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Thunder Tried To Hire ESPN’s Brian Windhorst Over 10 Years Ago
Vivek Jacob is a freelance sports writer with over seven years experience. During this time, he has written for outlets including The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, Sportsnet, CBC, and Complex. Primarily covering the NBA, Vivek also covers tennis, soccer, and cricket.
All posts by Vivek JacobUpdated2 hours ago on June 14, 2025
The Oklahoma City Thunder tried to hire ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst over a decade ago. This is according to ESPN’s own Pablo Torre.
Currently two wins away from hoisting its first NBA championship, GM Sam Presti saw value in protecting information.
“The reason that Sam Presti considered hiring Brian Windhorst — kicked the tires on hiring him away from ESPN — is that information is currency,” Torre said. “It is an edge, a competitive advantage and so you don’t surrender that information.”
Presti currently speaks to the media just twice a year, at Media Day and at season’s end.
There have been a few notable hires of media members by NBA franchises in recent times.
John Hollinger left ESPN for a front office role with the Memphis Grizzlies. He now works for The Athletic. Lee Jenkins was a renowned writer at Sports Illustrated who made the jump to the Los Angeles Clippers’ staff. Luke Winn moved from Sports Illustrated to the Toronto Raptors.
Mike Singer worked for the Denver Post before moving over to the Denver Nuggets.
.@PabloTorre reports that a little over a decade ago, Sam Presti explored hiring @WindhorstESPN away from ESPN to work as “an information guy” for the OKC Thunder. 👀 pic.twitter.com/c0dhj2awH4
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) June 12, 2025
Presti Looks To Maximize Every Thunder Advantage
There’s certainly a track record for Presti as far as enhancing every slight competitive advantage is concerned.
Presti is smart enough to know he has limitations with a small market team in Oklahoma City. Still, he’s not willing to let that stifle the franchise’s chances of winning a title.
The NBA’s salary cap has taken a dramatic turn with the second apron penalties. Anticipating those changes, Presti has done brilliantly to accumulate an extremely high level of quality draft picks.
It positions the Thunder to be very competitive in a cost controlled manner for possibly the next decade.
In that same vein, he would have seen an important advantage in having Windhorst on board and all the intel he can provide.
Windhorst, though, is the one believed to have been uninterested.
