Jim Alexander: As the NBA Finals Disney Will Hate begin tonight, with the small-market Oklahoma City Thunder favored to beat the small-market Indiana Pacers as (so the smart guys say) most of America will yawn, leave it to us to figure out who the key player in this matchup is.

It is … wait for it … Paul George!

Those of us who figured getting rid of George might get the Clippers closer to a championship? It seems the Thunder and Pacers (in reverse order) beat the Clips to it.

Consider: The Pacers drafted George in 2010 and traded him to OKC in 2017 for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Subsequently, they swapped Sabonis to Sacramento in February 2022, in a six-player trade that brought Tyrese Haliburton to the Pacers. You may have heard of him.

And then, in 2019, the Thunder sent

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