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Thunder star Jalen Williams hit with wrist surgery revelation after winning NBA title
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- Thunder star Jalen Williams hit with wrist surgery revelation after winning NBA title
The post Thunder star Jalen Williams hit with wrist surgery revelation after winning NBA title appeared first on ClutchPoints .
Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams needs right wrist surgery after winning the NBA title , general manager Sam Presti announced at his end-of-season availability right before free agency.
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" Jalen Williams , Dub, is going to have surgery on that wrist" Presti said. "I want to just acknowledge for a second how impressed I am with him. The injury took place before the playoffs began. Against Phoenix, we had a back-to-back, I can't remember. It may have been Lakers , Phoenix. It occurred during that game."
The back-to-back Presti is referring to happened on April 8 and April 9 against the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns . OKC played two more regular-season games to end the year after that with Williams sitting out both of them with the No. 1 seed locked up. The young Thunder star didn't miss a game in the playoffs due to the injury and apparently "forgot" it happened.
Williams posted on X, formerly Twitter, about the surgery news : "Oh yea I forgot about that lol…"
Presti went into more detail about the injury, noting it's "just a ligament tear" and expressing confidence in a return in time for the start of the 2025-26 season.
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"We knew he would need surgery at the end of the season, and he played the two months with this injury," Presti said about Jalen Williams playing through the injury. "It's just a ligament tear. It's not an injury he'll have any problem recovering from. It's pretty common.
"The part that I am most impressed with is in our modern era, when someone has a poor performance, or they're not playing to their capability, you often see little birdies make sure that everybody knows the player is not 100 percent. That never happened with this guy. Not one time. He powered through and showed incredible mental endurance and security in himself.
"And I've said this many times: The best players are secure players. I really thought it was pretty impressive that he just kept moving along with no excuses. Obviously, he played some of his best basketball down the stretch of the season. He should be available for the start of the regular season."
Jalen Williams did have his share of shooting struggles in the playoffs. While that could potentially be attributed to the wrist issue, as Presti noted, we never heard about it being a problem.
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Williams also had a number of monster games to help lead OKC to the championship. That includes a 40-point outing in a crucial Game 5 win that put the Thunder up 3-2 in the NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers .
J-Dub finished the playoffs averaging 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists while shooting 44.9% from the field and 30.4% from 3-point range. The 24-year-old is in line to get a huge contract extension and shut down any possible trade speculation with his strong two-way play on the way to his first championship.
Related: Thunder trade proposal for LeBron James adds four-time champion to Finals winners
Related: Sam Presti reveals Thunder's offseason plan after 2025 NBA Finals victory
