
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that was our test. And then obviously last season or
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: last last series with Denver, same kind of thing, like
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: when we're put up against adversity that you don't really
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: have during the regular season, and it's like do or
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: die moments. I think that's where we kind of grew
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: up as a team. I think that last series was
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: big for us, just obviously a lot of us. That
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: was our first game seven, getting over the hump of
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the second round. I think that was big for us.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: You know, some people felt that that the twenty twelve.
• 13:02
  Speaker 12: Bunch that went to the finals was kind of happy
• 13:06
  Speaker 12: to just be there.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Whether that's right or wrong. You kind of get the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: sense watching you guys play and talk afterwards that you
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: realize there's unfinished business.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I said it before, like this isn't our goal.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: We didn't start the season like we want to win
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: the last We want to win the NBA Championship. Now
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: we are a step closer to our goal and we're
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: happy about that, but it's still for four more games
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: to go in, for really hard games to go in,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: and we have to be the best version of ourselves
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: for four nights to reach the aultimate goal.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: And we understand that. We know that, and that's what
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: we're focused on.
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Jd Up over to you right. Mark said about his
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: coaching experience tonight that he operates at one hundred percent capacity.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: I know that's not new information. To you and He've
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: had a lot of coaches throughout your career, but what
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: has it been like to be under his tutelage.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: It's been fun. It's cool watching like a coach evolve
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: with us. I don't want to say like grow up,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: because he's obviously a grown up, but like just like
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: he's been able to like understand us over the years,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and we've been able to like get comfortable with him
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and understand him. So there's a really cool trust that
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: goes throughout every single player, and his relationship with every
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: single player is unique, and I think that's what makes
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: him very special. Like he's able to, I guess, get
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: along with everybody in a different way. And he does
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a really good job of understanding what it feels like
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to be in a player shoot for somebody that hasn't
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: like that didn't play, and I think that's that's very special.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And he's really competitive. So he's competitive with coaching, he's
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: competitive with the x's and o's, and we as players
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: feel that and feed off that.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Cool. Andrew the last question here to be honor.
• 14:49
  Speaker 7: Yeah, Jalen, I'm just I was wondering whenever you're a
• 14:53
  Speaker 7: draft he said that you'd never really played before. You
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: were a guard, and you know during the playoffs you've
• 14:59
  Speaker 7: guarded a lot of big players, and you've done that
• 15:01
  Speaker 7: throughout the regular season and since you've been with the Thunder.
• 15:04
  Speaker 7: But what's what's that journey been like as a defender,
• 15:07
  Speaker 7: you know, defending much bigger players than you and very physical.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I think I attribute a lot of it to my
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: like my sophomore summer, I guess, like going into my
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: sophomore year here, just being able to like take my
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: body seriously, eating the right things, putting more weight on
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I think I walked into the NBA like one ninety
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: five so to kind of get to where I'm at now.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I think that really opened up the possibilities of me
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: being able to guard other bigger players and just be
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: more versatile. And it's also just something like I lean into,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Like I like playing defense, our team likes playing defense.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And I think just over the course of time, like
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: the coaches just through different assignments at me to see
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: what I can do, and it just made me a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: better and better player.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys. Cool