Sam Presti, the executive vice president of the Oklahoma City Thunder, keeps a notable photo in his office: legendary football coach Bill Walsh appearing serene before a Super Bowl game. This tranquility wasn`t due to certainty of victory, but a result of thorough preparation. The photo serves as a reminder for Presti, something to strive for. However, on the eve of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, when it was time for him to embody that preparedness and relax, Presti`s approach was different.
The night before the most important game of his professional career, Presti went home and played his drums, letting the music express the journey of building and rebuilding the Thunder team. This included lessons learned from the rise and eventual split of the Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden era, which informed the construction of this new championship trio: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren.
Presti is constantly focused on building, except when he`s playing the drums. “There`s a different part of your brain,” Presti explained, “that you have to access.” This distinction highlights what makes this current Thunder team unique.
Both the previous and current teams were young. Both featured a stylish, primary ball-handler point guard, a slender seven-footer with guard-like abilities, and a unique wing player skilled at driving to the basket. The physical parallels are striking, almost as if Presti held auditions for look-alikes in 2019, but screened for a crucial difference.
This time, Presti prioritized humility over swagger.
The first group of superstars eventually became too big for a single team, each needing their own environment to flourish. They were intensely competitive with each other as well as their opponents, possessing significant ambition and egos.
In contrast, the three stars who secured the Thunder`s first championship on Sunday night genuinely enjoy sharing the spotlight. They often include their entire team in post-game on-court interviews. When presented with the Finals MVP award, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pulled his teammate Jalen Williams into the ceremony with him.
After a moment of composure, Gilgeous-Alexander declared, “Jalen Williams… is a one-in-a-lifetime player.” Following crowd applause, he paused again. “One second, sorry. Without him, without his performances, without his big-time moments, without his shotmaking, defending, everything he brings to this team, we don`t win this championship without him. This is just as much my MVP as it is his.”
After Williams briefly held the trophy, he returned it to Gilgeous-Alexander, who then encouraged his teammates to share it. “Pass it around,” he said. “Pass it around.” This spirit of togetherness defines the team, both on and off the court.
“Our togetherness on and off the court, how much fun we have, it made it feel like we were just kids playing basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander reflected.
In many ways, they were just kids. At 24, Williams was only 10 when the Durant-Westbrook-Harden team lost to the Miami Heat in the 2012 Finals, too young to fully grasp the historical parallels. He was so young, in fact, that his first alcoholic drink was taken during the champagne celebration in the locker room Sunday night. “That was my first drink,” Williams confirmed afterward. “Ever.” The team was so young that 31-year-old Alex Caruso had to show them how to open the champagne bottles. “I`m old because they just haven`t been around anybody over 30 before,” Caruso joked. “It`s weird.”
But Presti remembers the 2012 Finals clearly. That entire experience informed how and why he built this team differently. His office walls, near the Bill Walsh photo, are covered with magnets displaying various maxims, printed in black capital letters.
CHARACTER IS FATE.
TO BUILD IS IMMORTAL.
AGILITY IS THE QUALITY OF AN OPTIMIST.
These sayings are either his own or concepts he`s encountered.
POST TRAUMATIC GROWTH.
HARDER BUT SMARTER.
INFORM THE MUSIC.
The last one came from a music documentary (Fleetwood Mac`s `Rumors`). Presti enjoys understanding how art and things are created, the stories behind them, and what inspires the people involved. He sees it as a statement of their time.
Presti had contemplated his own statement for this moment, for the championship dais. Always cautious, he avoided getting ahead of himself, especially after the significant loss in Game 6 that grounded the team. But he was, of course, prepared.
“These guys represent all that`s good at a young age,” he stated. “They prioritize winning, they prioritize sacrifice, and it just kind of unfolded very quickly. Age is a number. Sacrifice and maturity is a characteristic, and these guys have it in spades.”
All season, the main question surrounding the Thunder was their youth. Would they falter against more experienced teams? Could they handle the pressure after winning 68 regular-season games? Could they win close games after setting a record for point differential? The 2012 team faced similar questions; Durant and Westbrook were 23, Harden 22. Like this year`s squad, they seemed poised for a decade of contention.
“I thought we`d be winning two or three championships,” former Thunder guard Reggie Jackson recalled. “But our story didn`t go as expected.” That year, they weren`t ready; LeBron James and the Heat, having lost the previous Finals, were. Most assumed the 2012 Thunder would return, having learned their lessons, ready to win. Presti then believed his role was to maximize their championship window when stars reached their prime (around 26-27), mirroring the San Antonio Spurs` approach with Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker.
His original trio was years away from that prime, necessitating financial flexibility short-term. Thus, when Harden`s extension was due, Presti offered near-max, but not the full amount, hoping for a small sacrifice for the collective goal. Harden, however, had personal and financial ambitions fueled by stars like Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul at the 2012 Olympics encouraging him to lead his own team. The Thunder`s offer was just $5 million shy of the max over four years and would have put them over the luxury tax they aimed to avoid. Believing Harden`s refusal threatened the long-term plan and the culture of sacrifice, Presti traded him.
