Why Kevin Durant, Rockets are perfect 2025-26 Opening Night opponent for Thunder

USA Today

3 days ago

It's almost August, which means the NBA will release its 2025-26 regular season schedule soon. It's the only real newsworthy piece to follow as the league heads to vacation. Most of the offseason work is finished as teams are satisfied with their rosters.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will run it back with the same group. They had a quiet offseason with only changes at the bottom of the depth chart. Instead, they spent most of their short summer celebrating their NBA championship they captured in a Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers.
While nothing is official, tradition suggests the Thunder will take part in the 2025-26 Opening Night on Oct. 21. They will likely kick off the NBA on NBC era with a pregame ring ceremony. It'll be the last celebratory moment for the NBA champion before their reign begins.
If the Thunder get the chance to open the 2025-26 season, who should the opponent be? Well, what about against a very familiar face who should seethe at the sight of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his Thunder teammates receive their rings in front of the OKC crowd?
Yep. That's right. The Houston Rockets' acquisition of Kevin Durant should make it a layup for NBA schedule-makers on who the Thunder should face on Opening Night. The storylines are too juicy to ignore. The obvious being Durant being in attendance for OKC's ring night and banner reveal — an accomplishment he painfully was never able to achieve in his time with the franchise.
Durant was traded to the Rockets on the same day the Thunder won their first NBA championship. The two have been linked together for nearly two decades. Let's tighten that bond by making it the first game of the Opening Night slate.
The cherry on top for Thunder fans in their championship run was seeing Gilgeous-Alexander usurp Durant for the "best player in franchise history" title. That was the one thing the latter had to hold onto after a messy 2016 departure. Now that argument is gone.
Gilgeous-Alexander's 2024-25 season knocks any Durant season out of the park. It's up there among the best individual campaigns ever, as he won about every award imaginable. From MVP to Conference Finals MVP to NBA Finals MVP to scoring title to a ring.
It already stings enough for Durant to see that unfold from a distance. Imagine how much worse it'll feel when Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the Thunder are handed their championship ring one at a time across the court from you. Nearly a decade later, the Durant-Thunder rivalry remains strong. Don't let him tell you otherwise. Every time he's in OKC, he's showered in booes nobody else receives at Paycom Center.
Now, throw in the natural Thunder-Rockets beef between both fanbases and how both teams are viewed as the top of the class in the West this upcoming season. It just makes too much sense. Schedule-makers shouldn't have to think for more than a second to see why their Opening Night matchup would be must-watch TV.
C'mon NBA. Make the easy decision here. Durant's Rockets debut should coincide with the Thunder's ring ceremony. It's storybook stuff. And makes sense as a basketball matchup. Don't overthink it.