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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Eva Geitheim

Every Player Making Their NBA Finals Debut in 2025

NBA NBA Finals Thunder Pacers Finals Chet Holmgren Jalen Williams Shai GilgeousAlexander Dort
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8), forward Chet Holmgren (7) and guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) talk to the media after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in game four of the western conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs. | Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Inexperience will be a theme of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. The Thunder are returning to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 and the Pacers for the first time since 2000, when a good chunk of their roster hadn't even been born yet.

For the majority of players that will be competing, this will mark their first appearances in the NBA Finals. Though every player has now garnered some playoff experience, only four players on both teams combined have previously competed in the Finals. Just three have won championships.

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