OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti’s exit interview.
By Joshua Lea
After the dust has settled from an epic 2016 post season, OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti addressed the media one final time for the 2015-16 NBA season. Presti broke down his thoughts on the season, the post season, Kevin Durant, Billy Donovan, and other topics.
OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti’s exit interview was today, one week following the Thunder’s final game of the 2015-16 season. The mood prior to Presti’s address was light; the room was filled with members of the media expecting to hear some insight on issues such as Durant and Dion Waiters free agency.
Presti opened the address by giving a speech about the 2016 season. He began by thanking everyone associated with the organization, staff, media, corporate partners, and advertisers. He then turned his attention toward the beginning of the season, he said “Obviously the year before had been a tough year. We had a bout of injuries and didn’t end the way we would have liked. But I didn’t feel like the organization or the players or the staff were deterred. I felt like when we arrived in October there was a sense of purpose and a real sincerity to try to have a great season and embrace the season as it came to us.”
Presti was in high spirits concerning the team. He spoke a lot about journey, growth, cohesiveness, and continuity. You could tell he was impressed with the playoff run and the overall growth that the OKC Thunder displayed this past season, especially the post-season. As well he should be, I don’t think he expected for the OKC Thunder to push Golden State to seven games.
Once his opening speech was concluded, he opened the floor for questions. Naturally, the first question was about Durant’s pending free agency. Presti, was as equally patient with the media in the same fashion as Durant himself.
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Presti complemented KD on his professionalism to put aside his free agency talk during the regular season an effort to focus on the season at hand. Presti would go on to say that now is a time for reflection, and letting the looming emotion of the post season fade away before the conversations with Durant would unfold.
He also would say that these conversations with Durant concerning his free agency and long term status with the Thunder have been 8-9 years in the making, meaning they’ve had these conversations since he came to OKC.
Presti would go on to answer questions about Donovan, Randy Foye, Anthony Morrow, Serge Ibaka, Waiters, and even the growth of Russell Westbrook. Presti praised each and every player and coach Donovan. Presti spoke highly of Donovan in-particular, saying “I thought Billy did an excellent job through the year. He was intentional. He was curious. He was supremely disciplined, I thought. Again, he embarked on a season to trying to build a team so that we could play various ways, that he could discover as much as he could about his own players, how they fit together, ways to put them in positions to be successful, and to get to know them as people.”
As far as reading between the lines, Presti didn’t give us much to go on about Durant’s free agency. He spoke of Durant’s professionalism and talked about him as if maybe he; himself was unsure if Durant would be returning. What strikes me is both Presti and Durant said the same thing about his upcoming decision. They said, it’s time to reflect and the decision will come later after conversations. Which you got to find strange, it’s like they both had the same game plan. Take that how you want to take it, you can either say they don’t know, or they do know and they’re not telling us yet.
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All and all, i’d say that Sam Presti remains in high spirits following this season, he was quoted as saying he expects to continue growth and improving. There’s no doubt that this franchise has some inner workings going on that is going to put them in the elite for next season. I can assure you that if Durant does leave, Presti is confident that they will continue to contend.