At the beginning of the NBA’s 2025-2026 season the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder had a record of 24-1. They had this historic start trying to chase and break the 2015-2016 Golden State Warriors record of 73-9 the best of all time. However, that start didn’t last forever the Thunder then lost 6 games in less than a month, three of those losses alone came from the San Antonio Spurs , including one of the weaker teams in the league the 12th seeded Charlotte Hornets by 30 points. That tragic decline has made it almost impossible for the OKC Thunder to break the record. The record by itself is practically impossible to break because of the sheer amount of stress it puts on the players, the Golden State Warriors players ultimately lost the championship because of the pure amount of exhaustion.

Many fans of the NBA believe that the Thunder’s starting record was fluke for lots of different reasons. The main reason that many NBA fans have started discrediting the OKC Thunders record is because of the blatant calls from the referees that have sided with the Thunder. This problem isn’t just an issue this season, last year the Thunder had even more support from the referees then this year. Especially their star player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is known for getting many fouls his way exponentially inflating his stats.

Another reason for people calling it a fluke is their relatively easy schedule. They beat many weak, lackluster teams while losing to the stronger teams, which caused people to believe that their record didn’t mean anything. Even though the Thunder are not going to break the regular season win record they are still the heavy favorites to win the NBA championship and have the team captain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to take home  the most valuable player award after the front runner for the trophy got injured because of a left knee hyperextension.