Coach Mark Daigneault's Oklahoma City Thunder is preparing for the season opener on October 20 at San Antonio and hoping center Aday Mara can break a run of terrible rookie injury luck. The Thunder are a popular NBA championship pick by GMs around the league and Mara's stellar preseason play is a big reason why.

Mara is expected to be in uniform for the opener, but his former Spanish club Zaragoza has threatened to block him from playing, saying he is under contract for the 2026-27 season. The club said it has not received a request for international transfer and would block one if such a move was made. The Thunder released a statement on the matter according to NBA writer Marc Stein.

“Aday last played three years of NCAA college basketball and therefore, as advised by the NBA, no clearance from the Spanish team is required to play in the NBA,” a Thunder spokesperson said according to Stein.

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Mara was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft after leading Michigan to the NCAA men's basketball national championship. He averaged 12.1 points per game and shot 66.8% from the field for former Wolverines coach Dusty May's team, becoming one of three lottery picks among his teammates including Morez Johnson Jr. of the Dallas Mavericks and Yaxel Lendeborg of the Golden State Warriors.

The Thunder lost rookie guard Otega Oweh to a ruptured right Achilles tendon earlier this week, but are expected to enter the 2026-27 NBA season with one of the league's deepest teams. Mara has garnered considerable hype from his strong preseason performance and has been called the ‘Wemby stopper' by some fans, referring to the Thunder's arch rival Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. Mara's size (7-foot-3, 263 pounds) gives him the chance to play major minutes for Daigneault's team as a rookie, heightening the urgency surrounding his contract status.