Jalen Williams Talks Thunder Celebration, Kevin Durant Trade and Haliburton's Injury

Fresh off of helping to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the 2025 NBA championship on Sunday night, star forward Jalen Williams is still riding the high of the 103-91 Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

"I haven't slept. A lot of champagne. It's been chaos, to be honest, like really cool chaos," Williams said of the Thunder's celebration during an appearance on Monday's episode of ESPN's First Take. "We were out on the town for sure, it was very fun. I'm gonna leave it at that, I'm not gonna get too deep into it. Just know that we were out."

The 24-year-old star also admitted during a later interview on SportsCenter that he drank alcohol for the first time ever after the win:

"Yesterday was my first time drinking ever," Williams said. "Like I've never had a drink up until that point. And at the beginning of the season, the guys want you to drink, that's like the big thing for them, I don't know why. I told them, 'We win a championship I'll drink. I'll do whatever you guys want. I'll drink champagne, we can do shots.'"

"...So I drank a little bit, I had a couple of shots, champagne, I had a beer, it was all disgusting. I'll stick to Shirley Temples. I had a lot of those yesterday, and a lot of water."

Williams had 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals in Sunday's win. He averaged 23.6 points over the seven-game series, including a 40-point performance in Oklahoma City's Game 5 win.

Unfortunately, the Thunder's victory suffered a slight blemish when Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered a devastating leg injury in the first quarter that forced him to miss the rest of the game and puts his status for next season in question as well. Williams explained that he and his teammates never wanted to see Haliburton go down like that, but they still had a job to do to win the NBA title.

"First, just shout out to him in general. Just playing with the risk that he was, knowing that and still going out there, mad respect for that. And then just as a competitor, I think the human side of that is you never want to see anybody get hurt, especially in a big game," Williams said. "... For him to end it like that sucks, we never wish that on anybody. But at the same time, it's one of those things where we had to recalibrate and not let up off the gas because he's not playing. They're a really good team, and we had to close the door on them."

The Thunder will now enter the 2025-26 season as the team everyone else is chasing, and this summer is sure to see some major changes as other squads try to reload in hopes of contending for a title. Those moves have already begun, as the Phoenix Suns traded star forward Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and draft assets.

However, Williams made it clear that Oklahoma City is as confident as ever, and he won't let anything distract him from his championship celebration.

"Obviously, wherever KD goes, he's gonna change the way a team plays for the better, so it's always good having more and more competition in the West. And Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks stayed in the West too, so we accept all challenges," he said. "But I couldn't care less about what's going on in the NBA besides our parade and the rest of my week."