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Jalen Wiliams Got a Trophy-Lifting Workout During Live Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Interview

The Oklahoma City Thunder like to have fun.

Kyle Koster

Jalen Williams has some fun after advancing to the NBA Finals.
Jalen Williams has some fun after advancing to the NBA Finals. / SportsCente
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The Oklahoma City Thunder play as a team and do media hits as a team no matter the magnitude of the moment. That's just in their DNA and the human urge to videobomb hits just as hard after winning the Western Conference as any other day. So there was Jalen Williams in the background of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander while the MVP did a celebratory interview with SportsCenter's Scott Van Pelt after the Thunder dusted the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

Gilgeous-Alexander was focused on giving the people some thoughtful answers and Wiliams was focused on getting a pump in, lifting a newly won trophy with his biceps and just generally trying to be noticed.

Van Pelt called out the silliness and Williams tried to play it cool when SGA snuck a peak but the Thunder star used his court awareness to know that shenanigans were afoot.

"Bro, go away, bro," Gilgeous-Alexander implored his teammate.

Oklahoma City now awaits the winner of the Eastern Conference finals series between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. They'll have plenty of time to cook up more on-camera fun to bust out on the sport's biggest stage.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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