OKC GM Sam Presti (left) built the roster that coach Mark Daigneault led to the 2025 NBA championship.
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a downtown cultural institution with dozens of artifacts, regional and otherwise. The director, Michael Anderson, proudly cites the museum’s signature piece: a collection of glass sculptures by the world-renowned Dale Chihuly.
Although truthfully, the city’s most applaudable exhibit needs its own building, just blocks away. Such is the cosmetic impact of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the defending champs, who, unlike glass sculptures, are proving to be shatterproof.
They bring defense, depth and the reigning Kia MVP, all while drawing 18,000 people to Paycom Center on chilly February nights.
“We’d love to get close to that,” laughs Anderson, who adds, “the movement, the grace, the fluidity, there are certain artistic aspects to the way they play.”
If so, then what does that make the person who pieced together all those pieces? What about the creator who envisioned, designed, built, displayed, endured and, most importantly, is preserving this Thunder assemblage for years to come?
“Sam Presti,” says Anderson, “is definitely an artist.”
The usual designation for general managers is architect, although you cannot spell that without the a-r-t. This separates Presti from most of his peers, much like he is easily spotted at OKC home games, a bespectacled man of couture in a city of Wranglers.
In a rare bit of happenstance, a front office guy is on a one-name basis (last name in his case) with the hoops world. That’s the byproduct of Presti’s impressive body of work: the Thunder have the league’s best record since 2010. And while he has just one championship on his watch, anyone who knows ball can see the Thunder’s swollen assets and suspect this is the beginning.
Because:
• The Thunder’s average age is 25. Its star players — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren — are 27, 23 and 23, respectively.
• Presti’s team is showing few signs of letting up in 2025-26 as they’re off to a 25-3 start.
• Finally, Presti stockpiled so much equity in terms of young players and breathtaking Draft capital that this smells of a dynasty. OKC is arguably in better shape — financially, flexibility, talent, Draft picks — than any team in the salary cap era. For example, OKC owns the LA Clippers’ No. 1 pick, which may fall into the top five in a rich Draft next summer.
Presti aced the triple crown of roster construction — trades, drafting, payroll management — through two rebuilds to nourish the Thunder and elevate them to a most envious position. They’re win-now and win-later.
So, to the question: What made Sam Presti, and what to make of his creation?
‘His ego is what he’s producing’
This is the second Presti query. The first happened almost three decades ago in the Gucci enclave of Aspen, Colo., of all places. Gregg Popovich and RC Buford, the two most pivotal non-players in San Antonio Spurs’ history, asked each other:
“What about Sam?”
The Spurs’ coaches held a summer camp in Aspen as Popovich, who attended Air Force Academy not far away, knew someone there. That someone knew players at Emerson College in Boston who were willing to do grunt work.
Buford also started a Spurs’ internship program, and with their success, that internship became like a foot-in-the-door gofer at Netflix today. The only one was taken, but Presti, a senior co-captain at Emerson, buffaloed through the gym door with ideas and giddyup.
“Sam chased me around campus,” recalls Buford. “You think he’s smart now? He was the smartest guy in the room a long time ago.”
Eventually, he shadowed Buford to where the Sam question had to be asked. Buford and Popovich shrugged. The Spurs had two interns that season.
Not long before, Presti was a high school hooper from the Boston suburbs with a buzzcut fade and no shot at Division I basketball. Presti tells friends he led Emerson in taking charges, but he was no flopper.
“Sam was a hell of a teammate and I think that carries through in everything he does,” said Tommy Arria, the other co-captain. “He takes that personally. That’s all he ever wanted to be, the best for his team. And he was going to hold others accountable for what they could do for the team. There’s an unselfishness to that.
“He doesn’t talk about what he has done. That’s very genuine. When we were kids, he was the same way. He has continued to do that, and the people who do are successful. He could be running an NBA franchise, be a teacher, or a politician. He’d be the best at it.”
He was nearly a Rhodes Scholar and one of his professors, Mike Brown, nominated Presti because “he was so determined to figure things out” and strike the right life balance. In high school, Presti lunched with Black students of METCO, a voluntary desegregation program, who were bused from the city.
He made new teammates and lasting relationships. He embraced those bonds and cultural lessons that later helped when working with NBA players from humble backgrounds.
Five years ago, during civil unrest, Presti helped start Thunder Fellows to provide career paths for students in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, site of the infamous 1921 race massacre.
