The Indiana Pacers came away with yet another improbable win Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault and his team have watched the Pacers come from behind and pull off miraculous playoff wins during Indiana's run through the Eastern Conference.

Now, Daigneault's Thunder have to deal with the cardiac Pacers themselves. And they got hit in Game 1, as the Pacers came back from down nine points in the final three minutes to win the game 111–110. Indiana took the lead on an incredible long two-point jump shot from Tyrese Haliburton with 0.3 seconds remaining, which was their first lead in the game.

Following the disappointing loss, Daigneault acknowledged his opponent's prowess in overcoming adversity to pull out unbelievable wins time and again.

"Credit them, for not only tonight but their [postseason] run, they've had so many games like that," Daigneault said to reporters following Game 1 Thursday via The Oklahoman's Joel Lorenzi. "That have seemed improbable and they just play with a great spirit and keep coming, they keep playing. They made plays, they made shots so they deserved to win by a point. We got to learn from it, there's obviously a lot of things we can clean up, but credit them.

"They went and got that game."

After falling victim to Indiana's ability to chip away at a lead and find a way to win in a game's final moments. Now, the Thunder have to regroup with an opportunity to even the NBA Finals series in Game 2 at home Sunday.

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Their origins (growing up in Pennsylvania in modest circumstances) and their ultimate accomplishments (becoming Dallas professional sports royalty) are remarkably similar. But the paths that Mark Cuban and Micah Parsons followed on their journeys have been wildly different.

The 66-year-old Cuban, who just finished a 15-season run on Shark Tank, grew up in Pittsburgh and from an early age displayed the business acumen that would ultimately allow him to purchase the Mavericks for $285 million in 2000—and then sell a controlling interest in 2023 at a profit of more than $3 billion.

A native of Harrisburg, Parsons, 26, played linebacker at Penn State and was drafted by the Cowboys in the first round in 2021 draft. He’s parlayed his stellar play on the field into several business opportunities, including a deal with Bleacher Report to produce his podcast, The Edge with Micah Parsons.

As part of a video series called The Playbook, which was created by Sports Illustrated and Entrepreneur, the two sat down to discuss their respective journeys and their business philosophies. (They also played chess.) 

Cuban: I always try to meet people who are above the rest, because lots of people have talent. But not a lot of people know how to use it.

Parsons: Yeah. I mean, I say I’m lucky. Just be sitting here right now. If you would’ve asked someone in Harrisburg 15 years ago will Micah Parsons be here, they’d tell you, “No way.”

Cuban: Well, [we’re] PA boys. I grew up in Pittsburgh. My dad did upholstery on cars, my mom did odd jobs, and no chance I was supposed to be here. No chance. If you would have talked to my friends back then, they’d be like, Hell no.

Parsons: How did you get into technology?

Cuban: I got fired basically ... I’ve never been a good employee, so [I figured] I’m going to start my own thing. I called it MicroSolutions. That’s when I was 24, and I didn’t take a vacation for the next seven years. And all I did was learn, learn, learn.

You’ve got to be able to have that focus. And I think that’s what really benefited me. Because technology was new to me, but I could focus, right? I could commit to things. I mean, I was a f--- up in a lot of ways, but when it came to learning things and selling and doing business, I could get focused.

I was always a grinder. Nobody could outwork me then or now.

Parsons: I had to establish that, bro. I got very lucky I got to college. But when I first got college, I wanted to give up because I wasn’t used to structure. I wasn’t used to discipline. I wasn’t used to someone commanding me to go to class. My roommate was another linebacker, Jesse Luketa. He was from Canada. I’ll never forget— we were struggling at the same time. And [then defensive coordinator Brent] Pry goes, “Jesse, we’re about to send your ass back to Ottawa.” And I’m like, Oh my God, they’re sending him back home. I’m from right up the road, they’re going to send me back. [Since then] I’ve just always had this obsession.

[But] I love grinding. I love what I do, and that’s why I’m happy with it. If you’re out chasing a dollar, you’ll never love what you do. So you’re never going to be happy.

Cuban: Warren Buffett just retired at 94 years old and somebody asked me for a quote. I used to go to Omaha and me and him would go get Dairy Queen, because his company owned Dairy Queen—and the dude was just amazing. Just a real down-to-earth guy.

I was shocked when he retired, and then somebody said, “Well, any comment on Warren Buffett retiring?”

I’m like, He’s only 94. I want to see what he’s going to do next. And that’s kind of the way I look at things. There’s always going to be a what’s next ...

Parsons: I want [to establish] my own Micah Parsons scholarship fund to send a kid off to school to give him an opportunity. Earn it through the nonstop grind that starts from your freshman year of high school. I think that’s something that probably would be my biggest moment.

If you're a fan of good, old-fashioned generational warfare, this is the NBA Finals for you.

That's not due to the players—despite the Oklahoma City Thunder's youthful reputation, star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is actually a year older than Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton. This year, it's the coaches who bring radically different life experiences into this matchup.

According to Stats Perform, the age gap between 65-year-old Pacers coach Rick Carlisle and 40-year-old Thunder coach Mark Daigneault is the largest in Finals history. That's right—a baby boomer and a millennial will duke it out for all the marbles.

For evidence of their separation, take a look at their coaching trajectories.

Carlisle, a gifted college guard, had to sit out a year when he transferred from Maine to Virginia after the 1981 season. He played against North Carolina guard Michael Jordan, and played five NBA seasons for three teams (including the New Jersey Nets). His professional career began before Daigneault was born, and he took his first NBA coaching job around when Daigneault was in high school.

Daigneault, on the other hand, did not play collegiately. Instead, he cut his teeth working for Billy Donovan-era Florida—the Gators were light-years from hoops success in Carlisle's day—and in the newly renamed G-League. Now, he will coach the Oklahoma City Thunder against a man who routinely coached against the Seattle SuperSonics.

May the best generation win.

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Mark Daigneault is thankful for the fans in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder head coach acknowledged just how much the organization's fans have meant to its progress over the past few years. On the eve of the 2025 NBA Finals, Daigneault took time to acknowledge the role the fans played in the team's rise, as their support helped build to this point.

"The fans are unbelievably enthusiastic about the team," Daigneault said. "When we were rebuilding and we were winning a lot less than we were losing, the support and encouragement we got from our fans was really telling."

His full comments are below.

Daigneault would know about the tough times. He was hired as head coach in 2020, and the Thunder went 22-50 during his first season. They went 24-58 during the 2021-22 campaign, then improved to 40-42 during the 2022-23 season. Things fully turned around during the 2023-24 season when they went 57-25, then 68-14 this season while reaching the finals.

It has been a long build for the Thunder but fan support has never been an issue out of the smaller market.

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