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At the end of his fifth regular season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kenrich Williams reflected on the franchise's most-winningest campaign, and their leader, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. After capturing their 68th win in a 115-100 regular-season finale win against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Thunder are favorites to win the Western Conference in this year's playoffs. Williams remembers winning 22 games at the end of 2020-21.
Still, the Thunder's light-hearted, fun environment has never wavered for the team. Williams says it starts with the Thunder's All-Star in Gilgeous-Alexander.
“I think it starts with our leader, Shai, he's a very fun guy,” Williams said. “On the court, he's super locked in, serious, and we have other guys, too, that are the same way. He's just one of those guys who keeps the room light. We have great character guys on the team. Guys who are funny, and the coaching staff, they allow us to kind of be ourselves, and not try to hold us back from having fun with the game.”
The Thunder's 68-14 record is the fifth-best regular-season finish in NBA history, which puts things into perspective for Williams, who remembers the days of a young, rebuilding team clawing to reach 20+ wins in a regular season.
“It's something that I don't take for granted, being here,” Williams added. “Years ago, I just remember losing x-amount of games in a row, and to be here now, finishing the season first in the West, is something that you don't take for granted. It's something that definitely happened fast. It feels like it happened super fast.”
Williams finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds in Sunday's win.
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Mark Daigneault on Kenrich Williams' role for Thunder
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams told everyone to watch the games at the beginning of the regular season for proof of All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP run and the Thunder's unprecedented run. For head coach Mark Daigneault, Kenrich Williams is a big part of that success as one of the team's leaders.
“Kenrich has been an unbelievable part of this. He's one of the first guys that emerged as a leader. We say a leader is the person doing the right thing, and he just organically became a leader on our team very early, and hasn't changed a bit since then,” Daigneault said. “He continues to just be very high character, hard-working, competitive, high-integrity person. And so, a lot of guys get a lot of shine, but I think it's a good opportunity to talk about what he's meant to this team, not only this season, but in the past five seasons.”
Williams averaged 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game in 2024-25.
