How The OKC Thunder Finished The Story

How The OKC Thunder Finished The Story

Everyone knows the Thunder did it. The OKC Thunder finally won the championship. And in this video, we’ll explore the 17-year storyline of how the OKC Thunder finally managed to win a championship and got lucky in the process. Yes, in this video, we’ll go over all of the parallels between the OKC Thunder then and the OKC team of now, where apparently some people are saying Shay is already the best Thunder ever. The greatest Thunder ever. He has passed Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the greatest thunder ever. And now let’s talk about some of the parallels between these two teams as they were both ran by the same person in general manager Sam Pressie, right? Obviously Durant having been Sam Pressy’s first pick, Westbrook was his second notable pick that he had made as well. And that was obviously credit to Troy Reaver scouting as well. And how Preie even got the job at Seattle back then when it was called the SuperSonics. Sam Prester was instrumental in the Spurs picking Tony Parker in the 2001 NBA draft. And so his experience with San Antonio got him the job in Seattle and then obviously he stuck with the team when they relocated to OKC. Now, I’m not going to give him too much credit for the KD draft. I mean, come on. Greg Gordon had already been selected and KD was basically the best player available for a Seattle team that was headed towards a rebuild. Oh, what? Yeah, they traded longtime supersonic Ray Allen to the Celtics for that number five pick, which ended up turning into Jeff Green here. And then Prey also traded Rashard Lewis for a $9.5 million trade exception with the Magic. I mean, what in the world? And they used that money to get Kurt Thomas teamed up with Kevin Durant. Oh boy. You’ll see why that matters in a couple minutes. And now 2008 when D Rose was the number one pick. The SuperSonics had the third pick and they selected Westbrook with that pick, right? And I’m not going to lie to you, that one that that wasn’t really a pick that, you know, people had initially thought that the Thunder would select. They had the fourth pick in the 2008 NBA draft. Right here, you see Jay Bus’s top 15 available players. Westbrook is even in the top five in there. In fact, Kevin Love, who was also a teammate of Westbrooks at UCLA, Westbrook in the UCLA team, he would start alongside Kevin Love and Derek Carlson. Now, of course, Kevin Love was viewed as the best player uh in that team at the time, but that rust pick had a lot to do with Troy Weaver scouting, and really a lot of the credit goes to him when it comes to this pick. Prey also nailed his late first round pick in 2008 to select shot blocking big Sergy Baka, who was watching this draft from the stands with a first round pick that wasn’t even theirs to begin with. They got that pick from the Kurt Thomas trade from Phoenix. And I’m not gonna lie, the whole relocation to OKC could be a video of its own, but I’m not going to, you know, touch too much on that. And I won’t lie to you, bro. Prey already making moves toward this rebuild. And he was also getting lucky in the lottery when OKC was able to get a third pick in 2009’s lottery. And with that pick, they absolutely nailed it, selecting Arizona guard James Harden. And Prey was setting up a team that would look very interesting, but was very promising off the gate as OKC for the first time since being in Seattle made it through the first round as an eighth seed. Had to play the, you know, 2010 Lakers who end up being the champions that year. KD, he was actually breaking out in these playoffs. OKC, they were holding their own against this Lakers team and they came very close to winning game six in the fourth quarter, but it was the heroics of Pal Gasol that won them the game. You got to double him. You cannot leave him one-on-one. Brian for the lead, misses. Gasol banks it in with 510 of a second remaining. Finds Westbrook. Puts it up at the buzzer off the rim. But that was just our first playoff appearance. Uh and this core had a very promising future ahead. and the Thunder they decided Jeff Green and round out their roster were Kendrick Perkins from the Celtics to bolster their center position. They also traded for Nazer Muhammad as well and during that 2011 season they would go all the way to the Western Conference Finals where they were to face the eventual champs Mavericks team that that I won’t lie to you bro like this was a surprising run. This was an amazing run for them against Marriott. Durant pull up jumper off the rim. Oh, bro, he began the playoffs hitting a game winner right off the gates. And what’s crazier is this is his second game winner against the Mavericks in the season alone. He did an opening night. Here comes the move by Harden. Takes it right to the ramp. And the Thunder 2012, they would face the Lakers in the second round. And in game two, they managed a heroic comeback down seven points late in the fourth quarter to defeat the Lakers and win both their home games now up 2. Oh man, the defender Westbrook. He put it down. And what a moment this would be for Westbrook clinching the series at home in what would be Kobe Bryant’s last playoff game of his career. and Kobe, well, he did all he could, scoring 42 points in this one. The Spurs ended up winning the first two games in the Western Conference Finals. And and somehow OKC at home were able to win back-to-back games to tie the series. And then they went back to San Antonio where James Harden had the game of his life being big in the clutch. I think you all remember where we were when we watched this game. Harden hitting that step back on Kawawaii Leonard, rookie Kawhai. And now they’re up 3-2 with a game six in OKC where OKC would do right here and win for the first time and win the Western Conference for the first time in the Thunder history. And boy, we all know Kevin Durant had there have been a Western Conference Finals MVP would have won it. And within six years, Sam Pressie was able to build a team that is now going to play in NBA Finals. The Chesapeake Energy Arena is alive and that OKC crowd as lively as they’ve ever been quite frankly. And in game one, Kevin Durant, well, he came through in the game where the OKC Thunder were down at the half by double digits. KD came through in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 of his 36 points to win game one against the Miami Heat. Oh, up 10 on the Miami Heat who are also searching for their first championship in a while and LeBron especially his first championship in his career. Fisher on Wade splits the defense. Knocked away. Stolen by Fiser. Harden the head to Sephalosia. Back to Westbrook. Durant puts up a three. Bang. Kevin Durant makes it a two-point game. And then Braun trying to basically take the game over. Misses the shot. And Durant here trying to tie the game. Misses it and it would be free throws all the way through as Westbrook tries to make it a game, but it’s over. Miami ends up winning and tying the series. Under a minute to go in the game. This was just a stupid play right here by James Harden by James though. Yeah. Yeah. But let me tell you something. You He shouldn’t even be guarding LeBron that close cuz it’s funny cuz a lot of people don’t even mention how close a lot of these games were in the series. But now Miami taking a 2-1 lead. Not just that, but the next two games are at Miami. And this was back when the 232 format was was still a thing. And I’m not going to lie, that format, I’m glad it’s gone now, cuz it did give the road team a huge advantage, especially if they split the first two road games, right? And I’d say the series was basically decided there cuz game five, you could say it’s the Mike Miller game, but quite frankly, it’s the one game in this series that was a blowout. And as sad as it is to say, the Thunder uh making this series look worse than it really is, like a lot of people think this was like a blowout series, this was a pretty close series up until game five. And what most people thought was a team that was bright in terms of their future and we’d see them in the finals anytime soon. Well, and that’s where the Thunder Brass, they made a decision that was quite frankly going to change the course of this franchise. when they traded James Harden to the Houston Rockets. We were very transparent with James that uh if this was not acceptable, then we were going to have to move uh towards making the best decision for the franchise given the fact that it was becoming a reality that more than likely uh he’d be signing elsewhere at the end of the season. James Harden, who was a six-man off the bench, had a breakout season in 2012 where he won sixman of the year, and his rookie extension would have to be given to him very soon. But since he was a six-man, he was more expendable than a player like Sergy Baka on the roster who fulfilled a big need that the roster had. So during that summer, Prey gave Ibaka an extension. It was funny is Prey initially dismissed the notion that Ibaka’s signing meant that Harden’s departure was inevitable. But because of this signing now, uh there wasn’t much room to sign Harden to his extension for next season. It would mean that this team would not have to commit more money to a a roster that is very young still and there was a possibility that they would not just go into the luxury tax next season but the following seasons after that which would also