If the Indiana Pacers and head coach Rick Carlisle needed some added motivation ahead of Sunday’s Game 7 matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he certainly got it from a viral video of what appeared to be parade of buses already painted in Thunder blue.
Hours before the Game 7 matchup, a video surfaced on social media from an account on X called “Mr. Milkman702”, who shared a ten-second video of a number of topless buses with the words “2025 champions” on the side of them, which appear to be for a potential championship parade in Oklahoma City.
As you would expect, this video was picked up by many notable sites like Bleacher Report and Barstool Sports. And as it continued to get aggregated, it even got to Rick Carlisle, who took the time to bring the video to light in his pregame press conference on Sunday.
When asked by a reporter how his team has handled pressure throughout the season ahead of the pressure-filled Game 7, Carlisle ignored the question and instead talked about the bus video, which he said was the “only thing on his mind.”
“I just saw a video that’s probably gonna go viral,” said Carlisle. “Of some buses, open-top buses, presumably for their parade, that are already made for them as champions. So that’s all I’m thinking about right now.”
This is not the first time that a team’s championship parade plans have been leaked publicly before they had actually won the championship.
Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban was famously quoted in an article from The Dallas Morning News after his team took a 2-0 series lead in the 2006 NBA Finals that he planned to wear only a Speedo when he accepted the Larry O’Brien Trophy from then-NBA Commissioner David Stern. The Miami Heat, of course, had other plans, winning the next four games of the series.
For Rick Carlisle though, this video appears to have added further fuel to his fire as he looks to claim his second NBA championship as a coach and the first for the Pacers in the history of their organization.