According to Pablo Torre, there could have been a world where Brian Windhorst left ESPN to work for the Oklahoma City Thunder in an intel role.
OKC wanted his connections and knowledge ten years ago; by getting Windhorst, they would of had a competitive advantage over teams in the NBA. He essentially has sources at every level of the game with a vast wealth of networking opportunities.
“One thing I can report is that a little over a decade ago, he actually explored our extremely plugged-in buddy, Brian Windhorst, away from ESPN, to work as an information guy for the Thunder,” Torre continued. “And the question of like, ‘Why would he do that?’ The reason that Sam Presti kicked the tires on hiring Brian Windhorst from ESPN is that information to Sam Presti is currency. It is an edge, a competitive advantage. And you don’t surrender that information.”
Since losing out on the Windhorst sweepstakes, they went in the direction of hiring hired Sebastian Pruti as a video analyst, as well as Royce Young from ESPN for their basketball operations content position.