The Oklahoma City Thunder have all the makings of being the next great dynasty. But Michael Wilbon is not ready to crown them as multiple-time champions just yet.
Out of all the major sports, the Thunder are uniquely positioned to be at the top for a long time. They have one of the youngest teams to ever win an NBA championship, possess the league MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a Coach of the Year winner in Mark Daigneault, and a remarkable war chest of draft picks. On top of all that, they won 68 games in the regular season in one of the most dominant campaigns the league has ever seen.
But in the words of Lee Corso, Michael Wilbon says not so fast.
In a segment on SportsCenter on Monday night, the PTI co-host outlined all the reasons why success is perilous in today’s NBA.
“Are we looking at the beginning of a potential dynasty in Oklahoma City?”
Michael Wilbon: “No. No. No… Are people not paying attention?… Every team is one contract dispute, one locker room dispute, & one snapped Achilles away from a 4th-place finish & a 2nd-round exit…” pic.twitter.com/ehloMNRkb6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 24, 2025
“I’ve heard dynasty so much today I’m annoyed the day after the winning of a championship. No! Are people not paying attention or did they not pay attention to the Boston Celtics? Oh, they were last year’s dynasty. Oh, Tatum, Brown, we got so many people, we got Derrick White… hey, every team, every team, is one contract dispute, one locker room dispute, and one snapped Achilles away from a fourth place finish and a second round exit. We need to have learned that by now,” Wilbon said.
Michael Wilbon is totally right. Every year, every champion, we want to immediately crown as a dynasty. And as the Celtics (and Pacers) showed this postseason, one step and one injury can drastically change the title hopes of a franchise.
And that’s not to mention that the NBA has made it much harder to keep the nucleus of a dynasty together with the second apron and new salary cap. There’s a reason why the NBA has had seven different winners in seven years. They are trying as best they can to emulate the NFL model of parity in a sport that has been built on dynasties from Bill Russell’s Celtics to Michael Jordan’s Bulls and the titles won by the Spurs and Warriors.
But patience is a virtue too. And instead of immediately talking about dynasties, maybe we should wait at least until a second championship is won to start the conversation.
“The presumption that one is a dynasty is so flawed. It isn’t. It’s one. That’s all it is. You have a whole league full of young, assertive, confident teams coming at you. So yes, I would love to be Oklahoma City. But dynasty? Let me see them get to three or more and then we can start having that conversation,” he added.