Thunder celebrates Thanksgiving with Positive Tomorrows
Thunder rookie Darius Bazley hoisted a small child, whose face was painted like Spiderman, over his head. The boy had attempted a daring underhand midrange shot on the 10-foot hoop. After he missed, Bazley helped him get closer to the rim.
With a grin on his face, the young child tossed a layup off the rim and airballed the putback. By then, other children in blue "Positive Tomorrows" T- shirts had gathered around Bazley, rebounding for their classmate. Bazley either didn't realize or didn't mind that the Thunder Cares event was in the final stages of wrapping up.
The Thunder celebrated Thanksgiving early at Positive Tomorrows' new school building Thursday. The school for homeless children plans to transition into the new space by the end of the year, upgrading from 8,000 square feet to 42,000. With that extra space, Positive Tomorrows hopes to expand from a maximum of 74 students in pre- kindergarten through sixth grade, to 210 with ages ranging from birth through eighth grade.
“This whole place is amazing,” said Thunder center Steven Adams, who had visited the old building for previous community events. “… Even though the other building didn't look as nice and (have) the bells and whistles and stuff like that, they were still doing their job, and that's what got them this.”
On Thursday, 14 Thunder players, plus several Thunder Girls and Storm Chasers, joined the Positive Tomorrows students and their families to host an afternoon of games, balloons, cookies and crafts.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander estimated that he spent 10 minutes at the Cupcake Walk station – a tamer version of musical chairs where no one is eliminated, and the winner gets a cupcake. One student asked Gilgeous-Alexander for a chocolate cupcake.
“And he was not letting me leave until I got him one,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, grinning. “I ended up getting him one, so it was cool.”
In the “Makers Room,” Devon Hall helped a child glue a mustache on the paper bag turkey they were decorating, while Dennis Schroder fielded his questions:
“Are you a basketball player? Is he a basketball player? I really want to be a basketball player.”
In the gym, Bazley helped a young girl perfect the loft on her cornhole toss. Chris Paul accepted a one-on-one challenge on the basketball court from a kid half his height.
“I think the job for players and stuff like that with what we're doing here, because it's just a one day thing, is just to have a fun day." Adams said. "Try to forget about some of the negative stuff. … The real work, in terms of actual impact, it's this thing here: this building, this organization.”
Injury report
Thunder guard Hamidou Diallo was held out of practice Thursday morning with knee soreness, coach Billy Donovan said.
Donovan will update Diallo's status Friday before OKC's 7 p.m. home game against Philadelphia.
Andre Roberson ( left knee injury recovery) remains out.
Diallo made his fourth career start Tuesday night at Indiana. The secondyear guard is averaging 22 minutes per game for the Thunder — more than double his playing time from his rookie season.
Diallo is averaging 8.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on 50 percent shooting.