NBA once again missed the mark with Thunder rivals week decision

It’s almost like the NBA hasn’t been paying attention to the OKC Thunder at all over the last few years.

First, they opted not to have Oklahoma City, the 2025 NBA Champions, square off against the newly anointed kings of the league, the New York Knicks, in what would have been a must-see Christmas Day spectacle.

Then, they left them off of two of the biggest viewership days of the regular season, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day, making the Thunder the only club currently ranked within the top four in NBA Championship odds to not have at least one game during these particular holidays.

Now, it appears they once again missed the mark when it comes to their involvement in the league’s annual rivals week, choosing the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets as their opponents rather than the obvious choice, the San Antonio Spurs.

Everyone knows Spurs are the biggest rival to Thunder

With all due respect to Los Angeles, how on earth would one consider the Lakers a rival of the Thunder?

Last year, these two squared off against one another on eight occasions, four times in the regular season and four times in the playoffs.

The Thunder came away with a clean sweep.

Now, coming into 2026-27, the Lakers are projected to be even less intimidating than they were a season ago after losing their franchise cornerstone, LeBron James, to the Philadelphia 76ers. With this in mind, in what world do they have the makings of being a serious threat, let alone a rival, to Oklahoma City?

As for the Nuggets, while these two squads did have a highly intense, seven-game semifinal series during the 2025 playoffs, that was two seasons and several key player departures ago. Last year, OKC and Denver played four times, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company coming away victorious in three of them.

Again, hard to seriously consider this an actual rivalry.

Quite frankly, the only real threat to the Thunder right now is the San Antonio Spurs.

If this wasn’t already widely considered to be the case, Cason Wallace just admitted that he views them as such, saying on a recent appearance on Cousins with Vice Carter & Tracy McGrady that the Thunder and Spurs are “absolutely” a rivalry, and acknowledged that their playoff ouster at the hands of San Antonio has their “competitive spirit” on full blast and looking to exact revenge.

Fortunately, the NBA got it right with a primetime showdown against these two to kick off opening night of the regular season, but not having them face off during a week literally devoted to rivalries is absolutely dumbfounding.