Here’s Oklahoma City Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein on winning the 2025 NBA Finals/head coach Mark Daigneault as a person (defeated the Indiana Pacers 103-91 on Sunday in Game 7 at home).
(via Oklahoma City Thunder):
“I think the first thing is gratitude. I think it’s a privilege to be in these situations. It’s a privilege to feel this pressure. So now to get it done, the emotions — you can’t really describe. I think all of us on our team has been through certain struggles, and so now to be here together — something really special. You can’t say enough about Mark, man. From the first day I got here, the way he approaches each day. Even this short time, he’s meant a lot to me. Whenever I had questions, he was always there for me.
“He’s very stoic in a sense, and so I think that helped us all kinda stay through the ups and downs in the playoffs. We all stayed similar. So, I think he’s amazing. He’s also an amazing person off the court. He really cares. He really cares about us. It’s like little details: when we bring our kids around, he’s the first one to interact with them. If you have any problems off the court, he’s always open to talk to you. So yeah, he’s really special, even in a short time to me.”
