Look, it’s no secret that the Oklahoma City Thunder are trying to lose basketball games. It’s been that way for the last few years now.
But the way they’ve been processing it out lately? Man. It is absolutely a sight to behold.
It all starts with the Thunder’s injury report where basically everyone is out for the season from Shai Gilgeous Alexander to Lu Dort and so many more names.
Of course, they still have to field a team. So what do they do? Sign a bunch of guys to 10-day contracts and, not just play them, but start them. That’s what they did against the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night.
Zavier Simpson, Jaylen Hoard, Georgios Kalaitazakis. Ever heard of those dudes? Don’t be ashamed if you haven’t. Because they were in the NBA G League just literally days ago. Now they’re playing big minutes for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
No offense to those players who absolutely have earned everything they’ve gotten in this league. But, it’s pretty clear, the Thunder are trying to tank.
That tank backfired on Tuesday night, though, when those same players went on a 26-4 run to beat Portland 98-94. Just an L of epic proportions.
The Thunder started three G-Leaguers along with a guy on a two-way contract against the Portland Trail Blazers and still won. That’s incredible.
Yo. The Thunder basically had a 6 man rotation of G Leaguers playing tonight. 3 of 5 starters on 10-day contracts. Another on a two-way deal. 5 guys playing 39 minutes or more.
And they went on a 26-4 run to beat the Trail Blazers tonight.
THE TANK OFF IS REAL 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/azQEIniY5i
— Michael Sykes, II (@MikeDSykes) April 6, 2022
And they did it by starting a guard whose signature move is a hook shot, y’all. This is guard Kareem in the building.
Judgement's in. The hook is 🔙 according to @Exhoopsmc 🤷♂️@zaviersimpson_3 | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/KzNQLrihVE
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 6, 2022
This is pretty incredible, man. I don’t know who I feel worse for — the Thunder front office who are in real danger of losing that top-4 lottery slot or the Trail Blazers who legitimately tried their hardest to win this one.
Man. This is just wildly hilarious all around no matter what way you cut it. It’s chaos. And we absolutely love to see chaos. This is what we root for. Shoutout to those Thunder players for giving it to us.
Some of them might never give us anything in the NBA again. But they gave us this. And for that? I’m thankful.