trigger the repeater tax penalty which was what OKC ultimately sought to avoid which is why they had to you know basically take the bola and trade James Harden for a bag of chips. Once that reality was met, uh, as we have in the past, this organization turned the page. Uh, we started to focus on, uh, what was in the best interest of the program and focus on capitalizing on an opportunity to help us both in the short term and also continue to strengthen the future of the Thunder organization. This was one of Prey’s few blunders. Uh, not getting enough of a return for James Harden, Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first round picks. And and one thing about that dude Kevin Martin is something we recently found out that is I just cannot stop laughing. I got traded with what’s the name? Um Kevin Martin. Damn. Damn. That’s a name. That’s a name too. That’s a name. Kevin Martin was like he he he was a beat. Say it’s like the second quarter and say he got like 19 points. He’ll look up and be like I got too many points. I’m sitting there like what? What you mean you got too many points? He like, “I got too many points. If I keep scoring, then they going to make me an allstar. I I I want my time to myself.” And I’m sitting there like, “Damn, that’s some real [ __ ] though. That’s the realest [ __ ] I’ve ever heard.” That’s some real [ __ ] What? That That’s one of the dumbest [ __ ] I’ve ever heard. Bro, what the Come on, man. That’s so dumb. And I mean, look, he did get paid his money. He did get paid $83 plus million for his career. Hey, that’s not a bad uh return on investment there. But I’m not going to lie. You’re telling me KD and Westbrook had to play with a dude that was betting his unders? It feels like y that’s so crazy, bro. And in the 2013 playoffs, uh Harden now rocket would play against his former team. And I won’t lie to you, bro. Even though Westbrook did get hurt in this game and this was a series where Patrick Beverly ended up hurting Westbrook where he tore miniscus basically trying to get the ball here and it would end up tearing Westbrook’s meniscus inadvertently. And not many people remember Westbrook. He was an iron man back then. He hadn’t missed a single game basically in his life. High school, college, now NBA. Five years in the NBA up to that point. I think he had played like what 340 straight games without missing a single game. And I mean you see his game lost 82 80 to 80 to the shortened season 66 and then 82 in 2013 and then because of the miniscus injury a couple months of recovery and he’s missing half the season now as a result. Oh boy. And that was the season KD was an MVP obviously scoring the most points he scored in the career. He basically had to score those points with no Westbrook on the court for most of the season. And I remember some of the wild games he had, notably against the Clippers right here. Oh, what a move. Oh my god. So save them. Now Westbrook, he did end up coming back late in the season and boy oh boy, just in time for that playoff push where they would play the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and oh boy, it was a close series. I remember game four, Reggie Jackson came through big and OKC ended up winning the series against Memphis. Oh boy. In San Antonio though, it was a different story. The Spurs a much better team, especially off of that 2013 finals appearance. Even though the Thunder had a good game. Tim Duncan here missing the shot, but you can see it here getting fouled. And now shooting free throws would be Boris Dia. And that was it. the Spurs winning the series in the second round. I mean, I play so much and you always feel little nicks and bruises and stuff that you can play through and um this this uh last Saturday, it felt a little different. My foot was bothering me a little bit and just thinking he was going to tell me to get MRI and everything’s going to be fine. And then later that night, he told me I had to uh I had a crack in my foot and uh needed surgery. So, it was it was uh unexpected, but um you know, but being going through so much in my life, it was just another bump in the road. But I knew I had to get past. So Kevin Durant obstained a Jones fracture. Uh basically one of his bones in his foot cracked. Oh no. And this guy coming off an MVP season for that to happen is just unfortunate really. And so the Thunder would have to suit up without a player that quite frankly has a history just like Westbrook of basically being an Iron Man. And instead of contributing to wins, uh he would have to start the season rehabbing from that Jones fracture. And there’s a lot of people that point to where it happened where he basically landed on his foot right there. Maybe maybe that’s where it happened. And despite Westbrook also being hurt during that 2015 season and trades having to be made s prey moving away from Kendrick Perkins getting Dion Waiters on the team, it showed signs that Westbrook may also be on his way to becoming a superstar in this league as he won the scoring title during this season despite missing this year’s playoffs. And obviously that was the playoffs where the Warriors ended up winning the championship against LeBron Cavaliers, but you just knew OKC they were due for a bounceback season with both KD and Westbrook hopefully being healthy this time around. And man, was that 2016 season wild. Westbrook to Durant and the finish. Oh, a huge turn around. The Thunder now make it back to the West Finals. And hey, you just fought. The Thunder are now going to basically take their mantle. But the Thunder had to face a team that they faced in the regular season and quite frankly faced them in one of the best regular season games that personally I can remember watching. Kevin Durant went off for 37 points in this game. But that’s not even the craziest part. This game went overtime with Curry having one of those games. Curry scoring 12 threes in this game. Obviously, his last one being the biggest. They do have a timeout. Decide not to use it. Curry way downtown. Bang. Bang. Oh, what a shot from Curry. Oh my. I’m so Oh, this game was amazing. Best game, bro. This beautiful. Oh, and did I mention that team won 73 games this season? Yeah, I’m not going to lie. Tall task for OKC to win this one. TNT. And the streak continues. as the Warriors have not lost consecutive games all season. But you know what they say about streaks, right? They’re meant to be broken as OKC not only won game three, but also won game four in dominant fashion. First time the Warriors lost consecutive games in the entire season. And I won’t lie to you, the next three games, I don’t even want to talk too much about it cuz it’s quite frankly heartbreaking for the Thunder. Look at the scoreboard. It says here Thunder lead series 3 to one. And they end up not only losing game five, but they would get torched by Klay Thompson in game six, dubbing him as the game six Clay. Oh boy. And it’s just unfortunate as that game, it was the closest the Thunder were to winning that series cuz I won’t lie to you, game seven. Oh boy. The Warriors came to play and he fires. Yes. And I won’t lie to you, them losing this series wasn’t even the worst part of how this season ended for the Thunder cuz this [ __ ] ass dude Kevin Durant did what was the weakest move I’ve ever seen from a superstar. And like, bro, a lot of people try to say that, “Oh, it wasn’t that big of a deal. KD, he just decided to do what he wanted to do, right? I don’t know why we’re hating so much on this move.” Bro, you do not understand. You clearly weren’t there when it happened cuz that [ __ ] that [ __ ] ruined the league. I’m not going to lie. It did. And I know what people are going to say, right? Look at the 2015, 16, 17, 18 finals. Those ratings are pretty high compared to a lot of the other games in past years and even the games in recent years. We haven’t seen a finals rated as high as the 2017, 2016, 2018 finals, right, since. But bro, the feeling around the league, the feeling around the world was, “Oh, KD just basically ruined the season cuz it was basically predetermined that the Wards were going to win it all.” I mean, how could they not? And that’s not to take anything away from the way KD played in those finals and notably in those playoffs as well. It was very, very good. Alltime levels that 2017 especially, you there’s not many players in the world that had a better playoff run than KD in 2017. But what was a very great partnership between the Thunder and Kevin Durant for 10 years. For it to end like this, it’s a slap in the face to everyone in OKC. Cuz now, even though now this is clearly Russell Westbrook’s team, this is his chance to show that he’s a superstar in this league. Well, the fact that Kevin Durant left this situation, but you’d have to imagine this hurts, man. This stings a little. Did the fact that not only Kevin left, but it was to Golden State, did that make it sting even more? Sting for who? [Applause] It seems like he was about to make a statement to the entire league. Well, during that off season, uh, another thing happened during the draft where uh, Sergy Baka was traded and this happened before KD made his decision to go to Golden State, right? Ibaka a big part of this franchise. Guess moved for Victor Ladipo, uh, Iliosva and Damata Sabonos, who was the 11th pick of this year’s draft. I don’t know. It’s just weird for Pressie to do this trade. I guess it’s a retool. I guess they’re trying to move