`Spirit of this city'
Only the rust le of the Survivor Tree's leaves broke up t he muffled sounds of the city Tuesday morning at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
A visitor walked along the torso-high wall just beyond the shade of the tree. Between the words “will” and “not” he stopped and leaned over the wall, taking in the rest of the memorial: 168 chairs in remembrance of those killed in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a reflecting pool with towering gates on either end.
“The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith will sustain us,” the wall reads.
This was the feeling the Oklahoma City Thunder
committed to capturing in its 2019-20 City Edition jerseys. The product of over a year of design work with Nike and the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum stood in a new temporary exhibit inside. The Thunder unveiled four jerseys Tuesday morning, and when the memorial museum opened Tuesday morning, a mannequin wearing the highlight of that lineup, a City Edition jersey in honor of those affected by the Oklahoma City bombing, stood in an exhibit just beyond the front desk.
“It was breathtaking,” said Kim Neese, survivor and chair of the Memorial Conscience Committee .“Just an awesome feeling of something that we've been working on for a year and half, two years, to see completion and finally be able to talk about it.”
Just like the memorial itself, the Thunder's new charcoaland-gold uniform features the Survivor Tree flanked by the Gates of Time. The 90- yearold elm that withstood the blast appears in full color on the waist band of the shorts. Bronze side panels that extend from the jersey through the shorts are shaped like the gates. A time stamp appears under each: 9:01, the minute before the bombing, and 9:03, the minute after. The memorial explains that the 9:01 gate represents“the innocence before the attack” and 9:03 symbolizes“when healing began.” The shorts also bear a white stripe for the reflecting pool.
April 19, 2020, will mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing.
It was always going to be difficult to embody a site so important to Oklahoma City. So, the Thunder enlisted the help of those who would know how best to honor those affected by the bombing: the Memorial Conscience Committee.
At least aye a rand a half ago, by Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum Executive Director K ari W atkins' s estimate, Watkins brought the idea to the Conscience Committee, which is made up of survivors, rescue workers and family members of victims and survivors.
“The gasp and the awe they had and the honor they felt that the NBA and the Thunder would use one off our uniforms to honor what they had lost and lived though ,” Watkins said, “it was one of the most remarkable moments I've had in this job.”
From there the Thunder, the museum Executive Committee and the Conscience Committee went back and forth with Nike to hone each element. According to Neese, it was important to the Conscience Committee for the Survivor Tree to be displayed prominently on the belt. Watkins said finding the perfect gold was an involved process. They landed on bronze to match the real gates and 168 chairs.
“Just the overall appearance of it,” said Police Chief Wade Gourley, who was a first responder at the scene of the bombing, “you can tell there's a lot of detail a lot of thought in it, that it really is designed to honor what the community of Oklahoma City did (in reaction to the bombing).”
The Thunder and the Oklahoma City Memorial & Museum have a longstanding partnership. General manager Sam Presti brings every player through the memorial and museum when he joins the team, and Presti serves on the museum's Executive Committee.
Along with using i ts City uniforms to pay tribute to the memorial and what it stands for, the Thunder will underwrite a new exhibit focused on the Oklahoma Standard. Watkins said they hope to open the exhibit before April. The Thunder also pledged to fund free admission to the museum once a month for the year 2020.
“The Oklahoma Standard came out of the bombing experience ,” said Justice Steven Taylor, chairman of the museum's board of trustees. “`What can we do for the first responders and the survivors and the families of those who were killed ?'… This (memorial) became a kind of symbol of all of that. So, it's appropriate that that's what the Thunder wanted to do.”