It’s been a pretty good month or so for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While the team was narrowly unable to make it out of the Play-In Tournament, Oklahoma City established itself as a tough, fun, up-and-coming team in the Western Conference. Their star guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, earned All-NBA First Team honors, while first-year wing Jalen Williams nearly received a unanimous All-Rookie First Team nod.
All of this, mixed with a number of other fun youngsters and the impending return of 2022 first-round pick Chet Holmgren, gives the Thunder an ultra-bright future. One reason for optimism is head coach Mark Daigneault, who is one of the best Xs and Os coaches in the NBA. Daigneault is also apparently a golfer, and on Thursday, he got the chance to participate in a Pro-Am in Tulsa alongside Phil Mickelson. His first tee shot was, well, it could have gone better!
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault playing with Phil Mickelson in the LIV Tulsa Pro-Am.
Opening tee shot? Off my camera.
#LIVGolf #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/55DigdqpRk
— TJ Eckert (@TJEckertKTUL) May 11, 2023
Here’s his tee shot from another angle, where you can see that Daigneault looked like he found the whole thing pretty funny.
Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault is playing with Phil Mickelson in the LIV Golf Tulsa pro-am.
(Yes, he took a breakfast ball. Yes, @TJEckertKTUL is OK) pic.twitter.com/X2SzViD3nz
— Cameron Jourdan (@Cam_Jourdan) May 11, 2023
In fairness to Mark Daigneault, this is a shockingly good impression of me whenever I try to hit a golf ball off of a tee, so I am choosing to take this as the highest form of flattery.