in a different direction now. KD’s decision looming. I think Pressie anticipated that he would not return. Some records are meant to be broken, but wow. I know. I know. And again, that 30 point triple double record, bro. It’s actually crazy that nobody had ever done that since Oscar Robertson. Not just that, he basically did it having more triple doubles during the season than Oscar ever did and quite frankly than anybody else ever did. And he did it in the modern era. Look, there’s ways to criticize Westbrook, the rebounding. Oh, was he was he patting the rebounds cuz Stephen Adams boxing out? This is not the video for all that nonsense, okay? We’re just talking about the Thunder. And now this MVP season would solidify Westbrook as one of the all-time great regular season players. But boy, in the playoffs, that’s why you put your mark on the league and really get your name remembered for decades to come. And Westbrook in these playoffs would face against his former teammate James Harden and the Rockets. And despite having won an MVP and even having played good in the playoffs for some of these games, it was the Rockets who are the better team. Paul George has been traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And in an unexpected move after the 2017 playoffs, uh, Sam Prey acting quick here, trading for Paul George. Well, it seems like OKC was able to capitalize on Paul George being disgruntled in Indiana. And it was looking like in free agency, he was going to leave the Pacers. So, a season before that, the Pacers were like, you know what, we’ll just trade him. Which obviously shocked the entire city. I mean, they just couldn’t believe it. Now, who exactly did Prey give away to get Paul George? Apparently, the Thunder traded Victor Oladipo and Damasa Sabonis to get Paul George. That’s all it took. I mean, what the hell? You know, of course, I wanted to come home. I wanted to play in LA and and play for my my hometown. Um, but then a lot of me looked at the situation, you know, like, you know, let’s if a team comes in and you absolutely love it, um, why walk away from it? With his free agency looming the next season, Paul George saying he wanted to play in LA, but might make OKC his home for years to come. Now, the Thunder also signed Carmelo Anthony. And so, you have a big three. Okay, I’m not going to call that a big three. Paul, George, Westbrook, and Carmelo in Oklahoma City. Oh boy. And Pressie making a lot of these savvy moves. He was traded to the Thunder for Andis Caner and Doug McDermott. Oh, and you can’t forget the draft pick. Yeah, that’s important. That’s very important. This deal sounds like a interesting team. I won’t lie to you. Prey, you might have done this again. Now look, with these three guys averaging over 22 points per game last season, I mean, that’s just a lot of offense. This OKC team, I is it fair to say they might actually be a super team? How do you feel about, you know, starting at the four or the concept of starting at the four or even coming off of the bench? And the second question is for me, the coach said he will start at the four, which, you know, raises some defensive concerns. I mean, uh, he’s getting older. He’s not that good defensively to begin with, but I won’t lie, all throughout the season, the signs were there that this Thunder team was not as good as advertised. Oh, brother. For the talent we have, obviously, this is not where we want to be. We have to start playing better. And in disappointing fashion, they would lose to the Utah Jazz in the first round, led by rookie Donovan Mitchell. Oh, and Westbrook was also getting angry at the fans that apparently called him a slur. Oh no. Oh, and next off seasonason, well, Carmelo, he’s not that good to be a starter anymore. So, he’s going to get traded now. And I’m not going to lie, there’s something sad about this trade, right? It basically was the end of Carmelo Anthony as we know it. And I mean, yeah, he’d end up getting waved by the Hawks less than a year later. Yeah, his career was basically over, but he did play in the Blazers, you know, in the Lakers and whatever. But it was open now to Paul George to make his decision on whether or not he’d return to OKC in free agency. If y’all didn’t quite get it, let me say it again. I’m here to stay. And a big reason why he decided to stay was because of his teammate Russ. He he really respects Russell Westbrook as a standup guy, as he said himself in this, you know, media day interview here. And boy, Paul George this season with Oklahoma had the best season arguably of his career up to this point. He not only generated MVP buzz, but also defensive player of the year buzz. Top three in both categories to end the season. Thunder once again making the playoffs. And oh boy, there was a lot of excitement for how this team would look with Paul George, you know, basically at the peak of his powers as a two-way monster. When you defended it about as well as you can at some point, you got to let a guy shoot that, don’t you? And just live with the results. Lillard long range three and it’s good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that’s a bad shot. Um care what anybody says. That’s a bad shot. Uh but hey, he made it. That story won’t be told that it was a bad shot. Um we live with that combined playoff series win of this duo zero. No, they don’t. They never won a single playoff service together. Russ having recently extended, there was a big problem going into the offseason, okay? Cuz now with his and Paul George’s max contract, and despite Paul George having a career year offensively and on defense, it still didn’t matter in the playoffs. Third straight first round exit for the Thunder. I mean, this is just a terrible look. And Westbrook, oh boy, his salary, not only is it steep for the next couple years, but his shooting, especially on pull-ups, has been terrible. And it just makes you think. And it just feels like the thunder under Westbrook, they’re just in the middle of nowhere. A change had to be made somewhere. The I know that he had he had used the term mutual. Um I I you know, I don’t I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that because that would infer that we we were wanting to to trade Paul George. And boy did Pressy cash in trading Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers where he would be teamed up with Yeah, you see it there. Kawaii Leonard who also went to the Clippers. And I was close to going to Toronto. Like we were deciding to go to Toronto or the Clippers. Ultimately the Clippers put something better. So, after the Raptors won the championship in 2019, apparently Kawawaii had been talking to Paul George and they were both discussing a possibility of, you know, playing together and Paul George apparently saying that he they were close to going to Toronto. Now, I highly doubt it because, you know, the reporters even said a lot of people on in Toronto thought Kawaii was using them as leverage, you know, to try to get the other team, namely the Clippers, to, you know, to cash in on a better deal. And when you see the return that OKC got for this Paul George trade, it was humongous. Sam Prey at it again. And he also traded Russell Westbrook after Westbrook obviously wanted to, you know, still contend and win. And so he got a lot of picks, a lot of assets in return for those two players. I mean, just look at the picks and the pick swaps. And they got Chris Paul in return for that Westbrook trade. And these are all the draft assets they owe the next six years. A lot of stuff. And by the way, Sam Pressie, he’s done a lot of things since 2007. We’ve outlined some of them, but again, to think that the Rashard Lewis trade exception would kick in to where now Paul George was able to be traded for for a lot of picks. It’s insane when you think about it, the chain of events that had to happen for all this to lead up to this. Oh, and obviously, we can’t forget about one of the featured players, Shvante Shay Gilas Alexander. Uh he’s a young upand cominging player just finished his rookie year in LA and he looked good. But now Prey seems like he’s gonna have to retool after having three players that were MVP caliber and having a roster that quite frankly could have won a championship. Now he’s trying to restart this and there was some doubt on whether or not Sam Preston could pull this off again. We live in an era where the draft is more of a crapshoot than it’s ever been. So, I I look at that list and I go, “Okay, you got a lot of picks. Great. What happens next?” The only way I think all of those picks turn into a success is if Sam Pressie can do what he has done before in taking all these assets and finding a star or finding a couple stars down the line. But when I look at those draft picks, I go, “Okay, nobody knows what happens with the draft anymore.” And throughout the league, you’re never sure what’s going to go on, even when you have a boatload of picks. And even if you do everything right, if he catches lightning in a bottle once again and draft future MVPs, why are they going to stay in Oklahoma City? You have an owner who doesn’t want to go into the luxury tax. You have a small market where, you know, clearly it doesn’t have the creature comforts that some other places do in this league. And if you’re Sam Prey, you’re have a tough time getting free agents to come there, too. So, if I’m Sam, like, I understand he’s done a great job and he commands the salary cap, great