Oklahoma fans have to do whatever it takes to get up to Omaha to support the #Sooners Truly a one of one experience, great atmosphere and fans can make a huge difference.
6.5 hour drive of pure beauty from the metro. Make the trip, you won’t regret it. #Believe
To my Oklahoma family;
this piece comes straight from the heart.
I hope you’ll take a moment to read it and feel what I felt.
Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of it.
I came to @okcthunder to play basketball. I left carrying 168 lives.
When I was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was thinking about basketball, nothing more.
I didn’t know that before I ever stepped on the court, this place would show me something that would stay with me far longer than any game.
Like any player, my mind was on the game. A new team, a new city, a new opportunity. I expected the usual routine when I landed in Oklahoma City. Physicals, practices, meetings, and a jersey waiting in a locker.
But before any of that, Sam Presti pulled me aside and told me there was somewhere we needed to go.
He didn’t explain much, and I didn’t think to ask. I was focused on the next step in my career.
What I didn’t understand was that, before I could represent the place I was about to play for, I needed to understand it.
So instead of heading to the facility, he took me to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
I walked in without knowing what I was about to see, and within minutes, everything slowed down.
There are 168 chairs at the memorial, each one representing a life lost on April 19, 1995. They are arranged in quiet rows, each engraved with a name, each standing where a person once stood in that building. Then you notice something that is impossible to process the first time you see it. Some of the chairs are smaller.
They belong to children.
There is no speech that prepares you for that, no headline that captures it. You simply stand there, and the silence carries a kind of weight that is hard to describe but impossible to ignore.
As you walk through the memorial, you pass between two gates marked 9:01 and 9:03. At first, they seem like simple numbers, but then you understand what they hold. One marks the last minute before the attack. The other marks the first minute after. And in between those two gates is 9:02, the moment when everything changed.
That minute does not feel like history when you are standing there. It feels present.
The reflecting pool stretches across what used to be a city street, its surface calm and still. When you look into it, you do not just see water. You see yourself standing in a place where unimaginable loss occurred, and for a moment, everything else in your life becomes quieter.
Nearby stands the Survivor Tree, an American elm that was damaged in the blast but endured. It is not untouched. Its scars are part of what it represents. But it is still standing, and in that, it carries a kind of strength that does not need to be explained.
We did not speak much while we were inside. It did not feel like a place for conversation. Some places ask for words. This one asks for reflection.
When we stepped outside, Sam Presti looked me in the eye and said, “This is what this state has been through.”
Then he said something I will never forget.
“Every time you step on that court, you are not just playing in front of fans. You are playing for a state that carries this with it. Give them everything you have. They deserve that.”
In that moment, basketball felt different.
Not smaller, but clearer.
Because what I had just seen was not only about what was lost. It was about what remained. A state that had experienced unimaginable pain and still chose to come together, to rebuild, and to move forward without losing its humanity.
From that day on, every time I stepped on the court, I carried that with me.
On the nights when I was tired, when I was hurt, when I was dealing with challenges that felt heavy in the moment, I would think about those chairs, about that minute, about the people behind those names. And I was reminded that what I was going through did not compare to what this state had endured.
https://t.co/XfNLliRVaO
PSA: If you hit play on “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins at 11:56:20PM this New Year’s Eve, the drum fill will welcome you into 2026. Start the year the right way.
📸 Terry O’Neill
"Tampa doesn't just love Baker... The world loves Baker." ♥️
Congratulations to @bakermayfield on being named our club winner for Walter Payton Man of the Year! 👏
1 RT = 1 Vote #WPMOYChallenge
Four years ago this week, Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC and Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU.
And for that, Oklahoma and Notre Dame will forever be grateful.
Trevin Michael (Piedmont HS, NOC Tonkawa, OU) has been promoted to (AAA) Toledo in the Detroit Tigers organization
Michael’s line at A+ this year: 4-0, 3.10 ERA, 3 SV (3 SVO), 29 IP, 19 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 10 BB, 38
#SoonerStatePros
Watch Grady wear the Miller uniform one last time.
Grady Hoke takes the mound today at noon, representing the Large West in the All-State Game at David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid.
We’re proud of everything he’s accomplished in a Miller uniform.
Good luck, Grady!
Memorial Day isn’t about barbecues or beach days—it’s about those American heroes who gave everything for our freedom.
THIS 70-SECOND VIDEO CAPTURES WHAT THE DAY IS TRULY ABOUT. 🇺🇸
BOOMER SOONER BOOMER SOONER BOOMER SOONER
We got a box from THE Oklahoma Sooners and man oh man is this stuff SWEET!
Thank you Coach Venables and @OU_Football for sending this box... BOOMER!!!
Thunder fans, this is your chance to win one of these team-signed jerseys right in time for the Playoffs! 🎉
Here's how to enter:
- Like & reshare this post
- Comment with a Thunder GIF