Jalen Williams’ NBA Finals breakout powered by years of hard work and conviction

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OKLAHOMA CITY — This father knew that look. Intimately. Those steely eyes above a scrunched nose and curled lip. A grimace of supremacy. His shoulders forward, arms bowed into a flex. Radiating a roaring, marauding energy.

Monday night at Paycom Center, Pops saw it, felt it, as his son Jalen Wiliams bent Game 5 of the NBA Finals to his will. The All-Star forward attacked the Indiana Pacers like his reputation needed saving. Crossovers to the paint. Shoulder into chests. Layups softly off glass.

Williams constructed the game of his life: a playoff career-high 40 points in the most significant game he’s ever played. He demoralized Indiana while lifting the Oklahoma City Thunder to the brink of a championship. After each body blow delivered, Williams bellowed from the depths of his confidence. He’s typically economical with his words, so he said it with his chest.

Williams’ dad, Ronald, smiled as he recalled one of the original displays of that signature moxie from 15 years ago.

A family game of two-on-two pitted parents against children on the courts of the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Willams and his younger brother Cody took on Ronald and their mom, Nicole — both hoopers in their day.

Dad, as fathers do, asserted his physical superiority. He shoved the boys around a bit, antagonized them into frustration, toyed with their emotions as the game went to the wire. Jalen, about 9 years old at the time, shot his dad an angry stare. He backed his old man up with a hard jab step and then fired a 3-pointer. He drilled it for the game-winner.

He yelled at his father, mustering all the machismo stored in his scrawny body as he lost himself in the basketball ecstasy.

“And for a minute,” his father said, his fluffy gray beard widening with his smile, “he forgot I was his dad. I told him, ‘I’ll give you that one. But I’m still your dad.’ He was just in the moment. And I said to myself, ‘He’s got something.’ What you see here, he’s been doing since he was 8 years old.”

Conviction is a proficient octane. Jalen Williams keeps a full tank. He’s 6-foot-6, 220 pounds with a 7-foot-3 wingspan. He’s 24 years old with a motor that doesn’t shut off. He dribbles with a point guard’s ease, shoots it well spotting up and on the move with cotton candy touch around the basket.

Yet, his greatest attribute is his unwavering belief. He’s moved with confidence since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. And it’s only grown as his game has developed, because faith without putting in the work is dead.

The most glaring question mark for Oklahoma City as it pursued its first title regarded whether Williams could handle the role of co-star on a champion. In just his third season, in his first finals appearance, he’s morphed into the ideal co-star at warp speed.

He scored 26 points in Game 3. Then 27 in Game 4. Then in Game 5, he delivered his signature performance.

“He was, like, really gutsy tonight,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He stepped into big plays. Felt like every time we needed a shot, he made it. He wasn’t afraid. He was fearless.”

Jalen Williams had the game of his life in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. (Kyle Terada / Imagn Images)

Trey Wertz, who started 33 games in his three seasons at Notre Dame, worked out with Williams this past summer in Las Vegas. They hadn’t been on a court together since Santa Clara, when Williams was a wide-eyed freshman and Wertz was the sophomore leading scorer.

Williams was a 6-foot-3 senior point guard at Perry High in Gilbert, Arizona, graduating in 2019. Santa Clara was one of only a few Division I offers he received. Wertz transferred out of Santa Clara before Williams’ growth spurt, so he’d never laced them against this burgeoning NBA star, selected No. 12 in the 2022 NBA draft. And after working out, Wertz and Williams dove into one-on-one action.

As he did years before, when he taught the lessons, Wertz stared down his defender, jab-stepped and pulled up for a jumper. Williams blocked it. Wertz, defiantly, tried the same move again.

“He blocked both of ’em,” Wertz said, “And I’m like, ‘Hold up. This is not how this used to go.’ It was just funny how long his arms were. It can seem like you’ve got the space to get the shot off. But he’s so long and lanky. Yeah, that was funny.”

Williams’s parents embedded the confidence in him early. Their conviction provided an example, plus they implanted theirs into his heart. Belief is a cornerstone of the Williams family and the eldest son, as a result, developed mental fortitude early. Because faith is undetachable from accountability. It’s permanently intertwined with growth because of its bent on action.

Ronald and Nicole served a combined 36 years in the United States Air Force. Ronald did nine years as a jet engine mechanic before serving his last 15 years in logistics. Nicole served 12 years as a nurse. They believe in working like you’re convinced of the outcome.

It explains the old soul in Williams. He chewed as much wisdom as bubble gum in his youth. Now his mentality is fortified. It especially seeps out with the sayings he loves posting on social media.

Sometimes, the things that break your heart end up fixing your vision.

