Dillon Smith

Prestige Worldwide

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

@DrewMestemaker looks like @MrJerryOC

[Enes Kanter FREEDOM @EnesFreedom]

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

[Royce Young @royceyoung]

https://t.co/5N61lra2HE

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

MVP is over.

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

@jholder43 @Eddie_Rado Hole crap!

[Big Cat @BarstoolBigCat]

Halloween as a parent is the absolute best. Watching your kids get so excited and have the best time ever just being kids is such an incredible experience through a parent’s eyes.

(Also I’m currently eating all their candy while they sleep)

[Bruce @_Bruce__007]

"No man in this whole world wants you to be better than him except your Dad"🙏🏻

[SLAM @SLAMonline]

"Let's do it again and see what they have to say this time." - Dub

The Thunder aren't resting in the lead. They're ready to run it back. More with Jalen Williams for SLAM 258: https://t.co/HTcR7FIQBC

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

Had a dream that @jdubwttp called me and asked if it was cool if he took my son to McDonald’s since he is his favorite player 😂

[Royce Young @royceyoung]

Mark Daigneault has said before Isaiah Hartenstein is the man.

Isaiah Hartenstein is indeed the man.

[Tom Haberstroh @tomhaberstroh]

I slept on it. I had to do it.

OKC's title deserves an asterisk.

They join my definitive short list of championships with an asterisk: https://t.co/64akHmFGbR

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Just in: Thunder star Chet Holmgren is off the team's injury report, clearing the way for him to return to action Friday against the Toronto Raptors in OKC. At 40-9, Thunder's remainder of regular season will feature reintegrating Holmgren into the young, rising title contender.

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

.@NickAGallo unphased

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

😂😂😂

[Thunder Film Room @ThunderFilmRoom]

What a screen from Alex Caruso.

[Kirk Herbstreit @KirkHerbstreit]

Thank you again for all the outpouring of love for our Ben. I can’t tell you how much it means to me and my family.

He wasn’t just my best friend – he was America’s best friend ❤️

[Joe Wheat @joewheat27]

This QB matchup looks like a pirate captain who just pillaged a fleet of merchant ships and the British admiral tasked with sailing the 7 seas to send him to Davey Jones.

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

AMERICA

[Pardon My Take @PardonMyTake]

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Dillon Smith @dsmee33]

Luka is a mother faker.

[Pat McAfee @PatMcAfeeShow]

"All of the players that I've defended as a coach nobody was harder than you..

Nobody had the ability to attack the field like you did @BarrySanders" ~ Bill Belichick

#PMSDraftSpectacular