Dean Blevins doubles down on Thunder title guarantee ahead of News 9 Finals special

I’m generally not into guarantees. But during the third round of the NBA Playoffs, I signed off a live shot from Paycom, trying to mimic the style in which Charles Barkley guarantees wins. He’ll say, “The Celtics are going to win the East. And I guarantee it!!” Of course, his pronunciation is something akin to ‘I Ga-RONE-tee-it.’

That particular night, after the Thunder's Game 5 home win over Denver, knowing my days of doing this are coming to an end very soon, I said, “The Thunder will win this series and then go on to win the NBA title; I Ga-RONE-tee-it!”

And the closer we get to Game 1 on Thursday against the Pacers at Paycom, the more convinced I am that it is indeed about to happen.

OKC is the second biggest favorite since Cleveland in 2018. OKC has -750 odds to win. SportsOddsHistory has all the details going back to 1973. Put another way, Thunder are the seventh-biggest finals favorite ever.

The past quarter century, those teams with at least OKC’s -700 combined to win seven of those eight times.

So go ahead and like your chances, Thunder fans. Sort of makes my bold guaranteed proclamation a little watered down, but at least it was when they were still in the third round when I imitated The Chuckster. And OKC still had to finish off Denver, then take down the formidable Timberwolves.

Of course, they did, and here we sit, two days before OKC’s greatest opportunity ever to become King Kong of the NBA. And as Kendrick Perkins said in my exclusive interview with him a few days back, the “only thing that could stop OKC is injuries.” And right now, the Thunder is not only healthy but also rested and ready to show the world exactly why they are such favorites.

In short, OKC has the best players and more of them, the best coach(es), the single best player, homecourt and matchup advantages, its best defense ever, better health, and amazingly, continues to improve from series to series.

Of course, nothing is a given. It’s sports. Anything can happen. But heading into Game 1, it is hard to see Indiana finding ways to beat OKC four times, which means they’d need a win in OKC.

Hope you can join us tonight. We’ve got a primetime special on the Thunder vs. Pacers airing from 7-8 p.m. John Holcomb and his crew in Tulsa join our team in OKC to double-team the live show, which is packed with information, interviews, analysis, and predictions. I’m pumped to see my interview with Big Perk. He reveals things I didn’t know and opines on aspects such as the huge difference between how KD, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden approached their finals against the Heat versus the way the 2025 team is approaching this one.

I’ll give you a hint. The word ‘agenda’ comes up quite often from Perk. I know you’ll love it, as well as several other things, including my 1-on-1 with Thunder voice Matt Pinto and John’s 1-on-1 with Alex Caruso. We will make Perk’s entire 20-minute interview available on News9.com after the show.

If you live in Oklahoma (or go online to get tonight’s show) and are a Thunder fan, you know what I’m about to say. I Ga-RONE-tee-it you’ll enjoy special!

See you tonight at 7!