OKC Thunder Need More Representation on All-Star Saturday Night

The league-leading Thunder won't be in the mix on Saturday night.

Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Isaiah Joe (11) shoots against Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason (17) during the first half in a semifinal of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Oklahoma City has become one of the best teams in the league, but it still struggles to get the respect it deserves.

The Thunder have spent almost the entire 2024-25 season sitting in the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference and have a healthy eight-game lead above the next closest team. Entering the All-Star break, the Thunder hold a 44-10 record, which helped them achieve a couple of milestones for All-Star weekend, with Jalen Williams making his first All-Star Game and Mark Daigneault and his staff earning the coaching honors.

Along with Cason Wallace’s selection for Rising Stars, the Thunder have often been represented well on Friday and Sunday at All-Star Weekend. However, Saturday night hasn’t been quite as kind to the Thunder.

All-Star Saturday night is comprised of three events: the dunk contest, 3-point contest and skills challenge. Among the three competitions this season, there are 20 total competitors. While the skills challenge format and number of competitors has varied from year to year, roughy 20 different players have been involved in All-Star Saturday events each year.

Despite the number of potential openings for Thunder players to make it in, none will be competing on Saturday night this season. This will mark the sixth-straight season the Thunder have been without a competitor in the dunk contest or 3-point contest with Hamidou Diallo’s dunk contest win in 2019 marking the most recent Thunder performance. While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey have both recently made the skills challenge, both appearances occurred before the Thunder’s rise to one of the league’s elite.

The Thunder’s exclusion in recent years doesn’t appear to be about market size either, as the team sent players to All-Star Saturday plenty of times in the past. In the Thunder’s first 11 seasons, they had nine competitors.

Averaging a Thunder player on Saturday night nearly every year in the Russell Westbrook era, Oklahoma City was always well-represented on the middle night of All-Star Weekend. Considering Oklahoma City’s spot in the standings and its rising popularity as a brand, it should be getting back into Saturday night soon.

With multiple potential high fliers such as Cason Wallace or Jalen Williams for the dunk contest and Isaiah Joe, who has again publicly campaigned to be in the 3-point contest, the Thunder have no shortage of players who could be featured in these competitions.

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