Defining moment of Siakam’s unlikely journey arrives with Game 7 ...Middle East

OKLAHOMA CITY — The days started early.

Pascal Siakam would be on the road before 6 a.m. leaving his rental in the hills above West Hollywood and making the drive to the gym he was training at in Encino, then jump in the car again and head to UCLA in Westwood for his individual on-court work, and then stick around to play five-on-five in the famous Rico Hines runs against other NBA talent. Then it was back in the car and back to the rental before doing it all over again. Without traffic, it was an hour-long loop. Given traffic in the greater Los Angeles area, who knows?

It was the summer between his first NBA season and his second, the point where Siakam began his transition from a guy whose athleticism and energy earned him a spot in the NBA, to where he is now: potentially the best player on a championship team. One of the highest accolades in the sport.

And it’s that commitment — founded in a determination not to fail, say those close to Siakam — that struck Dwane Casey, Siakam’s first NBA head coach, who vouched for Siakam to Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle when the Indiana Pacers were looking at acquiring the former Toronto Raptors star, which they did last January.

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“I mean, he has, and I say this all the time, one of the best motors I’ve ever seen in the NBA,” said Casey, now an executive with the Detroit Pistons. “Wow. I mean, he doesn’t get tired. And those summers in LA, he’d get in the car, his weight workout, then he’d do his on-court stuff, and then he’d go play five-on-five. No one was talking about load management. He did that all summer.

“When he was in Toronto, he asked to go play in the G-League. He’d practise with us and then go play or practise with Raptors 905 … he continued to grow and grow, and he made himself what we see now, and you can see how Rick is using him, doing a little of everything, he’s guarded Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander, reigning MVP). But it starts with that motor. It’s contagious, and he’s giving you the same thing at minute 35 as he did in the first five minutes. He keeps going until the bear gets tired.”

If the Thunder are the bear, they’re panting with the series knotted at 3-3. Siakam has given them all they can handle.

“He’s physical. He’s skilled. When you put those two things together, it’s hard to deal with, for sure,” said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, who has been matched up with Siakam routinely in the Finals. “I think the biggest thing for me is he was taller than I thought coming into the NBA, I guess … but when you’re tall, physical and obviously when you’ve been through this Finals process a couple times, just the playoffs over your career, you get better, and a lot of big moments don’t really rattle you. He’s been a tough cover.”

Siakam’s off-season routine is different now. By the end of his current contract, the Pacers star will have earned $331.4 million as an NBA player, with only $2.5 million of that amount guaranteed when he signed with the Raptors as the 27th overall pick out of the 2016 draft. He built a house in Orlando big enough to have its own NBA-calibre training facility in it. He started this transformational season for Indiana by hosting his teammates for two-a-day workouts before their formal training camp even started. The team stayed at a nearby hotel and took buses to and from. Siakam made the commute in his slippers.

But all those trips around Los Angeles, going where he needed to go to make the transition from an “energy guy” who “played hard as s—,” as Casey put it, have paid off almost unbelievably.

Not only does the lanky forward from Cameroon have a full-size gym in his own house, he’s the favourite to be named Finals MVP if the Pacers complete their improbable run and claim the NBA championship with a Game 7 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Centre on Sunday night.

From unheralded fringe first-rounder to best player on an NBA championship team would be the final, hard-to-believe step in Siakam’s unlikely-to-be-replicated journey.

If it happens, Siakam will make it happen in his own style. Mythmaking requires heroic efforts — it’s why Raptors fans will forever revere Kawhi Leonard, Siakam’s teammate for one title-winning season in Toronto. For most of two months in the spring and early summer of 2019, Leonard was undisputedly the best player in the world, as he averaged 30.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals with elite efficiency against the best defences in the sport.

Siakam’s done it his way, according to his team’s needs. If the Pacers do win and Siakam does earn the Bill Russell Trophy, and he merely provides his average production for the series in Game 7 — 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.0 blocked shots — it would be the lowest scoring average for a Finals MVP in a decade and just the third time in 40 years the award has been given to someone averaging less than 20 points a game.

That could all change Sunday night and Siakam could go off for 30-plus points as he has done five times in his 39 career playoff games for the Pacers, but it will only be if that’s what he feels Indiana needs to overcome the almost indescribable level of defensive intensity the Thunder can deliver, particularly in front of their home crowd. If that’s not what they need, he’ll do something else.

“I think for our team, it’s all about team,” said Siakam on Saturday as the clock began ticking down towards Game 7 in earnest. “That’s who we are. Anything that I can do to help my team win, that’s what I’m going to do. There’s no real thinking about myself and what I need. It’s like, at that moment, what we can do as a team to win. Sometimes it’s defending. Sometimes it’s getting rebounds. Sometimes it’s getting a steal. Sometimes it’s scoring.

Whatever I need to do to help my team win, that’s what I’m going to do.”

But one lesson that has carried over from his experiences as a third-year player with the Raptors — who, by his own admission, was just playing off the direction provided by the likes of veterans Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol — was the unwavering consistency of Leonard’s approach.

“For me, one thing I learned from that team was being even-keeled,” Siakam said. “I think Kawhi, no matter what happened, he was always the same. That’s something I try to have for me. It’s like no matter good or bad, make shots, miss shots, it doesn’t really matter. Just be yourself at all times. That’s something I learned from that.”

His Pacers teammates have taken note: “He’s a champion. He’s been here before. He’s going to draw by his own experiences and lead by example. He’s done an amazing job of that, being a vocal leader and being someone that we can lean into,” said Pacers veteran Myles Turner.

But Siakam is appreciated also because ever since arriving in Indiana, he hasn’t felt the need to lean into being a specific type of focal point.

He’s had all-NBA seasons, made all-star games and averaged 22.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists in his four full seasons before the Pacers traded for him in January 2024. But with Indiana, he’s comfortably toggled back and forth between taking games over — his 15-point fourth quarter in Game 5 as the Pacers mounted a comeback that fell short, or the 13 points he scored in the first half of Game 6 as Indiana routed the Thunder with their season on the line — are examples.

But he also gets credit for being willing to step aside slightly and allow Indiana to express themselves as the rarest of NBA teams — one where the needs of the team come before that of any single player.

“I think that’s the best thing about Pascal,” said Pacers guard T.J. McConnell, who has been electric off the bench for Indiana, averaging 11.3 points, 4.5 assists and 2.3 steals on 53.7 per cent shooting in just 19 minutes per game. “When we need him to be assertive and go get us a bucket, he has the capabilities to do so, and he does it at a high level, but if he sees someone else is playing really well, he willingly takes a back seat and lets them go. And that’s the type of person and teammate Pascal is, and it’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough. He’s an amazing teammate, amazing player. And you know, when you talk about a team player, that’s who he is … you can’t put a price on that.”

You can, actually. It’s $188 million over four years, which is the contract the Pacers were willing to offer him that the Raptors weren’t, and which prompted Siakam’s trade to Indiana even though he wanted to stay in Toronto. A breakup that Siakam took personally.

The Raptors’ hesitancy was based on age — Siakam will be 34 by the time his current deal expires — but also on the question of whether he can be the best player on a championship team, or at least should be paid like one?

Depends on what team and by whose definition. But if the Pacers complete their unlikely run Sunday as NBA champions, there is every possibility it will be because Siakam will be their best player, providing his team with what they need when they need it.

It didn’t happen by accident, and it wasn’t a straight line, but it would be the final step on a journey borne of early nights, long days, big dreams and a motor that never stops running.

It’s not the standard profile for a Finals MVP, but Siakam’s NBA story has never been anything close to standard.

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