First, a happy 34th to Harrison Barnes, who will be making his 3rd ever Finals - his 1st since 2016 with the 73-9 Golden State Warriors - as the Spurs advanced to their first NBA Finals since 2014. Yes, it’s been that long.
This is the 8th straight win for players who played in a Game 7 on their birth days.
- April 15th 1966: Walt Hazzard turned 24 years old as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division Finals.
- June 3rd 1990: Scott Hastings turned 30 years old as the Detroit Pistons beat the Jordan Chicago Bulls on their way to their 2nd straight championship.
- May 19th 2004: Kevin Garnett turned 28 years old as he overcame a nail-biter against the remnants of the Webber Sacramento Kings to advance to the Timberwolves 1st ever Western Conference Finals.
- An aside but this is probably the most impressive individual performances amongst all the players on this very specific list; Garnett had 32 points, 21 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals and 5 blocks with only one foul(!)
- June 9th 2012: Udonis Haslem turned 32 years old as the Heatles beat the Boston Celtics to advance to their 3rd ever Finals (2nd ever with the Heatles Big 3).
- May 17th 2015: Pablo Prigioni turned 38 years old as the Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Clippers to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
- May 30th 2016: Harrison Barnes turned 24 years old as the Golden State Warriors completed the 3-1 comeback to advance to the NBA Finals. We all know what happened next.
- May 2nd 2026: Paul George becomes Ascended Playoff P, willing the Philadelphia 76ers to upset the 2-seed Boston Celtics on the day he turned 36.
- May 30th, 2026: Harrison Barnes turned 34 years old as the San Antonio Spurs advance to the NBA Finals. We do not know what will happen next.
Funny that this was the first ever time this happened twice in the same playoffs.