{"id":586142,"date":"2026-02-06T11:46:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586142\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:46:53","slug":"ousmane-dieng-pens-farewell-letter-to-okc-after-trade-to-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586142\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousmane Dieng pens farewell letter to OKC after trade to Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 4, 2026, 5:42 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

\"Dec<\/p>\n

Forever linked to the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> because of their 2025 NBA championship, Ousmane Dieng closed the first chapter of his career. In a two-sequence move, he landed on the Chicago Bulls<\/a> as part of the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The Thunder needed to make a roster spot for Jared McCain, whom they added in a buy-low move by the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>. It only made sense that it was Dieng. The 22-year-old is on an expiring $6.7 salary. Buried on the depth chart, he needed a fresh start.<\/p>\n

Even though Dieng struggled to carve out a rotation spot in his four seasons, he spoke glowingly about his time in OKC. Hours after he was dealt, he went to Instagram to pen a farewell letter.<\/p>\n

“After 4 years here, it\u2019s hard to put into words what this place means to me. From my teammates to the coaches, the staff, and the fans \u2014 thank you for the love, the trust, and the energy every single day,” Dieng wrote. “I grew a lot here, as a player and as a man. The work, the memories \u2014 I\u2019ll always carry them with me. Forever grateful.”<\/p>\n

The Thunder added Dieng with the No. 11 pick of the 2022 NBA draft. He was viewed as a long-term project. Because of OKC’s quick ascension to a title contender, paired with inconsistency, he never really had the chance to get a rotation spot.<\/p>\n

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Dieng will have two months to showcase why he should get a second NBA contract. He’s set to become a restricted free agent. It’ll be interesting to see if the Bulls give him an honest shot to play real minutes. He’s shown flashes as an on-ball creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 4, 2026, 5:42 p.m. CT Forever linked to the Oklahoma City Thunder because of their 2025 NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[72400,7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,30882,72482,72404,72912,72440,77334,74794,72459,72444,72422,72484,72565,72405,72475,72406,312,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-586142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-oklahoma","12":"tag-oklahoma-city","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-oklahomacity","15":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","16":"tag-sstssportsnbathunder","17":"tag-sstsnokc-thunder","18":"tag-tagbasketball","19":"tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","20":"tag-tagchicago-bulls","21":"tag-taginstagram","22":"tag-tagjared-mccain","23":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnba","26":"tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-tagousmane-dieng","28":"tag-tagoverall-positive","29":"tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-thunder","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}