NBA FINALS: THUNDER VS. PACERS

June 21, 2025

Chet Holmgren

Oklahoma City Thunder

Practice Day

Q. Talk about the emotions with living this dream of being in the NBA Finals.

CHET HOLMGREN: Yeah, the Finals just like any playoff series that we've been through so far, there’s a lot of ups and downs and it's the end of the world when you lose and it's the greatest moment in your life when you win every time.

But you have to take the emotions out of it, even though it's everything you dreamed of, and you just have to try and do what you can to continue to prepare how you've prepared all year to put yourself in the best chance to win each game.

Q. Now that you're in Game 7 it's an opportunity that not every player that's in the Finals gets. How much more special does it make it?

CHET HOLMGREN: You know, it's all special. Every game all the way through, when you're in the moment of it, it's hard to kind of grasp it but thinking all the way back to the first game we played this year and how long ago that was, and now we are going to play the last game of the season tomorrow, it's crazy to think about. But we have to put all our focus on just preparing for being our best tomorrow.

Q. What do you think of the matchup tomorrow? Tyrese was saying it's not going to be a pretty game to watch.

CHET HOLMGREN: I expect Indiana to bring their best. I expect us to bring our best, and we're going to see what happens when we both do that.

Q. How difficult is the mental and physical demand in this series?

CHET HOLMGREN: You have to put yourself in the mental space to kind of fight that feeling that you get when you get fatigued and your body is telling you you're tired, this and that, and you just have to push through all that. You know, just like you try to do all year long. But there's been a lot of games to get to this point, a long playoff run, so you have to put all that to the back of your mind and focus on just making a play.

Q. What needs to be corrected from Game 6?

CHET HOLMGREN: A few X and O things, some tactical things that we can do better, execute better, both ends of the floor. And simply, there's some plays that the X's and O's don't matter if you don't want to make a play. Either you're going to make a play or you're going to watch the play be made. I feel like we watched a lot of plays be made in Game 6, and we have to turn that around.

Q. How fortunate do you feel to be in this position where you were in November and given that injury you overcame?

CHET HOLMGREN: Obviously this is an opportunity that isn't guaranteed. You can't take it for granted but I wouldn't say the word "fortunate" is the right word for that. There's been a lot of work put in by everybody in this organization by everybody to help us get to this point. It wasn't by accident.

Obviously, there is a lot of grace that has happened to help us get here. We’re fortunate for that. At the end of the day we believe in the work that we've put in, and why we got here, and you know, we're going to continue with that all the way through.

Q. Do you have any lucky charms for Game 7?

CHET HOLMGREN: I'm not very superstitious.

Q. Are you enjoying yourself or is the stress and pressure too high now?

CHET HOLMGREN: I would say I'm enjoying it at all. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the injuries, but other than that I pretty much enjoyed the whole ride. It's a beautiful thing, the easy parts, the hard parts, good parts, the bad parts, it's all part of it. I would say I enjoy it all.