Kevin Durant Details Failures During His Tenure at OKC Culminated in NBA Title

The Oklahoma City Thunder won their 1st ever NBA title after years of rebuilding once Kevin Durant left. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completed the stellar run they had with a league MVP as well as Finals MVP honors.

More importantly, they beat standout playoff competitors in the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the surprisingly battle-ready Indiana Pacers. Some say that Tyrese Haliburton‘s Achilles tear in Game 7 seemingly gifted OKC their title.

Then there are others who believe it is not a foregone conclusion as the Thunder were well coached, and aware of how to come back from a deficit and win. They won 68 games and the league’s best team for a reason.

OKC’s run to the title had many thinking about how they got to this point. They once had a similar team headlined by young stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, along with experienced veterans Kendrick Perkins and Derek Fisher.

They ran into LeBron James‘ Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals. Since then, they could not sustain that level of performance and one by one, players started to leave. Durant, now sitting alongside LeBron James on his podcast revealed what went wrong.

I don’t know exactly what Sam (Presti) was thinking or the owner, but my theory is that I don’t think they were ready exactly for us to be contenders every year. I just think they were kind of shocked at how good we got so fast. Sometimes, you get confused.

Kevin Durant said

The 15-time All-Star was referring to how GM Sam Presti let James Harden walk despite him being a crucial part of their Finals run. That along with other moves did not upgrade the team. Eventually, the team disintegrated.

Kevin Durant believes OKC will not be easy to dethrone

While talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder, co-host of Mind the Game, Steve Nash, claimed the team has learned how not to throw away games easily, the way they did in the NBA Finals. LeBron James then said that it could change as OKC will be the hunted. However, Kevin Durant disagreed: