The NBA is a fast-paced world. What happens one day becomes old news the next. The Oklahoma City Thunder have experienced that over the last three months. After they captured the NBA championship, most folks have wondered if they’re ready to repeat.

The Thunder hosted their 2025-26 Media Day on Monday. It was the first time Mark Daigneault and the players reflected on their Larry O’Brien with an appropriate amount of time since then. Bringing back mostly the same roster, they’re viewed as the consensus title favorite.

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One of the new wrinkles that will be interesting to see unfold is how the Thunder will handle being the reigning NBA champion. Besides Alex Caruso, the rest of the roster will experience that firsthand. Long gone are the days when they could sneak up on teams. Now, expect the other 29 teams to circle their matchups on their calendar.

To Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he embraces that aspect of being an NBA champion. The 27-year-old is on his way to being an all-time great. Only a handful of players in league history accomplished what he did last season as an MVP and NBA Finals MVP.

“It’s what you strive for. We’ve all achieved something that we’ve dreamed about since we were kids,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve had plenty of time to relish and think about it and have fun, and I guess you can kind of say just soak in it. I know I have.”

The Thunder have achieved one NBA championship, but remain hungry for more. When you look at their roster and payroll situations, it’s both daring and true to say they could be in line for more. Gilgeous-Alexander isn’t afraid of the Herculean expectations.

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“It would suck to lose the NBA Championship in 2026. So that’s the new focus,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s the new goal. And how we get there is the same as it’s always ever been — daily improvement and focusing on trying to get better at the things that we can control every day.”

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: ‘It would suck to lose the NBA championship’