‘Just Our Way Of Saying Thank You’: Thunder Honors Community Draft Picks

For the past three years, on press conference day to present their draft picks to the city, the Oklahoma City Thunder have also presented their community draft picks.

“Just our way of saying thank you for all the things they do in the community, to make this just a great place to be,” said Vice President of Community Engagement for the Thunder Christine Berney.

This year the Thunder selected, or drafted, Mautra Staley Jones with Oklahoma Community college, Stacy Dykstra with the Regional food bank, Debby Hampton with the United Way of Central Oklahoma, Dr. Valerie Thompson with the Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City, and Jorge Hernandez with Tango Public Relations.

“What an incredible moment, finally someone thinks I’m important enough, big enough to get drafted,” saidHernandez.

For being selected, the draft picks were able to sit down for some personal time with head coach Mark Daigneault.

“Coach is phenomenal, I’m really excited about the energy he brings,” said draft pick Thompson.

“What a privilege to sit down and learn more about the coach, have him ask us questions about us and what we do,” said Hernandez.

“They have some personalized jerseys that they are going to put on in a little bit, they’ve got a little photo shoot that they are doing,” said Berney.  

Community draft picks also had reserved front row seats and received recognition during the press conference presenting the basketball draft picks.

Community draft picks speculated on why they were selected.

“It’s my height, I know,” said Hampton.

“You can’t get a better player than Valerie Thompson and the Urban League,” said Thompson.

Basketball draft picks also met and took pictures with the community draft picks, reinforcing the message that the Thunder are all about community.

“What I love the most about the Thunder and what I love the most is that it is just ingrained in their culture to help our community,” said Hampton.

The community draft picks all agreed that they would definitely be wearing their official jerseys to the games, and if called on by coach Diagneault, they would not hesitate to go into the game.