\n<\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> did the unthinkable last season, defeating the Indiana Pacers<\/a> in seven games to win their first NBA title since 1979 (known as the Seattle SuperSonics then).<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n However, just five years ago in the 2020-21 season, the Thunder finished 14th in the Western Conference, with a 22-50 record (shortened season).<\/p>\n That season was head coach Mark Daigneault’s first with the team. Recently, as the Thunder squared off against the Warriors<\/a> (Jan. 2), Daigneault reflected on the team’s 2020-21 season, giving props to one of his former players.<\/p>\n “He’s the man,” Daigneault said<\/a> of Al Horford. “We had all of these trades right before the season. It was just a very disruptive environment in a lot of ways. (…) he was never cynical. Ever. He was always focused on solutions. He’s about as respected of a teammate and a person to coach as you could find.”<\/p>\n Although many have forgotten, Horford played 28 games for Oklahoma City that season, after being acquired via trade from the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>. Despite limited action, Horford averaged 14.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Toward the end of the season, Horford was shut down by the team as they focused on the development of their young core. He was then traded to the Boston Celtics<\/a> in the following offseason and eventually won a title with them in the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n Even though his time in Oklahoma City was short, Horford recently expressed<\/a> gratitude for the experience. “It was a critical point in my career,” Horford said. “I think that being there, learning and getting to understand how this NBA was going to go (was important). This was kind of the vision he (Daignealut) was seeing even then —– I was able to see it firsthand.”<\/p>\n Now a 19-year veteran between the Thunder, 76ers, Celtics, Hawks<\/a> and now Golden State Warriors, Horford has been held in high-regard no matter where he’s played.<\/p>\n Mark Daigneault gives props to current rival, former player originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. The Oklahoma City Thunder did the unthinkable last season, defeating the Indiana Pacers in seven games to win their first NBA title since 1979 (known as the Seattle SuperSonics … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mark-Daigneault-gives-props-to-current-rival-former-player.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16874,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16872\/revisions\/16874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More NBA news:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"