For LA Clippers fans who tuned into Netflix’s ‘Starting 5’ for James Harden’s story, they had to sit through another gutwrenching revisitation of one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history.

Once Shai Gilgeous-Alexander opened up about being dealt, Clippers fans surely fast-forwarded past it to avoid feeling painful remorse in what should’ve been a leisure activity to get some cool behind-the-scenes footage of this past NBA season.

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The Netflix producers showed off their storytelling skills. The Oklahoma City Thunder had one of the greatest seasons ever and brought home an NBA championship. They wouldn’t have been able to do it without the Clippers’ sweat laying down the groundwork of their rebuild.

The NBA world was shocked in July 2019 when the Thunder sent Paul George to the Clippers. Minutes after LA landed Kawhi Leonard, it acquired his co-star, who was fresh off finishing third in MVP. All they had to do was give up their future.

The Clippers sent out Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and a treasure trove of draft picks throughout the 2020s. As most know by now, the blockbuster deal backfired for LA and jump-started one of the best rebuild jobs ever in OKC.

Injuries ruined the Leonard-George tandem. Their five-season run peaked with one Western Conference Finals appearance. Not at all what they were hoping for. Meanwhile, Gilgeous-Alexander had one of the most unique journeys to NBA superstardom. He eventually turned into an MVP winner and champion.

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And to add salt to the wound, the Clippers gifted the Thunder Jalen Williams with their 2022 NBA draft lottery pick. That means OKC’s two All-NBA players were directly from the 2019 LA trade. It’s only been six years, but the deal is the modern-day Herschel Walker trade.

Exactly how Gilgeous-Alexander hoped the seismic trade would age. He opened up about the deal on the Netflix series. After spending his rookie season on the Clippers, he vowed to make his first NBA franchise regret moving on from him.

“I didn’t see it coming. I just remember thinking to myself that I had proved I was worth the pick and a good enough basketball player to be their starting point guard,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I just remember thinking like, ‘Now I have to redo it all over again with the Thunder.’”

Reflecting on the trade, it’s amazing to think it played out the way it did. Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t even the headliner. The draft picks were. He was an afterthought and seen as a nice prospect, but not to the point that he could one day develop into an All-NBA player who averages 30-plus points in his sleep.

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“I wanted to make sure Oklahoma City felt like, when it was all said and done, that they won the trade,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So it might have looked one way at the time, but my main focus was to flip the script.”

Fair to say mission accomplished. Gilgeous-Alexander being moved will go down as one of the biggest trades in NBA history. And another painful fork in the road that the Clippers chose wrong. Meanwhile, the Thunder have one Larry O’Brien trophy and could have more with their championship window wide open for the next five-plus years.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vowed to make Clippers regret trading him