negotiator. you try to get to a city where you don’t have those hurdles to deal with. And with all those doubts, I think it all stems from the fact that even with all the draft picks that Stan Pester was able to nab, they didn’t win a championship. They were so close in 2012. But since then, they haven’t even come close to reaching the finals except for a year where they were one win away. And then your franchise players like, I don’t know if I like this OKC thing too much. I think that’s where Dig McMedan, he makes a good point. Albeit, it might be a very superficial thing to say. OKC is not a city that a lot of players would want to live at, right? Lifestyle-wise, some of these players are into some things that I don’t think Oklahoma as a city can offer. Oh, and around this time, OKC still one of the smallest markets in the NBA. I mean, you’re not going to get the bang for your buck if you’re a player, a star player notably, that wants to get paid the moola and endorsement deals and all that stuff. Well, at least that’s what the the media is trying to say, right? To make their argument for why Sam Prey should go somewhere else. Why their star player should go somewhere else. Well, anyh who, since we know how this story ends, it is quite frankly a testament to how, you know, crafty and how patient Sam Prey was throughout this whole process. So although the OKC Thunder made the playoffs in 2020 with Chris Paul leading them and Shay Gilchas Alexander and other young players like Lou Dort actually looking good, this year as as a gap year was actually an interesting one. They got valuable playoff experience that obviously you hope will translate to future playoff wins and that 2020 offseason was pivotal. That’s where Prey made a lot of his moves uh to get younger and to get more draft assets so that he can rebuild again. pretty Chris Ball here when his value is at his peak as it is right now and look at the future draft picks they’ve had over the last co it’s just it’s just beautiful Sam Prey is stockpiling these picks and really bootstrapping this rebuild also parting ways with our coach getting a new coach and Mark Dagnal and when Klay Thompson went down with a toward ACL misses uh the rest of the season uh OKC swoops in and basically gives them an option uh at the shooting guard position Kelly Uri has traded and OKC now getting more draft assets here. Also in that trade, they would trade Al Horford, two draft picks, uh to the Thunder uh they would trade Denny Green to get those picks. Very interesting stuff here. And now obviously Al Herford on the team. Danilo, he’s a free agent and he’s going to go to the Hawks. Well, the Thunder trading another piece that they got in a trade. Ricky Rubio goes to the Timberwolves again. And Thunder, they traded the rights to Emanuel Quickley. That’s funny enough. And they would get uh Pokuchepsky the rights to him. And they would also trade Steven Adams for more picks and more younger players. And I’m not going to lie, they also sent James Johnson’s expiring in Dallas. So basically OKC just making moves after moves to try to get younger and try to get more draft assets. And with the Thunder now losing more games, they get, you know, more luck in the draft lottery. Seventh pick, Josh Giddy in 2021. They also had a late first round pick. They traded that pick to the Rockets, Alfred Shingun here. And by the way, Prey making use of four picks in this draft. And look at all those young players. And next year’s lottery, OKC will get even luckier. The Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City receives this pick from the LA Clippers because of the Paul George trade. Fifth pick will be made by the Detroit Pistons. And so with that pick going to the Pistons, that means the OKC Thunder have a top four pick in this draft. And OKC would get pick number two in addition to pick 12 in this draft from the Clippers. And Chad Homegrrim would be the player they’d select at two. Oh my goodness. And it was obvious that Thunder just trying to get more young talent. And so they traded for Usman Dang, the rights to him at 11 and also drafted Jaylen Williams. But 2022 they have three firstround picks in this draft. Not to mention through 2027 they have 18 first round picks. That’s the most in the NBA. And it’s clear S Prey is prioritizing draft picks overall. Uh positioning himself uh in very high standing in the lottery obviously by rebuilding and you know quote unquote tanking. But the doubters they’re growing louder. But I have to say this Jaylen I have to say this Shen listen with all of that being said this is not the only great player that Sam Prey has drafted. We talk about Kevin Durant. We talk about Harden. We talk about Westbrook, Ibaka, Reggie Jackson, you acquired Paul George, you had Victor Oladipo. I mean, the list goes on and on. Zero championships. We know what Sam Presley brings to the table. He’s an elite executive. We understand that. But when are we going to close the deal? I’m hoping Chad Homegr can do that because somebody needs to in Oklahoma City. They always have great players. So, but they’re closing in on a roster that’s fairly young, but also could be promising for the future. And that name on top, Shay Gilis Alexander, he’s beginning to show strides of potentially being a superstar player in the future. Up to now, due to his first four years rookie season with the Clippers, gets traded to OKC, averages just under 20 points. Chris Paul leading him, mentoring him. The following season gets more touches, averages 23 points. Then the following season, 24 points. Now, the shooting, it’s up and down. Some seasons he’s shooting 40% from deep. Another season, he’s shooting 30%. And quite frankly, a shooting there, you know, it’s obviously something that he’s it’s a work in progress, but as he’s getting more touches, more shots up, you know, you’re hoping that Shay could really level up and play more games, too. He’s been sidelined late in the 2022 season, and they said, the Thunder did that it was due to an ankle soreness that was lingering. Uh, but let’s be honest, they were probably just trying to get the lottery odds to be in their favor. But again with the number two now number 12 and number 11 pick oh man you’re looking at a promising core of players but unfortunately Chad homegrum here playing in a little game against obviously with LeBron and D Rozan De Jonte Murray in this you could see it here he’s limping a little bit and unfortunately the injury would be more serious than initially thought Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Chad homegrim will miss the entire upcoming season because of a Liz Frank injury in his right foot and what a Big blow this is to OKC. Oh no. But the following season the Thunder would make inroads. Jay gets it. Spins away. Baseline shot. Shay puts it in and walks it off and OKC. But during the holiday people going to be talking about who the best players in the game and they going to mention the OG’s like Dame, Braun, MB, Stephen Kaw. And they going to talk about the new G’s like Jookic and Luca. That guy has a chance to be all NBA for the first time. Shay was starting off the season so hot that apparently 2K updated his rating from a 87 to a 90. During this season, they’re winning games at an impressive rate and it just felt like the Thunder were ahead of schedule now. I mean, this team is so young and yet they’re looking like they could really be the future of the league. Shay became an all-star for the first time this season and boy were his numbers jawdropping for a guard. with a back door cut. So, I try to free him up. They switched it. I see how I try to get open. Um, and then I just try to get someone else coming. I think we’re going to be a a really good team a lot sooner than people do. The team was able to win enough games to advance to the plan. And look, this is valuable playing experience. They won the first game against the Pelicans, but they weren’t good enough to advance and beat the Timberwolves for the eighth seed spot. By the way, you look at his averages. 