The NBA Finals are almost here and like every year, stars from various fields have graced the promos for it. After Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, the Manning brothers, and others were present in the promo last time around, Dwyane Wade is leading to this year’s event in style. The Finals will commence on June 7 and conclude maximum by June 21. And to welcome the grand event, the NBA recently released a promo video, featuring the Flash, Magic Johnson (again), and many more.

The promo is set in the time when teams have already qualified for the NBA Finals and Dwyane Wade is giving “The Toast” ahead of the series of games. And it seems the 3x NBA champ really enjoyed this experience. “I just might do this hosting thing more often…🥂to the @NBA Finals!” he wrote in the caption of the NBA Finals promo post on Instagram.

Apart from Wade, some other popular appearances include Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Jimmy Kimmel, Queen Latifah, Mike Breen, and Ken Jeong. One of the hilarious moments from the promo was Jeong asking Johnson if he could introduce him to Larry Bird. This was a humorous take on the popular Johnson and Bird rivalry that once existed in the NBA. However, the rivalry later turned into friendship after a Converse commercial.

Coming back to the NBA Finals promo, controversy has already emerged about Angel Reese’s alleged two-word jab at Caitlin Clark. Notably, Queen Latifah, in the video, said, “Tonight we honor basketball’s Kings and Queens.” With this, the shot went on to Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, and Reese responded, “Champs only”.

Both Reese and Cardoso are WNBA rookies with NCAA championships to their names. However, Clark failed to claim this achievement during her college basketball career. So Reese’s comment in the video has made fans speculate that she took a shot at Clark. So it is clear the promo is already garnering significant attention when the teams are still at the Conference Finals stage.

NBA Finals prospects so far

The Indiana Pacers recently defeated the New York Knicks 130-109 in an epic Game 7 showdown at the Madison Square Garden. With this, the Pacers have now advanced to the Conference Finals against the heavy-favorites Boston Celtics. Notably, the Celtics had defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-1 to advance to the ECF.

In the West, the Dallas Mavericks reached the Conference Finals after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder by 4-2. And now, after an epic Game 7 face-off, the Timberwolves have beaten the defending champions, the Denver Nuggets. After registering a 98-90 win in Game 7, the Wolves will now face the Mavs in the next stage of playoffs. Meanwhile, the fans wait to see which teams emerge victorious in the conference finals stage and eventually clash in the NBA finals.