Subscribe
Follow Us
A full decade after leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant knows his tenure with the team did not meet expectations. However, more than anything else, Durant believes his team exceeded expectations early and peaked too soon.
While Durant acknowledged the success of the young 2024-2025 Thunder team, he believes his era prepared the organization for its current success. Durant believes his Oklahoma City teams were as good as any in the league, but were simply ahead of their time, he said on the “Mind the Game” podcast.
“I think we exceeded expectations with that team,” Durant told Steve Nash on ‘Mind the Game.' “When you reach the Finals and go through a run like that so quickly, I don't think a GM or an owner was ready for that. We sped up the timeline, all of us… So when we reached the finals, you're supposed to upgrade, fine-tune and make changes around. You can't just one of the key figures of your team and expect us to continue doing what we was doing. I think they were just kinda shocked at how good we got so fast. And then on top of that, Sam Presti was probably 30-something years old; he was young. Everybody was young, trying to figure stuff out. We was ahead of our time. Everything happened too quickly.”
"We were ahead of our time. Everything happened too quickly."
Kevin Durant reminisces on his OKC Thunder days, particularly the early days when they were on the rise 😌
(via @mindthegamepod)pic.twitter.com/ZQt8lehTJX
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 1, 2025
To Durant's point, the Thunder made Sam Presti one of the youngest presidents of basketball operations in league history when they hired him in 2007. Presti was then just 30 years old, but made an immediate splash by drafting Durant in his first offseason. He took Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka in the following draft to begin building his dynasty.
Kevin Durant's tumultuous Thunder career
Before winning the 2025 title, the Thunder's 2011-2012 season was the most successful in franchise history. A 23-year-old Durant and Westbrook led the team to the Finals, where they eventually lost to the LeBron James-led Miami Heat.
While his Thunder career did not last as long as fans hoped, Durant is undeniably one of the greatest players in franchise history. After winning the 2008 Rookie of the Year award, he made the All-Star game in seven of his nine years with the team, including six All-NBA seasons. Durant led the league in scoring four times with Oklahoma City and won his lone MVP award with the team.
The only sour part of his Thunder career was the end, when Durant chose to sign with the Golden State Warriors in 2016. The controversial move still has many Oklahoma City fans resenting him, despite everything he gave the organization.
