Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Sam Presti says that strangers everywhere always are ready to talk about the Thunder’s 2025 NBA championship. But they come with different salutations.
Out-of-staters congratulate Presti.
Oklahomans thank Presti.
The Thunder general manager long has reveled in the relationship between the NBA franchise and the city and state it calls home. He calls it a “really unique experience … people feel a part, and I think that makes it special.”
Maybe it’s that way everywhere. The Thunder is our only reference point with major-league sports. Presti’s reference points are Boston, where he grew up and which has four historic, landmark franchises in all the major team sports, and San Antonio, a one-franchise city like OKC.
But there’s no doubt that the Thunder has been easy for Oklahomans to embrace, because of wildly-successful teams and superstars with worldwide popularity.
Now the 18th Thunder season arrives — October 21 against the Rockets, with the unfurling of the championship banner — and the Thunder is blessed with even greater bounty.
Uncommon continuity. No, amazing continuity.
Your heroes from last spring, when the Thunder capped one of the best NBA seasons in history, with 68 regular-season victories and a playoff run capped by a seven-game triumph over the Indiana Pacers?
They’re all back.
I mean, all of them.
OK, so Dillon Jones is gone. The 2024 first-round draft last season ranked 13th in minutes played and 14th in points scored. He was traded in the off-season, to make way for 2025 first-round pick Thomas Sorber, who will miss this season with a knee injury.
All the other Thunders return. Stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Santa Clara Williams and Chet Holmgren. Defensive dynamos Alex Caruso, Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace. The lovable Isaiah Hartenstein. Role players Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams and Arkansas Williams. Ousmane Dieng and Ajay Mitchell. And rookie Nikola Topic, who missed last season with a knee injury.
In the free-agency, salary-cap era, in a transient world, it’s incredible to run back the same roster that just took the NBA by storm. All with a team that still is the sixth-youngest in the NBA.
The Thunder figured to improve by osmosis. It also can improve by familiarity.
“Basketball is a game that is played instinctively, and when it’s at its best, it’s played improvisationally,” Presti said Thursday at his preseason press conference. “In order to play improvisationally, the other people playing with you have to be able to anticipate what it is you’re about to do or react effectively to those choices.”
Presti uses big words, but that’s OK. He’s got big ideas. He preached patience and steadiness and taking no shortcuts. That philosophy paid off with a team for the ages that took two months off and is back together.
Presti gave continuity his highest praise, tying it to Manu Ginobili. The Spurs’ icon was a favorite of Presti’s during his San Antonio days.
“I understood the value of continuity from watching Ginobili’s Argentinian national teams over the years, because those guys play together from when they’re like 10 years old,” Presti said. “You want to talk about a team that we all know as humans when we’re watching basketball…
“Every one of us can say this. When a team is playing together and in sync and the ball has energy, everybody feels better. It makes you feel good when you see that, when the ball pings around and you know where it’s going to end up and you know the guy is going to make the shot because he’s in such rhythm and the team is so connected. People, our fans particularly, I think they get joy out of that, and that’s a beautiful thing. I think continuity helps breed that.”
In 2022, the Thunder drafted Holmgren, Jalen Williams (Santa Clara) and Jaylin Williams (Arkansas). They joined a core of Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Kenrich Williams and Wiggins. Then Presti signed Joe.
Since then, Presti’s tinkering has been minimal.
In 2023-24, the season that resulted in the Western Conference semifinals loss to Dallas, the Thunder returned its top nine players. It traded Jeremiah Robinson-Earl before the season, added Wallace in the draft and traded Tre Mann in February.
In 2024-25, the Thunder returned nine of its top 10 players. Presti traded Josh Giddey for Caruso, drafted Topic and signed Hartenstein.
Now in 2025-26, the top 12 players return.
Recent NBA champions haven’t done anything close to that, except the 2024 Celtics, who returned their top nine players last season and since have had to trim Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet from that title team.
But the 2023 Nuggets kept only seven of their top 10 players from the title team. The 2022 Warriors kept just six of the top 10 after winning. The 2021 Bucks eight of 10 and the 2020 Lakers five of 10.
Thunder fans are incredibly blessed. They got high-quality basketball, an NBA championship and still didn’t lose fan favorites like Arkansas Wiliams and Aaron Wiggins, through Presti’s strong management of contracts and culture.
“Coming off the year we had and the ability to keep everybody without going above our tax threshold, a big part of that is guys wanting to be here and our ability to get some of these things done,” Presti said. “Never underestimate that. That’s the mutual aspect of this entire project for us.”
It’s quite a story. Great teams. Championship team. And the bonanza that the guys who made it possible are back, ready to try it again, as the lucky fans who love them don’t have to say goodbye.
berry.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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Berry Tramel
Tulsa World Sports Columnist
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