The young man just had to mature physically into his grown-up confidence. That’s why Williams’ pops — who played point guard back in his day at George Washington Preparatory High in Los Angeles, or Wash High to the locals — made sure his son played up in age and ran the point. And since dad topped out at 6-foot-7, a growth spurt was expected. They prepared for it by honing his guard skills.

The shooting touch came from his mom, who also played ball. She was a guard/forward who could stroke it from the outside.

The career moment Williams produced Monday was a collage rendered brilliantly into focus. Those floating layups off the wrong foot? Those came from aching knees during his growth spurt, prompting him to lean on finesse instead of burst. Those turnaround jumpers and the money 3-point range? That’s in part from hours and hours of workouts, with Bay Area trainer Packie Turner, with Cody, with the Thunder’s loaded roster of shooters.

That sense of the moment, the way he ran toward the heat, embraced the risk of disappointment? That’s a byproduct of struggling last year in the Western Conference semifinals. He was overwhelmed by the moment against the Dallas Mavericks, in just his second year.

His last big Game 5 came against Dallas last year, on this same floor. He totaled 12 points on 13 shots in 39 minutes. The West’s best team lost in the second round to the Mavs.

He was widely declared unready for the tall task of being a No. 2 on a contender. It was a long summer, with rough film sessions.

A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.

“He’s one of those guys that you want to see succeed, especially when you know him personally,” Chet Holgren said of Williams. “You want to root for him. You want him to do good just because he shows up every single day, does the right things. He’s a good guy off the court, treats everybody well. He’s always respectful. He works really hard.

“You want to see it pay off for him. … We don’t get here without him playing as good as he’s playing. So, we’ve got to make sure he gets his credit, gets his flowers.”

It’s increasingly clear that if they aren’t given to him, he’ll take them.

He pillaged the Pacers’ garden Monday. Williams took 16 of his 25 shots inside the paint. This was the first time in his career he took at least 20 shots and at least 10 free throws.

This new level of aggression came with Gilgeous-Alexander playing well. On this night, Williams was so sure of himself he put the game in his own hands. This wasn’t a night for deferring, but defining.

Game 5s in a 2-2 series are name-makers. Legacy builders. Game 5s are the beginning of the climax in a close series. The opening salvo in the grand finale.

It is perhaps not a coincidence that Williams chose this setting to go his hardest.

“Great force,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I mean, that’s the word. We’ve used that word with him in his development. When he’s at his best, he’s playing with that type of force.

“That was an unbelievable performance by him, just throughout the whole game. He really was on the gas the entire night. Applied a ton of pressure.”

The one applying pressure is no longer under its weight. Against Dallas last season, Williams played like a man who felt the magnitude. So he played bigger.

He’s an All-Star. He made third-team All-NBA. He made second-team All-Defense. He defends multiple positions. He has the versatility to run the point and even switch over to center in the Thunder’s small-ball lineups.

And when the moment comes now, it belongs to him. He takes ownership.

Off the court, his confidence comes off as swag. A liberation of style. He can sport a gold grill and dark glasses right along with a furry cardigan and magenta jeans. He mixes avant-garde with a durag covering meticulous cornrows, wears more rings than a guitarist and has a T-shirt range spanning from Jesus to The Judds, from Bruce Lee to OKC sideline reporter Nick Gallo.

The regimented fashion sense of his military parents skipped a generation.

“That is not me. That’s all God,” his dad said through a laugh. “But he gets his creativity and his style from his mother. That’s where his swag comes from.”

On the court, his confidence manifests as bravado. He’s a chill, humble kid from Chandler, Arizona, who speaks softly, smiles easily, is known for spreading warmth and diligently protects the vibes he curates. But between the lines, he’s marked by his edge.

It comes from knowing who he is, and who he wants to be, and how much he’s put towards that conviction. His physique has caught up to his perspective. His skill supports his certitude. His tenacity feeds his work ethic. And his experience is catching up to his ambition.

The fruit of his belief: a game “I’d be lying if I said I could imagine doing” on the biggest stage of his life. He believed he could get here eventually. Just not this soon.

He scored 24 points in the second half of Game 5, 11 in the fourth quarter. When Indiana cut the host’s lead to two points, evoking flashbacks of how the Pacers rallied late to steal Game 1, Williams buried a 3-pointer from the right wing to seize the momentum back with 8:06 remaining. A minute and a half later, his driving floater kissed high off the glass to put the Thunder up 105-97. Just shy of two minutes later, he lost Pacers guard Aaron Nesmith with a fake before hitting a turnaround fadeaway from 17 feet.

With the series hanging in the balance, with Loud City peaking, Williams arrived on time. Nothing about it felt early. Not with how smoothly he backpedaled after the jumper. Not with how his eyes squinted and lips puckered, an expression declaring how cold he is — and getting even colder. He’s sure of it.

Realized the same water I thought was drowning me, taught me how to swim.

(Top photo: William Purnell / Getty Images)

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