On Sunday night, Presti emphasized “sacrifice” twice on the championship stage. This highlighted the second lesson from the first build: maturity, not age, is the critical characteristic. Presti had initially been too rigid about stars reaching a specific age, relying on data. He hadn`t accounted for an alternate reality where a young team could mature so quickly and already possess that crucial characteristic. “They`re young, but their maturity, selflessness and true love for one another is really unique and special,” Presti told ESPN. “The age is what it is. They`ve never let that define them.”
Newer magnets reflecting this shift are now on his wall.
IN ORDER TO BE EXCEPTIONAL, YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO BE THE EXCEPTION.
Mark Daigneault, groomed by Presti much like Presti was by the Spurs organization, is familiar with Presti`s office. Presti recognized Daigneault`s potential while he was on the University of Florida staff and brought him to work with Thunder young players. For five years, Daigneault led the developmental team, the Blue, a job he deeply loved. “I hated leaving the G League,” Daigneault said. “Ask my wife. She`ll tell you how much I loved it.”
Presti saw his potential as the next head coach and observed him on a Blue road trip. Daigneault was unaware he was being evaluated for the top job, content coaching the Blue. The Blue practice facility, a former roller-skating rink near a dog food plant, is known for its distinct smell, a reminder of the team`s origins. Earning a promotion to the Thunder meant leaving that smell behind. However, in Daigneault`s second year as head coach (after a 22-50 season following the full rebuild initiated by trading Chris Paul and appointing Daigneault), he took the team back there for the first day of training camp in 2021. It was a motivational tool, grounding the team in the franchise`s history and humble beginnings.
“My rookie year we did a whole thing,” Aaron Wiggins recalled. “We just kind of went through the way that they were able to pave the way for us to be here, and we acknowledged everything they went through, different parts of the history and where Oklahoma City started. Our coaching staff just wanted to prioritize that baseline.”
Among Presti`s many maxims, Daigneault has a favorite from a movie:
SOMETIMES THE LION HAS TO SHOW THE JACKALS WHO HE IS.
The summer of 2019 marked the unofficial end of the first Thunder era. Russell Westbrook was traded to the Rockets, following Paul George`s trade to the Clippers a week prior. The George trade brought back Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the pick that became Jalen Williams, and numerous other picks, igniting the rebuild. Presti didn`t anticipate trading for a future MVP. He expected Gilgeous-Alexander to be good, perhaps very good, but an MVP seemed unlikely.
In April 2022, Presti recounted seeing Gilgeous-Alexander for the first time at the facility after the trade. Late and exhausted, Presti heard a ball bouncing. He looked through a window into the gym to see Gilgeous-Alexander shooting. “He didn`t even have Thunder gear on,” Presti remembered thinking, bewildered. “It was ironic to me, and I thought, `If this guy ever becomes a player, I`ve got to remember this story.`”
Presti shared this story after the 2022-23 season when Gilgeous-Alexander had established himself as a star and the Thunder won 40 games. Even then, he didn`t foresee SGA`s continued growth or realize how unusual it was to see him dressed so casually. That moment represented the start of a long ascent. For SGA, being traded was a low point; it hurt. He questioned if there was a flaw in his game, and his only way to process it was through relentless work in the gym.
Gilgeous-Alexander rarely discusses that feeling of rejection, but did so this season. “Their front office made a trade that they thought was the best for their team,” he acknowledged. “Same with the Thunder. Then the last five years I`ve tried to focus on my development and the team`s development. I`ve tried to be the best basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder. And I`d say that it worked out in my favor.”
Unlike that first day, Gilgeous-Alexander is rarely dressed down. His mother taught her sons to “fix up” before leaving the house, representing the family well. “Growing up we`d always try to dress and look the part,” SGA explained. “You step out of the house, you look the part. You`re representing the family. And that kind of transferred into what it is now.” He`s been recognized for his style, planning outfits weeks ahead, paying meticulous attention to detail, much like his pre-game ritual of eating a red apple.
Naturally, he planned his attire for the championship-clinching game. “Yeah, but once I was in the moment, I just wanted to win so bad that I just put something together quick,” he admitted. By his usual standards, the black leather pants and dark gray sweatshirt were understated. “It was supposed to be so much louder than this, but this morning I woke up and all I wanted to do was win, so I didn`t even have time to put effort into that. I was just like, `Let`s just go win this thing.`”
Presti`s home office in Oklahoma City has a very different atmosphere. It`s inspired by Henry David Thoreau`s cabin at Walden Pond. Presti, who grew up near Concord, Massachusetts, has long studied Thoreau`s work. His office contains no technology, just a desk, bare walls and floors, and a deck overlooking a stream. Thoreau sought to “live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,” a philosophy Presti mirrors by visiting this space to think without overthinking, finding an antidote to the multitude of lessons on his office walls.
It`s a place of quiet simplicity, an escape from the Bill Walsh photo and the architecture books by Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Sometimes, this simple, spartan environment is the best foundation for building. This time, Presti built differently, focusing on players who would grow together, not apart, aiming for lasting success.
