The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are still locked in a fierce battle to determine who will represent the Western Conference in the 2026 NBA Finals. The series is tied 2-2, and both teams are preparing for a crucial Game 5 on Tuesday night at the Paycom Center. This will be a must-watch game, especially after the Thunder suffered a humiliating 82-103 loss in Game 4 and the Spurs have built some momentum.
The kings of the West are TBD, but the Eastern Conference has already crowned a winner. The New York Knicks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a dominant 4-0 sweep. They capped off the series with a 130-93 blowout victory in Game 4 on Monday night. This will be New York’s first appearance in the NBA Finals since 1999 after a 27-year drought.
But amid all the hype of the Conference Finals, a wild conspiracy theory has emerged online and is garnering strong reactions from the hoops community, while threatening the credibility of the NBA’s postseason.
NBA Store Triggers Conspiracy Theory Over ‘Leaked Script’ for Thunder-Knicks Finals
On Tuesday, users rushed to X to point out a glaring blunder on the official NBA Store website. The digital store was already listing the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks as “NBA Finals Bound,” even though the Western Conference spot remains entirely up for grabs.
“Why does the official NBA Store ALREADY have the Knicks and the Thunder in the NBA Finals?! They not even trying to hide it anymore,” Hater Report noted.
Why does the official NBA Store ALREADY have the Knicks and the Thunder in the NBA Finals?! 😳
They not even trying to hide it anymore 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/gC7DEmonrz
— Hater Report (@HaterReport) May 26, 2026
This immediately led to a barrage of criticism from basketball fans and media personalities after they confirmed that this was real.
Dusty Garza, an NBA analyst and editor of SpursReport, expressed his disbelier.
“As I tweet this, I’m borrowing Doc Brown’s DeLorean to go slap the keyboard out of whoever coded this garbage… if you go to the link below at the official NBA store and click on TEAMS. You get the list of “Finals Bound” choices. You’ll know if I succeed by the end of the weekend. Wish me luck!”
Rudy Campos Jr., host of The Sports Answer and founder of Sweep The League, questioned the integrity of the playoffs: “Sooooo @NBA should we even play the rest of the Western Conference finals then??? I had to see for myself if it really did show this and yea confirmed.”
Sooooo @NBA should we even play the rest of the western conference finals then??? I had to see for myself if it really did show this and yea 💯 confirmed 🤦🏻♂️ @JeffGSpursZone pic.twitter.com/Fkte4ryFwZ
— Rudy Campos Jr (@thesportsanswer) May 26, 2026
Plenty of fans also called out the NBA. One simply commented, “Yeah, I’m out,” while another wrote, “SCRIPT IS IN. REFS HAVE THEIR ASSIGNMENT.”
Popular NBA influencer Hoops also weighed in and posted, “NBA finals script leaked.”
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“Rigged. Guess I’m rooting for the Knicks,” another fan chimed in.
While the blunder is likely just a glitch, it has definitely provided endless fuel for the conspiracy theorists. The optics aren’t great for the NBA, especially right after ABC’s recent blunder when they accidentally aired a promo hyping up a Knicks-Cavaliers Eastern Conference Finals before the Cavs had even advanced.
If the Thunder advance to the NBA Finals, expect to hear plenty of fans and analysts calling out the league office and believing that the outcome was scripted.
