The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder have executed one of many shortest rebuilding durations in NBA historical past. Because the breakup of the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook pairing, main into the present Thunder 2.0, solely lasted three seasons of maximum tanking. These shedding efforts netted them the sixth decide within the 2021 NBA Draft, the second and twelfth decide in 2022, and the twelfth decide final summer season. These picks landed them the problematic Josh Giddey, the way forward for the middle place and Rookie of the Yr favourite Chet Holmgren and future All-Star Jalen Williams, together with a draft-night swap with Dallas for Cason Wallace. These 4 gamers are all essential components of the present core. They be a part of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, our decide for MVP and an All-NBA First Group choice final season.
SGA got here to the Thunder in the most effective commerce of the twenty first Century for Paul George, together with 5 first-round picks, plus two swaps from the Los Angeles Clippers. No different NBA govt hits on lottery picks like GM Sam Presti. And whereas he’s struck out on nearly each late first- and second-round decide throughout this time, his absurd variety of draft capital (the Thunder come clean with 37 draft picks between 2024-2031) ensures him to be versatile shifting ahead to take swings and package deal in trades.
Presti is without doubt one of the prime NBA execs and was answerable for establishing the Thunder as a severe contender for years on finish within the 2010s. He’s a beloved savant in Oklahoma Metropolis, a metropolis that’s quickly working to maintain up together with his hipster-chic aura with experimental eating places and edgy up to date museums. If not for Presti, the Thunder would have by no means reached contender standing with Durant, Westbrook and James Harden. With markets like Las Vegas, Mexico Metropolis, and even Seattle angling for an NBA franchise, they’d have been the almost definitely candidates to be relocated. In appreciation of all that Presti has accomplished for the town of Oklahoma Metropolis, you could acknowledge he was a present from the Sonics franchise.
From the mud of Seattle rises the Thunder storm
Presti predates the Thunder, as he was employed in 2007 by proprietor Clayton Bennett, at simply 30 years outdated, the youngest GM within the NBA on the time. Presti joined the San Antonio Spurs, the place he began as an intern at 23 and labored his option to assistant GM. With the Thunder, Presti would emulate the Spurs’ dedication to tradition and growth in Oklahoma Metropolis, replicating what made the Spurs a useful and dedicated small-market franchise for many years. In the course of the first Thunder U, the staff received 4 straight division titles and made the Finals in 2012, however misplaced to the Warmth within the Finals, all inside the first 4 years as a franchise. Presti was the mastermind of turning a rebuilding staff right into a contender by means of shrewd draft picks and a mega commerce. Sound acquainted?
The 2004-05 Seattle SuperSonics had loved a profitable season, racking up a formidable 52 wins behind All-Stars Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, who every averaged greater than 20 factors per sport earlier than shedding within the second spherical. Sadly, the next years noticed Seattle’s efficiency plummet. Seattle was unable to agree on funding for a brand new enviornment or improve, prompting Howard Schultz to promote to Bennett. In Bennett’s first season as proprietor in 2005-06, the staff struggled, managing simply 35 wins, adopted by an extra decline to 31 wins in 2006-07. By this time, the writing was on the wall. Then GM Rick Sund was fired and changed by Presti in June of 2007, laying the groundwork for the staff to rebuild by means of the draft with a model new identification.
The drama in Seattle started in 2006 when the CEO of Starbucks Schultz and The Basketball Membership of Seattle LLC, offered the staff to OKC oilman Bennett for $350 million, who on the time promised Sonics followers he would maintain the staff in Seattle. As Durant mentioned on the “Previous Man and the Three” podcast, even he was shocked on the transfer because the bright-eyed, naive younger star prepared to start out his profession in Seattle,
“See, they informed us we will probably be there for at the least three or 4 years, so I settled in. Yeah, I purchased a home,” Durant mentioned. “In direction of the top of the 12 months, we simply saved listening to, ‘Maintain up, I feel they making the change before we thought.’ I keep in mind we had been in San Antonio, most likely every week left within the season.”
Even Durant believed Bennett and the brand new possession group would keep in Seattle. Whether or not a relocation was deliberate from the beginning, there was proof it was the ulterior aim, as Aubrey McClendon, co-owner of the Sonics with Bennett, informed the media, “We didn’t purchase the staff to maintain it in Seattle. We hoped to come back right here.” Simply 10 days later, the NBA fined McClendon $250,000 for the feedback. A month later, Bennett filed papers to start an arbitration course of to get out of the ultimate two years of the lease at Seattle’s Key Area. Eight months later, NBA house owners permitted relocating the Sonics to Oklahoma Metropolis by a 28-2 vote. The transfer was official, with Presti heading the staff’s rebuild underneath a brand new identify, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
The making of a brand new franchise
Bennett, the previous co-owner of the Spurs, had intel on Presti as the precise man for the job and as such, handpicked Presti to turn into the GM of the Sonics in June of 2007. Upon being employed, Presti pulled off a blockbuster transfer on draft night time with the Boston Celtics, buying the fifth decide and deciding on ahead Jeff Inexperienced in change for All-Star Sonics guard Ray Allen. Allen had been the face of the franchise for years, and buying and selling the staff’s greatest participant was a daring transfer. However it netted Inexperienced to pair with Presti’s different lottery decide that night time, Durant with the second decide. That night time, Presti laid the groundwork for the legacy of the Thunder, however it occurred because the Sonics. Durant wasn’t a Thunder decide. Neither was Inexperienced. To be honest, the Sonics took Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, whom Presti chosen fourth and twenty fourth the next season within the first spherical, earlier than they relocated to OKC. Most significantly, Presti didn’t originate with the Thunder. He was employed by the Sonics and drafted what would turn into the crux of the Thunder staff that might escape of the Western Convention as the subsequent nice “dynasty.” After the Sonics had been on the transfer to OKC, protests, lawsuits and handwringing ensued, however it was all for naught. The Sonics had been useless and the Thunder was born.
