How Kawhi Leonard schooled Jalen Williams in his rookie season

Even though Jalen Williams is an NBA champion and one of the best players in the league, he still had to go through his learning curves early on in his career. Everybody does, at one point. That's why the term "Rookie Wall" exists in the vocabulary of most sports fans.

Williams ascended into one of the NBA's best this past season. He earned first-time honors of All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defense Team. He dropped 40 points on an injured wrist in a decisive Game 5 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Any questions about whether he can dominate in the playoffs were quickly shut down.

Reflecting on his rookie season, Williams said he had a handful of humbling moments that showed how star-studded the NBA is. The 24-year-old recently appeared on the "Out The Mud" podcast with Zach Randolph and Tony Allen to talk about it.

The first 'Welcome to the NBA' moment he thought of was against Kawhi Leonard. He referenced a Mar. 2023 two-game set against the LA Clippers. In the first game, the Thunder escaped with a close win. Leonard was quiet with 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting.

Williams felt on top of the world after that. He shut down one of the then-best players in the league. The Thunder collected one of their best wins of that season. Then they came crashing right back down in the next game as a humbling lesson.

The Clippers blew out the Thunder. Leonard dominated with 32 points on an efficient 13-of-15 shooting. Williams had no answer to slow him down. It got to the point that they switched Williams to someone else before the game got out of hand.

"We played the Clippers, we beat the Clippers. Kawhi had a horrible game. I did a good job guarding him, so I'm juiced. But we played them back-to-back. He started the game off 9-for-9 on me," Williams said. "We go back to the huddle. This is funny. Everybody doesn't know Mark says slick stuff. He was like, 'He's busting your a--, Jalen, you need to switch?' I was like, 'Yeah.'"

Nothing to be too ashamed about. Williams talked about the moment with fondness in his voice. After all, any other rookie would've gotten cooked in that moment, too. The 24-year-old then recalled two other instances similar to that. Both against future Hall-of-Famers as well.

"Klay, I was playing good defense on him the whole night. He hit one behind the backboard. As it's going in, he slapped me in my butt, 'Good try, rook,'" Williams said. "KD coming back. He hadn't played in OKC a little bit. He was in OKC and was wilding. Fans chirping at him and KD talked back. He was talking to the fans while bumping me. Shooting over me. It was horrible, bro."

There are many worse ways to recall your 'Welcome to the NBA' moments. To get destroyed by Leonard, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson is the type of tale most players would be proud to share. Especially when you're fresh off an NBA championship.

Jalen Williams reflects on his rookie season:

"We played the Clippers, we beat them. Kawhi had a horrible game... But we played a back-to-back. He started the game 9-of-9 on me... Mark was like, 'He's busting your ass Jalen, you need to switch?'"

(via @OutTheMudTL) pic.twitter.com/KA8cusStmQ

— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) August 28, 2025

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: How Kawhi Leonard schooled Jalen Williams in his rookie season