The Conference Finals

For the 2024-2025 season, defending NBA champion Boston Celtics was dethroned and there will be a new champion hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy.   It will either be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson or Tyrese Haliburton who will have their first ever diamond encrusted title ring.

Battling for supremacy in the Western Conference will be the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder.   The New York Knicks will dispute the Eastern Conference crown with the Indiana Pacers.

Of the four teams, only the Knicks had won two NBA championships but that was a very long time ago, in 1970 and 1973.  Current Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was only 12 years old when NYK won their first championship.   Rick Carlisle, the Pacers head coach, who played with the Knicks after his championship year with the Celtics, was a year younger than coach Thibs at that time.

It’s the second consecutive EC Finals appearance for Indiana, where they were swept by Boston las year.

The Knicks haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 1999, losing to the San Antonio Spurs, 4-1, marking the Spurs’ first championship.

Indiana and New York faced each other last in 2000, where the Pacers, coached by Larry Bird and headlined by Reggie Miller, Jalen Rose, Mark Jackson and Rik Smits won over the Knicks 4-2.   NYK at that time was coached by Jeff Van Gundy and had Latrell Sprewell, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Allan Houston and current NYK assistant coach Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father.

Indiana moved on to the NBA Finals against the LA Lakers, but lost 2-4, thus giving Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant their first title together.

This will be Minnesota’s second consecutive conference finals.  Last season, they lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 1-4, and hope that this time, they’ll come out on top.

It was also 20 years ago that Minnesota, with a prime Kevin Garnett and a still effective Sprewell were in the WC Finals, but they lost to the Lakers 2-4, which, aside from Kobe and Shaq, had Karl Malone and Gary Payton chasing their first championship rings.  The Lakers only won one game, eventually losing to the Detroit Pistons.

In 2012, Oklahoma, with the big three of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, faced San Antonio’s big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.  OKC lost to Miami in the Finals.

The Thunder’s last conference finals was in 2016, when they lost to Golden State.  GSW wasted a 3-1 Finals series lead giving Cleveland their first NBA title, and the Cavs making history by overcoming that deficit.