Rage & The Machine

With the enigmatic RUSSELL WESTBROOK now the face of the franchise and young guns STEVEN ADAMS and VICTOR OLADIPO locked up long-term to be his sidekicks, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a brand new core. Beware—a storm is brewing.

- Adam Figman

VICTOR OLADIPO sat in the first class section of a commercial flight headed from Washington, DC, to Greensboro, NC, on the night of June 23, 2016. The 24-year-old was traveling south for Chris Paul’s summer camp, where every year CP3 and some big-name guests tutor youngsters who have dreams of one day reaching the level of the camp’s namesake. Oladipo took the trip alone, no friends or family accompanying him, and at some point during the flight, his phone began to buzz. One text, then another, then another, over and over again—dozens and dozens of never-ending text messages flooding his notifications. This is how Oladipo learned he was traded from the Orlando Magic to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Amidst the flurry of texts that arrived was one from a number Oladipo didn’t have in his phone.

“You ready?” Oladipo responded to the text the same way all of us do when a message comes in from an unknown set of digits: “Who is this?”

Somewhere in Los Angeles, a five-time NBA All-Star and one of the best basketball players on the planet must have cracked up.

“It’s Russ.”

IT’S A LITTLE over four months later, and Russell Westbrook is standing next to Oladipo and Steven Adams in the Thunder’s old practice facility as the group poses for the photos you see on the pages of this magazine. “We going tucked in?” Vic asks the other two. He and Adams both have their jerseys scrunched into their shorts, while Westbrook’s hangs loose above his.

“Hell no,” Russ responds. “Untucked.”

Oladipo and Adams promptly remove their jerseys from their shorts.