31 points per game on what percentages similar to Curry’s. Yo, Shay Gilas Alexander also becoming all NBA first team like Jaylen Rose predicted. Also was an MIP finalist but didn’t win the award. Jaylen Williams was a rookie of the year finalist, didn’t win the award obviously. And OKC well they had a lottery pick in this year’s draft as well and they would trade with the Dallas Mavericks for the rights to Kase Wallace. And by the way, that’s another Kentucky guard now on the roster. The conversations early, Cadet versus Wemi for rookie of the year. And the glaring difference was that Chet was on the number two seed in the West, whilst Wem was obviously in the 15th seed. And yes, the Thunder led by once again a 30 plus point per game scoring, Chay Gil Alexander. He is doing such an excellent job. I want to look on national television and apologize to that man for any questions I’ve had about how exceptional he is as an executive. I’m dead serious. I don’t apologize often. Yeah. I But Sam Prey on national television, I’m going to say this. I Stephen A. Smith owe this man an apology. I don’t give a damn about the championships right now. I can’t win. I’m a Knicks fan. I can tell you this. to have 15 picks, to have that roster, to have them this young playing at this level. This man is the man is a special executive and he you won’t hear any questions about him from about him from me. Oh yeah, I’m sure Stephen A. Smith won’t say anything else about San Pre in this video. I’m so sure. He even went double back and said this in a podcast that he hosts about the Thunder. These brothers can ball. These brothers can ball y’all probing [Applause] and SGA knocks it down. The Thunder are just streaking at this point, winning eight of their last nine, beating out the reigning champs Nuggets twice in that run. We can’t continue to walk around and ignore I apologize. Hell, Globin City Thunder. And I’m going to try to get Shay Gilis Alexander to be a guest on this show. I’m going to reach out to him soon because the brother is special. He’s only 25 years of age. It is time we pay attention to this man. And I won’t lie to you, Stephen, that you’re pretty late to the party cuz after 2022, this guy’s averaging 30 plus points a game. Why weren’t you on the boat then? 2023, first all-star appearance, he was by far the most underrated player in the league around this time. The following season is when people started really paying attention to who he was and when he actually was in the MVP conversation due in large part to how good OKC as a team became. And one thing that obviously contributed to Cher Hunger after being sidelined for the entire 23 season now back and looking like the rookie of the year favorite for a good chunk of the season. Bulldogs [Applause] over. Yeah, you see it there. That’s Gordon Hayward. The Thunder traded for Gordon Hayward at the deadline as well to try to add a scoring punch to the lineup. And now the Thunder in the playoffs as the first seed by the way, the third 57 wins on the season. And boy did they play like a number one seed, sweeping the Pelicans in four games. And in the second round, the Thunder would face the Mavericks in what would be a flashback to the past when OKC their first playoff run. Really that was notable. They faced the Mavericks in this conference finals and obviously the Mavs beating them. Then it’s almost as if history is slowly repeating itself here. Now on the switch, Liveley’s got him. He drives, floss it up and the throw down left. Donic drives, backs him down, gets deep, gives it up. Washington double clutch three. No, the tip in and they’re going to call a foul. And in what would be a controversial call, they give the Dallas Mavericks three shots at the line after they call a foul on Shay Gilas Alexander. And of course, Washington, who was a big contributor in this series, would make two of the three shots at the line. And it wouldn’t matter if he missed the last one cuz it was enough for them to win the series against the Thunder. They have the ability potentially to create $33 million in cap space. They have the 12th pick in a draft or they’re the only playoff team to have a lottery pick. OKC got this 12th pick from the Russell Westbrook trade that they did in 2019 with the Rockets years ago and Sam Prey in the exit interviews was being very honest about a big mistake he made during the trade deadline fitting but like did you foresee that that he would be maybe unhappy or that he wouldn’t be able to properly fit in time and then how did that maybe change the the way you acquire people mid-season moving forward? That’s what I’m saying is that I I I missed on that. Like that’s that’s on me. Like um but I’m learning, you know, I’m trying to learn this team. I’m trying to learn the pace of the team a little bit. Um and trying to be a great observer of the team as it’s going through these paces. No, it was a weird trait to begin with. Uh honestly, like I didn’t understand it from a roster standpoint. like going to Hayward, how much better would he be on the team? What touches? He’d just be taking touches away from guys that are better than him at this position. Honestly, it didn’t make sense. But it’s good that Prey owned up to it. And Davis Bertton, I mean, you trading his contract basically and a young prospect and Trey man as an appealing piece uh to make it work. Look, man, it’s not that big of a deal in terms of how bad the trade was for the Thunder, but Prey, I think, knows more than anybody there’s work to be done in the offseason, and work is what he did. I’m told that the Chicago Bulls are trading twotime alldefensive guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddy. days after the Celtics won the championship in 2024, the Thunder traded uh for a big piece on the roster. Wow. It’s no secret that Josh Giddy was out of the lineups in closing minutes in the playoffs. And quite frankly, they needed to move away from him as, you know, he was just not looking good in those late stretches. And the Chicago Bulls, I guess, taking a swing on his potential as a star player, whatever that means. Uh, and many people were saying Caruso, this makes them uh a championship favorite in the Western Conference. I mean, let’s be honest, his defensive tenacity and what he can bring to you on offense, shooting those open three-pointers. Giddy was left open, wide open every time in the corner. You can’t really do the same to Caruso. He’s going to make more of those threes. But I think the biggest get is you get another player that could potentially be off the bench playing great defense for you on the squad. And you look at that. Look at this. This is the same play. He’s making threes on the other end. And bro, why did this have to happen against my team, bro? [ __ ] I hate this, bro. I hate this so much. And they say greed is a sin. Well, the Thunder, man, they’re just going to get another lottery pick after coming off a season where they were the number one seed. And that player being Nicolola Topic. Well, he just came off an ACL injury, so he would not play for the following season. And the Thunder, they traded for a pick late in the first round. Dylan Jones, as well as getting young guard AJ Mitchell in the second round, but the Thunder, the work would not be done there. This core, this is this was their first true playoff run together. I don’t think anything dramatic. I I think they’re going to take a patient approach, but teams around the league do think the Thunder will look into veteran center. And that guy will be Isaiah Hardenstein. And the Thunder somehow nabbing Iheart in free agency from the Knicks, who they’d pay a steep price for. Threeear $87 million. I’m not going to lie, that’s not too bad for a team that already had the best record in the NBA going into the following season. I mean, this team with the additions of Caruso and iHeart, this team would have to be the favorites to win it all, right? And when you compare uh their previous season with the Celtics uh previous season leading up to the championship run, hey, it’s looking very similar. Could the Thunder win the championship next season as well? It almost feels like now this roster is more flexible. They can play big double big lineups with iHeart. They almost have no holes on this roster. They don’t just have a superstar and Shay Gil just Alexander. They got depth off the bench and they’ve got a very versatile team here with a lot of guys that could basically do a lot of things on both ends. And OKC, they start the season off dominating the Nuggets. Oh boy. And it was a bludgeoning from both ends. Oh boy, look at that block. The Thunder already making a statement, blowing out the Nuggets here. Oh no. Shay and Ch becoming the first pair of teammates since Shaq and Wade to have 255 five5 and three blocks. I’m salivating right now, boys. Squad with me here. SGA Chat, Jayen Williams, Jaylen Williams, everybody. Isaiah Joe, Lou Dort, AJ Mitchell, Flag, Flag, and Uzman. Thank you very much, SJ Chat. The rest of the game. Oh, you got something for us. Oh, you got the newest member of Thunder. He’s got to lead us. And it was the Thunder defense, you know, taking the headlines. They’re not even shooting the ball that well, if you could believe it. But are stringing along wins because of their league leading defensive rating here. And this team forces the most turnovers in the league. Not just that, they are second in steals in the league as well. There was a point in the season where the Thunder were averaging more steals per game than turnovers. And guards are just struggling against these guys. Oh my goodness. OKC is a turnover machine for these other teams playing against them. And in a league where turnovers are being reduced over the years, that the Thunder are trying to buck the trend back to where they’re forcing the most turnovers uh that we’ve seen in history. His impact at the start of this year has been as as impressive as anybody’s in this league. And it’s not just as a scorer, it’s what he’s doing on the other end of the floor as well. And the numbers are eyepopping. 24 points, 13 boards, four blocks, shooting at a really high percentage from the field. Um, I just been really amazed at how confident he is to start the year and how much growth he has added to his game in just one off season. Uh, the league has been put on notice. Chad Homegrid is here to do damage every single night. The Thunder players getting better, adding more pieces to this already proven playoff juggernaut. Oh my goodness, it might be their year. as the Thunder. They’re starting off winning four straight games to start the season. No, sorry, seven straight. They’ve won now seven straight games to start the season. They’re the first team in NBA history to win their first seven games by at least double digits. Like, this is ridiculous. And it’s been their defense that has been their calling card for this stretch. They’ve got guards at the POA. They’ve got great help, guys. They’ve got Chad at the rim. Oh my goodness, it’s beautiful. Jaylen Williams also showing out on the defensive end. Not to mention he’s a second option. Oh man, this team is really well built around Jay Gilis Alexander. The Thunder after seven plus games have a defensive rating of 96.5. The only team with a rating less than 100 and by far they’re leading the pack. They get way more steals than any other team. Lead the league in blocks per game as well. And if they continued to rack up for 13 plus steals a game, that would be a record in the NBA for a team in a season. 