Brown said: “You won’t find a more principled individual. He has no ego. His ego is what he’s producing. Whatever job he has ever done, and I saw it as a student, he wants to be in situations where he can continue to grow. A lot of people might say he has already reached the pinnacle. I don’t think so.”
Presti took classes in the morning, practiced in the afternoon and drummed in Boston clubs at night. It was a curious escape. There’s a link between drumming: it takes timing and rhythm to juggle snares, cymbals and toms and that can help sharpen a future GM who also juggles and relies on timing.
Neil Peart of the band Rush, who is No. 4 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest drummers, once said: “I can’t help admiring any drummer who learned how to play all of the rudiments, learned how to apply them, how to keep good time … they have a certain authority and uniqueness that sets them apart.”
Presti made CDs, but being in a band seemed almost as unlikely as playing pro ball. He figured to work in communications, try law or politics. Or be a Spurs intern. That paid $250 a month … that was the better option.
Drumming up success in NBA
Presti sold drum equipment to fund the trip to San Antonio, which was one-way because Presti quickly became the special sauce in the organization.
“The reason we’ve had quality people come through the program is because we threw them into the middle of everything,” said Buford. “They had to do airport pickups and other things interns do. They were also listening into trade calls and taking notes and being in those discussions.”
Popovich’s rule: “If you’re going to be in the meeting, come prepared to have an opinion.”
Presti objected when the Spurs erased Tony Parker from the board after the French teenager’s poor 2001 pre-Draft workout. Presti, then just 23, offered a video that refuted those doubts and begged Buford to reconsider.
Once again, Popovich and Buford shrugged. They called Parker back for a second look. The rest was history.
“Sam was the reason I was with the Spurs,” said Parker, a four-time champion. “He fought for me and followed me when I played in Paris at a time when there weren’t a lot of European scouts and not a lot of love for guards from Europe.
“That’s why I mentioned him in my Hall of Fame speech. Sam was amazing then and has proven it since, year after year.”
The Spurs promoted Presti three times in three years, and other teams began circling him. When Danny Ferry, who was also groomed by the Spurs, took the top job in Cleveland, he tried to poach Presti (who suddenly became Buford’s right-hand man).
“You could see how serious he was about studying the business, learning about the Draft, free agency and what made a great team,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who came up through the Spurs.
“I think he got the best apprenticeship he could possibly get, learning from Pop and RC, and he has absolutely taken that education and run with it to the point where he’s one of the top executives that I think has ever existed in the NBA.”
The Spurs couldn’t keep him. One of their owners, an Oklahoman named Clay Bennett, purchased the Seattle SuperSonics in 2006. The following season, Bennett made Presti, then 29 years old, the second-youngest GM in NBA history (behind only Jerry Colangelo’s mark).
Presti says Bennett, Popovich and Buford “took very big chances on me when I was young … they changed the path of my life.”
On his first day with a Sonics team fresh off 31 wins, Presti, who declined to comment for this story, stressed, “We don’t want our championship to be making the playoffs. We want sustained success. We won’t be skipping any steps.”
Without skipping a beat, Presti traded his two best players, future Hall of Famer Ray Allen … and Rashard Lewis, who fetched a trade exemption that ultimately formed the 50-ton beast trampling the league today.
1 move launches an OKC juggernaut
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and the Thunder won the NBA title.
The Thunder’s practice facility is north of downtown OKC and south of the prairie. If he chooses, the man responsible for stocking the place could wait until everyone’s gone, then sit in that empty gym and see them.
There’s Kevin Durant on a pull-up jumper, Russell Westbrook flexing after a dunk, Gilgeous-Alexander racing to his sweet spot and James Harden dropping a step-back 3-pointer. Presti drafted three of those Kia MVPs — something no GM has done since the 1976 NBA-ABA merger — and traded for the fourth.
One didn’t win MVP in a Thunder uniform, though.
In his acceptance speech last month at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame awards, while extolling the kindness of Thunder fans who approach him, Presti added: “On some very rare occasions, you might hear, `Never should’ve traded Harden, you idiot.’ [Crowd laughs.]
“They may have had a point.”
The 2012 Harden trade, Presti’s pimple, was caused by adding too many young prime assets too fast, by a salary cap that grew teeth and by a small-market team freaking out at the cost of keeping everyone happy.
Harden recently said he was irked at Presti for breaking up a potential juggernaut that reached the 2012 NBA Finals.
“Looking back as a younger adult, I was frustrated, mad, hurt,” Harden said. “But now I see it as he gave me an opportunity to pursue every kids’ dream.
