It's Time for the Thunder to Return to the All-Star Game

The Thunder have had an All-Star in 11 of their 14 seasons in Oklahoma City.

With All-Star voting having opened up roughly a month ago, the revealing of the All-Star game starters is approaching quickly. On Jan. 26, the NBA on TNT crew will announce which players will be starting in the game. For the Oklahoma City Thunder, they will be watching as to whether Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made the game as a starter or not.

However, if Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t make the game as a starter, he should be able to find his way in as a substitute. Statistically, the season Gilgeous-Alexander is having can be traced back to only Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player to ever touch the ball. A season like that is worthy of Gilgeous-Alexander making an All-Star appearance.

This begs the question; Who was the last Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star? Evidently, it was Chris Paul during his 2019-20 campaign in his only season with the squad. Looking back, there are similarities to Gilgeous-Alexander’s case from a team standpoint. The Thunder are, like they were back then, over succeeding and stomping expectations on the season. This time around, Gilgeous-Alexander has much better counting stats than Paul did, furthering his case.

Beforehand, the Thunder had an appearance in the game in each year since the 2009-10 season, when Kevin Durant made his first All-Star game. Of course, the Thunder came to Oklahoma City in 2008, so that didn’t take long.

During that streak, the appearances normally included one – if not both – of Durant or Russell Westbrook. The only reason one wouldn’t have made it was injuries. The two were perennial All-Stars and combined for two MVP awards in their Thunder tenures.

Paul George was a member of the Thunder for two seasons, where he made the All-Star game both years, and one of the two as a starter. Evidently, the year George was an All-Star starter, he also finished top-3 in MVP voting.

The Thunder have a long history of sending players to the All-Star game, as they only haven’t in three of the games since the Thunder became a franchise. It only makes sense that they get back on track with an All-Star this year – and if they do – expect them to put together another stretch of ten or so years of having a player in the All-Star game.

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