Oklahoma City Thunder landing former Kentucky Wildcats star for Paul George deemed best NBA trade of the century originally appeared on The Sporting News

Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti’s historic heist of the Los Angeles Clippers in the summer of 2019 has been immortalized on a top trades of the 21st century list from CBS Sports’ Robby Kalland.

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Kalland believes the deal, which sent Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and a package of five first-round draft picks and four pick swaps, and laid the foundation for OKC’s 2025 NBA Championship, edged out the Los Angeles Lakers’ Pau Gasol trade and the Boston Celtics’ offloading of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for the draft picks that’d end up being Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the top trade of the last 25 years.

To Kalland, the difference is that the Thunder didn’t have to give up any franchise icons to land SGA.

“The Thunder were in one of the all-time great positions of leverage in the summer of 2019, when Kawhi Leonard let the Clippers know that the way they could secure his signature in free agency was to trade for his friend Paul George. With Los Angeles effectively operating as though this was a trade for two stars, the Thunder squeezed them for all they could and came away with a haul that became a championship core,” Kalland wrote.

“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the current MVP and a bonafide superstar, having led the Thunder to their first title this year. One of the first-round picks they got from L.A. ended up being Jalen Williams, who is SGA’s co-star and the second-best player on OKC’s title-winning bunch. They still have one more first rounder they will extract next year, as the Clippers aren’t quite done paying for a star pairing that never fulfilled its potential.”

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Poor George. Despite being the best player during the team’s competitive, but not true contender status, seasons, he’ll always be seen as a roadblock to the Thunder’s success whose departure set the stage for unrivaled prosperity.

With SGA, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren all locked into long-term deals, and much of OKC’s core signed beyond the next two seasons, there could be a potential dynasty in Oklahoma County, OK.

But Los Angeles is still picking up the pieces from that trade, having refused to re-sign George in the summer of 2024. The Philadelphia 76ers did and went from the postseason to the No. 3 overall pick.

Again, poor George. Trading him was the smartest move Oklahoma City could’ve made given their rebuilding aspirations at the time; they did, still made the playoffs in 2019-20 right after the deal, and now they’re being celebrated for making the best trade of all time.