2025 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shared a story about Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, which proves again that Presti has a cerebral mind.
Gilgeous-Alexander came to OKC in July 2019 as the primary compensation from the L.A. Clippers for Paul George. Because SGA had just played for a Clippers team that went 48-34 during the 2018-19 season and came from a winning college school, Presti wanted to tell Gilgeous-Alexander right off the bat not to expect too much from his new team immediately.
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“I’ll never forget when I first arrived at OKC, and you gave me the book The Tortoise and the Hare.” he started. “You explained to me the meaning behind it, and I’d be lying if I said I hoped I didn’t need it at the time.”
“And boy, were the next few years very, very rough. I think we won 25 games one of the following seasons, and that was a lot at the time. Eventually, when we started to weather the storm, I revisited that story, and I started to see how it relates to my own path and our own path,” said SGA about Presti, while accepting Sports Illustrated’s 2025 Sportsperson of the Year award.
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Presti rebuilt the Thunder around SGA
Actually, the Thunder made the playoffs in SGA’s first year in Oklahoma City. However, after Presti’s rebuilding plan led to Chris Paul being traded to the Phoenix Suns, OKC finished 22-50 in 2020-21 and 24-58 in 2021-22.
The struggles, however, landed them Chet Holmgren with their own pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and Jalen Williams with one of the picks that the Clippers packaged with SGA. The Thunder then traded for Alex Caruso and signed Isaiah Hartenstein in 2024. The rest, as they say, is history.
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Last season, the Thunder followed up a 57-win 2023-24 campaign with a 68-14 regular season, the best in franchise history. As the No.1 seed in the entire playoffs, home court advantage paid off nicely as they beat the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals at their home floor. After winning MVP honors, Shai was also named Finals MVP in the best year of his NBA career.
“This past season, when we won the championship, he gave me a statue of the tortoise, and that’s a very Sam Presti way of saying ‘I told you so.’ I keep that beside my championship ring, my MVP trophy, and thank you for that,” Shai added.
Presti also compared the NBA to chess and poker
Presti explaining the Thunder’s long-term plan to SGA using the tale of the “Tortoise and the Hare” is just an example of how the OKC GM uses metaphors to drive home his point.
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During the Thunder’s preseason media availability interview, he commented on Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks’ admission that he studied how Presti built the Thunder from scratch to champions by using another brilliant comparison.
“The NBA is not a chess game. It’s a poker game, right? In chess, you set everything up. You have the same pieces, and you start from there. That’s not the NBA. It’s poker. Everyone’s got a different hand that they’ve been dealt with, right? They have strengths, they have limitations in that hand,”said Presti.
Well, you can argue that Presti has played his hand well. From recognizing the potential in SGA, Chet and J-Dub and amassing the draft picks that he still has. Many credit Gilgeous-Alexander for the Thunder’s current success. But everything wouldn’t have happened without one of the most brilliant front office executives of all time.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.