2. The Thunder trading James Harden after the 2012 NBA Finals
If you want a deeper look at this trade, I previously wrote about it and the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s entire body of work since they moved from Seattle here. But in the interest of time, we’ll just hit the highlights.
It’s certainly the biggest “what if?” of the decade and arguably the biggest in NBA history. The Thunder were fresh off of their first trip to the NBA Finals with a core of three future MVP’s all age 23 or younger and traded one of them, James Harden, to the Houston Rockets because they didn’t want to fall into the luxury tax.
We now know that the Thunder never went back to the NBA Finals again after everyone had penciled them in for several more deep playoff runs. In a decade where they had multiple MVP’s, huge playoff victories, and an endless supply of unforgettable moments, they could never get back to the same success that they had before they traded Harden. And with every postseason exit, it became more and more clear that they had made one of the biggest mistakes in NBA history.
There isn’t really much else left to say about that trade because there’s no defense for it. The Thunder had arguably the best young core in NBA history and they were all about to peak at the same time. But they threw it all away to save a few dollars.
The Thunder’s track record as a front office has been nearly spotless since they moved to OKC in 2008, but they’ll never be able to make up for this one.