How the young Thunder are building a dynasty in OKC - ESPN

FRESH OFF BECOMING the second-youngest championship team in NBA history, the Oklahoma City Thunder gathered around a table stocked with celebratory beverages and turned their attention to sage veteran Alex Caruso.

Caruso's voice had carried a lot of weight in the Thunder's locker room since he arrived via a trade the previous summer. At 31, he was the oldest player on Oklahoma City's roster and the only one who owned an NBA championship ring, which he had flashed around the practice facility early in the season as a motivational tactic.

Caruso was also the only player in the room who had a clue about how to pop a champagne bottle.

In fact, for Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams, this would be the first time they had ever taken so much as a sip of alcohol. Their inexperience, as well as that of some of the Thunder's other youngsters, soon became apparent.

After taking a head count, Caruso showed his teammates how to remove the foil from the bottle, undo the metal and get the cork ready — and then a few corks popped prematurely. There were a couple more false starts on the second attempt before the Thunder managed to pop the corks in sync on their third try, setting off a hilariously tame title celebration.

«It was a good first try,» Caruso said on the podium that night, removing his championship cap and rubbing his bald head while smiling wryly. «We'll get some rest, reset, try to go again next year and see if we can do it again.

»We'll be better. We'll be better next year."

That kind of progress probably wasn't quite what Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti had in mind a few months later, when he held his annual preseason meeting with the local media in the interview room down the Paycom Center hallway, but the