"Don't Go For 70": Richard Jefferson Offers Advice To Defending Champions OKC Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in a great position to become the first back-to-back NBA champions in seven years. To pull off this immensely difficult feat, a lot will have to go right for reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the still-recuperating Jalen Williams, and the rest of coach Mark Daigneault’s crew.

For analyst Richard Jefferson, the Thunder need to resist a certain side quest that could get in the way of their priority to retain their title. The problem is, this side quest is a highly tempting prospect.

“If they wanna repeat, don’t go 70 [wins],” Jefferson said in a recent episode of the “Road Trippin’ Show,” which he co-hosts. “There is no team that is naturally good to win 70 games without having to turn the flame up a little bit.”

Jefferson, a one-time NBA champion who played 17 seasons in the league, is essentially cautioning OKC against overexerting itself in the regular season and coming up short when it matters the most. To back up his point, he highlighted the rarity of 70-win teams.

“It’s only been hit twice in NBA history, and only one of those teams won [the title],” the ESPN commentator pointed out.

Ironically, Jefferson ran right into the team whose 70-win season is marked by an asterisk: the 2015–16 Golden State Warriors, whose historic 73–9 record was cast aside when Jefferson’s Cleveland Cavaliers went the distance in the NBA Finals to claim the championship.

To Jefferson’s point, only Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the 1995–96 campaign reached the 70-win mark (72–10, to be precise) and won the Larry O’Brien trophy within the same season. For RJ, this season’s Thunder squad should view regular-season greatness as indispensable only insofar as they keep their focus on the ultimate goal.

“If you gotta go through Houston and the Lakers, and you got to go through Denver…bro, forget those 70,” Jefferson insisted. “Get number one seed, chill out, and then go rev it up again.”

Through their first 18 games, the Thunder have put up the best defensive rating in the NBA as they pulled off an incredible 17–1 record. At the rate that they’re going, a 70th regular-season victory is a feasible goal. The question is, will OKC set it on their to-do list this season? 

As far as Jefferson is concerned, that would lead to the ruin of the defending champions.