As the Oklahoma City Thunder celebrate their first NBA championship in franchise history, a trade made six years ago has come full circle, and it has gone down as the most lopsided trade in basketball history.
In July 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers sent a record-breaking haul to the Thunder in exchange for Paul George. The price? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round draft picks, and two first-round pick swaps. On paper, it was a win-now gamble to pair George with Kawhi Leonard in LA. In reality, it became a generational jackpot for OKC.
And now, after a title run led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the final tally from the trade looks like this:
Oklahoma City Thunder Receive: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, Jalen Williams, Tre Mann, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Dillon Jones, 2025 first-round pick swap, 2026 first-round pick
Los Angeles Clippers Receive: Paul George
In 2019, the trade felt justifiable. George was coming off a career-best season with the Thunder, averaging 28.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 2.2 steals per game while shooting 38.6% from three.
He was First-Team All-NBA, First-Team All-Defense, and finished third in both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year voting. Pairing that version of PG with Kawhi Leonard seemed like the perfect move to form a title favorite.
But the results couldn’t have been more different.
The Clippers reached just one Western Conference Finals in the six seasons since, never made the NBA Finals, and were plagued by injuries, underachievement, and crushing playoff exits.
After years of pushing deep into the luxury tax and failing to break through, LA let Paul George walk in the 2024 offseason to the Philadelphia 76ers, without any compensation.
Meanwhile, the Thunder flipped that same deal into a championship foundation.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander blossomed into a bona fide superstar and claimed the 2025 MVP and Finals MVP honors. Jalen Williams, acquired through one of the picks from the deal, has turned into an elite two-way wing and future All-Star.
Other assets like Dillon Jones have provided rotation depth, and the Thunder still own a 2025 pick swap and a 2026 first-rounder from the deal.
This wasn’t just a good trade, it was a franchise-altering heist.
To make matters worse for the Clippers, they sacrificed their future for a championship window that never opened.
Even with Kawhi Leonard and James Harden still on the roster, the team looks like it’s running on fumes, their flexibility gutted and their future mortgaged, all for a player who never brought them to the mountaintop.
As Oklahoma City hoists the trophy and looks poised to dominate for years to come, the Paul George trade stands as a cautionary tale. Win-now moves can backfire catastrophically. The Clippers gave away the keys to their future. The Thunder? They turned those keys into a golden dynasty.
In retrospect, it’s not just the worst trade of the modern era; it might be the worst in NBA history.
