The celebration just keeps going for the 2025 National Basketball Association Finals champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
B esides OKC having a special day for each player and coach throughout most of the rest of this month, two Thunder players — Jaylin Williams and Isaiah Joe, who are both Fort Smith (Ark.) Northside High School graduates and former Arkansas Razorbacks — are going to get a homecoming celebration on July 24 in “The Fort” with a downtown celebration.
The Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in a grueling seven-game series last month to win the franchise’s first NBA championship since the team moved from Seattle after the 2007-08 season, and earned the franchise’s second-ever NBA championship since the Seattle Super-Sonics beat the Washington Bullets in the 1979 NBA Finals a year after the Bullets had defeated the Sonics to win the 1978 NBA title.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be a Sequoyah County invasion on July 24 to Fort Smith to celebrate Williams and Joe returning home as part of an NBA championship team.
More Thunder Players Sign Contract Extensions
Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti continues to lock in his players to keep the championship mojo continuing.
After National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player and NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jaylin Williams signed contract extensions, you can now double that to four total players to have signed contract extensions.
Last week, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren each signed contract extensions, with Williams inking a five-year extension worth as much as $287 million while Holmgren’s extension was for five years and worth $250 million.
Looks like the Thunder’s nucleus is going to be around until the end of this decade.
Way to go, Sam!
OSU-Arkansas Connection in Basketball
A basketball connection was formed last Wednesday between the Oklahoma State Cowgirls and the Arkansas Razorbacks when OSU hired former Hogs player Izzy Higginbottom as a graduate assistant.
“We are thrilled to add Izzy to our staff,” OSU Cowgirls coach Jacie Hoyt said. “I am so excited for our players to get to learn from a player who just walked in their shoes and had so much success. Her pedigree combined with her passion to pour into our players will be a huge gain for our program.”
This past season, Higginbottom earned honorable mention All-America status from both the United States Basketball Writers Association and The Associated Press. One of the nation’s elite scorers, she finished the year second nationally with her 24.4 points per outing and scored in double figures in 30 of the squad’s 32 games.
Higginbottom appeared on the Ann Meyers Drysdale USWBA Player of the Year Midseason Watch List as well as the Dawn Staley Award Later Season Watch List.
In 2023 at Arkansas State, Higginbottom was named an All-Sun Belt Conference firstteam selection as well as one of 10 semifinalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year. Her 22.2 points per game led the league and ranked eighth nationally.
As a sophomore for the Red Wolves, Higginbottom was named the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year and a second-team all-league pick after averaging 16 points, 3.1. rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
Higginbottom began her career at Missouri where she played in 27 games during the 2020-21 campaign. She averaged six points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game for the Tigers.
A native of Batesville, Ark., she earned all-state and all-state tournament honors in 2019 and 2020. Higginbottom directed Batesville to the 2019 Class 4A state title, earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors, and a state semifinal appearance the following season. She scored a state-record 57 points in her squad’s quarterfinal contest.
American Bicyclist Finally Gets His Honor One of the top national events during July is the Tour de France, a bicycle race throughout western Europe and ends its 21st and final stage on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
The first ever American to win the prestigious race was Greg LeMond, who did so in 1986. He also won the Tour de France in 1989 and 1990.
In 2020, LeMond, now age 64, was scheduled to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor the United States Congress can bestow, which is on par with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, the COVID pandemic hit, which postponed the delay of awarding the honor to LeMond.
Last Wednesday, Le-Mond visited the U.S. Capitol and finally got his honor, which was given to him by U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
It was good that LeMond got the honor with which he was bestowed. He announced in June 2022 that he had chronic myelogenous leukemia, but he seems to have got it treated. It would have been a shame had the combination of the pandemic and leukemia prevented LeMond on getting his honor.
Congrats to Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner Congratulations to Iga Swiatek of Poland and Jannik Sinner of Italy as they are your 2025 Wimbledon women’s and men’s singles champions, respectively. For both of them, it was their first-ever singles championships at “The Championships,” as the famed grand-slam tennis tournament is known in jolly ol’ England.
Swiatek, who was seeded eighth, defeated American Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in Saturday’s ladies singles final, a match that only took 57 minutes. Swiatek’s Wimbledon win now has her ranked No. 3 in the world.
Sinner got his first Wimbledon title by beating rival and defending Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. It was the second straight grand-slam men’s singles between No. 1 Sinner and No. 2 Alcaraz. Sinner avenged his epic French Open loss to Alcaraz, who got his men’s singles title at Roland Garros just five weeks before.
Both Swiatek and Sinner were two of the lucky seeded players to survive to win Wimbledon. This year’s Wimbledon saw 36 seeded players, 19 men and 17 women, get upset during the first two rounds of action.
There’s one more grand-slam tournament left, the United States Open, which will take place Aug. 25-Sept. 7 in New York City.
••• Seeley is the sports editor of the Vian Tenkiler News. He can be reached by calling (918) 7754433, Ext. 139 or by emailing him at davids@ cookson.news.
