Throughout the 2024-25 NBA season, it has seemed that this OKC Thunder team has received nowhere near the amount of praise and attention it deserves.
From seeing just the 10-most, non-NBA TV nationally televised broadcasts in the league coming into the year despite having just finished as the top seed out West, to constantly receiving baseless and easily debunkable criticisms regarding their in-game play, it has been quite evident that Oklahoma City has regularly been overlooked and disrespected during what has been a truly historic year.
Heading into the 2025 NBA Playoffs, however, it seems that the league is actively trying to right these constant wrongs.
NBA rewards Thunder with primetime television slot for Sunday's Game 1
Earlier this week, it was officially announced that Oklahoma City had been slotted into a primetime TV spot for the upcoming weekend's playoff tip-off extravaganza, as they received a 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT) broadcast on ABC to start off Sunday's slate of games.
While this may not seem like a noteworthy turn of events on the surface, to the Thunder, it's clearly being taken as a sign of respect from the association, as a smiling Jalen Williams noted during Wednesday's practice media availability, "It is cool," and that, specifically considering it also falls on Easter, it's "pretty special."
Last season, the history-setting, top-ranked Thunder came into the postseason as one of the best teams the league clearly had to offer, yet saw all their round-one games being broadcast on TNT, TruTV or NBA TV where viewership numbers clearly trump in comparison to the national broadcast channels such as ABC.
It wasn't until round two when Oklahoma City was found playing on such airwaves, but, sadly, the newly added viewers were treated to a mere 4-2 semifinal upset elimination expedited by the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks.
What makes their selection to spearhead the day two tv schedule on such a coveted network and at such a pristine time-slot all the more exciting is the fact that, over these last few weeks, their small-market status was being pegged as a serious disadvantage for the organization by fans and pundits alike.
Just last week, ESPN New York radio personality Dan Grasso made a realization that, frankly, OKC fans have known for years, claiming that if they were "the New York Thunder [or] the Boston Thunder, we would be sitting here saying how overwhelmingly the odds are for them coming out of the West."
Such a sentiment also holds true for national broadcasts, as both the Knicks and Celtics ranked within the top four in the league with such TV slots this regular season, while also securing slots on ABC heading into this year's postseason, just as they did last year.
While there's still plenty of work to do regarding the NBA's efforts to support smaller-market franchises, this decision to reward the Thunder with their prime ABC slot for Sunday's matinee is a step in the right direction.