The Serge Ibaka trade was an inside job!

Good morning. As the Thunder move one win closer to glory, we take a brief look at how they arrived here. Let's basketball.

Every champion has a defining roster transaction that feeds a direct line to the NBA Finals.

For the 2024 Celtics, it was the infamous Nets trade that netted Boston Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. For the 2023 Nuggets, it was drafting Nikola Jokic during a Taco Bell commercial and later trading for Aaron Gordon. For the 2022 Warriors, it was finagling D'Angelo Russell in the Kevin Durant sign-and-trade and then flipping D'Lo for Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga just as Wiggins was poised to have by far his best season ever. For the 2021 Bucks, it was the Jrue Holiday trade. For the 2020 Lakers, it was landing LeBron for free because L.A. For the 2019 Raptors, it was rolling the dice in trades for Kawhi Leonard and then Marc Gasol. For the 2017 and 2018 Warriors, it was Stephen Curry's cheap rookie extension allowing them to sign Kevin Durant outright. For the 2016 Cavaliers, it was landing LeBron for free because ... Akron? Gordon Gund? and also the Andrew Wiggins-Kevin Love trade. (Andrew Wiggins: secret Rosetta Stone to the 21st century NBA.) For the 2015 Warriors, it was pirating Andre Iguodala in free agency after he may or may not have been a double-agent in the previous year's playoffs.

If the Thunder, who are now up a convincing 2-0 over the Wolves after winning 118-103 on Thursday in yet another stand-out defensive performance, end up hoisting a banner, I would argue that the keystone is not the obvious choice, which would be the trade sending Paul George to the Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and picks, one of which became Jalen Williams and four of which remaining outstanding. (Two are in the 2025 draft, there's one next season and a 2028 pick swap option with the Mavericks thanks to draft equity arbitrage. A gift that keeps on giving.)

You have to go further back to find the Thunder's keystone transaction. How did OKC get Paul George in the first place? Well, they traded Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to the Pacers in a rare trade without any picks involved. But that's not the trade. Go back one more: how did the Thunder land Oladipo and Sabonis?

In June 2016 they traded Serge Ibaka to the Magic for Oladipo, the No. 11 pick in the draft (which was soon Sabonis) and Ersan Ilyasova.

This is the keystone, because it was an absolute heist for the Thunder. But how did it happen?