WATCH: Scott Brooks welcomed back to Oklahoma City as timelines crossover

The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to a fantastic start, sitting at 25-11 currently; they are just 24 minutes away from staking their claim to the top spot in the Western Conference if they can continue their blowout of the lowly Portland Trailblazers.

With the 10-26 Trailblazers in town, this was not just a maturity test for the OKC Thunder. On the second night of a back-to-back, after not getting in until after 4 am, the Thunder had to muster up some juice for this game, which they did!

While Oklahoma City accomplished its goal of keeping losing teams losing, there was a bigger moment at hand in this random January game in the Paycom Center, and it happened adjacent to the floor.

WATCH: OKC Thunder fans welcome former bench boss Scott Brooks back to Bricktown; timelines intersect.

During a timeout in the first quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder in-game entertainment staff flashed now Portland Trailblazers assistant Scott Brooks onto the new and improved Jumbotron.

This was met with a loud eruption from the Thunder fans that filled the seats at Paycom. A tribute to their first (successful) bench boss who pioneered that initial era of OKC basketball all the way to the NBA Finals.

Scott Brooks led a young Thunder team that featured three future Hall of Famers and understands the pressure cooker that is building internally in a small market, which is met with uncommon instant success given the teams age, developing top-notch talent and trying to mesh the pieces together.

Now, the Thunder find themselves in the exact same position. While I will not go as far as to crown this team for having three future Hall of Famers (yet), they certainly are trending closer in that direction than anyone thought possible.

Even down to their sidelines, led by a young up-and-coming coach who started out as an assistant in Mark Daigneault. While Brooks had more assistant coach experience in the NBA, it was all new to him when managing that initial group as the head man.

This was a full-circle moment in the midst of a blowout game against a tanking team in the middle of January.

Scott Brooks finished with a 338-207 record with the Oklahoma City Thunder before being relieved of his duties in favor of Billy Donovan. Brooks then became the Washington Wizards bench boss for five seasons and has been with Portland since the 2021-22 campaign.

For Full game coverage of tonight's game, including recaps, takeaways, game grades, and more, stay tapped into Thunderous Intentions.