Is the highest franchise or the highest paid cast guarantee of success in the NBA, the billionaire professional basketball alloy? If the question is referring to the 2024/2025 season, which will be closed on Sunday night (22), the answer will of course be no. Indiana Pacers welcomes Oklahoma City Thunder for an expected 7th and decisive game, something that did not occur in the “finals” of this 2016.
Thunder was dominant during the season, closing the qualifying phase with the best campaign, with impressive 68 wins and 14 losses, packed by the exuberant phase of Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (or SGA), elected just over a month as the regular season’s MVP.
Already Pacers closed the season as only the fourth best team of the East Conference, with 50 wins and 32 losses, but with a strong drag in the playoffs. His main player is the point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who is around with a calf injury and may have to play the final in the sacrifice.
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Far from leaders
But what the two teams have in common is that they are not in the first shelf of the most valuable teams in the league. For Forbes, the Oklahoma team is in 21st position, with a value of $ 3.65 billion, just ahead of the Indian franchise, with $ 3.6 billion. In the CNBC ranking released in April, Thunder is in 24th position and Pacers in the 26th. This for a league that has 30 clubs.
The two are, therefore, far from the financial Olympus, today in the possession of the Golden State Warriors, with $ 9.4 billion, followed by the New York Knicks, with $ 7.5 billion.
This ranking will certainly be reevaluated after this week’s news that Mark Walter, sports investor and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, is.
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In the Star salaries ranking by ESPN, both teams are also far from the top. Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, from Pacers, are in positions 23 and 24 of the ratio, with annual salaries of $ 42.1 million. On Thunder, the first to appear on the list is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 33rd position, with a salary of $ 35.8 million.
NBA’s average salary is over $ 10 million, led by Stephen Curry at $ 55.7 million, and 49 players earned at least $ 30 million in salaries this season before encouraging.
Where to watch?
The grand final of the NBA starts at 9:30 pm and can be accompanied on the band (open TV), ESPN2 (closed TV), Disney+ (streaming) and also for those who have the NBA League Pass.
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