Payson Wayne Slater

A lot of people whose children go to private schools make all the decisions for public schools in Oklahoma. Doesn’t really make sense to me.

Oklahoma beat Michigan 24-13 in a major ranked non-conference showdown early in the season last year. This matchup means absolutely nothing in a 24-team format. #18 Michigan (9-3) is comfortably in anyway and the loss to Oklahoma is forgotten.

Just gonna sit back and watch this season. Hopefully keeping Dayton for this upcoming season will mean a whole bunch! Automatically saying he’s a depth/bench piece and there to give starters a breather is ________.

Austin Reaves is the free throw merchant NBA Twitter thinks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is.

Lakers win the Free Throw Battle by 15 Thunder win the Game by 23

Live look of me consuming every piece of Thunder hate content I can find:

Yeah we might be 50th in education but we figured out how to get the NBA to rig the entire league and turn the Thunder into a dynasty. Should sell online courses about it if we're being honest. More on that in weeks to come.

The OKC bias HAS to stop… The refs made the Lakers turn the basketball over TWENTY TIMES tonight 🤯

Dillon Brooks staring down the bartender on the beach in Cancun after getting swept by the Thunder

Texas Tech defeated a COMBINED 8 draft picks in their ENTIRE 2025 season. For context, Texas and Oklahoma defeated SINGLE TEAMS that had more draft picks. We MUST get rid of automatic qualifiers that allow SECOND RATE teams into the playoff.

So I gave everything I had, not just because it was my job, but because it was a responsibility. People talk about culture in sports as something that is created through discipline, habits, and accountability. Oklahoma taught me that culture runs deeper than that. Culture is memory. It is understanding what a community has been through and choosing to honor it, not with words, but with how you show up every day. I came to Oklahoma City to play basketball, but before I played a single game, this state showed me something far more important than wins or losses. It showed me what it means to carry the weight of a place with dignity. It showed me that there are people in those arenas who have lived through the unthinkable and still choose to stand, to cheer, to believe. And it taught me that when you step onto that court in Oklahoma, you are not just playing a game. You are honoring 168 lives. You are stepping into a story that did not begin with you and will not end with you. I played 180 games for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and before every single one, I reminded myself of that responsibility. Each night, I dedicated the game to one of the 168 people who lost their lives in that attack. Every time I stepped onto the court, I carried a name with me. A life. A story that was taken too soon. And over time, I realized something I will never forget. For me, those were games. For them, there were no second chances. And if you truly understand that, then giving anything less than everything you have is not just a mistake. It is a failure to honor who they are.

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. oklahoman.com/story/opinion/…

Let’s get it. #ThunderUp

I don’t know, I think it would be a pretty viral story if Adam Schefter was having an affair with Andy Reid.

When I empty the dishwasher and fold laundry without my wife asking me.

Auburn complained very loudly about missing the NCAA Tournament. I didn’t agree with lots of the arguments made on their behalf, but they went and won the NIT Winning is a much better way to make a point than taking your ball and going home like Notre Dame football did this year

Geno's tantrum saved this first night of the women's Final Four. The on-court play has been brutal. Geno has served as a wonderful distraction from the primitive play.

Elite: The legendary Adrian Peterson speaks on where he ranks himself all-time among RBs. “When I look at the way I played the game, and how my mentality was… I feel like I was the best in my own right and how I played the game. I don’t feel like there will ever be a player that played the game like me.” AP was one of the most talented players ever 🐐

Adrian Peterson. That guy rocked.