Remember when Pascal Siakam shined in the NBA Finals?
He wasn't the first NBA G League alum to do it and won't be the last.
Last season, the NBA Finals started with its usual splash. But for the first time in eight years, it wasn’t LeBron James making waves. For the first time in four years, all Stephen Curry could do was stand by and watch as a new primetime hero emerged.
Instead, NBA G League alum Pascal Siakam took center stage and cemented his place in history. Of course, his 32 points in Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals sparked a memorable run and led to a historic first championship victory for the Toronto Raptors. His individual performance put him in special company.
Siakam was the 7th player in NBA Finals history to score 30+ points on 80% shooting or better. Only Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Adrian Dantley, and Toni Kukoc did it before him.
He scored 32 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in the win. Over the last 20 seasons, the only other player with that many points and rebounds in his NBA Finals debut was Kevin Durant (36 points, 8 rebounds in Game 1 of 2012 Finals vs. Miami).
Siakam is now just one of five players in NBA Finals history to score 30+ points in Game 1 within their first 3 seasons in the league (since 1970). The others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971), Julius Erving (1977), Hakeem Olajuwon (1986), and Tim Duncan (1999).
With 11 straight makes, Siakam tallied the most consecutive field goals in a Finals game since the start of 1999-2000 season. LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal (twice) made 8 consecutive shots each previously.
That was then. This is now. In a world with a “what have you done for me lately?” mentality, Siakam will now watch this year’s NBA Finals from home after averaging 17 points on 40% shooting during the postseason before the Raptors were ousted. He was the perfect Robin to Kawhi Leonard’s Batman last season, but failed to take that next step on his own this year (to be fair, Leonard too failed to reach the promise land this year, even with Paul George by his side on the LA Clippers. So perhaps there’s still time, or better yet, leeway, to be given to Siakam).
What Siakam accomplished in just a short time is still incredibly special. Just two years prior, he was the NBA G League Finals MVP alongside fellow dual champ Fred VanVleet on the Raptors 905. Siakam went on to become the first NBA G League alum turned NBA All-Star starter in 2020, and also made the 2019-20 All-NBA Second Team. VanVleet is now in line for a lucrative free agent contract this offseason after averaging 17.7 points and 6.6 assists during the regular season for Toronto. They’ve both continued to make big leaps.
Though they were grinding away in the minor league not too long ago, these two weren’t the first alums in recent memory to shine on the big stage. 2016 NBA G League Rookie of the Year Quinn Cook became an NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors back in 2018. An injury to Stephen Curry thrust him into an abrupt starting role to end the regular season, but he kept the team afloat to finish strong and stayed prime and ready for a title run. That earned Cook another contract, and he hit several clutch shots as Golden State competed (and won Game 2, largely in part thanks to Cook) in last year’s Finals. Back in 2013, Danny Green set a then-NBA Finals record with 27 three-point field goals made. Coincidentally enough, Green was a teammate of Siakam and VanVleet last year as the Raptors won big. He and Cook are teammates now on the Los Angeles Lakers. The list goes on.
One could say the NBA G League breeds winners, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The question for now is: who’s got next? The likes of Siakam, VanVleet, Green, and Cook weren’t the first alums to step up and history has proven they won’t be the last. Such an acknowledgement, could, in theory, be an NBA Finals preview in of itself as fans gear up because there’s more where that came from.
But for a look at who may follow in their footsteps this year…stay tuned.