The Oklahoma City Thunder can win the NBA championship for the 2024-25 season on Thursday. The Thunder takes on the Indiana Pacers at 7:30 p.m. CDT holding a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven title series.

Eighteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges appeared in NBA regular-season games in 2024-25, but none made it to the championship series.

That will leave the number of players with Alabama basketball roots who have played in the finals for the NBA championship team at eight, although one of those players did so seven times.

A former Andalusia High School and Alabama star, Robert Horry played for NBA championship teams with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995, the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and the San Antonio Spurs in 2005 and 2007.

Horry is among nine players who won at least seven NBA championships, and he’s the only one who did not spend his entire career with the Boston Celtics.

With 244 playoff games, Horry ranks fourth in NBA history behind LeBron James, Derek Fisher and Tim Duncan.

“Big Shot Bob” averaged 9.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.2 blocked shots in 37 NBA Finals games. His averages across 16 NBA regular seasons were 7.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocked shots. A 34.1 percent 3-point shooter in the regular season, Horry made 39.2 percent of his 3-point shots in NBA Finals games.

In addition to Horry, the NBA champions from Alabama high schools and colleges who played in the title series are:

Bennie Swain, Boston Celtics, 1959

From Westside High School in Talladega, the center was a first-round rookie when the Celtics won the second of their 11 championships in the Bill Russell dynasty. Swain played in two games of Boston’s sweep of the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA Finals. A knee injury sustained in the offseason ended Swain’s NBA career after one season.

Tom Boswell, Boston Celtics, 1976

From Carver High School in Montgomery, Boswell was a first-round rookie when Boston beat the Phoenix Suns in six games in the NBA Finals. Boswell played in one of the championship-series games after he’d appeared in 35 regular-season contests.

Andrew Toney, Philadelphia 76ers, 1983

From Glenn High School in Birmingham, Toney made the first of his two NBA All-Star Game appearances on the way to the 1983 championship. The Sixers needed only 12 playoff games to win the title, with the guard averaging 18.8 points and 4.6 assists per game in the postseason run. Toney earned the nickname “The Boston Strangler” because of his performances against the Celtics, but Philadelphia beat the New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers during their march to the NBA crown.

Pete Chilcutt, Houston Rockets, 1995

From Tuscaloosa Academy, Chilcutt had been released by the Detroit Pistons early in the 1994-95 season. He signed with Houston in November, and the Rockets went on to win their second straight NBA title. When coach Rudy Tomjanovich decided he’d prefer to have Mario Elie coming off the bench, Chilcutt moved into the starting lineup at forward for 15 of the Rockets’ 20 playoff games.

Jason Caffey, Chicago Bulls, 1997

From Davidson High School in Mobile and Alabama, Caffey played for the Chicago Bulls’ title team in 1997, his second NBA season. The Bulls also won the 1996 NBA title, but the first-round rookie missed the playoffs because of an injury. Chicago won the 1998 crown, too, but the Bulls traded Caffey to the Golden State Warriors that season for a player and two draft picks on Feb. 19.

Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons, 2004

From Central High School in Haneyville, Wallace was in the second of his four straight All-Star seasons when the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the NBA Finals. Wallace averaged 10.8 points and 13.4 rebounds per game in the series. The next season, Detroit lost a seven-game series to the San Antonio Spurs to decide the NBA champion.

Mo Williams, Cleveland Cavaliers, 2016

From Alabama, Williams closed a 13-year NBA career with a league championship. Williams dealt with chondromalacia, an inflammation of cartilage under the kneecap, in the 2015-16 season and played in only half of Cleveland’s regular-season games. But he played in six of the seven needed to take the title from the Golden State Warriors.

When the Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA championship, JD Davison was on the team. But because the former standout at the Calhoun School in Letohatchee and Alabama was on two-way contract with Boston, he was not eligible to play in the postseason.

Two players with Alabama basketball roots played on ABA championship games when that league and the NBA were professional basketball rivals:

Larry Kenon, New York Nets, 1974

From Ullman High School in Birmingham, Kenon gave the Nets an All-Star frontcourt as a rookie when he joined Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Billy “The Whopper” Paultz for the 1973-74 season. Kenon would be an All-Star four more times, including twice in the NBA, but the 1974 ABA crown would be his only championship. Kenon averaged 15.8 points and 14.2 rebounds in the five games needed for the Nets to beat the Utah Stars in the final series.

Artis Gilmore, Kentucky Colonels, 1975

From Carver High School in Dothan, Gilmore played 17 seasons across the ABA and NBA, but the 1974-75 season produced his only championship. Gilmore had been an ABA All-Star in all four of his seasons when the Colonels won the league title. In the five games needed to dispatch the Indiana Pacers in the championship series, Gilmore averaged 25 points and 21 rebounds and won the Most Valuable Player Award for the playoffs.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.