The Indiana Pacers on Thursday forced a Game 7 in their NBA Finals series vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, who did not have their best night and ultimately spoiled their chance to hoist the Larry O'Brien then and there. As for why that was, well, you could blame the OKC players themselves. Or, you could refer back to a very funny pregame moment with Pacers forward Pascal Siakam.
As Indiana met in the tunnel for a pregame huddle, cameras caught Siakam leaning back and staring toward the sky, almost as if he were in prayer or being moved spiritually. Funnier yet, his eyes were open and had rolled back in his head so all you could see were the whites.
Immediately, the internet seized on the moment as evidence Siakam was either (1) reaching unheard-of levels of locked-in, or (2) reeling after striking some sort of Faustian bargain with a basketball-loving demon or spirit. And when the Pacers subsequently won (and Siakam notched a double-double), well, the jokes just wrote themselves.
In a video shared by his production house, Siakam later explained what was going on with his eyes, as well as his reaction to the moment going viral.
"Yeah, Myles [Turner] showed me that," Siakam said of the clip, amid B-roll of him laughing. "They said I was a demon?"
"I mean, I wish I had like a 30-point game or something," he went on, leaning into the joke. "Spirit took over."
As for the eyes, Siakam clarified that, too.
"When I try to close my eyes, I'm thinking that I'm closing 'em but I'm not closing 'em," he explained. "Sometimes I have to remind myself [they're still open]. ... My thing is that it used to happen a lot more and I had to, like, remind myself every time, like, 'Ok, close your eyes, close your eyes, close your eyes.' I'm gonna have to go like this eventually," he continued, using his hands to cover his face.
All in all, he was a great sport about it and didn't seem bothered by the jokes. "At least they're talking about it. Talking about me. We'll take it," he reasoned.
Watch that below:
If Siakam performs during Sunday's Game 7 like he did on Thursday, we'll definitely be talking about him again... and probably for a lot more than this. Yes 'cer.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pascal Siakam Explains What Happened With His Eyes During Viral Pregame Moment.