5 seconds to go. Jake Ilis Alexander on the run. What? The shot was blocked by Porson. Now they started losing games more recently, but again they’ve still looked like the best team in the NBA by far. But there were teams like the Warriors contending trying to challenge them in the Western Conference hierarchy as they were also off to a good start and they would beat the Thunder in this one. But part of that would be due to an unfortunate injury that you know Sich had suffered in this game. out of the corner to Wiggins. Wig contested. And you can see it here. The replay is just h it’s gruesome to watch. Injures that hip. He would unfortunately miss multiple months out of the season because of this. Sh. [Applause] 42. But led by Shay here with a career 45 points here. And even without Chad, they were holding their own on defense with a lot of those perimeter guys. hand, Jaylen Williams, you know, sometimes even playing the five and doing a decent job at it, too. Despite still shooting below 30% from deep as a team, they’re still able to eek out wins without Chad Hung’s presence on defense. And it’s just stunning. Like, look at this starting lineup. 66. Shay is the tallest player in this lineup. And yet, they’re still able to dominate on both ends. Like, it’s ridiculous. They forced 24 turnovers in that game against the Clippers where she had 45 for a careerhigh. It’s ridiculous what they’re able to do on the defensive end. Congratulations. Appreciate it. Anybody want to bark or no? They hate this. And you know what happens when you’re a good team and you got, you know, camaraderie postgame? Twitter starts calling you corny. I don’t know what it is with social media, but like we see a young team succeeding, all of a sudden envy starts pouring into our brains. Envy is just the biggest sin here and we just become a bunch of losers really. But I think this also comes from a lot of fan bases in the Western Conference that are threatened by this Thunder team because of how great they already look this early in the season. Look at this. You got the Warriors and the Suns and the Nuggets up there in the top four spots. All those fan bases are thinking it’s their year. It’s their year. And I mean, I don’t blame these teams, man. They got their star players and they’ve got a good record up to this point. But it was becoming clear that uh Shay Gil Alexander wasn’t just a regular star player. He was increasingly becoming one of the best players in this league. And with the Thunder here losing NCC tournament game, which would be now dubbed the NBA Cup, they still managed to put their names into the knockout stages after going 3-1 in the group stages. And I’m not going to lie, OKC, this is your chance to win hardware. Critical question here, Shay. Is is it apple pie? Is it pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie? Are we not doing dessert? Uh, strawberry cheesecake grandma special. Bro, he knows ball. This guy just knows ball. Now, I will say Shay coming back to Toronto and uh whooping the Raptors. It’s not something that I wanted to see personally. [Music] Oh, brother. Not this dude again. Oh, no. And now OKC in the quarterfinals beating the Mavericks here to make it to Vegas. and they would play the Rockets in the semifinals and the Croy Shave 39 points and we felt like we had control of the game, the the rhythm of the game because of that. Obviously, those guys have a big imprint on them offensively. Um, and keeping those two in check is like that is very rare. I don’t know if that’ll happen again. Not just that though, Shane scoring 30 points 12 times this season, tied second most in the league. In that Mavs game alone, he made 10 jumpers off the dribble. This guy is lethal. And against the Rockets, the Thunder. Well, they cruised. Thunder advanced to play the Bucks Tuesday night for the NBA. Were you guys able to find just enough offense tonight? We stay with it. Yo, shut up. Shut up. We stay. We stay with our principles. Yeah, you can’t say that on live TV. I love that. Kids are listening. Some of you are probably wondering, “Hey, I’ve seen this clip before.” I mean, this aura video is hilarious, bro. Why am I zoomed in so much? It’s one of my favorite clips on the internet, bro. It’s so hilarious. Passing the phone to someone who has insane aura. Thunderbucks finals, NBA Cup. Stephen A Smith has a prediction for us. It’s all good and fair, but do you think that they’re ready to take that final step now? I do get I do believe that they’re ready to take the next step, but I want to say for the record, I don’t give a damn what they have to say. I give a damn about how they play. I’m paying attention. I don’t want to hear anything because any kind of lip service that they refuse to give us is just following the model of Mr. Sam Prey, one of the elite executives in this game who has a pass when it comes to winning championships. He doesn’t win chips. He does everything but that. Damn it, it’s time. He’s got a crew. When you get Ched home back and you got Hartstein, you got defenders on your front line. They can block shots. You got perimeter players who are leading in the league in steals. You got a superstar in Shay Gilis Alexander averaging 30 again in line for league MVP honors again. Number one seed in the West again. This is who they have. And so when I look at it right now, to me, I’m ready to tell you right now, not even at the mid-season point, I got the Oklahoma City Thunder going to the finals out of the West. That’s how I feel about him. I don’t look at this team and see any weakness, any excuse for yet another Sam Prey team to come up short. Now, damn it, the man is great at pulling a roster. He’s great at getting picks. He’s great at sitting up there and securing. You have a competitive future. He gets star players. I even like the coaches he picked. But somehow someway, something’s always missing. Enough is enough. And this dude just cannot let go of this talking point. Oh my goodness. And with the Thunder losing big against the Bucks here. Oh no, Stephen A. Smith, he has something to say now. Oh, what a block by Yiannis. Now that we all Oklahoma City shoot a bunch of bricks. I got them coming out of the West. I got to rethink that. But that we got all season to do that. And I’m not going to lie, it’s crazy to say that when Chad didn’t even play cuz he’s hurt the Bucks, man. They deserve this. They were the better team. But again, the Thunder 100% here. When we going to point the finger at Sam Prey? Sam Prey is a fabulous executive. I know that. Oh boy. You already know when Stephen A starts giving out the platitudes, it’s over. He’s trying to criticize and he’s trying to seep doubt into your brain. Look. And now I want to explore a few takes that were made throughout the season by a few people about Oklahoma City and the the Thunder as they want 68 wins franchise history highest point differential of all time in a season. And yet much like Stephven A Smith people were doubting whether or not this team had it to win it all. If the Lakers get the OKC Thunder in the Western Conference, we are going to the NBA Finals. You gonna beat the Oklahoma C. Shannon need to be drug tested. Something wrong with you right now. Shannon Sharp, as per usual, hyping up LeBron’s team. A very unbalanced team that lacks center depth, lacks perimeter defenders, and quite frankly, is going to be a first round exit. And look, people were beginning to question, can OKC win because they definitely have the most to prove this season. I got my eyes on OKC, Stephen A. is is is are they for real? Cuz we saw them last year and they didn’t get to where that we thought they were going to go and they started out this year and right now Shay Gilas is the MVP. And around Allstar weekend, Giannis, well, he just want a little bit of that aura. Just a little. Just shake my hand. I just want a little bit of aura. That’s what I want. I got you, bro. Yeah. Hey, every time every time this guy walks on the court, I feel like he works in slow mo. He doesn’t work in slow motion, but this what I feel when some of my favorite videos on this internet. Shane just got so much aura, bro. Yeah, I’m pretty good at basketball. And after Allstar weekend, the Thunder, they face the Tim Wolves. Ched is now back on the lineup. And the Thunder, they were able to beat the Timberwolves here, but dude, face each other the next day. And it felt as though the Thunder, well, they were destroying the Wolves. That is until they didn’t and they had to go to overtime to try to win this game. And oh boy, the Thunder losing to the Wolves when they were up 24 in the fourth quarter. Put it to you like this here. I will put it to you like this here. Legs OKC KFC UFC Lakers and five. When Luca play like that, we got gold James. It don’t matter. No. OKC. What