The 2025 NBA Finals are unique for a few reasons. Both the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder are small market teams. Since the Thunder do not claim the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics championship as their own, both teams are looking for their first NBA title. However, this matchup will make history for financial reasons as well.

Both the Pacers and Thunder are non-taxpayers. This is the first time the NBA Finals has featured a matchup where neither team paid the luxury tax to get there.

The NBA instituted the luxury tax system for the 2001-02 season. However, that first season and the 2005-05 season did not meet sufficient BRI requirements to trigger the luxury tax.

In each of the other 21 NBA Finals, either the winning or losing team was a taxpayer in that season. Of those 21 NBA Finals, 16 of the winning teams were taxpayers. Somewhat surprisingly, only five NBA Finals featured matchups where both teams were taxpayers.

In a league where a common mantra is "You have to spend to win", both the Pacers and Thunder are set to challenge that. Well, for this season, at least. Indiana is likely to be a taxpayer next season, while the Thunder may follow in the 2026-27 season.