Ranking all-time teams is a fruitless endeavor with zero science behind it. Even more so when it involves every team in all of the major sports throughout human history. Nonetheless, the Bleacher Report staff embarked on the daunting task of doing exactly that.
Bleacher Report recently ranked the 99 best teams in all-time history. It featured teams from the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, WNBA, college football and men's/women's college basketball. To avoid repetition, a franchise could only have one entry from a five-year period.
So, surely the Oklahoma City Thunder had an entrant, right? They've been one of the winningest teams over the last two decades. They rostered four MVP winners and some of the greatest players of the recent era. And as a perennial
title contender, they finally broke through with an NBA championship in 2025.
As it turned out, only the 2024-25 Thunder were represented at No. 69. Of course, OKC went a league-best 68-14 in the regular season and had an all-time record plus-12.9 point differential. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his first MVP award and Jalen Williams broke out as an All-NBA member.
So why so low? Well, the Thunder had a humane playoff run. They went a meh 16-7 en route to the Larry O'Brien trophy. Throughout the four-round journey, there were a couple of scares that had folks wonder if OKC was about to buck the trend and not join the list of NBA champions who also dominated the rest of the competition at the historic rate it did.
"The Thunder set a record with the best point differential in NBA history, but they didn't rank higher because they had to play two Game 7s in the playoffs," Bleacher Report wrote. "They won both comfortably, but they were aided by Tyrese Haliburton's injury to win the decisive game of the NBA Finals against the Pacers."
The Thunder had to win do-or-die games against the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers. But if you want to knock some style points over that, then OK, sure. That's fine. I get it. But all the way down 69??? After the regular-season history they had? I mean, c'mon. That's a little ridiculous.
Some of the other NBA teams ahead of the Thunder had more dominant postseason runs, sure, but you don't really see that in today's game. At least not in the Western Conference. If we universally agree that it's a bloodbath every year, why can't we take that into consideration with OKC's middling playoff run that year?
Oh well. Just wanted to say my two cents. Credit Bleacher Report for doing the thankless task. And I think most of the ranking checks out. Just think the 2024-25 Thunder deserve a little more love when zooming out and looking at their entire body of work.
TOP 99 SPORTS TEAMS OF ALL TIME 🐐
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 9, 2026
89) 2016 Cavs
38) 2019 LSU
18) 2004 USC
15) 2001 Lakers
7) 2001 Miami
2) 2017 Warriors
FULL LIST HERE: https://t.co/LGgzpIMRe2 pic.twitter.com/QiDcrGtFdR
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Bleacher Report thinks this OKC Thunder team is one of the greatest teams ever