have you done? Now Shannon is talking his trash. I’m watching that game. If I’m the Lakers, I I I like what I just saw because that’s what that’s who the Lakers can see. What you see, Brandon? What you see out there? OKC ain’t ready. I don’t know. Yeah, they’ve never been like they not ready yet. They they not talk to me. Talk to me. What’s What’s What What? Talk to Oh, brother. Not this nonsense. They’re not ready because of a regular season game. And with the Lakers generating buzz, winning more games since Luca got traded, uh, it led to some very interesting takes. The Thunder, a booth mobile bundle, WWE Raw Rumble, Lego. Yeah, I’m not going to lie, this [ __ ] is getting old already, bro. Bro, what the hell is this? Marcus Morris is on podcast and he’s saying the Lakers will beat the Thunder. Who is the most equipped? LA Lakers. The Lakers. I’m going to go with the Lakers. Lakers. Whenever you have LeBron James and Luca Donic as your primary ball handlers and AR as a three man as a three option, as a third option, I love that because now you can put the ball in each of those guys’ hands. Bro, he even said in this clip that AD got in LeBron’s way, whatever the hell that means. LeBron’s the one losing his minutes in the regular season. Think about this. The Lakers were a third seed in the Western Conference and somehow LeBron is a minus 54 on the year. The last time he was a negative was when the team was a playing team in 2022. I mean, are we serious? To me, it sounds like LeBron James is getting in LeBron James’ way, but that’s another story for another day. But also, it makes sense why more Chris Morris would be saying this. Apparently his brother got uh very mixed feelings when he was in OKC’s and he wishes that his brother never signed with the Thunder as he thinks that’s what derailed his career and has been brilliant, but is this your pick to win the championship? Uh it’s not. It’s not. Um this team it’s not deep enough, right? You have to talk about the depth. You have to talk about the guys that actually been there. When you talk about the lights, it’s way different, right? This team has been healthy all season. They have a young gun that they had bought into the MVP of the league and has been playing out of his mind, right? What happens when they double team him? Who’s the second guy? Who’s the third guy who has experienced the The one thing that’s weird about this to me is they have guys like Marcus Morris on ESPN. All they do is slander OKC. Slander teams that are overlooked, right? Teams that are, you know, small market teams in favor of teams that have LeBron on it. Like, it’s so annoying. Every [ __ ] year it’s the same [ __ ] bro. At one point in my channel, I was w making a bunch of videos just basically talking about how crazy the media was when it come to Yo Kitch, when it comes to just teams in general. And I’m not going to lie to you, I got so tired of making these videos. I was burnt out. But I’m not going to lie, bro. It gets old just having to always address some of these stupid takes. That’s why I haven’t been posting as much recently. I got him coming out the West. Let’s be frank. And Luca Donkins really change it. LeBron can come up. This guy can’t even pronounce Luca’s name right. He’s trying to hype up the Lakers. Like, bro, are you hearing this guy? He’s just a LeBron fan. I don’t give a damn about his opinion, but ESPN wants me to care. Like, or maybe they want me to rage bait. And again, this is why I stopped reacting to some of these takes because ESPN wants you to be mad. And so, let’s see here. I wake up that day, right? He’s on first take talking his ish and Marcus Morris basically talking about how Nicole Yokic is in a top 20 player all time. Probably because Joic knocked the wind out of his brother and quite frankly altered his career. And I’m not going to lie, I do feel bad for him. But at the same time, I don’t. And I’m going to [ __ ] quote this and say how much I hate this guy because he’s actually annoying. Ah, okay. How about we don’t send that tweet out? I got to I got to disagree with you right there. And you know who I’m going to go to. And I know this not going to be your favorite, but I’m going to talk about number two over there with the Clipper Nation, baby. I’m going with Ka. You got, bro. This is This is not a good show. This is not content. This is not entertaining. What are we doing here? Well, the Lakers face the Thunder and and this is late in the season and the Lakers making a statement here beating the Thunder by 20 oh sorry 27 points. Oh my goodness. And you already know who came out of the woodworks. Oh boy. Blue Dort airport seport Lego five. I ain’t high low on neither one. I told y’all what was going to happen. Wendy, remember we had this conversation about a month ago? Sure did. And what did you tell me, Wendy? You looked at me like I had seven heads. You ain’t want to hear anything I had to say. I told you it was going to be good. And that’s it. That’s it. Too many. Too much. You see, my grandfather used to say all the time, he say, “Son, when you get into a fight, you don’t turn the guy loose.” He’s just going to blab around, but yeah, he’s he’s obviously talking his is because LeBron James beat the OKC Thunder, or rather Luca Don did uh when he scored 30 points in a game. Uh was a plus 18. Luca is the best player in the Lakers. I I I hope people understand that, bro. And I won’t lie to you. I already made a video uh about the playoffs, and you guys could go check out a lot of the game highlights that I looked at there. I really want to get into what some of these people said during the playoffs, like Dilbert and others about the OKC Thunder and their chances of winning a championship this year. I asked you guys, what percent chance do you give the Thunder the to reach the NBA Finals? Gil, you said 0%. I said zero, Mr. B. You 0%. There’s no way a human being, let alone Dilbert here, giving the OKC Thunder a 0% chance of making the finals. Not even win the champion, make the finals. The only way they don’t get to is the Lakers win. If they if the Lakers lose, they get there. Even if the Lakers Even if the Lakers lose, nobody else can beat them. They think the Lakers like the best team in the west. What the like where did this come from? Were they watching basketball this whole season? Well, the Thunder would have to go up against one of the MVP finalist in Yokic and the Nuggets in the second round these playoffs. And we know Shay, he’s also an MVP finalist. He’s the runner up last season and he’s looking to win it this year. And none of these people thought Denver was a threat to the Thunder, but they thought the Lakers were somehow. I don’t even know where these people come from with these ideas. But after Denver was able to beat the Thunder in game one, they had a lot of people shook. But then they beat them in game three and it’s even crazier. Denver actually leading the series 2-1 and now they have a game four at home to take a commanding 3-1 lead and for a second it looked like Denver was going to take a 3-1 lead but the Thunder responding in kind and tying the series back to a piece. This was a big game. Thunder tie series 22. Yeah, this series boring too. I got Thunder tonight. It is a big series bro. It’s not entertaining at all at all. That’s why I don’t want to see no in the finals bro. They are not entertaining man. And I thought they would be. They are. They are. We’re just having a down series. They are now when you watch, bro. When you watch him, even though Shay is really, really good at basketball, his game is not exciting. He just be scoring. He just kill, but it ain’t exciting. Like, bro, imagine they said that about Kobe or about Curry, about anybody else that dominated like Shay does. Bro, this is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous to listen to. Sounds like they’re bitter to me, but who knows? But I know people love these guys because they tell cool stories. Well, it should take a good storyteller to know that this OKC Thunder Nugget series was a great story. When the OKC was down the fourth quarter and we fought the Nuggets, had the game and then Lou Dort comes out of nowhere hitting three after three, making big plays and then it basically became a 1v5. Jokic versus the entire team. He was the only one making shots, but then OKC responding and you got Jaylen Williams hitting this shot here. And look at him. Woo! He going crazy. I’m telling you, bro, this was one of the best series this playoffs. It was beautiful. And for the Thunder to win it in seven. And I mean, they were dominating in that game seven. Oo, he banked that in. It was stifling defense. And look at this here. Case Wallace with the steal. I’m This is beautiful hoops. This is boring to watch apparently. Do you feel good about OKC right now as a prohibited favorite? No, not that high of a favorite. I I I’m not sold. I just think that the first two games was was great matchups, right? They got a Grizzly team that really wasn’t deep. Um they really didn’t even they come out and try to play. John Maher got hurt. And you go to seven with Denver. Denver had a a a rookie head coach that didn’t make adjustments in real time because that game could have got away from OKC, right? What do you call this again? What do you call this? Uh, oh yeah, that’s moving the goalpost. Yes, Marcus. Marcus, way to move the goalpost. That’s the rookie head coach that could make adjustments when Oh, this Nuggets