The Oklahoma City Thunder won Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers, to give the franchise its first ever championship. Yet, during the postgame celebrations, the young age of the players showed as majority of the team called on former 2020 NBA champ Alex Caruso, 31, to give a tutorial on how to pop champagne bottles.
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This is how young the Thunder are. They got to the room, saw the champagne bottles, AND NOBODY KNEW HOW TO OPEN THEM,
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) June 23, 2025
"That was the most tempered locker room I've seen after any championship," said The Athletic senior columnist Marcus Thompson.
Despite a slow start to the celebratory tradition of champagne showers, 2x champ Caruso led by example, as he got the party started in the locker room.
HAHA: Alex Caruso gave the OKC Thunder a champagne-popping tutorial 😂
High energy right now for these group of guys… pic.twitter.com/zjdn44I3Yb
— CourtSideHeat (@CourtSideHeat) June 23, 2025
Champagne shower time in the Thunder locker room pic.twitter.com/HL6Km0u80B
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) June 23, 2025
Isaiah Hartenstein said that when his basketball team won a championship in Lithuania they just drank tequila. Tonight, he said the Thunder were so inexperienced at celebrating that they had to ask Alex Caruso how to pop bottles of Champagne in the locker room.
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) June 23, 2025
Even on the court, following the team's 103-91 victory, many fans noted how calm the team appeared to be.
A noticeable difference between the Panthers celebration and the Thunders
Stanley Cup Finals > NBA Finals ?pic.twitter.com/c6fDtoAy5F
— Covers (@Covers) June 23, 2025
"I guess it's not loud enough..."
Isaiah Hartenstein's son was sleeping through the raucous trophy celebration 😂 pic.twitter.com/XtEmb4E9T9
— NBA (@NBA) June 23, 2025
It's almost as if the Thunder expected to win, and this may have been evident considering they already painted their championship parade buses to read "2025 champions," prior to tip-off.
Thunder have already prepared their championship bus ahead of tonight's Game 7 👀
(via @mrmilkman702)pic.twitter.com/A9oYq659ax
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 22, 2025
Ultimately, the 7-game series did not disappoint as the underdog Indiana squad put up a hard fought battle vs. the 68-win OKC team.
In view of the Game 7 matchup, after sinking three straight three-pointers, Tyrese Haliburton went down at the beginning of the game with what appeared to be an Achilles tendon injury.
Haliburton got injured in the same spot on the same court from Game 5. pic.twitter.com/p8hkndcdNj
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 23, 2025
Leading his team to victory, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (29 points/12 assists) now becomes the fourth player in NBA history (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal) to win the scoring title and Finals MVP during the same season.
SGA IS AWARDED THE BILL RUSSELL TROPHY AS THE NBA FINALS MVP 🏆
4th player to win #KiaMVP, the scoring title and the Finals MVP in the same season! pic.twitter.com/JP93jzjipu
— NBA (@NBA) June 23, 2025
To point out, there may be more champagne bottle popping opportunities in the future, as the Thunder will have four first-round draft picks this next upcoming season.
As for the 2025 celebration parade in Oklahoma City, it's already set for Tuesday, June 24 at 10:30 am.
Related: Luka Doncic Gets Beer Taken From Him In Postgame Celebration
