Through roughly two weeks of action, the OKC Thunder are undoubtedly one of the biggest winners of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, and their first-round series sweep over the Memphis Grizzlies isn't even the biggest reason why.
Coming into the postseason, there was this circulating belief that even though Oklahoma City may have tied for the fifth-best record in league history at 68-14 and finished with the best per-game point differential along the way, their overall youth and inexperience in high-pressure situations should keep them behind more battle-tested ball clubs in the title-contention conversation.
Easily one of the most outspoken doubters of this Thunder squad throughout the year has been ESPN's Shannon Sharpe, who, following Luka Doncic's debut outing in purple and gold threads, went as far as to guarantee that if the Los Angeles Lakers wound up meeting OKC in the third round, "we are going to the NBA Finals."
Now, though such a comment was heavily ridiculed and perceived as outrageous seemingly as soon as it made its way onto airwaves, two months removed from that fateful First Take episode, Sharpe's prophecy has become even more cringeworthy, as the Minnesota Timberwolves just eliminated LeBron James and company from the West quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
Thunder stay alive while Lakers fail to live up to widespread expectations
Though Sharpe was perhaps the loudest naysayer of all, he was far from the only person who pegged the Lakers as being more capable of winning this year's NBA Finals than the top-seeded Thunder.
13-year veteran Marcus Morris Sr. spoke ad nauseam about how OKC lacked familiarity with playing through the "adversity" that comes amid a championship push. Because of this, he proudly chose Los Angeles as the team he believed would be "coming out the West" this postseason.
Lakers legend Magic Johnson didn't even have Oklahoma City making it as far as the third round this season, as he predicted that it would be his former team going up against the Golden State Warriors in a "must-see" showdown in the conference championship.
Even ESPN BET had wildly high expectations for LA heading into the playoffs, giving them the second-best odds of winning the Western Conference crown and the fourth-best chance to win an NBA title, trailing only the Thunder, Celtics, and Cavaliers, respectively.
In the end, however, it's the Thunder who find themselves not only heading to the second round for the second straight season but being viewed as favorites to win it all, while the Lakers couldn't find a way to survive more than five games against the lower-seeded T-Wolves in round one.
Unless Shannon Sharpe's “Lakers in five” prediction was about how long it would take for them to see their postseason ouster, it seems like he -- along with many, many others -- was proven to be painfully wrong.