The promise came three years ago from Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The promise came three years ago from Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti. It might have been overlooked for a couple of reasons. One, the Thunder were awful at the time. Two, he was speaking Latin.

When the Thunder set out to build a champion, they learned hard lessons from how their historic trio of KD, Russell Westbrook and James Harden flamed out a decade ago.

Fresh off winning the NBA title, the Oklahoma City Thunder are already favored to repeat next year. The Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 on Sunday to claim the franchise’s second NBA title — they won the 1979 championship as the Seattle SuperSonics.