Ryan Weeks

ok state alumni - emotionally hostage to my sports teams

[Luguentz Dort 🇭🇹 @luthebeast]

For the fans who rode with us all season. One game at a time. @PlayersTribune

https://t.co/h3vP0hsXp8

[Thunder Muse @ThunderMuse_]

We will never forget you goat 💙

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@ButchCalloway @Mattyrochest @TheDunkCentral You correlate relevancy with championships, why? A team can be great and still not win the title. Look at OKC, Spurs, and Detroit just from this year (All 60+ win teams), are they not relevant? And how is a different champ year-to-year ridiculous?

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@dirtforgk @richard_normal @fiveninenoshoes Oookay. Painful to watch, lol. To each their own I guess.

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@richard_normal @fiveninenoshoes I just gotta ask, when did the hate start and why? And we’re soulless how? We didn’t tank for 5 years, didn’t sign a star in FA, have multiple 2nd rounders and UDFA on the team, have only 1 top 5 pick on the roster, have great team chemistry, and have a great FO? Help me out here

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@TeamMcKinney @jakefisher I think he’s referring the running joke with long-time OKC Twitter community calling any guy who played for the team a “Thunder Legend”. I use it a lot when I reference Zavier Simpson and Gabby Deck lmao

[Thunder Film Room @ThunderFilmRoom]

Backs against the wall, about to go down 3-1 in the NBA finals — Shai scored 15 of OKC’s last 16 points and outscored the Pacers 14-7 in clutch time to even up the series & go on to win the NBA Finals.

Y’all don’t know what moments are lol.

[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

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

Favorite Cowboy of all time… He was the man!

[That Guy Rocked CFB @ThatFBGuyRocked]

Kendall Hunter.

That guy rocked.

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@royceyoung Undrafted Lu Dort game 7…. Been one of my favs ever since

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@MaxChard2 @TermineRadio This was the guy who said we were the black eye of the league just 5 years before we won a title. He’s in too deep to ever admit he was wrong now, he’s pot committed

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@BrandonRahbar Cam Payne, Hamidou, Tre Mann, Jeff Green at the top of mind.

And Russ, obviously.

[Bears History @ChiBearsHistory]

The scene is set again.

[Chicago Bears @ChicagoBears]

THE CARDIAC BEARS STRIKE AGAIN

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@Tsavagemofo7 @HeatCulture13 KD was also a cone on defensive and has been since he came into the league. I guess he’s talking about himself too

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@Kurtis_Kinter_ @KNOWtheLEDGE4 @HeatCulture13 We traded Ibaka to clear cap for Al Horford, who wanted to come from Atlanta. After KD left, that plan fell through.

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@atothej428 @ChristopherHine Fair enough, to each their own! Also very true about momentum, there’s a ton of factors left out and I was a bit disingenuous.

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@atothej428 @ChristopherHine let’s give Denver an extra 20 free throws because of “obvious fouls”. Let’s say Denver makes all 20 of these. Final score? 113-125. Still a double digit loss.

Ik we won’t agree on this entirely, but in your heart of hearts, do you fr think OKC relies on calls for wins?

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@atothej428 @ChristopherHine C’mon Andrew, we can’t say Shai is unethical when we watched Jokic flop on the ground on all fours like a dog by 6’5 Caruso in a game 7.

At a minimum, you can respect this historically great defense. Denver’s defense better than it’s been in years and you still can’t sniff OKCs

[Ryan Weeks @ryanweeksss]

@lf_Tru @MVPShai2 I still think it understandably leaves a bad taste in fans mouths when you say you’re leaving a sinking ship and go to Denver for a season before winding up in Detroit and Portland…

Could’ve said his goals didn’t align with the orgs, and everyone would’ve understood 🤷🏼‍♂️