Jalen Williams Doesn't Believe Championship Teams Need "Bunch of Veterans"

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the youngest teams to win an NBA championship in history. In fact, they have the second-youngest average age for any roster to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Last season, their roster averaged 25.6 years old. For reference, the Los Angeles Clippers will be entering next season as the oldest team in NBA history with an average age of 33.2 years old.

What’s so intriguing about this Thunder team isn’t just how young they are, but how good they are. The Thunder are set up with three young stars who are planning to continue winning championships.

One of those stars, Jalen Williams, recently admitted in an interview with Slam Magazine that, despite the common thought being that championship teams need veterans, he doesn’t see the Thunder’s youth as an issue. 

“I don’t think you need a bunch of veterans to be successful…I think they’re definitely useful. But…I learned how to be a professional before I even signed paperwork to be on the Thunder. You go in there, and every single basketball on the ball rack is facing the exact same way; we tuck our shirts in for practice; we’re not wearing jewelry for practice. That stuff was ingrained in me since I’ve been in the organization. So we haven’t had to have vets teach us how to do things. We matured faster, because that’s the environment that we’ve been in.”

On one hand, he’s right: the Thunder rolled through the season with only a single player who’d logged seven-plus years in the league. On the other hand, no team has won a championship without a 10-year veteran on the roster in over 25 years. 

The Thunder certainly proved that they didn’t need veterans to win it all, but they are more of an anomaly than the new standard.