Dropping a banner and handing out rings, the Oklahoma City Thunder will see their pregame ceremony on the 2025-26 Opening Night usher in a new era. The NBA will begin its relationship with its new broadcast partners of NBC and Amazon Prime.

No longer will we see beloved TNT broadcast the national games every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the season. The popular NBA on TNT crew will migrate to ESPN in a different format. Now, fans will get to watch the top teams on local airwaves.

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New starts always bring excitement. Some circles around the NBA hope NBC can add a new layer of basketball coverage. While TNT was popular, one of the broadcast’s biggest criticisms was its priority of pure entertainment over breaking down the X’s and O’s.

As the Thunder embrace being the experimental Guinea pig, Sam Presti hopes NBC’s crew — filled with former NBA players and top-notch sports broadcasters — can help give basketball fans a different way to digest games. Same with Amazon Prime. The NBA champions are tied for the most national television games in the 2025-26 season.

“The worst thing for us would be for kids growing up to watch highlights as a means to understand the game,” Presti said. “The best thing for us is for people to watch the game itself and have people that can help explain what makes these players so great or the finer points of the game.”

While fans might think that was a shot at NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for his recent “highlights” comments that went viral for the wrong reasons, Presti actually defended him. He said his quote was likely taken out of context and the way it was presented doesn’t align with his principles.

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“You want to talk about player development? The way we present our game to our fans is a huge aspect to the future of player development,” Presti said. “Because we can’t grow a generation of young players that don’t see the connecting parts of what makes a really good player or a really good team, and having the right people to be able to explain that I think is a huge opportunity.”

It’s always interesting to hear what Presti says about league-wide discussions. He’s one of the greatest general managers in league history as the man behind a perennial winner in a small market. Crossing off an NBA championship has finally caught up most folks to where he stands among his peers.

It sounds like Presti is ready for the NBA ecosystem to undergo some changes. Less focus on the roster transactions and soap opera talk and more focus on what it takes to be a productive basketball player and the synergy good teams play with.

“We can’t have a whole generation of players growing up thinking that the game is played behind the three-point line, which it’s not,” Presti said. “Although some people will have you think that, or the game is just played at 11, 12 feet, which it’s not. What’s happening in order for the player to get access to the basket and get to 11, 12 feet?”

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If anybody knows how out-of-control narratives can shape the consensus, look no further than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He had one of the greatest seasons ever, but if you scrolled through social media, all you’d see are “free-throw merchant” jokes. Presti hopes that NBC and Amazon can cut out junk food talk in the fan discourse diet.

“Those partners can really do something to help the game itself and grow a whole new generation of fan that can appreciate and understand what goes into high-level basketball,” Presti said. “I see that as the biggest opportunity.”

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: What does Thunder GM Sam Presti think of NBA’s new broadcast partners?