The 2025 NBA season is now in its final act. The long season, which started in October 2024 with 30 teams vying for the title, now has only 2 teams standing – the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) and the Indiana Pacers. To no great surprise, Africa will take centre stage in the Finals. Very few people had both teams going this far. But it is in the nature of the NBA in recent years that we will have a new champion by the end of June. The last time any team won back-to-back titles in the NBA was 2018, when Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second consecutive season, to win their 3rd title in 4 years. Infact, both teams contested 4 straight Finals (2015-2018), with the Cavaliers managing to win only in 2016.
If the Teens (2010s) was replete with the domination by a couple of teams (the Miami Heat in the first half and the Golden State Warriors in the second half), the Twenties have been completely the opposite. No team has made it to consecutive Finals, much less winning consecutively. Indeed, no team has won it twice at the half way point of this decade. This speaks to the diversity of talent in the NBA, the strength of multiple teams, and that old factor – Lady Luck!
So we arrive at the 2025 Finals with the Western Conference Champions, OKC, who also led the NBA League in number of wins (68 of 82). They are a team of young talents put together organically and painstakingly. Leading them is Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who led the League in scoring. He was recently named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the League Season and the Western Conference Finals. They made quick work of the Grizzlies (4-0), had a mighty battle with the Nuggets which needed 7 games to decide (4-3), and had little trouble disposing off the Timberwolves (4-1). They will begin the ongoing Finals as the favourites.
The Pacers took a different route to get to the Final. They showed, once again, that topping a Conference Table is not critical to post-season performance. They comfortably defeated the injury-hit Milwaukee Bucks of Giannis Antetokoumpo (4-1), and shocked the League by easily defeating the Eastern Conference Number 1, Cleveland Cavaliers, (4-1). They soon followed that up by beating the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Final (4-2). Guess who the Most Valuable Player in that Final was? Yes, Africa and Cameroon’s Paskal Siakam. As stated earlier, OKC will start as favourites. On paper, they are the better team. But what the Pacers have shown in getting to the Final is the power of team work. Theirs is a team built on work ethic, tremendous pace, and relentlessness. In Point Guard, Tyrese Halliburton, they have a rising star who could easily become one of the super stars in the NBA. He is knocking at the door of greatness. Their coach, Rick Carlisle, won the title with Dallas Mavericks in 2011 and is easily one of the best coaches in the League. All these will count for something as tip-off began on Thursday 5th of June.
But the real joker in the Pacers pack is Pascal Siakam, the Western Conference Finals MVP. His journey to stardom is worth its own dedicated article. A product of the “NBA Without Borders” programme in Africa, he went through the hard and rough road to get to where he is today – one of the most regarded players in the NBA.
Pascal Siakam was born in Douala, Cameroon, to Tchamo and Victorie Siakam. He has 3 other siblings and was the youngest of all. His father, Tchamo, was the mayor of Makénéné. He was discovered as a player at a local camp by Luc Mbah a Moute, whose parents’ home in Bafia was about 2 miles (3 km) from the secondary school which the young Siakam was enrolled then (St. Andrew’s).
Mbah a Moute is a prince in this village of Bia Messe, he was one the early African stars in NBA. Siakam attended Mbah a Moute’s camp for the first time in 2011, a year before graduating from St. Andrew’s, and he returned to it the following year, after which he was selected to attend the Basketball Without Borders camp. There, despite having had virtually no basketball experience at the time, he gained the attention of the scouts for his apparent athleticism and extremely high energy level. With Mbah a Moute as a mentor, Siakam moved to the United States at a tender age of 18.
He later played in the G-League and impressed enough to find a spot with the Toronto Raptors where he won the Most Improved Player (MIP) in the NBA. Subsequently, he won the NBA Title with the Raptors in 2019 and made All-NBA Teams a couple of times. In 2023, he was traded to the Pacers and, within 2 years, his nous, leadership and scoring has culminated in the Pacers making their first final in 25 years. If the Pacers are going to upset OKC in the Final, Africa’s Siakam will be key to making that happen.
Africa has had a number of NBA Champions over the years. Only Nigeria’s Hakeem Olajuwon has managed it twice. Pascal Siakam of Cameroon is now knocking on that door!
The Finals Schedule (GMT 1 i.e. West Africa Standard Time)
- Friday 6 June – 1.30am
- Monday 9 June – 1.00am
- Thursday 12 June – 1.30am
- Saturday 14 June – 1.30am
- Tuesday 17 June – 1.30am (If necessary)
- Friday 20 June – 1.30am (if necessary)
- Monday 23 June – 1am (if necessary)
References:
- “Cameroon calling”. By Fast Glass, Seth for Daily Bruin. 6 February 2006
- “Inside Pascal Siakam’s 6,000-mile journey to Raptors stardom”.
- By MacMullan and Jackie for ESPN, 5 December 2018
- “Raptors star credits soccer for his patented spin”.
- By Armstrong, Laura for The Hamilton Spectator. 6 December 2018.
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Contributions and edited by Kehinde Fagbuaro
