Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton took roads less traveled to stardom in the NBA Finals

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton weren’t expected to ever be starring in leading roles on the NBA Finals stage.

Well, at least not by many.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I had nights where I thought I wasn’t good at basketball, had nights where I thought I was the best player in the world before I was. It’s been ups and downs. My mentality to try to stay level through it all really helped me. Once I figured that out, I really saw jumps in my game.”

Those jumps have made Gilgeous-Alexander the face of the Oklahoma City Thunder. This, after he was cut from his junior varsity team as a ninth grader. He came off the bench for most of the first two months of his freshman season at Kentucky, wasn't a top-10 draft pick and was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers after his rookie year.

Haliburton has traveled a similar road to NBA stardom.

Now a favorite son in the state of Indiana, Haliburton didn't get attention from major college programs until his senior year of high school when he led Oshkosh North High School (Wisconsin) to a state title. The slender guard was visited schools such as Ohio and Indiana University-Indianapolis before Iowa State offered a scholarship. He wasn't a one-and-done, wasn't a top-10 pick and got traded from Sacramento during his third year in the league.

“This is a franchise that took a chance on me, saw something that other people didn’t see in me,” Haliburton said of the Pacers. “Sometimes I think they saw more in me than I saw in myself.”

Haliburton and Gilgeous-Alexander aren't the household names that familiar to casual basketball fans are accustomed to seeing in the Finals, like LeBron James or Stephen Curry. But they will be the engines for their squads when their teams meet in Game 1 Thursday night in Oklahoma City — and for good reason.

Gilgeous-Alexander is the this year's league MVP and Haliburton is a two-time All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the 6-foot-6 OKC guard, averaged a league-best 32.7 points per game in the regular season to claim his first scoring title. He has averaged 29.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.9 assists per contest in the playoffs. That's a long way from his formative days in Canada, or even four years ago when the Thunder were one of the worst teams in the league.

Gilgeous-Alexander just seems to always be focused on the task at hand. He said the ups and downs of the journey flashed through his mind when he was named MVP.

“All the moments I got, like, cut, traded, slighted, overlooked,” he said. “But also all the joy, all the things that my family has comforted me in, all the life lessons. Everything that’s turned me into the man and the human being that I am today.”

Haliburton spent two seasons at Iowa State and appeared in exactly one postseason game, a 62-59 first-round loss to Ohio State in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. He entered the NBA draft despite suffering a season-ending fractured left wrist in February 2020.

Sacramento made him the 12th overall pick, even with De’Aaron Fox already on the roster. But Haliburton never made the playoffs in 2 1/2 seasons with the Kings and their crowded backcourt led to Haliburton’s trade to Indiana for All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis in February 2022.

The change of scenery didn’t change his postseason misfortune — at least not immediately. The Pacers missed the playoffs in 2022 and again in 2023 as Haliburton sat out the final 2 1/2 weeks, costing him his first NBA assists crown.

The breakthrough finally came last season, when Indiana secured the No. 6 seed in the East and eliminated Milwaukee and New York before getting swept by Boston in the conference finals as the injured Haliburton watched the final two games from the bench.

This year, the Pacers have dispatched Milwaukee, Cleveland and New York to reach the Finals. But even with his success, Haliburton has had his detractors. The Athletic published an anonymous player poll in April saying he was the league's most overrated player.

During the postseason, Haliburton is averaging 18.8 points, 9.8 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.

“What makes him very good is that he’s very confident,” Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams said. “So to be able to play as well as he’s been playing through like a lot of the ‘overrated’ stuff ... you have to tip your hat to him for that. So he’s just an extremely confident individual. And I think that, regardless of who you are, makes you dangerous.”

It also makes for an intriguing backcourt matchup after a couple of winding roads to the NBA Finals.

AP Sports Writer Michael Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton holds up the trophy after the Pacers won Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton celebrates after a teammate made a 3-pointer during the second half of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the New York Knicks in Indianapolis, Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) dribbles down the court during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) dunks during the second half of Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2), front, celebrates with teammates after Game 5 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

FILE - Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot between Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) and forward Aaron Nesmith (23) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)