OKC Thunder Rising Star Speaks Out About Lack of National TV Games

The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen a lack of Nationally Televised games for a team of its caliber. On Friday, rising star Jalen Williams was asked about the lack of attention from the league at the NBA Cup Media Day.

Dec 3, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) celebrates after scoring against the Utah Jazz during the second quarter of an NBA Cup game at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

For the second straight season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the league's best squads. After rattling off 57 wins a year ago and becoming the youngest no. 1 seed in NBA history, the OKC Thunder again sit at the top of the Western Conference standings with a 19-5 record.

The Thunder were excluded from the NBA's marquee dates, inclduing but not limited to its Christmas Day slate, the biggest showcase on the league's regular season schedule. This is coupled with the lack of National Television dates in total for how good the roster is and as much success as the team has had throughout the past two seasons.

After all, this is a squad with MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a pair of rising stars, some of the best bench pieces in the league and the reigning coach of the year. Not to mention the two offseason blockbuster editions of Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein.

The NBA is slowly coming around on the Thunder. On Friday it announced that the NBA has flexed two Oklahoma City contests to National Television, both against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After this news, rising star Jalen Williams took the podium at the NBA Cup media day, ahead of the Thunder's semi-final matchup with the Houston Rockets. Williams was peppered with questions about the lack of attention.

"It's something that we all as a team understand, like just being kind of like a small market team, it's just something that comes with it. But we also embrace it a lot. It kind of adds like a chip to our shoulders to a certain extent. We also like understand how the media and like the coverage works and stuff like that. It's something that's kind of like out of our control. All we can do is win games and kind of make it to a point where you need to see us on TV. That's kind of how we look at it. I don't know if AC follows me on Twitter, so I probably didn't see it," Williams said.

This on the heels of Caruso re-tweeting a post that showcased the dormant National TV slate ahead for the Thunder. it is clearly a small talking point among the league's youngest roster.

The NBA has attempted to fix this mistake, but there is certainly more work to do. Attention turns now to the Thunder's date with the Boston Celtics, slated for 2:30 on Jan. 5 which as of now is not slated for a National TV spot. That should change in the coming weeks.

Next season, Oklahoma City will have a seat at the table for all major NBA events, including on Christmas. The Thunder's next National TV slot comes on Saturday in the semi-finals of the NBA cup in Vegas against the Houston Rockets.

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