7 days in the Thunderdome

When a good friend and I were talking about the NBA recently, he turned the conversation toward the Oklahoma City Thunder — who won the championship last year — and urged me to take a deeper look at what their executive team was building. It felt, he said, like something special. I’d been loosely following the playoffs, and the Thunder’s dominance has been hard to ignore. When ESPN published a long piece about them, I was intrigued. Four reflections: (1) Environment as competitive advantage. GM Sam Presti has engineered chaos out of existence — perfectly aligned basketballs, identically folded towels, a lawn outside that looks trimmed blade by blade. The obsession with order isn’t aesthetic. It’s a philosophy: control what you can control, and let success be the natural byproduct. (2) No one wants the credit. SGA or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA MVP, credits the staff. Presti hides from compliments. Coach Daigneault’s nightmare is someone crediting him. In a league where…