The background of Luguentz Dort’s iPhone was impossible to see. Message banners filled the screen less than an hour after the Thunder, led by Dort, shredded Sacramento on the road.



On that Wednesday night in December at the Golden 1 Center, “Luuuuuuuu DORT” echoed through the Thunder locker room as teammates excitedly bellowed Dort’s name before his moment with the media. Dort is less than 20 games into his NBA career and he’s already achieved cult status for his defensive gems against James Harden, Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell. But that night was different, a career-high 23 points to shine a light on how he’s made the Thunder better in totality.



It says even more about the 20-year-old’s impact when he missed the first 10 3-point attempts of his career and he was still flooded with text messages.



Dort’s popularity, his respect in the Thunder organization from the front office to the players, didn’t...