TAMPA — Kirby Smart is no stranger to creative means of motivation. This year, he turned to the NBA to get his Bulldogs ready.
Smart shared at SEC Media Days that Georgia studied the Oklahoma City Thunder as the Bulldogs prepare for the 2026 campaign. Smart explained the big takeaway was making the uncommon common, something he felt the 2024-25 NBA champions epitomized.
“Being uncommon nowadays is hard to do in the world and kind of the culture of college football,” Smart said. “We’re emphasizing those uncommon traits they have in terms of sharing the ball, passing, leading in all stats, whether it’s assists, turnovers, defense. They were really good at it all.”
Georgia’s players explained that the team focused on statistics rather than the Thunder’s film. While some of the traditional stats demonstrated Oklahoma City’s brand of basketball, Georgia inside linebacker Raylen Wilson pointed to another stat that caught his attention.
Wilson said the Thunder’s ability to recover loose balls stood out, which the veteran linebacker boiled down to effort. He explained that tenacity translates to playing defense on the football field — if you give full effort, the coaches can put their energy elsewhere.
It’s hard to argue with Smart’s decision to make OKC a team to model.
The Thunder had been on the brink of breaking through before finally doing so two seasons ago. Oklahoma City won 68 games in the regular season, good for the best record in the NBA. The dominance by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company continued in the postseason, as the Thunder dispatched of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Denver Nuggets, and the Minnesota Timberwolves to reach the NBA Finals.
It took seven games, but Oklahoma City beat the Indiana Pacers to capture the second championship in franchise history.
The lesson of making the uncommon common goes beyond basketball. For center Drew Bobo, that mentality comes through in what he called the “dark hours.”
“It’s really just doing things when no one’s watching — doing things that people don’t see like when we’re at the facility working out in the weight room running, how you approach things like that,” Bobo said. “I think that just really wraps up what uncommon is, kind of just going into stuff like that and doing things the right way and how you’re supposed to do them.”
Smart turned to other sports for motivation in the past. He had the 2023 Bulldogs study the New Zealand All Blacks, a rugby team with the mantra “Better Never Rests.” The All Blacks are considered one of the most successful teams in any sport, a belief backed up by a 76% winning record in test match rugby and a winning record against every international opponent.
Smart wants his players to focus on football, but he understands there are lessons that can be learned away from the gridiron. How the Thunder won it all offers a clear correlation for the Bulldogs. Soon enough, they’ll see if they can do something similar.