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Mark Daigneault Had Comically Sweet Praise for Thunder Roster After Big WCF Win

This was a cute moment between a coach and his team.

Brigid Kennedy

Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault speaks after advancing to the NBA Finals on May 28, 2025.
Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault speaks after advancing to the NBA Finals on May 28, 2025. / NBA TV / X / Screenshot
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The Oklahoma City Thunder routed the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012. The Thunder, who earned the No. 1 seed in the West and boast the best regular-season record for 2024-25, have never won a title in OKC, though the franchise does have one championship from its time as the Seattle SuperSonics.

Consequently, Thunder players, including this year's MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, were sufficiently pumped up after the win, at which point they decided to playfully drape head coach Mark Daigneault in sweat towels and Finals merch as he spoke on-court postgame.

And seeing as Daigneault was in the middle of praising his guys, the game of dress-up prompted the coach to include a lovable "dig" at those standing around him.

"These guys are uncommon. They do everything right. They're professional. they're high character," Daigneault said, as the towels and baseball hats come down, amid cheers from the crowd. "They're idiots," he added in, with a smile.

"They're competitive, and most of all, they're team-first. They embody everything it means to be a team."

Watch that funny moment below:

The Thunder, whose performance this postseason has been so strong that it garnered an apology from one Magic Johnson, will face the winner of the Eastern Conference finals in the championship series, starting Thursday, June 5. The Indiana Pacers currently lead the ECF 3-1, though the New York Knicks will hope to eke out another win in Game 5 on Thursday night.

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Brigid Kennedy
BRIGID KENNEDY

Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.

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