OKLAHOMA CITY — As the confetti rained down from the Paycom Center rafters, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander embraced the one person he knew appreciated a championship as much as he did. Sam Presti brought Gilgeous-Alexander to Oklahoma City in 2019, insisting the gangly teenager be included in the Los Angeles Clippers’ trade for Paul George. The Thunder team president prioritized developing him; signed, drafted and traded for players to complement him; and never stopped believing the team could win with him. As a delirious crowd celebrated Oklahoma City’s first NBA championship, Gilgeous-Alexander and Presti hugged, acknowledging not just the title but the journey it took to get there. “We both just said, ‘We made it to the mountaintop,’ ” Gilgeous-Alexander tells Sports Illustrated. “We earned it.”
Winning is a process. Milwaukee made one conference finals in the four years prior to winning in 2021. Same for Denver in ’23. Boston lost in four conference finals (and one NBA Finals) before finally breaking through in ’24. Title winners can’t be microwaved in one season. They have to be baked over several.
Oklahoma City’s path was rocky. The Thunder won 44 games in the pandemic-shortened 2019–20 season, riding Gilgeous-Alexander and a revived Chris Paul to the playoffs. The next season, the bottom fell out. They won 22 games in ’20–21. They won 24 in ’21–22. There were double-digit losing streaks and humiliating defeats. When Chet Holmgren went down with a season-ending foot injury in ’22, Presti gathered the team together. He prepared the group for the outside noise. But struck an optimistic tone about its future.
“He said, ‘Our destiny is what we make it, no one else can control that,’ ” recalled Gilgeous-Alexander. “That message stuck with me ever since. We can do whatever we want to do out there. Just like how we’ve all got to the NBA, no matter what anybody says, who is hurt or who is not. I think that talk stuck in my head, I think a few of the other guys as well. It’s a big part of why we’re here.”
In 2022–23, the Thunder flirted with .500. They won 57 games the next season. They won 68 in this one. In the playoffs, they swept Memphis, outlasted Denver and beat back Minnesota. In the Finals, Indiana presented a unique challenge. The Pacers were fast, strong and physical, with a star (Tyrese Haliburton) having one of the most impressive postseasons in modern history.
They split six competitive games, setting up Sunday’s Game 7. And while the great what-if will be the injury that knocked Haliburton out of the game in the first quarter, it was Oklahoma City’s swarming defense that shut down Indiana in a decisive third quarter, powering the Thunder to a title-clinching 103–91 win.
As he walked across a confetti-covered floor, a Finals MVP trophy clutched in one hand, congratulatory high fives and handshakes occupying the other, Gilgeous-Alexander remembered those early years. The good times. The bad times. The challenging times. And he remembers the unwavering faith Presti had in a young, second-year player with no resume to speak of.
“From the very beginning, Sam told me I could do anything in this game,” Gilgeous-Alexander says. “And it’s just nice to know the trust and honesty that he showed me. You obviously don’t get that a lot in this business. I’m lucky to be able to go to work with someone like that.”
Presti took the reins of the organization at age 29, back when the team was still the Sonics and still playing in Seattle, and at 47 remains one of the league’s younger top execs. But he is an old soul. He decompresses while playing a drum set, prefers phone calls to text messages and is an insatiable reader. So it was no surprise that in 2019, when looking for a way to communicate with fans, he wrote a letter to the local newspaper. In The Oklahoman, Presti wrote, “The next great Thunder team is out there somewhere, but it will take time to seize and discipline to ultimately sustain.”
To rebuild, Oklahoma City needed a foundation. It needed a coach. Billy Donovan, who Presti hired to replace Scott Brooks in 2015, wasn’t interested in a rebuild and exited in ’20. On Donovan’s bench was Mark Daigneault, who had recently completed a stint coaching the Thunder’s G League affiliate. In Daigneault, Presti found a partner. A coach with smarts, patience and an understanding of player development. “Their approach is cerebral,” Gilgeous-Alexander says. “They’re winners to the core. Following their lead was easy.”
It needed a star. Gilgeous-Alexander turned heads in his first season, averaging 10.8 points and finishing sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting. When the Clippers came calling about George, Presti played hardball. L.A. needed George to convince Kawhi Leonard to sign with them and Oklahoma City wanted its pound of flesh. They got it in five first-round draft picks and a young player they believed could be a cornerstone of the franchise’s future.
It needed an identity. Presti had already built one would-be champion. In 2012, Oklahoma City’s trip to the Finals was powered by singular talents. Kevin Durant’s dynamic scoring. Russell Westbrook’s explosiveness. James Harden’s polished playmaking. As Presti built out the new Thunder, versatility was coveted. Some of Presti’s swings hit (Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams). Others missed (Darius Bazley, Aleksej Pokusevski).
