It would be the first NBA title for either of the two energetic fan bases and their exciting young teams. The Thunder, led by newly minted league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is the early favorite.
Oklahoma City Thunder fans have waited for an NBA title since their team arrived in town in 2008. For fans of the Indiana Pacers, who joined the NBA way back in 1976, the wait for a championship has lasted nearly 50 years.
Now, for one team, that drought is about to end. The Thunder and the Pacers will meet in this year’s NBA Finals for the chance to finally bring a trophy home.
Before moving to Oklahoma City and rebranding as the Thunder, the team won a title in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics. Soon after the team relocated in 2008, the Thunder were contenders and reached the Finals in 2012. But that generation of the team was unable to capitalize on an ultra-talented roster (with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden), and the Thunder had been unable to return to the Finals — until now, after dispatching the Minnesota Timberwolves 4 games to 1.
The Pacers have reached the NBA Finals only once in franchise history, in 2000, when they fell to the back-to-back-to-back Los Angeles Lakers championship squad.
