Serbian basketball player became the third youngest winner of the NBA title, he did not play a minute in that league
The Oklahoma City Thunder basketball players won their first NBA championship title after winning the Indiana Pacers in the decisive, seventh game finals with 103-91 and thus won the final series with 4-3.
For Oklahoma, which entered the playoffs as the first team of the league, while Indiana was only the seventh, this is the first title since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City 2008. Under the current name Thunder played the finals and in 2012, losing to Miami.
Serbian basketball player Nikola Topic joined Oklahoma as a 12th choice on draft last year, and it was immediately clear will not be able to perform in his debut season. In May 2024, during the ABA League finals, Topic sustained a serious left knee injury. Partly his anterior cross ligament cracked. It was the second injury to the same knee of that season, because in January he was out of the field for three months because of problems with the same knee.
Thunders still decided to draft him and now he won the title without playing. Last night, at the time of winning the title, he was 19 years old and 316 days, making him the third youngest player who has ever won the NBA ring. There are only two players in front of him on this list. One of his compatriots is Darko Milicic, who won the title with the 18 years and 361 days in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons, and Jonathan Kuming, who celebrated in 2022 with the Golden State Warriors at 19 years and 253 days.
