another championship.
I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time.
Thank you LA. Miami I’ll forever love and Northeast Ohio will always home!
🙏🏾🫡👑
Breaking: LeBron James is signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8 million deal with a player option, his agent Rich Paul told @ShamsCharania.
At 1 a.m. on July 6, 2019, the news broke that the Thunder were trading Paul George. It was evident within hours this was the end of an era in Thunder history and that this blockbuster trade would also lead to the departure of our beloved Russell Westbrook.
About twelve hours later, at 1:30 p.m., the Thunder put out a press release announcing that they were signing an undrafted rookie named Luguentz Dort. On this emotional day for Thunder fans, the timing was perhaps less than ideal. The announcement of Dort’s signing may have seemed a jarring answer to the news of the morning. What anyone could hardly have imagined was that the seeds had just been planted for our city’s first championship.
Four days after Dort’s signing, on July 10th, the Paul George trade was officially announced by the teams involved, and a second Canadian - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - officially joined Lu to begin a new chapter in Thunder history. Fans will have to be forgiven for failing to realize that four days in July, 2019 had just secured the core of a championship team.
Lu would become the longest-tenured player on the 2025 NBA Champions and would set the tone early for the team’s rise to that moment, starting with a spirited breakout performance in the 2020 playoffs.
Lu Dort was not just one of the 18 young men who brought Oklahoma City its first title in 2025, he was a key leader and contributor, and always a fan favorite for his suffocating defense on opponents. The Dorture Chamber will long live in Thunder mythology. Lu Dort will long live in Oklahoma City history.
We wish Lu Dort all the best in this next chapter of his professional basketball journey, and he will always have a home in OKC.
From going undrafted to:
2-way contract
5Y/87.5 million dollar standard NBA contract
6 year starter
All-Defensive NBA first team
NBA CHAMPION
Longest tenured Thunder
Lu Dort forever.
“I guess you could say I have a soft spot for underdog cities in general. Those places that people maybe don’t see as blockbuster. Small towns, blue collar, you know what I mean? Those places where it feels like they’ve seen a tough moment or two… so the good times feel just a little bit sweeter.”
man.