The Best of Thunder GM Sam Presti’s End-of-Season Presser

Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti met with the media on Monday morning at 10am for his annual end of season press conference.

The runtime this go around was a brisk 1 hour and 40 minutes. Presti touched on many topics throughout his availability and we will hit on some of those subjects later this week.

Today, we'll highlight some of the best quotes from his opening statement.

Presti typically starts every end of season presser by thanking Thunder fans. This year an exception was made for an Oklahoma basketball legend.

"Just a couple things before we get started. I want to recognize the loss of Stacey King from yesterday. Obviously a great Oklahoman from Lawton and a great player at OU. We send our thoughts and prayers to everybody associated with him. It's obviously a great loss to the basketball NBA community."

And then the customary appreciation towards OKC fans.

"Obviously I want to start by thanking all of our fans, all of our partners, everybody that is associated in some way, shape, or form in supporting the team and the organization across the world. Very grateful to everybody."

The Thunder GM then got into the meat of his opening statement, a summary of this season's quest for a back to back championship that fell just short.

"When I sat in front of everybody last September, I made the central theme of the discussion NBA history, and if you recall at that time, there was a lot of external conversation about why it was so hard to repeat in the modern NBA. Of course, there was a tremendous amount of excitement from the previous season and what it could mean for the season in front of us as a team.

We talked about how fortunate Oklahoma City was to be associated with the NBA, to have a team, and all the community good that comes with that. We also talked a good deal about the amount of good fortune it took for us to win at the highest level and that the role of randomness can't be overlooked when things do break your way.

Of course, we also talked about turning the page, having the discipline and humility to separate ourselves from success of the previous season to give the next team the best opportunity to find ultimate success again. Oddly, I think all those things are still extremely relevant, maybe just as much as they were then.

The history of the NBA is littered with teams that were not able to find ultimate success again. I think there have only been three teams that have repeated since we've been in Oklahoma City, and the reasons for that are many, probably too many to list. But the fact is that it helps illustrate how rare and how special it is when you do have a chance to win at the highest level in this league or in professional sports in general."

Ultimately, Presti's message was one of pride when it comes to how the Thunder performed this season despite adversity.

"I'm extremely, extremely proud of what this team has accomplished, not just this year, but in the previous years as well. We're 189-57 in the last three years in the regular season. That's a 77 percent winning percentage. We're 33-15 in the postseason. That's a 69 percent winning percentage.

All those numbers are great, but what I'm most proud of is the approach of our players -- their maturity, their wisdom, their standard for professionalism that they demonstrate under any and all circumstances.

This was never more clear to me than in our exit meetings that I had with them last week. The level of reflection, accountability, professionalism, all of this less than 24 hours after being eliminated from the Western Conference Finals in a Game 7. At no time did anyone discredit their opponent, discredit their opponent's success or talent, make excuses about officiating or the rules or take a glass-half-empty outlook.

Of course, they were disappointed, they were hurt, they were realistic, but they were also accountable, offering suggestions, offering to make adjustments if it would help the team, and it was just a tremendous showing of how far this team has come with such a young group."

Presti then shifted his focus towards looking forward to next season and why there are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic about this team.

"I think we're extremely well positioned as an organization. We have 15 players under contract that we really, really like. We pick 12th, 17th, and 37th in a historically deep draft. A team with our record, as you know, would be picking 30th in this draft. We've had -- in three consecutive years now, we've had a different All-NBA player, an All-Star, made tremendous progress there. Those are groundbreaking things for the organization, and on paper we're the fifth youngest team in the NBA.

The teams that have an average age younger than us averaged 28 wins this past season. So a lot to look forward to."

Presti ended his opening statement by closing the book on the 2026 season.

"In closing, we talk about our seasons and chapters here, primarily because we're such a young organization, and in order to best understand your story, you need to see it kind of horizontally, not vertically. So that's how we look at it, we look at it in chapters.

Chapter 18 has come to an end. It was an incredible display of resilience, relationships, professionalism, and competitive excellence in the face of adversity and expectation. As we know, there's no silver platters in Oklahoma City. We don't expect to be given anything, and we don't expect to unfold favorably as some teams in some cities are accustomed to...

We have a chance to be a team that makes our mark over time, but we will not make our singular mark every single time. That's just not how this works. NBA history tells us there are no final victories, but what I can tell you about the people in this building is we're ready to get back to work and we're ready to begin again."