2025 Year in Review: Thunder Win First NBA Title

[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 “Year in Review” magazine, which celebrates the year’s champions and relives the biggest moments from across the world of sports. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander abandoned one of the open-air parade buses, and with the golden Larry O’Brien Trophy in tow, he sauntered shirtless along the ropeline to get closer to the hundreds of thousands of Thunder fans who had gathered on a steamy June day in downtown Oklahoma City.

The Thunder, two days prior, had claimed the NBA championship, fending off the Indiana Pacers in a grueling seven–game series. It was the franchise’s first title since relocating from Seattle in 2008, and SGA’s descent from the bus to the streets during the championship parade was symbolic. It was he, the league MVP, who propelled the Thunder to the title, but the trophy and everything it represented belonged not just to him, not just to the team, but to the city and fanbase beyond.

In six short years after general manager Sam Presti traded for Gilgeous-Alexander and a slew of draft picks — one of which became another star in Jalen Williams — the Thunder were champions.

Here’s the story behind Oklahoma City’s rise.

The Reset

July 11, 2019 was the date of the changing of the guard in Oklahoma City.

Out went Russell Westbrook. In came Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

On the same night Sam Presti was negotiating a trade to send Westbrook — the Thunder’s icon of 11 years — to the Rockets, Gilgeous-Alexander was inside the Thunder’s practice facility getting shots up.

SGA had just arrived in OKC from Los Angeles as part of another trade. A larger trade. The trade that set this whole thing in motion.

Knowing that Kawhi Leonard wanted to team up with Paul George on the Clippers, and using Leonard’s wishes as leverage, the Thunder received SGA, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks and two pick swaps from the Clippers in exchange for George. The picks were the real prize. Not that Gilgeous-Alexander was a throw-in. The former lottery pick out of Kentucky, by way of Hamilton, Ontario, had shown real promise in his rookie season with the Clippers.

With the two-star tandem of Westbrook and George gone, Presti penned an op-ed in The Oklahoman titled, “Looking back, thinking forward.” He readied the fanbase for what was to come.

“Our goal is sustainable, long-term, collective excellence,” Presti wrote. “The people of Oklahoma City should be able to one day watch the rise of another great team, as they have watched the rise of their rebuilt downtown, with knowledge that they are witnessing something not only great but enduring. Invest today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

The Rebuild

It took a year to get off the ground. Even after a semi-teardown in the summer of 2019, the 2019-20 Thunder team was far better than anybody expected. Chris Paul, acquired in the Westbrook trade with Houston, was rejuvenated. Dennis Schröder had a career year. Along with SGA, that three-guard tandem had the Thunder on pace for a 50-win season before COVID struck. Oklahoma City, coincidentally, was ground zero for the shutdown.

That 2019-20 team was eliminated in the first round of the bubble playoffs.

Then the rebuild began in earnest. Head coach Billy Donovan left for Chicago, and the Thunder promoted from within, choosing the little-known Mark Daigneault, who had spent five seasons as head coach of the Oklahoma City’s G League team, the OKC Blue.

Losses piled up as the Thunder prioritized draft positioning. All the while, Daigneault and his staff prioritized development, setting in place the standard in which the team would play.

The tanking — with 22- and 24-win seasons — would last only two years.

After rotten NBA draft lottery luck in 2021, the Thunder secured the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft. With it, OKC selected Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren. And with the No. 12 pick, obtained in the Clippers trade, the Thunder drafted Santa Clara wing Jalen Williams.

Gilgeous-Alexander would become an All-NBA player the next season. As Holmgren and J-Dub developed, a new OKC Big Three took shape. 

The Ring

After a second-round loss to the Mavericks in 2024, the Thunder made a pair of defining moves that charted a championship course.

OKC traded a promising young guard in Josh Giddey to Chicago for a ready-made winner in Alex Caruso. And to fortify its front line, the Thunder signed big man Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency.

With foundational pieces in SGA and Lu Dort, rising stars in Williams and Holmgren, and the new additions of Hartenstein and Caruso, the Thunder were all-in.

OKC, with top-tier talent and enviable depth, went 68-14 — tying for the fifth-best record in NBA history. OKC, behind its swarming defense, set the record for the most double-digit victories.

Gilgeous-Alexander was named MVP. Jalen Williams was named third-team All-NBA. Dort was a first-team All-Defensive player.

The Thunder were destined to be an anomaly one way or another. This was a team too young to win. Caruso, at 31, was the oldest player on the roster. SGA was 26. Williams and Holmgren were 24 and 23, respectively. The combination of youth and inexperience flops in the postseason more often than not.

On the other hand, the Thunder entered the playoffs having turned in one of the best regular-season campaigns in league history. All of OKC’s underlying numbers signaled that it deserved to be the favorite to win the championship.

Either OKC was going to win despite its youth, or lose despite the dominance it showed over 82 games. The former won out.

Gilgeous-Alexander followed up his regular-season MVP with an NBA Finals MVP after scoring 29 points in the deciding Game 7 against Indiana.

But the Larry O’Brien Trophy was the real prize for SGA and the Thunder.

It was the piece of hardware symbolizing so much more that he paraded through the streets of Oklahoma City on that sizzling June day.

NBA SEASON IN REVIEW

From one of the most confounding trades in league history to an undeniably dominant champion, the 2024–25 NBA season didn’t disappoint.

Here are the surprises, disappointments and moments that defined a year few saw coming.

Wildest Trade: Dallas sends Luka Doncic to Lakers for Anthony Davis