Just over a month ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder outlasted the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to capture the franchise’s first championship since the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Confetti fell inside the Paycom Center as Thunder players celebrated on stage and accepted the Larry O’Brien trophy.

While the players rightfully get much of the praise for bringing home a title, so much goes on behind the scenes that fans don’t necessarily realize. Members of the front office and coaching staff work tirelessly throughout the season and beyond to put their organization in the best spot to claim the ultimate prize.

Such was the case for Leverett native Glenn Wong Jr., who helped create the most efficient and effective work environment for Oklahoma City’s players and coaches in his role as the Thunder’s Vice President and Chief of Staff. Wong grew up in Leverett and graduated from Deerfield Academy and Amherst College before spending time overseas in Ireland, where he earned an MBA from Dublin Business School.

Now, he’s an NBA champion with the Thunder — the second-youngest team in league history to win a title (average age of 25.6).

“I’m just grateful to be a part of it,” Wong said in an interview. “It was definitely an incredible season. It was an accumulation of many years, like great vision from the leadership and the players executing obviously. But yeah, just grateful to be a part of it and see how it all unfolded for the organization and for the city.”

When Wong graduated from Amherst College — where he played basketball and golf — in the spring of 2009, he wasn’t quite ready to call it quits on the hardwood. He played overseas in Ireland while working toward an MBA, and although he didn’t have a solid work plan, Wong knew sports needed to be a part of his future; even if he couldn’t play.

His father, Glenn Wong Sr., had always worked in or around sports. Wong Sr. is a former sport management professor at UMass and served as the executive director of Arizona State’s Sports Law and Business program from 2017-2023.

A similar path felt right for Wong Jr.

“My father is an incredible influence on my life,” he said. “He’s been intertwined in the sports industry, and his guidance and mentorship has been important to me. Being someone that’s played a lot of sports my entire life, I knew that I wanted to try to continue in sports when I was done playing. I didn’t know exactly at what capacity.”

Wong was introduced to Sean Ford, the Men’s National Team Director for USA Basketball, when he finished his time at Amherst College. During Wong’s time in Ireland, he would come back home to western Massachusetts for the summer and work with Team USA.

For the first time in his life, he saw basketball through an entirely different lens. Instead of lacing up his kicks and playing, he was on the business side of it. His stint with Team USA started slow, as he would do simple tasks like the laundry for players, rebounding during their practices/workouts and picking up players or staff from the airport.

But as each summer came and went, Wong began taking on more responsibility. He soon was charting specific details of games and practices for coaches, and breaking down film to put together clips for staff meetings.

When it came time for Wong to nail down a full-time role, his work experience with Team USA gave him the opportunity to get his foot in the door with Oklahoma City. He used his video coordinating background to land him a job as a video analyst with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate team — the Tulsa 66ers.

It was the perfect starting job for him, as video analyst gigs in the NBA have a long track record of serving as springboards to larger roles on coaching staffs or front offices.

“The experiences you gain from that role can be used in so many different capacities,” Wong said. “It’s one of those roles that you can take the learnings from and apply it on the front office or scouting side, because you’re watching so much basketball so you really get to understand the game when you break down film and re-watch clips over and over again. And from a different angle, it forces you to grind and see how you can handle a heavy workload. It’s a difficult job from a time standpoint, but you have to be able to grind through it because the coaches are relying on you … That job helped me with a combination of just watching a ton of basketball, but also getting an understanding for the players and the league pretty well.”

So just as many before him did, Wong used that initial job as a launch pad. He worked closely with OKC Thunder general manager Sam Presti for several years after, and has since become the organization’s chief of staff.

Wong’s main duties now, he says, are to proactively manage interdisciplinary priorities and processes, drive optimal staff performance, and manage the flow of information, interactions and logistics to aid the GM (Presti) as best he can. In other words, he’s there to grease the wheels, and ensure that a strong culture is in place within the team building.

“I worked directly with Sam [Presti] for many years, and I’m just grateful for that opportunity because of everything I was able to learn and absorb,” Wong said. “The experience was fantastic for me. And as the years went on I gained more institutional knowledge of what our standards and expectations are. It evolved into the role I’m in now, which is chief of staff. It’s pretty wide-ranging in responsibilities.”

When Wong spoke with the Gazette, he admitted he hadn’t really had time to fully look back on and appreciate the Thunder’s past season. After they were crowned World Champions, he and the rest of the front office immediately turned their focus to the 2025 NBA Draft, which was set for three days after they won the title.

And following the draft, the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas started up less than a month later. Wong flew to Sin City to carry out his role as the two-week event took place. He said he won’t get the chance to truly settle down until early August, when he’ll visit family and decompress the best he can before another grueling season gets underway.

Wong hasn’t been back to western Mass. roots in a couple of years, but noted he wishes he had the time to visit more. The last time he did come back, he didn’t have anything planned. He hopped in the car with his father — the person who he credits for introducing him to sports, and with it, his love for his job — and cruised around town, hitting all of their favorite spots.

Moments like that make Wong realize just how far he’s come.

“[It’s nice] to do the stuff that I either did in college or just growing up,” Wong said. “Last time I was home I drove by Leverett Elementary School, went to Antonio’s for some pizza, got some takeout from the Hangar, and my dad and I went up to Crumpin-Fox to play a few holes of golf. It’s very nostalgic and always a fun trip to come back to western Mass.”