After the Indiana Pacers defeated the New York Knicks in Game 6 last week, I shared the below tweet to Twitter/X.
After further investigation and returning to old notes, it is not necessarily completely true but also not completely false.
While the Oklahoma City Thunder do not have anyone on their roster that played for an Illinois high school, their opponent, the Pacers, do have someone.
His name is RayJ Dennis and he’s rocking the No. 10 jersey in the above graphic. He is in third from the left in the first row.
The 24-year-old undrafted guard played at Montini Catholic before finishing his final two years of high school at Oswego East.
From 2019-2024, he attended and played college basketball at Boise State, Toledo, and Baylor. He even was the MAC Player of the Year in 2023.
After going undrafted, he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers and played for them in Summer League. He signed a two-way to potentially split time with them and their G League team in San Diego.
He would join the Pacers on another two-way contract at the start of this year. He went on to shared time with the big league team and their G League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
He even earned All-NBA G League Rookie Team honors after averaging 22.4 points, 9.1 assists, and 6.2 rebounds for the Mad Ants.
This season in 11 NBA games, Dennis averaged 2.7 points. He had a career-high 13 points in a double-overtime win at Cleveland in the final game of the season. He also had five rebounds, six assists, three steals, two blocks, and zero turnover in his 29 minutes on the court that day.
So to clarify, this is the 24th consecutive NBA Finals in which one of the two teams has a player on their roster that played for an Illinois High School.
While that remains true, it will be the first time during the streak in which any Illinois players will not see the NBA floor. Dennis has not played since the regular season and it will likely remain that way.
Last year, Drew Peterson (Libertyville) of the Boston Celtics did not play in the playoff but is a NBA champion. Despite that, the streak continued last season because Dallas Mavericks’ Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Lake Forest) saw minutes off the bench.
Game 1 tips off between the Pacers and Thunder tonight at 7:30 PM in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at the Paycom Center.
If you are in Illinois high school basketball fan, you just might be putting your NBA fandom aside for a rival and neighboring state’s team this NBA Finals.
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