The Oklahoma City Thunder celebrated like they won the NBA Cup, not the NBA championship, on Sunday night.
Perhaps it was their collective age — the second-youngest NBA finalist in history — or the fact that they got to the mountaintop without enduring years of heartbreak. Now, compare that to last year when confetti rained down on TD Garden in Boston. Jayson Tatum burst into tears and yelled out, “Anything’s possible!” replicating Kevin Garnett’s iconic celebration from 2008, while the rest of the Celtics were equally animated after finally crossing the finish line following six years of painstaking NBA Finals and conference finals losses.
The Thunder were almost solemn after hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II described the locker-room scenes as the “most tempered” title celebration he had ever seen in any sport, resembling “an office party for someone who retired.”
“Most of the players left. No champagne splashing. No yelling,” he wrote. “I’ve seen celebrations from AL Wild Card clinchers more turnt.”
