Last month, as the confetti fell from the rafters inside Paycom Center, the two men most responsible for Oklahoma City’s first NBA title shared a long embrace. Sam Presti, the bespectacled executive hell-bent on building a champion in one of the league’s smallest markets. And Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the young star on whom he bet everything to win it. The road had obstacles: double-digit losing streaks, 20-ish win seasons, talking heads screaming for Presti to deal away Gilgeous-Alexander. They battled from 22 wins their second year together to 68 this season, from the lottery to a championship. As the celebration around them picked up steam, the two hugged and acknowledged the journey. “We both just said, ‘We made it to the mountaintop,’ ” Gilgeous-Alexander says. “We earned it.”
It has been nearly a decade since Presti stared down uncertainty, back when Kevin Durant defected to Golden State, leaving Oklahoma City to face a dark future. He tried to win with Russell Westbrook (didn’t work), then with Westbrook and Paul George (ditto) before tearing the Thunder roster down to the jerseys in 2019. Seven years after cobbling together one of the NBA’s most improbable Finals teams (one that lost to the Big Three Heat in five games), Presti faced the daunting task of trying to do it all over again.
