OKC Thunder growing into NBA's top villain was inevitable | Mussatto

The Thunder , in so many ways, is an outlier . It’s an NBA team in a city that probably shouldn’t have one. A team that’s enjoyed an inordinate amount of success, and has rostered an inordinate number of all-time greats — three MVPs for a franchise not even two-decades old.

A team that’s had the same chairman, Clay Bennett, and same general manager, Sam Presti , for the entirety of its existence. A team that won an NBA title (way) ahead of schedule, as if there’s a schedule for such things. A team led by the coolest of superstars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his band of goober teammates.

How the Thunder got here is inimitable, admirable, but now that OKC has reached the peak, it’s facing the same backlash of its championship ancestry. Once you win, and especially when you keep winning, you become the villain. And in that sense, the Thunder is no outlier.

To the victor comes villainy. “We have had success, consistent success, for a few years now, including a championship last year,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “If you look at the history of the NBA, there’s things that come with the territory of that.