North Texas celebrates as native players Cason Wallace and Myles Turner compete in the 2025 NBA Finals.
RICHARDSON, Texas — By the end of the week, a North Texas native will be crowned an NBA Champion.
While the 2025 NBA Finals do not feature the Dallas Mavericks, there are two communities in the DFW metroplex pulling for their own.
Before he was a key role player for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cason Wallace was a superstar at Richardson High School.
“Pinching myself, ‘Is this really happening?'” admitted Kevin Lawson, Wallace’s head coach at Richardson. “My kids are the biggest Cason Wallace fans. Everything you hear about being a great guy and a great dude, he is that. It isn’t changed at all. He’s definitely made us proud around here.”
Meanwhile, the city of Euless is represented by longtime Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner, who starred at Trinity High School.
“He hasn’t really changed,” said Mark Villines, Turner’s high school head coach. “None of this success has gotten to him. We watch him play the Mavericks every year. Of course, we’re all donning our Pacers jerseys. It’s the one time I wear a Pacers jersey in the American Airlines Center.”
Villines and his assistant coaches, who also coached Turner in high school, took it a step further for this year’s NBA Finals.
They drove up to Indianapolis for Game 3 and showed up wearing Trinity basketball jerseys with “TURNER” embroidered on the back.
“To see [Myles] succeed, it’s gratifying,” said Villines.
Turner and Wallace are not the same age — Turner is 29 while Wallace is 21 — but their backstories are similar.
Both of them were homegrown talents. They did not transfer in from another city or county. Turner grew up in Euless. Wallace grew up in Richardson. And they remained loyal to their public high schools, despite offers to leave for prep schools and well-known academies.
Neither of them won a state championship, but both became five-star recruits and were named McDonald’s High School All-Americans.
Turner went on to play one year of college ball for the Texas Longhorns before going #11 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Wallace spent one year at Kentucky before going No. 10 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Here they are in the final week of the NBA season, vying for the sport’s ultimate prize. No matter who prevails, it’s a victory for high school hoops in North Texas.