2025 NBA Finals ‘Game 7’ Championship Clinching Game Used Basketball | First Championship Won by the Oklahoma City Thunder Post Relocation | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams’ First Championship | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander First Finals MVP

This official NBA game used basketball was present for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s most important moment since the team once known as the Seattle Supersonics had made OKC its home: the closing act of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. On the night of June 22, before a sold-out crowd at the Paycom Center, the Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers to capture the team’s first championship in Oklahoma City —an achievement nearly two decades in the making— and only the second in franchise history.

The ball was used throughout the championship-clinching contest, a game that capped a seven-game series filled with grit, brilliance, and narrative drama. The Finals opened with Indiana stealing Game 1 in Oklahoma City on a last-second jumper by Tyrese Haliburton, who seemed poised to lead the Pacers to their first-ever title. Yet Oklahoma City, behind the steely brilliance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, responded with calm resilience, taking Games 2 and 4 after dropping Game 3 and reclaiming momentum after each setback. The series shifted nightly, a contest between two franchises and squads heavily motivated by the opportunity to make history.

Game 5 proved a turning point, with Jalen Williams erupting for a playoff career-high 40 points to push the Thunder ahead. Indiana, refusing to yield, responded with force in Game 6, setting the stage for a decisive Game 7. The final contest opened with an emotional twist: Haliburton, playing through a calf strain, drilled three early threes before suffering an Achilles injury that would remove him from the game entirely. The Thunder, buoyed by their home crowd, came out of halftime with a 34–20 third-quarter that would ultimately break the game open.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered a defining performance in the biggest game of his career. He scored 29 points and recorded 12 assists, controlled the tempo, made clutch plays, and secured the Finals MVP award. It marked the completion of a historic individual season in which he also earned the NBA’s regular season MVP and scoring title, placing him in rarefied company. ‘SGA’ is one of four players including Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to win the league's MVP award, scoring title, and the Finals MVP award all in the same season. Alongside him, Chet Holmgren contributed 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocks, asserting his presence on both ends of the floor, while Jalen Williams continued his extraordinary playoff run with an important 20 points.

This basketball is a direct artifact of that night—handled during key possessions, inbounded under pressure, and present as the final buzzer sounded and blue-and-orange confetti filled the air. Sotheby’s received this ball directly off the court following Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City’s victory was not simply the culmination of a season, but of a seventeen-year odyssey. Since relocating from Seattle in 2008, the franchise endured heartbreak, rebuild, and reinvention. Under the guidance of general manager Sam Presti, the Thunder assembled one of the youngest championship cores in NBA history—defined not by hype, but by discipline, depth, and defiance of convention.

Basketballs used in Finals-clinching moments are among the rarest and most significant objects in the world of sports memorabilia. This particular example, from the first championship won by the Thunder in Oklahoma City and the night Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ascended to the sport’s mountaintop, stands as an enduring emblem of transformation, triumph, and the birth of a new legacy.

This ball has been photomatched by Sotheby’s Photomatching.