3x NBA All-Star Shares Harsh Truth On Pacers-Thunder Finals Matchup

The Oklahoma City Thunder are officially the 2025 NBA Champions. They defeated the Indiana Pacers in seven games to finish off a historic season by Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. With a season reminiscent of Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan, this Thunder team doesn't look like it'll be going away anytime soon.

Even though Gilgeous-Alexander might be the new face of the NBA, the reality is he doesn't play for one of the league's most notable teams. While he's constantly making history, teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Golden State Warriors continue to get more coverage. After the NBA Finals concluded, ex-Memphis Grizzlies guard Gilbert Arenas revealed the harsh truth.

Gilbert Arenas says no one cares about small-market finals

“Let’s just be honest. When it comes to small-market teams, we don’t remember much about them. We don’t really talk about the Toronto championship, we don’t talk about the Bucks-Giannis championship. With this one, the… pic.twitter.com/rhpOKBV6jb
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 24, 2025

“Let’s just be honest. When it comes to small-market teams, we don’t remember much about them. We don’t really talk about the Toronto championship, we don’t talk about the Bucks-Giannis championship. With this one, the only memorable thing was the Hali game-winner in Game 1," Arenas said.

"Other than that, there was nothing really in this Finals that makes you say, ‘Oh my god, this was the great Finals.'” Obviously, Tyrese Haliburton going down with an Achilles injury in Game 7 didn't help, as the Pacers were out of the game by the end of the third quarter. Had he been healthy and made it a close game down the stretch, perhaps the series would be remembered differently.

Final NBA Finals Ratings:

❗️ 16.35M viewers for Game 7, the most-watched NBA game since 2019.
📉 10.26M avg. for full seven-game series, least-watched since 2021 (9.91M) and down 9% vs. last year (11.31M).

Least-watched since 2007 (9.29M) when excluding COVID-impacted series.
— Colin Salao (@colincsalao) June 23, 2025

With the NBA having a different champion every year since 2019, perhaps a big market team like the New York Knicks can make the Finals next season and draw some more attention to it. However, there are plenty of smaller market teams that are building their way up to contender status, so a big market Finals might not be coming around the corner as soon as Arenas would like.

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