Presti deserves his due after building title team
SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN
From left, Oklahoma City Thunder players Jaylin Williams and Kenrich Williams celebrate with general manager Sam Presti and team chairman Clay Bennett in the locker room after winning Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers at Paycom Center on June 22.
24 giu 2025
Joe Mussatto - The Oklahoman
Sam Presti rolled a champagne cork between his fingers long after the bottles had been popped. It was a modest token compared to the shiny Larry O’Brien trophy, to the championship ring he’ll soon be fitted for, but a meaningful one just the same. And Presti had exactly the place to put it.
A small glass case in Presti’s closet contains three other corks, one for each of the three Spurs championships he was a part of in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Titles that helped Presti, at age 29, land a job as general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics. Eighteen years later, Year 17 in Oklahoma City, Presti has another cork to add to his collection.
A title of his own. The first Thunder championship in team history.
Two hours after the Thunder’s 103-91 Game 7 win against the Pacers on Sunday night, Presti, soaked in champagne and sweat, finally had time to exhale. “Still sinking in a little bit,” Presti told The Oklahoman, a few steps from the confetti-littered court. “Just very, very happy for our players. They have prioritized all the right things and have come together as a group of men in a way that has allowed us to achieve something that’s really unique for the city and community. That’s the thing I thought about the most, is how happy I am for them.”
If you can’t tell, the last thing Presti wants to talk about is himself. It makes him squirm.
Presti obsessively preaches processover-results, but this result — an NBA title — was the only thing the basketball boy genius had yet to conquer. With it, he had proved something, hadn’t he?
Presti kept his pivot foot, dishing the credit back to his team.
“I’m extremely happy that we have achieved this because I think it’s a great testament to a lot of people and their hard work,” he said. “I’m much more focused and much more drawn to how it took place than actually what took place.
“I look back and I think about the fact that Chet (Holmgren) missed a large part of the season, we were playing without a center up until December. We’ve had a lot of different experiences within the year, some challenges throughout the year that ultimately made us better. I’m thrilled with the outcome, but I’m savoring the process that led to that.”
The process, the rebuild, started six years ago, in the summer of 2019, when the Thunder traded away Paul George for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a future pick that became Jalen Williams. The depths of the Thunder’s rebuild lasted just two seasons — one of which netted the Thunder the No. 2 pick in the draft. The pick that became Holmgren.
It was around that Big Three — SGA, J-Dub and Chet — that the Thunder was built. With a coach in Mark Daigneault who’s now recognized as one of the best in the business. After a second-round exit a season ago, Presti bolstered the roster by acquiring Alex Caruso via trade and Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency.
Presti, the architect, had designed an all-time squad. A championship team. The second-youngest in NBA history.
“Yeah, Presti!!! Yeah, Sam!!!” Holmgren shouted at his general manager during one of Presti’s postgame TV hits.
The speed in which this all happened was unintentional. The steps in which the Thunder got here? Each was precisely planned by Presti. Implemented on the court by Daigneault. Executed by Gilgeous-Alexander, the MVP.
“Things take longer than you think they should, and then when they happen, sometimes they happen faster than you think they could have,” Presti said. “And we never really looked at time, or specific periods or benchmarks. Really just tried to focus on building a team that could be sustainable and not take shortcuts.
“It unfolded this way because of the players and their professionalism, their rate of learning. Their rate of learning has outpaced their experience. I thought the team got better throughout the postseason from game to game — even in the losses. I think the team improved from Game 6 to Game 7. They’ve demonstrated the ability to learn and apply those things quickly. That’s a credit to them and the coaches.”
And it’s a credit to Presti for bringing them all together. For hiring the right coach. For assembling not just a deep and talented roster, but one in which the individual parts and personalities meshed.
“Just seeing their relationships and how much those relationships have grown over the last two, three years, that brings me a lot of joy,” Presti said.
A joy that could be seen as he hugged his players. As he laughed with Daigneault and wrapped his arms around Clay Bennett, the man who hired him.
In the locker room after the game, Presti used his free hand to dap up dozens of staffers. In his other hand was a Miller Lite.
And somewhere along the way, someone — Presti couldn’t remember who — handed him a champagne cork.
A cork Presti clung to for what it represented.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman.
Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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