As soon as the staff landed in OKC, Westbrook can be the primary star rookie to play their first season with the staff, one of many causes “Brodie” is typically considered “Mr. Thunder.” A lot of this historical past is chronicled in Sam Anderson’s 2018 ebook, “Increase City: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma Metropolis, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Climate, Its Purloined Basketball Group, and the Dream of Changing into a World-class Metropolis.” In it, Anderson parallels the early settlement of Oklahoma Metropolis out of the feral chaos and bedlam of the undeveloped Oklahoma territories with the Thunder’s rise from quickie upstart to NBA contender throughout the 2012- 2013 season. It additionally pulls again the curtain on Presti’s ticks, his obsession with symmetry and group, going as far as ensuring all of the follow basketballs are confronted the identical method on the racks. For a decade, the OKC Thunder have stormed the NBA, securing the second-highest profitable share of any staff since 2010, surpassed solely by Presti’s earlier staff, the Spurs.
Throughout a current episode of his podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn, Carmelo Anthony singled out the Thunder because the best-run group he encountered throughout his NBA profession, praising their understanding of participant wants, communication fashion, and accountability. Sadly, Presti didn’t get an opportunity to influence the Sonics franchise as he was presupposed to upon being employed, however the Sonics loss was the Thunder’s achieve. And hopefully, Seattle is the subsequent metropolis to have an NBA staff from enlargement. In 2022, Presti spoke on the potential for Seattle getting a franchise once more.
“I do suppose it’s necessary to acknowledge additionally that Seattle is an unbelievable place,” Presti mentioned. “It’s an unbelievable metropolis. They are going to have a basketball staff once more, and I feel all of us listed below are like that’s a optimistic factor. We’re hopeful that occurs as a result of it’s an important place nice followers, and the sector that they’ve constructed there, it’s spectacular. So when it occurs, it’s going to be nice.”
Seattle is the place nearly all of Thunder U’s first championship run began. And the mixing of the Thunder and Sonics histories has by no means been seamless. Whereas it’s honorable to have Michael Cage as the colour analyst for Thunder dwelling video games, Cage was a Sonics rebounding legend and by no means performed a sport in Oklahoma Metropolis. Particularly contemplating how in 2014, the Thunder was the one championship-winning franchise within the league that selected to not put on a commemorative patch, honoring the Sonics 1979 championship.
“Now we have a number of groups who’ve a lineage that exists previous to the town that they’re in,” Christopher Area, the NBA’s vp of outfitting, identification and tools, informed The Oklahoman on the time. “Some groups embrace that previous, some groups don’t. Whether or not it’s due to possession modifications, or maybe the lineage is just too nice of a distance, or the staff nickname modified, or no matter it might be, that’s their choice.”
Sarcastically, late final 12 months, the Thunder confronted an analogous concern because the Sonics did, probably shedding their staff based mostly on disagreements on financing a brand new stadium. Invoice Simmons stirred the pot, claiming OKC “stole” the Sonics franchise, and insinuated the Thunder had been reaping what they sowed.
“I hate to start out sh-t, however , OKC did steal a staff from any individual else,” he mentioned. “That is the smallest market within the league. They’ve the smallest enviornment within the league. Google ‘Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder enviornment lease.’ Go Google all that stuff. It’s been a narrative there for a few years. They need the taxpayers to pay for a brand new stadium.”
Oklahoma Metropolis Mayor David Holt championed a proposal for a minimal $900 million enviornment, financed by a short lived one-cent gross sales tax, whereas the Thunder would contribute $50 million. In December, Oklahoma Metropolis voters permitted a penny gross sales tax to construct a brand new, publicly owned downtown enviornment, securing OKC as dwelling to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder past 2050. As well as, there may be now a model new Seattle enviornment, gleaming with the newest tech, that serves as the house for the NHL and WNBA groups Kraken and Storm, able to welcome the NBA again to the town sometime.
A clumsy connection to the previous
The Thunder have all the time had a clumsy relationship with the Sonics lineage, incorporating and acknowledging some components whereas rightfully ignoring others, just like the Sonics’ 1979 championship. Or like when Kendrick Perkins, upon being traded to OKC, needed to change his quantity as a result of 43, his jersey quantity in Boston, was retired for Sonics nice Jack Sikma. Most OKC followers don’t know who Sikma was, nor do they maintain in depth data of the Sonics franchise, so it could be disingenuous to have the town declare Seattle’s lone championship as their very own. And why would they? Presti summed up in a 2020 interview how the staff has discovered from previous errors.
“You look to the previous for inspiration, however you’re definitely having to create one thing new going ahead. I feel that’s form of the thrilling factor about sports activities on the whole. It’s all the time evolving.”
The absolute best final result for each the Sonics and Thunder is for each to have an opportunity to increase their legacies as NBA franchises, with the town of Seattle bringing again knowledgeable NBA staff and the historical past of the Sonics together with it.
