Rumors

KC Johnson: Billy Donovan very humble and eloquent in his Hall of Fame speech, thanking Bulls personnel and saving special words for his presenters Rick Pitino and Maurice Cheeks. Also shouted out Joakim Noah, who is in attendance, and the back-to-back national champion Florida teams.

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Justin Martinez: OKC announced that rookie big man Thomas Sorber suffered a torn ACL and will miss all of this upcoming season.

Twitter

Michael Scotto: The Brooklyn Nets will hire Acie Law as Director of Player Personnel, sources told @hoopshype . Law was Director of Amateur Scouting for the Oklahoma City Thunder since 2022 and won a championship with the team last season. Prior, he was a Sacramento Kings scout for four seasons.

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Jimmy Fallon: Do you think that you could ever play for the NFL? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: No chance, no chance, no chance. Fallon: No, no, no, no, no, you wouldn't do that. SGA: I wouldn't disrespect them like that, nah. Fallon: Really, no? SGA: Just like how they can't come on the basketball court, I can't go on the football field. Fallon: You can't go on there. SGA: Just stay in our lanes. Fallon: But growing up, did you play football? SGA: I did a little bit, yeah. I quit very quickly. Fallon: OK. SGA: I-- like, I played running back, so I got hit a lot. And I, like, fell on the ball when I got tackled a couple times.

YouTube

The Tonight Show: . @shaiglalex surprises an audience member with a pair of of his new @converse SHAI 001 sneakers! #FallonTonight

Twitter

Jalen Williams: I think the only thing with giving like kids that much money is like you kind of ruin a little bit of the college experience 'cause like, looking at it for me, it was like low-key fun looking back. Like some of my fun stuff was like not having money in college 'cause that's like part of the experience. Everybody's broke in college.”

YouTube

The day finally arrived. After months of anticipation, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander saw his "SHAI 001: BUTTER" be released to the public. The Converse signature shoe has received hype over the last few months. The Oklahoma City Thunder's championship run put them at the forefront of the NBA world. It didn't take long for the "SHAI 001: BUTTER" to quickly sell out. Thunder fans took to social media to say that by the time they reached the website, they received a message that all available pairs were already sold. That happened less than 30 minutes after they were dropped.

OKC Thunder Wire

Tomer Azarly: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander held a camp in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario in Canada this past weekend. Every camper received a solo photo with SGA and the Larry O'Brien trophy. There were also scrimmages and competitions held throughout the camp, where winners were awarded pairs of his new signature shoe with Converse, the SHAI 001's Butter. Shai got the last laugh with an alley-pop dunk to himself off the backboard. SGA and Converse are set to officially launch the SHAI 001's this Thursday.

Twitter

The the most controversial ratings list I've seen so far is the mid-range jumpers list. That one, a lot of people seemed to react to it with Nikola Jokic being number one, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander technically being ranked fifth and then Kawhi Leonard not being ranked anywhere in that top ten. Ronnie 2K: Yeah, let me talk about that. I think a lot of people see things in terms of volume or feel and both of those are wrong. What it really is based off of is per-36 or whatever metric that we have that's based on how often they're shooting it and how successful they are shooting it. I saw this example: I think if you look at the three-point list, it's actually even more relevant. You have Isaiah Joe, who's not even a starter on the Thunder, gets about 20 minutes and I think he's 5th on that list or something like that. You're like why and it's because his per-36 numbers are behind only Stephen Curry percentage-wise and in terms of volume, he shoots I think he makes like five every 36 minutes or something like that uh so yeah a lot of it's based on on per-36 as opposed to like pure volume.

Clutch Points

Jalen Williams: Kawhi Leonard had a bad night, I think there's like a clip where Lu (Dort) like didn't even let him get a shot off at the end. So we beat the Clippers. Kawhi had a horrible game. I did a good job guarding him. So, I'm juiced. But we play them back to back. He started the game out nine for nine on me. We go back to the huddle. Mark (Daigneault) is like, this is funny. Mark, everybody don't know but Mark says slick stuff. He's like, "He's busting your ass, Jalen. We need to switch." I looked at him and I was like, "Yeah.” So, Kawhi had nine for nine, then Lu on him, and Kawhi ended up like having 30 something. Klay Thompson, I was playing defense on him a whole night. He hit one from behind the backboard and as it's going in, he slapped me on my butt and said “Good try, rookie”. Kevin Durant hadn't played in OKC in a little bit and he came back to OKC and he was wildin’. Fans chirping at him and KD is like talking back. He’s talking to the fans while he bumping me, shooting over me and stuff. It was horrible, bro. Those are the three like welcome to the NBA moments.

YouTube

Tony Allen: I want to hear about where did that damn celebration after a good game and a crowd come around in the interview. Where the hell did that come about? That's the thing now cuz people were hating on that boat. People were saying they too having too much fun. and they think it's a game and what are they doing? You heard it. Just speak to that too much fun… Jalen Williams: It's like bro I'm 22 years old making millions of dollars and we're first in the west. What do you want me to be sad? Like I never understood that.

YouTube

Will OKC become the third team to win 70 games? Don't bet on it, but the Thunder could easily have the league's best record and become the third team to win at least 65 in back-to-back seasons. There's a reason that coaches, scouts and executives ESPN has spoken to this summer aren't betting against a Thunder repeat.

ESPN

However, his off-the-court actions are not as well known, but his Serbian national team teammate Vasilije Micic shed some light on them. Former Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets, and Phoenix Suns guard described Jokic as a leader. "Great guy, great guy. Very humble, really unique in terms of that," Micic told BasketNews. "His integrity with the team and his behavior in general are really a great example for everyone who wants to become like Nikola, a superstar and NBA leader."

BasketNews

Michael Scotto: Oklahoma City Thunder will promote former OKC Blue G League head coach Kam Woods to an assistant coach with the Thunder, sources told @hoopshype . Woods was OKC Blue coach for three seasons, including winning the 2024 G League title. He also was part of the Thunder’s 2025 title.

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