“Obviously, the trade at that moment felt like one of the worst trades, but now he has that organization on top and he has done an unbelievable job.”
All GMs make mistakes because they juggle so much. Presti had his hiccups, including trading the 2021 Draft rights to Alperen Sengun to Houston. Doing so let the Rockets add the Turkish center with a Nikola Jokić-like game to their mix.
The combined returns from losing those three MVPs he drafted weren’t nearly as much as what those legends produced. Durant, Westbrook and Harden didn’t vanish as profitably as Lewis did. Tracing that incredible Lewis timeline explains Presti’s artistry. It allowed Presti to take many bites of the apple.
The trade exemption for Lewis was sent to the Suns, who salary-dumped Kurt Thomas and a pick (that became Serge Ibaka). Correctly sensing Durant might bounce in free agency, Presti later shipped Ibaka to Orlando for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in 2016.
Oladipo and Sabonis were traded a year later as Presti wanted to give Westbrook a co-star. He got a disgruntled Paul George from Indiana (for, in part, Oladipo and Sabonis) and wisely re-signed George a year later, keeping him from free agency.
And now the timeline’s full bloom, curiously with an assist from Presti’s old shop.
San Antonio’s relationship with its then-star, Kawhi Leonard soured, and he was traded to Toronto. Leonard won the 2019 NBA title with the Raptors, then bailed in free agency and would sign with the Clippers only if they got George from OKC.
The haul the Clippers gave Presti for George is a motherlode now. But the Draft assets LA sent — five first-rounders and swaps — would’ve been mild assuming the Clippers regularly won big. As for the Clippers’ decision to include Gilgeous-Alexander in the deal? He made the 2018-19 All-Rookie Second Team … nobody thought he’d be this good.
In summary: Gilgeous-Alexander became a legendary scorer and Kia MVP, Leonard was constantly injured in LA and one of those picks for the George swap brought a future All-Star in Williams. If the Clippers continue to struggle this season, OKC has their lottery dibs in this Draft (Cameron Boozer?) and the next. Besides being crafty, Presti was lucky.
But he positioned himself for that. And skills plus luck is a combo that created a colossus.
A ‘fierce but very fair’ GM
The Association looks at OKC's run this season and whether it will lead to another NBA title.
Will Dawkins worked with Presti for 15 years before joining another Presti protege, Michael Winger, in Washington to run the Wizards. He described his experience with Presti as “very rewarding” because “you always felt challenged, always knew your work mattered. He’s smart, driven, innovative and you had to match that to stay ahead of the curve.”
And that meant attention to detail.
“He sees a piece of trash on the floor, he’ll pick it up,” said Dawkins. “If we saw trash and didn’t pick it up, he’d be disappointed in us.”
Presti’s status among his peers is respectful because, as Dawkins said: “Sam always operates with a high level of intentionality and thoughtfulness. He’s a competitor by nature but always professional. Fierce but very fair. And always remembers to lead with a humanistic approach.”
Dawkins sees the top-rated Thunder and knows his mentor is thinking sustainability.
Yes: What’s scary isn’t what Presti has done. Rather, it’s what he’s capable of doing. He’s savagely bringing weapons from the roster and the warehouse.
By flipping players and turning poor seasons into rich rewards by using OKC as a salary dump for picks, Presti has multiple first-rounders besides his own over the next several Drafts, depending on protections. Presti’s prizes are the Clippers’ first-round pick in 2026, a Clippers’ unprotected 2027 first-round pick swap, a Mavericks’ unprotected ’28 first-round pick swap, a Utah top-eight protected first-round pick in 2026 and a Nuggets’ top-five protected first-round pick in 2029.
Presti can kick picks down the road for miles for additional picks, allowing him to scout a future Gilgeous-Alexander to replace the current Gilgeous-Alexander.
There’s an art to bringing vision to life and keeping it viable, watchable and awe-able. No disrespect to Chihuly’s sculpture at the OKC museum, but Presti owns the signature piece of artwork in OKC.
The first coach Presti hired, PJ Carlesimo, explained the Oklahoma City Thunder this way:
“They’re on target to rewrite the record book, although we should let them get it before we start saying what they’re gonna do,” Carlesimo said. “Things can happen. This is the NBA. But the way they’re playing now, and how solid their roster is now, and also going into the future?
“Yeah, it’s scary.”
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at spowell@nba.com, find his archive here and follow him on X.
