AN HOUR AFTER the San Antonio Spurs dethroned his Oklahoma City Thunder in a dramatic Game 7, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was asked a version of the question nearly every NBA star gets after his team falls short.
How much input do you plan to have on the franchise's offseason maneuvering?
"I will give zero input," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I will let Sam Presti, the greatest GM ever, do his job."
The Thunder's operation is rare in its stability and centralized power structure. Presti was hired at 31 to run the Seattle SuperSonics. He just finished his 19th season in the job, including all 18 years since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City.
In that time, through the draft and sharp trades, Presti has delivered two of the greatest young cores in NBA history to one of the league's smallest markets. That has earned him a level of front office autonomy uncommon in sports, rooted in unfettered trust from ownership to the head coach to the fanbase to, in this iteration, the back-to-back MVP entering the middle of his prime.