OKLAHOMA CITY — Amidst an NBA career with very few promises for a journeyman, Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein inked a three-year, $87 million contract to join the Thunder last summer. His unique background is similar to that of teammates Alex Caruso and Lu Dort, whose paths to the NBA began in the G League, which adds an interesting perspective ahead of Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers.
For a player who spent his first few seasons, spending time between the Houston Rockets and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets' G League affiliate, Hartenstein heads into a do-or-die Game 7 cool, calm, and collected.
“I think AC said last Game 7. I think my whole career has kind of been a Game 7,” Hartenstein said. “As weird as it sounds, I might have been more nervous going into training camp when I was on a training camp deal than now. That was where I was fighting, low-key, for my career. Just those moments where you don't understand it at the time kind of help you now navigate what I'm going through right now.”
Still, with the anticipation of how good this year's Thunder team would be, did Hartenstein expect to compete for a title in his first season in Oklahoma City?
“It was a goal. It was definitely a goal,” Hartenstein said. “You never know what can happen. You try to do everything you can to get to this moment. We have the privilege to be in this moment, and we're ready to go.”
Article Continues Below
Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein predicted the team most desperate would win Game 6, and the Pacers beat that test by a mile compared to the Thunder's effort in their first opportunity to clinch an NBA championship. Now, winning an NBA title is up to the home team, which Hartenstein says knows what it will take to defeat the Pacers once and for all on Sunday.
“A lot of it is, also, what we do,” Hartenstein said. “Last game, we didn't play our brand of basketball. We didn't play our brand of defense. We just let them be comfortable. So, I think, it's a mix of things. They do a great job of never changing the way they play. They get out. They run. It's just our job of getting back to playing our style of defense and then go from there.”
In the most critical game in franchise history, the Thunder will host the Pacers in Game 7 at the Paycom Center.
