Now that Alex Caruso has two titles to compare, he says winning one with the Thunder was more challenging than doing so with the Lakers.
Regardless of who would win Game 7 of the NBA Finals between Indiana and OKC, a former baby Laker was going to be crowned champion.
The Thunder ended up defeating the Pacers on Sunday, securing OKC’s first title as an Oklahoma team. Alex Caruso is now a two-time champion.
During his postgame press conference, he mentioned that this OKC title was harder to win than his 2020 championship with the Lakers.
“Now I got a real one,” Caruso said. “Now nobody can say anything! I think just because of the way the team is constructed now versus the team I had in 2020, it was much harder with this team just because of the experience….I think this team learned through success. It’s a unique capability to be able to do that for 21-27 year old kids. For me, I’ve seen greats do it so I knew the way, I knew the mindset. But to see these guys do it, it’s really cool to see it in person and I’m so happy for the guys just to be able to figure it out and be able to get this done.”
Social media, being what it is, ran with the “real one” remark as a slight to the Lakers’ title.
However, when you actually hear the full quote, he is speaking about how much tougher it was to win with the inexperience OKC had compared to the veteran-led Lakers.
The Thunder didn’t have an accomplished superstar like LeBron James leading them, nor did they have players with a championship pedigree like Rajon Rondo. In fact, Caruso was the only Thunder player who had ever won it all.
During his championship celebration on Sunday, Caruso made it clear he was joking about this being his first real ring.
I had 3 beers already, it’s SARCASM!!
-two time https://t.co/coxn1bDpKp
— Alex Caruso (@ACFresh21) June 23, 2025
It’s a shame Caruso even had to clarify that he was kidding, but at least he did so for anyone who might have misunderstood.
The Lakers’ 2020 title has been scrutinized and labeled a “bubble ring” the moment Los Angeles won it.
These sly comments have persisted even though we’ve had plenty of players who participated argue that it was a very challenging title to win.
The 2019-20 season ended with teams playing under lockdown, and the season went on for nearly a full calendar year.
Heat star Bam Adebayo called it “the hardest title to win,” and Lebron James recently said it was the “purest form of hoops.”
Caruso was just having fun during his second moment in the spotlight, and this was in no way a slight to the Lakers or what he had accomplished in Los Angeles.
Actually, he was more so giving that Lakers team its flowers. They dominated their playoff run, winning all their Western Conference matchups in five games and beating the Heat in six in the NBA Finals.
Caruso and the Thunder had a much harder route, needing seven games to defeat the Nuggets and also getting pushed to the brink against the Pacers in the NBA Finals.
For Caruso, this is another tremendous accomplishment to add to his NBA career.
As for Lakers fans, you can either be happy that Caruso won, or this might be a cruel reminder that Los Angeles letting him walk in free agency was a huge mistake.
Perhaps this is a glass-half-full moment, and everyone should just be happy for Caruso’s success. He is now a two-time champion, and both titles are equally historic.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.