Origins of Promise: How Underdogs Become Contenders – Trail Blazers to Thunder

What does it really take to build a contender from nothing? In the debut episode of Iconic Seasons, we explore the painful beauty of starting from scratch—from the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers to today’s rising Oklahoma City Thunder.

Through the lens of Dr. Jack Ramsay’s vision, Bill Walton’s poetry-in-motion play, and the chemistry that defined a championship, we uncover what makes a team truly iconic—and what tears it apart. Then, we fast-forward to the modern blueprint of hope in OKC, where youth, culture, and vision collide with wealth, ego, and pressure.

With clips from the legends and insights into today’s stars like SGA, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, we ask: Is it talent or chemistry that builds a champion? And can a modern small-market team keep the dream alive in today’s NBA?

Transcript

 What does it take to build a contender from nothing? In sports, we fall in love with the idea of the underdog, but creating a team, a true contender from scratch, not romance, it's vision, pain, patience, and often heartbreak. Today in our first episode of Iconic Seasons, number three, we explore the origins of promise, what it takes to build from nothing.

We'll journey from the Portland Trailblazers of the 1970s to today's Oklahoma City Thunder, A modern blueprint of hope from rubble.

In the breaks of the game, David Halberda painted the picture of the builder's struggle. Dr. Jack Ramsey, the coach, spent his life chasing one thing, the perfect team, and for one fleeting season he had it. Bill Walton, the big redhead, one of my favorite players of all time. I mean, one of my favorite people of all time.

Orchestrated everything the team flowed, like jazz, music, speed, teamwork, unselfishness, poetry, the things that make basketball the greatest game on the planet. Let's listen to Jack talk a little bit about the Blazer's teamwork. I.

This is what basketball was meant to be played. Like when I see basketball in my head, this is what I imagine it looking like. The movement, the space, the connection to teammates, the lack of egos, the working together towards a common purpose. What matters most to you all when you think about the perfect team?

Is it talent or is it chemistry?

And then with this team injuries, ego and money tore it all apart. Let's listen to Bill though. Talk about what it was like when it was perfect.

Dr. Jack had touched his dream only to see it vanish. He was left haunted

building from scratch. Meant more than finding talent. It meant navigating contracts, managing egos, balancing what's good for the team against what's good for the individual. 

Let's listen to Maurice Lucas talk about Bill Walton. It illustrates the chemistry of this team and the closeness and understanding that they had on and off the court. And it's pretty funny too.

but even that bond couldn't withstand the pressures of the league, the rising salaries, the demands of television, the pull of individual ambition. Will the Oklahoma City thunder survive in the NBA business landscape? They had three guys just sign for $840 million.

It's the type of wealth that even if you work against changing , you're not able to. You can't simply change the way that the people around you now perceive you. And these guys are incredibly young. You've got Chet, who's barely 21 years old. Jalen Williams is 23. The oldest of these guys is 26 years old.

Having that kind of generational wealth at that age is going to change them. It will change the team. It will change the franchise as they go along. Now, will they be able to navigate those? I don't know. Players like Greg Bunch and Abdul Gani, they were fighting for a spot on that team. Knowing that everything good happened for one, sometimes meant heartbreak for some of the others, that's gonna happen for the thunder as well.

And even when you find that perfect mix has the book says the breaks of the game can tear it apart.

Let's listen to the call from the championship moment.

That call echoed the dream, but history shows how fleeting it can be.

As I said before, today's Oklahoma City thunder are chasing a similar dream. When Kevin Durant left in 2016, Oklahoma City stood at the edge of a cliff, the precipice. It could have patched together quick fixes, and they did for a time managing with Russell Westbrook. But slowly, the team crumbled. Let's listen to Sam Presti on how he thinks now about team building and I think what he probably would've said at the, at that time as well, and he just couldn't hold that particular group together.

After the last group of left from that 2016 Katie Hardin Westbrook Group, the thunder collected draft picks, , on almost an arsenal of hope. They found players who fit the culture like SGA, listen to him here talking about his pride in Oklahoma City.

SGA embodies that bond between player and city. Let me ask you, how much weight does a strong community connection hold when building a championship culture? If you think about the best teams in NBA history, certainly the Lakers and the Celtics have , and a huge connection to the cities that they exist in.

Is that a necessary component? The Blazers might also argue the same thing that particular group has and still has a connection to the city more than 40 years after the team won the championship. Here's some of the things the other star players have said. Jalen Williams said, we wanna build this together.

No egos, no shortcuts. And the other $250 million, man, Chet Holmgren added, we're trying to win right away and having fun doing it. The thunder are building more than a roster. They're building a culture. But like Dr. Jack's blazers, the challenge isn't just assembling the pieces, it's then keeping them together.

So what does it take to build from scratch vision like Ramsey's dream of unselfish basketball, patience. Presti deliberate rebuild luck and the resilience to face heartbreak culture because talent without connections is just a house of cards waiting to tumble and adaptation because the game and the league always changes.

Let's listen to SGA talking about adversity, and I want ask you. With his mindset, do you think he's ready in the next years they're gonna face some kind of adversity, whether it be an injury, , an ego situation, or a team that rises to surpass them? Will they be able to then come back from that and, and reclaim their, their spot, or will they be a true dynasty?

Right now, the thunder. Are the promise, they're a potential dynasty. They have the pieces, the vision, the culture. Can they keep it together?

Maybe this time the champs will endure, or maybe as always, the breaks of the game will have the final say.

Thank you for joining me on this first episode, origins of Promise. Next time we'll explore the anatomy of this modern super team, what it means to have a small market like the Oklahoma City Thunder. I. If today's deep dive spark some, if today's deep dive sparks something in you subscribe and share it with someone.

Until next time, 

Until next time. Remember, keep your drib low and your eyes up.