The talent, though, was building. Luguentz Dort joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2019. Holmgren and Williams were drafted in ’22. In ’23, it was Cason Wallace. After flaming out in the second round in ’24, Presti made two big swings. He signed Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million deal to shore up the team’s rebounding issues. And he flipped Giddey to Chicago for Alex Caruso, a more versatile defender. Caruso averaged 10 points in the Finals. Hartenstein pulled down nearly seven rebounds per game.
The result has been one of the NBA’s most efficient turnarounds. Even Daigneault marvels at it. He remembers coaching Caruso in the G League. Dort hounding defenders in empty gyms in the post-COVID season when the Thunder were routinely getting tattooed by double digits. As he held the championship trophy, he remembered all of it. “We’ve hung in there together,” Daigneault said. “We’ve stayed together, the whole team. Yeah, I can't describe it. It was a special moment for me.”
For everyone. As the seconds ticked down in the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander stood in the middle of a group of teammates. Few teams have ever been as together as this Thunder group. They eat together. They socialize together. They do interviews together. As the celebration picked up, Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates pointed at a ring finger that will soon have a new piece of jewelry.
“We prioritize winning,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We don’t prioritize anything else in this game. We want to win and we want to win on the highest level. That looks like something new every night, every opponent, every arena. That’s all we focused on this whole season, no matter if it was Game 1, Game 45, Game 105. We prioritized winning. Because we did so, we won on the highest level.”
The question was inevitable: What about next season? What the Thunder have built looks sustainable. Every player is under contract for next season. The books—for now—are clean. Most of the core of the team is 27 or younger. There will be another influx of young talent next season led by Nikola Topic, the 2024 lottery pick who missed all of this season with a knee injury.
“I haven’t even thought that far ahead,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “But yeah, we definitely still have room to grow.”
Holmgren’s career has been plagued by injuries, leading the Thunder to believe the stringy 7' 1" forward is just scratching the surface on his potential. A nasty hip injury cost Holmgren 50 games this season, robbing him of the strength and conditioning he needed to be at his best. Holmgren shot 43.3% from three in the first quarters this season, when his legs were fresh. In the fourth, that number dipped to 25%.
Oklahoma City will prioritize conditioning with Holmgren this summer. His trainer, Drew Hanlen, has already mapped out a plan to improve Holmgren’s ability to score through contact and become a more versatile three-point shooter. Asked what level he expected Holmgren to rise to next season, Hanlen was succinct: “All-Star.”
It isn’t just Holmgren. In his third season, Williams has given off some Scottie Pippen vibes, emerging as a Pippen-esque scorer, playmaker and defender. Wallace is a defensive stopper with a rapidly developing three-point shot. Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams played supporting roles this season but have shown flashes of being ready for more.
Even Gilgeous-Alexander has some headroom. His season was sensational. “One of the greatest seasons that’s ever been had by a player,” Holmgren said. Some final accolades: First player to be named the regular-season MVP and win the NBA championship in the same season since Stephen Curry in 2014–15. First player to win the NBA scoring title and the NBA championship in the same season since Shaquille O’Neal in 1999–2000. First player to be named the regular-season MVP and the Finals MVP in the same season since LeBron James in ’12–13. James stamped his claim to the face of the league after that. Gilgeous-Alexander, said Caruso, may do the same.
“He’s got that capability,” Caruso said. “I don’t think anyone will question his ability. I think the thing that sets him apart is he’ll probably be hungry for more. He probably won’t be satisfied with winning this one time. He’ll want to be better. He’ll want to see how he can tweak and maneuver his game to a better fit and take advantage of the way people guard him. That’s just the special ability that he has mentally to be competitive and want to be great.”
He has a front office that wants it, too. Recent champions have degraded after winning the title. Veteran talent gets too expensive. Draft capital becomes scarce. Oklahoma City doesn’t have those problems. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren are in line to sign max-level extensions this summer, but they won’t immediately kick in. Presti has carefully constructed deals with team options on the back end, creating the potential for flexibility. When money becomes tight, the Thunder’s stockpile of picks will flood the roster with cheap, rookie-scale-salary talent.
“We have a lot to grow, individually and as a group,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I’m excited for the future of this team. This is a great start, for sure. I’m really excited for this team. Couldn’t have imagined it any other way.”
Six years after Oklahoma City made a big bet on him, Gilgeous-Alexander has paid it off, and then some. Presti built the team, Gilgeous-Alexander led it and now there is an NBA champion in Oklahoma. A young champion. A hungry champion. Dynasties are supposed to be dead in the NBA. Its death may be exaggerated.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Thunder Finally Make It to Mountaintop With Plans to Stay After First NBA Title.