Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder attempted to hire Brian Windhorst away from ESPN approximately 10 years ago. Windhorst has long been one of the NBA's most plugged in reporters with sources at all levels of the basketball world, which could have given the Thunder an advantage by using his network for intel.

“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.”

The Thunder have previously hired Sebastian Pruti away from Grantland as a video analyst, as well as Royce Young from ESPN for a basketball operations content role.

The LA Clippers hired Lee Jenkins from Sports Illustrated for a behind the scenes role, as did the Denver Nuggets with Mike Singer.