IF OKLAHOMA CITY IS SMALL WITH RODEOS, CAN YOU IMAGINE AN NBA DYNASTY?
The Thunder feature the second-youngest team to reach the Finals, and with Sam Presti in control and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander atop the basketball world, why not settle in and think of myriad titles?
It strains the neck to abandon both coasts, adjust the eyeballs in air space and stare at the cowboy culture of Oklahoma City. Only 700,000 people live there, and all wear the same gear in what appears to be Green Bay with oil wells. The Kardashian of the bunch, actress Kristin Chenoweth, has a dog named Thunder. Would someone explain the mob?
“It's 1 of 1, for sure. It's very special. Something that nobody on our team takes for granted,” Jalen Williams said of fans draped in blue, white and red in different sections. “It literally feels like kinda like high school when your high school team's really good at football. That's what it feels like here.”
In what smacks of NBA lunacy, the Thunder have won 80 games this season and lost just 18 while ranking as the second-youngest team to reach the Finals. Many American people are trying to figure out how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the league’s now-dreaded face — ask LeBron James, who said, “Why do you want to be the face of a league when all the people that cover our game and talk about our game on a day-to-day basis s--t on everybody?” — and tearfully thanked his wife during his MVP ceremony last week.
You want maturity and grace, something Anthony Edwards didn’t provide? Here it is, in the heart of rodeo country.
“Thank you so much,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Hailey. “Thank you for everything you are — for me, for our son, Ares. You were the first person to show me what love really meant … what sacrifice really meant. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of this journey called life with you. Thank you very much. I wouldn’t be the man I am, I wouldn’t be the player I am, I wouldn’t be the father I am, without you. Thank you.”
Then he praised his teammates, who stood beside the podium wearing Rolex watches he gifted them. “I can’t say enough how much you guys mean to me, and not only as a basketball player, but as family,” SGA said. "I know you guys know that we do everything together, on and off the court, we do shopping, we eat. You guys are really like my brothers ... Without you guys, none of this would be possible. I want you guys to know that this award is your award, too.”
Are we ready to consider the Thunder as a potential dynasty, when some are still figuring out the differences between SGA and PCA (baseball’s Pete Crow-Armstrong)? In a five-game putdown of Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the kids already looked like champs. SGA had 34 points and 8 assists in his usual postseason supremacy. Chet Holmgren, whose 7-6 wingspan nourishes his 7-1 height, scored 22 points. Williams, who plays every role in the lineup, had 19. The sole veteran, Alex Caruso, is 31 and helped shut down Nikola Jokic defensively in Game 7 of the previous series. Lu Dort is a stopper who swears he “is not a villain. I’m always on the best players, so I am trying to make the job tough for them. But other than that, I'm a chill, cool guy.”
What’s astonishing here — and I keep saying it — is that executive vice president Sam Presti is a miracle man and head coach Mark Daigneault is 40 and younger than LeBron. Where is this rocket ship going? “It still has so much more room to grow, which is the scary part,” SGA said. "I'm 26, which seems old. (Some teammates are) 23 and 24. They haven't even gotten close to hitting their prime yet. Thye’re out there playing on feel and their talent. I'm excited for the future. It almost seems like we did everything we were supposed to do. We made it tough on the guys we were supposed to make it tough on. Well, I thought it was tough for everybody (on the Timberwolves). We were clicking on all cylinders as far as what their tendencies are, what our game plan is, how we want to impact the game, how we want to impact the ball. Then from there, we were able to just run and have fun and be ourselves. It really starts with defense for us.”
“It's great to feel like you didn't leave anything on the table," Holmgren said. “I think Shai knows what the right play is. Sometimes that’s score, sometimes that’s to pass. But you never really feel like watching him or playing with him — you never feel like he made the wrong read.”
Said Daigneault: “The focus through the distraction of a closeout game to go to the Finals is what was most impressive. I mean, they were laser-focused today, and that allowed our best to come to the surface.” Of SGA, he said: “He sets an unbelievable tone. I think he understands his role in our mentality. He is a leader in that.”
Edwards remains far short in taking over the game and leading his team to glory. He grabbed his crotch for teasing fans in Los Angeles and f-bombed press conferences. The Thunder held him below 20 points three times. He shot 7 of 18 in Game 5 and the Wolves were outscored by 29 points when he was on the court in a 124-94 loss.
“I'm going to work my butt off this summer,” Edwards said. “They were the better team, they came out and beat us, punched us in the face, and we lost the game, we lost the series.”
After teammate Mike Conley said of the Thunder — “Their movement, their body language and connectivity — the things they were doing were just a level above us,” — Edwards summarized the series thusly: “One string, 15 puppets on one string.”
He said he isn’t broken. “I don't know why people would think it would hurt, it's exciting for me," Edwards said. “I’m 23. I get to do it a whole bunch of times. I'm hurt more so for (37-year-old Conley). I came up short for Mike. We tried last year, we couldn't get it. We tried again this year. We'll try again next year. But hurt is a terrible word to use. I'm good.”
Coach Chris Finch thought of a midseason chat with Edwards. “I said, ‘What do you think we think a good season feels like? What do you think that looks like for us right now?’ And he said, ‘Let's get into the playoffs, win a round and see where we go.’ It was exactly my thought at the time, too.”
Where it went was a throwdown in OKC. The night was so sweet that the Thunder urged fans to join them. “I wanted them to be able to see it all with their own eyes,” SGA said. “I wanted them to celebrate tonight in our building, go home, get drunk, whatever they do. I just wanted to make sure that above all, I can give my energy and my effort to try to get these fans what they deserve.”
Drunk? In OKC?
They’re just getting started with the moonshine.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.