The Pacers and the Thunder meet in the Finals, related to the 100 million yuan contract in NBA history

In the 2024-2025 season, the Pacers and the Thunder meet in the Finals and will compete for the NBA championship.

Speaking of these two teams, it is easy to remind people of one person - Paul George.

Paul George was traded from the Pacers to the Thunder, and then left the Thunder; and as Paul George's trading chips, Oladipo and Sabonis were from the Thunder to the Pacers, and then both left the Pacers.

And the Thunder core Alexander was traded with Paul George, and the Pacer core Halliburton was traded with Sabonis.

But in fact, if you continue to trace the roots, the Pacers and the Thunder met in the finals because of one person - Rashad Lewis.

Young fans may not know Lewis, but his feat is still very classic in the NBA:

He is a "no-no-four" player who can play power forwards, but he likes to shoot three-pointers from the outside and is very thin.

He was only selected as an All-Star substitute and received a contract of $100 million, becoming the 100 million yuan man in NBA history.

When he was with the Magic, he helped the team defeat the Cavaliers and prevented the 23VS24 from being staged in the finals. Lewis scored a perfect finale in the first and third games.

Then how did Lewis affect Thunder and Pacers?

In 2007, the Supersonics signed their All-Star player Rashad Lewis and then traded to the Magic, and obtained a trading exception. The Magic gave Lewis a contract of $118 million in six years, which was the 100 million yuan contract in NBA history, and it was a very large contract at that time.

In this transaction, Supersonics got 1 trading exception.

Then, the Supersonics used this trading exception to obtain Cote Thomas and two first-round picks from the Suns, and one of them was the 24th pick in 2008.

In 2008, Supersonic, which had been renamed Thunder, selected Ibaka with the 24th pick, and everything started to get on track!

In 2016, after being reversed by the Warriors after experiencing the Western Conference Finals, Durant could no longer stand it and chose to leave. Ibaka was also traded to the Magic by the Thunder, and obtained Oladipo, Ilyasova and the draft pick from the Magic, which later chose Sabonis.

The trading exception from Magic trading is now back to Magic, and it has brought 3 players.

And in 2017, the Thunder used Oladipo and Sabonis to get Paul George from the Pacers trade. After failing to score the championship, in 2019, the Thunder exchanged Paul George for Alexander, Garlinari and a bunch of draft picks, including the 2022 draft picks for Jaylen Williams.

At this point, a new round of reconstruction has begun!

Most of the bargaining chips they rebuilt were exchanged for Paul George. Going forward was exchanged for Ibaka, and going forward was exchanged for Rashad Lewis!

That is, the Thunder dual core Alexander and Jaylen Williams were exchanged for Lewis.

And in the process of thunder exchange, Pacers and Magic are the biggest trading objects.

Pacers exchanged Paul George for Oladipo and Sabonis, and then exchanged Sabonis for Halliburton. This is their core player today. Although not as outstanding as Alexander, they also played very well in the playoffs.