On his last legs, his body in disregard all these seasons later, Derek Fisher feels so validated in the private moments people around him point out his significance. He’s always lived for the big shots, but he knows it’s his voice and habits everywhere that most serve the Oklahoma City Thunder. For Scott Brooks, Fisher is a daily reminder of team culture, a model of placing an imprint that goes far beyond his meager statistics.

From Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol to Lamar Odom, Fisher witnessed leaders forget about individual benchmarks and forfeit time away from the court for his five NBA championships. He’s pursuing a sixth now – one final ring before retirement – and in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Fisher knows there’s a commitment to fill any vacancy on the floor.

He’s noticed the two Thunder stars develop an understanding about removing themselves from a second tier of elite, and into champions. On the court, Durant and Westbrook have become more comfortable with the responsibilities, more vocal in huddles. Off the court, Westbrook and Durant lead a close, diligent team with young players eager to break out in Reggie Jackson and Steven Adams.

“Eventually – regardless of how long you’re in this league – you soon realize that winning and being on a winning team separates you from everybody else,” Fisher told RealGM. “There are big time scorers, talented players, guys that fill the stat sheet on every team. But now Kevin and Russell have realized in their short, but brilliant careers that winning and playing on a championship team is what will separate the two of them from the other great players who have big numbers.

“Guys are putting extra pressure on themselves and feeling like our task is something extraordinary, something beyond what we’re doing.”

Within the locker room, these Thunder remain bitter over how Westbrook was snatched away against the Houston Rockets last season, an opportunity lost after the franchise’s best regular season. A devastating knee injury to Westbrook derailed what likely would have been a deep playoff run, but he returned earlier than even some teammates expected, returned as explosive as ever.

For his part, Durant has posted up from the top of the key with greater frequency than past seasons, exploiting defenders by pulling up for jumpers over them and with a clear vision of defenders arriving to double-team him. It’s an old Dallas Mavericks wrinkle for Dirk Nowitzki that Brooks sharply installed a season ago, and some scouts believe that the Thunder are able to get Durant and his shooters in rhythm quicker with the play set early in games.

Westbrook has a leveled edge to him that balances with Durant’s grace, a passionate energy increasingly filling his teammates with positivity, and with both healthy the Thunder are as dangerous a threat to the Miami Heat as any Western Conference team.

Never take winning for granted, nor the tireless work toward it, Fisher still tells them. This is why the NBA Finals defeat to the Heat creeps into their minds sometimes.

“I don’t think there’s been one transformational moment, but obviously the loss in the 2012 Finals is still very memorable, still a memory to us,” Fisher says. “It’s part of the organizational process, and part of the progress that’s been made since the team has been in existence. From moving to Oklahoma City in 2008, to what’s been built here year in and year out since.

“We’re still pushing ourselves to reach the level that we believe we’re capable of reaching. That’s of being a championship level team. We realize we have work to do, but with a young team we’re trying to continue to hold ourselves accountable to play at that level each night.

“What we’re trying to do and where we’re trying to go is the next step in our evolution.”

Eighteen seasons into his career, Fisher knows he’s a marginal scorer, a pro whom Brooks can place into the game’s bleakest of positions. He’ll go scoreless plenty of times throughout this year – yet it’s in those games when there will be a rebound, a defensive stand that Brooks lets his entire roster know about postgame.

In the locker room after the Thunder’s recent road win over the Milwaukee Bucks, the coach gave Fisher the greatest compliment of all: single him out with praise in front of his teammates and staff members. For everyone minimizing the values of Fisher and Kendrick Perkins, Brooks plays the role of instilling confidence externally.

“When [Fisher] doesn’t score a point, he still impacts the game,” Brooks says. “I tell the guys … that’s how you play: with your heart every possession, and good things will happen.”

Now at 39, Fisher is no longer bracing for another NBA season, no longer in competition to see whether he’ll last as long as Kobe Bryant. They came into the league battling each other as Lakers rookies, but they almost assuredly won’t leave together too. As Bryant prepares to return this season and for a few more, Fisher wants to beat him to No. 6, heading out of the league first in the process.

“It’s my last season,” Fisher told RealGM, “so I don’t have to worry about pacing myself for next season per se. I’m trying to make sure that I’m ready every night for whatever the team needs me to do. Whether it’s being active on the defensive end or making the timely basket, by and large it’s just about being a leader by example and continuing to show our guys that you help your team win by doing whatever it takes – not just things that show up on the stat sheet.”

For Scott Brooks, no one on the Thunder is a better example – with the credibility, the world titles – to deliver these messages than Fisher. He’s still the relentless, 6-foot-1 guard willing to put his body on the line for a late stop, a crucial rebound.

A wide smile covers his face, because there’s no more pacing the body for a 19th season. This is his farewell year. Then Derek Fisher’s voice becomes focused talking about Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, about how they’ve come so far to grasp how to separate themselves from superstar players to champions.