Saturday marked the three-year anniversary of Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard sinking a deep three-point shot near the logo that sent the Oklahoma City Thunder home after a five-game First Round series of the 2019 NBA playoffs.
The shot would mark the third consecutive season where the Thunder failed to advance past the First Round of the playoffs. This disappointing ending left open the possibility of Thunder general manager Sam Presti to blow the team up and start all over — which is exactly what happened a little over two months later. In early July 2019, Presti traded Paul George to the LA Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and a historical haul of draft picks and Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul and multiple draft picks.
Both trades jumpstarted the Thunder rebuild — which is now on its third season — and the team has Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey to show for it so far as two pillars for the next great Thunder team.
Two years ago today, Damian Lillard sent the Thunder packing after this epic game winner over Paul George 😤 pic.twitter.com/6eryBMgpD2
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 23, 2021
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