Jalen Williams Calls Out NBA’s Shoddy ‘Champions’ Hat Spotted on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander After OKC’s Title Win

Jalen Williams is not amused by the NBA's lack of attention to detail even for the current champions' merchandise.

Jalen Williams Calls Out NBA’s Shoddy ‘Champions’ Hat Spotted on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander After OKC’s Title Win

Jalen Williams is not amused by the NBA Champion hats (FS Image)

The Oklahoma City Thunder capped off a historic regular season campaign by getting the job done in the Finals. They overcame a spirited attempt by the Indiana Pacers to take home the series despite losing star point guard Tyrese Haliburton. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named Finals MVP and capped off one of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history by setting various records alongside Jalen Williams.

However, much like other aspects of this year’s Finals production, the NBA left OKC Thunder fans and players feeling shortchanged. ESPN’s production of the broadcast continued to be subpar as even the legendary Mike Breen had an off series. Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson were widely panned for not being good entertainers on the mic. Stephen A. Smith, as usual, was blasted for his incoherent analysis.

The sad part of this for the OKC faithful is that the broadcast was far from the only aspect lacking. The NBA also let them down with their execution of the celebrations for the winning team. A case in point was their lack of attention to detail on the ‘Champions’ hats worn by the players after the buzzer. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sported it while being interviewed on the court after his win, and it came into focus.

The internet was merciless in its assessment of the merchandise – an integral memory for any NBA champion. Big 3 league founder Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr pointed out the shoddy finishing and quality of SGA’s hat in a viral tweet last night. The hat is made of clearly cheap materials and looks too rigid on SGA’s head. It also has threads visibly off-kilter and the stitching is glaringly bad, above all.

O’Shea Jr wasn’t the only one to notice it. SGA’s co-star Jalen Williams was also clearly unhappy with the quality of the hats. He posted his dissent to his Instagram stories.

Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are among the NBA’s best duos

Jalen ‘JDub’ Williams has proved to be an extremely capable second in command for the reigning MVP. He is one of the most switchable defenders in NBA history and can legitimately guard 1-5. He’s also a wily man who bides his time while taking open shots rather than forcing the issue. Yet, JDub is a very capable scorer. His 40-point outing in Game 5 gave OKC the decisive advantage in the series on a night when SGA was not at his best.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams exploited foul calls late in Game 4
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams (Image via Open Source/X)

Much like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, we can expect the Thunder front office to prioritize keeping this duo long term. Young stars who buoyed the team together with two-way play and can have a versatile skillset don’t grow on trees.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished the Finals with a 30 ppg scoring average. But an argument can be made that Jalen Williams was the real X-factor of the team. Even though SGA is the team’s primary playmaker and one of the best offensive hubs in the league, the team needed Jalen Williams to stand up and be counted in order to push the Pacers back.

The Thunder finished the postseason with a 16-7 record, which isn’t quite as impressive as their 68-14 record during the regular season. But bearing in mind the fact that they are the youngest NBA champions in over 40 years, the sky truly is the limit for this team. They have umpteen first round draft picks, including multiple this year, and they still haven’t even played Nikola Topic a single NBA minute. This is a dynasty in the making.

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