OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Isaiah Hartenstein was born in 1998, three years after Oklahoma City changed forever.
It was April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb detonated outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in the deadliest homegrown attack on U.S. soil. Hartenstein didn't know much about the bombing when he joined the Oklahoma City Thunder last year.
And then — like everyone else who wears the Thunder logo — he had to learn.
“I think it just helped me kind of understand what the city’s been through," Hartenstein said. "And from that, I learned how connective and supportive the city is.”
The Thunder didn't even exist in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened; the franchise that had been known as the Seattle SuperSonics didn't relocate to America's heartland until more than a decade later. But it has been part of the steadfast commitment that the team shows the city; the bombing still resonates deeply here, and the Thunder have taken great pains to not ignore the impact it had, and has, on Oklahoma City.
That is why every newly acquired player, even those on tryout contracts or just training camp deals, and every person who gets a job with the organization, has to go to the memorial. They see the 168 chairs, one created for every person who died in that bombing. They see pictures, they hear stories, they see how Oklahoma City reacted in the immediate aftermath and the months and years that followed.
“I was on that tour within a month of working here," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "There’s literally no one that has ever put a (Thunder) logo on their chest that has not been through there, because it’s just such a big part of the story of the city. The kindness, the compassion that this city has, this community has, not only for the team but for one another ... it’s probably born out of that shared experience this community has had.”
There is no NFL team in Oklahoma City, nor is there Major League Baseball (though the city does have a rich baseball history and streets named for all sorts of greats like Mickey Mantle, Joe Carter and Johnny Bench), or an NHL team. When it comes to the four major pro U.S. sports, the Thunder are the only game in town.
And the fans simply love their team. They come early, they leave late. The clapping is in rhythm, as are the “O-K-C” chants (which sometimes get replaced now by “M-V-P” chants for NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander).
“I mean, this crowd is amazing,” Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton said after the Pacers rallied in the final second and beat the Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. “They are all standing up doing claps and synchronized clapping to the beat before the game. I mean, this is an unbelievable crowd. It’s the best crowd we’ve seen on the road all playoffs.”
Put simply, Oklahoma City is a place where people have each other's back. Hartenstein said one of the things that sticks with him, when he learned about the bombing, was that so many OKC residents flooded the area out of a willingness to help that some had to be told to go back home.
“At that time in this country, there was nothing like that," Daigneault said. "It was completely unprecedented and really rocked not only this city to its core, but the country to its core at a time where there was a lot more innocence around something like that in the world and in the country. It was a real shaping event, not only for the city, but the country.”
Thunder guard Alex Caruso remembers his tour as well; it came not long after he signed an Exhibit 10 contract and played for the franchise's G League affiliate.
What he saw, and what he learned, sticks with him even now.
“You just have so much empathy and sympathy for people that you know went through it and have to live with the consequences of that,” Caruso said. "I think the cool thing about the organization is no matter how big, small, what your role is on the team, you make a trip out there just to learn about the history of it, how it did impact the community and understand why the relationship is so tight between this team, the organization and the community.”
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Fans run through the rain before Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
Fans listen as the national anthem plays before Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Fans cheer before Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Nate Billings)
