The NBA is embracing rivalries.
In Wednesday’s schedule announcement, the NBA also announced the first official rivalry week for the league. The week will feature historic rivalries like the Lakers and Clippers. It will also feature player rivalries like Devin Booker and Luka Doncic in a matchup of last years heated playoff series of the Suns and Mavericks.
Oklahoma City didn’t get tabbed with an official rivalry week game this season, but if the NBA continues this idea into the future there are multiple options for the Thunder to fit into the schedule.
The easiest is a team rivalry. OKC doesn’t have an in-state rival like the Knicks and Nets or the Lakers and Clippers. So the rivalry will need to be regional.
There’s just a couple of teams close, regionally to OKC, both reside in the state of Texas. The Mavericks have a budding rivalry with the Suns and are simply at a different stage than OKC in their team.
Which brings the Rockets to the stage. It’s a matchup that’s historically been highly contested and intriguing for fans. It started when James Harden was with the Rockets and just continued on later as the team’s been on the same path.
Both teams are going through major rebuilds, in vastly different ways, but the same goal is in mind.
They had back-to-back picks in the NBA lottery this year and are both trending in the right direction. What better way to flourish a rivalry than two teams located near each other and on the same trajectory towards success.
Unlike the NFL or the MLB, divisions don’t hold a ton of weight in the NBA. However, they still exist.
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A couple of teams who could rival OKC could be the Timberwolves, even though they are slated against the Grizzlies this year, or Portland, who the Thunder have some well-remembered playoff history with.
Damien Lillard isn’t the most liked person in OKC after his infamous wave to Paul George, which brings player rivalries into the mind.
OKC has an extremely young core who haven’t exactly made too many enemies.
The most obvious would lean to Chet Holmgren with Paolo Banchero. The Magic’s no. 1 pick and the Thunder’s No. 2 from this last draft.
The two played in different conferences and played just once in college. However, the two have been compared to each other since high school fighting for the higher praises and the same awards.
The matchup of the two makes sense. The top two picks in the draft squaring off on the NBA’s newest venture, movie material. The two teams also matchup well. Two franchises looking to get back to the playoffs and win games.
The Thunder may not be involved in the official rivalry week this season, but they do have blooming rivalries and multiple opportunities to find themselves in a game down the road.
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