team. Look what they’re doing. They’re challenging the Thunder. Oh, the Thunder. They have 0% chance of making the finals. But now it’s the rookie head coach. Now there’s new excuses for why the Thunder were able to win. Oh, it’s beautiful. I know. I know. I got the Pacers jersey on and I got to say this out loud. If the Pacers don’t do it, don’t make it to the finals. And it’s OKC also. Just shut the Just shut that [ __ ] Just sit there. I’m I’m about to tell Ain’t no sponsor sponsoring nothing about us. No. Say what you said before, bro. I’m sorry, but who watches this stuff, bro? I’m sorry. I I I don’t understand. This is the competition. This is who people are watching now. Like, this is crazy. I sound jealous now. This is crazy cuz that’s what they sound like really. They sound bitter. They sound like they were rooting for the Lakers to win so bad. And when they lost in the first round, and I’m not even bothering to show that cuz they’re they’re they’re irrelevant really. The Lakers, they don’t have a real roster, but the Thunder do. Their depth. I don’t know why people would question their depth. They got it. And they got the MVP winner, Shay Gilis Alexander, who I think he’s amazing. Oh, no. No. He’s a boring player, guys. When when a team I don’t like wins, their star player is automatically boring to me. Uh, Uncle T said, “Man, the 2014 15 would win the championship this year. Argue with your mama. What team is that, brother?” Yeah, he must be talking about my Hawks. Uh, yeah, we definitely would have won a chip this year. Damn. Do you think I could have beat OKC? Yeah. Damn. We had We had We played like them. They got SGA. Yeah. He won Brian. We lost to Brian. I ain’t Brian, but he a lot. I I that match up SGA verse our team. I’m cool. Like that’s cool. The thing that we couldn’t do, Brown was 68 260. We just couldn’t buy like we they had no size for him. Like a guard like that, like we just said like John, not no disrespect to SGA, but like John Wall, all them was doing the same, not to the same magnitude, but I’m not going to lie, bro. I don’t even know if I could listen to this, but I’m going to continue playing this because it’s I I Wow. Officious. Wow. Like that. Like we just said like John, not no disrespect to SGA, but like John Wall, all them was doing the same. Not to the same magnitude, but we had played them. James Harden was doing that. We had played all them [ __ ] that was killing getting 30 a game. We had beat Isaiah time. We had swept Joe Johnson. All them. We had seen that. We hadn’t seen Brian. Can’t believe I have to waste my time looking at this roster and look at their playoffs. Bro, this is so stupid. Bro, this team was the number one seed in the East. Okay. And they had they had the entire starting five earning a player of the month in January when they went undefeated 17-0 because quite frankly there wasn’t one player that stood out on this damn team. Al Horford or Paul Mills. Who was the best player on this team? I don’t even know. I I swear to you, I couldn’t tell you who the better player was here. It was done by committee. These guys all stepped up. Look at this starting lineup. Consistently balanced scoring. Six players scoring over double digits. I mean, six men of the year nominee. Shruder defensive player of the year. 15th place Dear Carol. Allstars, four allstars this season. What? And yes, they went against Joel Johnson and the Brooklyn Nets. And Joel Johnson put up a whopping 16 points per game, playing 41 minutes a game. And he was shooting it. Oh, he was stroking it under 30% from deep. Just over 36% from the field. This guy was blazing the Brook Lopez was leading the team in scoring in the playoffs. Why is Joel Johnson being mentioned as if he’s some demon killer around this time? But I guess, bro, he played the Wizards in second round. John Wall. Oh, John Wall’s a demon. Let’s not doubt him. He He swept the Raptors in 2015. He made my team look like a bunch of [ __ ] That [ __ ] was sad. And in this series, John Wall put up a whopping 17 points per game, shooting just under 40% from the field, made 0% of his three-pointers. Oh my god. Bradley Beiel was the best player on that team, right? He he scored 25 points a game. He shot pretty decent from three. Uh, this is not Shay Gil just in any way. Shay’s better than all these guys. I don’t know why these guys are being mentioned as though they’re even close to Sha’s level. But I guess Shay is not on LeBron level in 2015 when they face the Hawks in the conference finals. Oh, they got swept by the LeBron James Hammer. Oh, then they had Kyrie and Kevin Love on this team, right? Carrie only played two games. He got hurt in the middle of the series. He couldn’t play half of the series. He averaged just just 13 points a game in this series. This guy barely played. and and and Kevin Love was injured in the first round against the Celtics. Kelly Kelly Olen and him had a you know bruhaha where he accidentally dislocated his damn shoulder and LeBron Maximus James averaging 30 points a game. This guy was a lethal play. I’m not going to lie, this is one of his worst playoff runs in his prime years. really for him to sweep the Hawks without Kyrie playing much much of these games without Kevin Love even in this series and there’s just something disturbing about a lot of these players that like to claim oh these analysts on the media they ruin the game by you know trying to trash the players these guys have been doing a much worse job covering the game uh they are so biased in their takes not just that but they cover for players just like the media does with Jordan and all these other guys and they trash players even harder than the media guys of the past and present have. Kevin O’Connor, he knows this is just instant content. He’s going to have Marcus Morris here double down once the whilst the Thunder are in the finals. Oh my goodness. The Thunder. Oh, they’re just not good. They’re just not a good team. It’s ridiculous. Like these dudes are actively going to [ __ ] on the product that they’re covering. Uh even though they try to claim that they try to uplift the sport. Oh, they care about that sport. And when we seen Hallebertton hit this shot right here, bro, I was I was my jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. And it was beautiful. And there were moments in this game where I thought, “Oh, OKC, they might not win this series.” And when they were able to come from behind in some of these games and pull off the victories led by Sheay Gilas Alexander, I mean, it’s just incredible. By far one of the best final series I’ve watched this decade. But too bad some of these people couldn’t enjoy it and couldn’t appreciate it because they were too busy hating. And for it to go seven games, I mean, this is what movies is made of. And I know people are going to try to, you know, disparage OKC. And I get why you’d be pissed or why you’d want to put an asterisk here, but I’m telling you, this was years in the making. and for OKC to face the Indiana Pacers with Tyrese Hallebertton leading them who was traded in the 2022 trade deadline from the Kings to the Pacers for Deonta Sabonis. Wow. The guy that Paul George got traded for got traded for Tyrese and he’s in the finals now. And I won’t lie, I probably will make a video on Paul George one day, man. Just outlining this entire career and his arc. It’s just funny, man. His career is hilarious. But the champions, the Thunder, this is how they finish a story. 21 times. That’s what they do. 23. That’s what they do. That’s what they do. I want to say this real quick about Sam Prey. Nobody has been on him more than me. He’s been the leader of the Oklahoma City Thunder since 2007 and has had Hall of Famers draped all over his roster, but never kicked down the door and closed. That’s something that I brought up continuously throughout this year. He has finally closed the deal. He is a champion. not only the reigning executive of the year, he is a he is a champion including myself and everybody else. You got to stand down and pay. And the biggest player here, Shay Gilis Alexander, fourth player to win MVP, NBA title, scoring title in the same season. The others being Shaq, Michael Jordan, and Kareem back when his name was Lou Alinder. And they got Kendrick Perkins to say something very interesting. He has passed Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the greatest thunder ever. And here’s here’s another conversation if you want to have it. He’s knocking at the door right now of actually being the best player in the world. And I won’t lie to you, bro. It makes it even sweeter seeing that the OKC was able to prove all these people wrong. Oh man. Oh man, it feels good to be back. Feels good to be making more videos again for you guys. And this video here, I’m sure you’ll be interested in watching. It’s about the playoff recap. Yes, I think a lot of people didn’t see this video pop up in the recommended and so if you didn’t, go check this one out. It’s a great one. I peace.

This video explores the story of the Oklahoma City Thunder, diving into their history and comparing the current squad to past teams. The video covers key details and debates whether Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the greatest Thunder player ever, even touching on the potential of Jalen Williams as well. It also discusses potential NBA trades and the team’s overall rebuilding process.

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