Earned Not Given

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The first time I talked to Sam Presti, I was actually at one of the lowest moments of my life. It was supposed to be one of the best, too. This was back in 2019. It was my draft night, and I thought I was like 15 minutes away from living my dream.

Then it was another 15 minutes.

And another 15….

Then the show was over, and I’m sitting there confused. Nobody ended up calling my name.

It definitely wasn’t supposed to go down like that. I felt like I’d had a great year at Arizona State. Throughout the season, I was always projected as a first-rounder. Toward the end of the year, though, I started to slide. First round, then it’s “late first round,” then it’s “early second round.” Who even knows why. But I was OK with that. I went through the draft process, did workouts in different cities and got some good feedback. I didn’t get invited to the green room, but I could still sit in the crowd, so I went with my family. I don’t know, I really wanted to have that moment I’d always dreamed about, where I get up, put the hat on, and shake the commissioner’s hand.

Man, I’ll never forget just sitting there in the auditorium, hearing so many names being called in front of me. Mid–second round I was like, I still didn’t get my name called?? Then it was over. Me and my family got up, and we started heading out. I was just so frustrated, sad.

Then, on my way out the door, my phone rings. It’s Sam. He tells me that he’s offering me a two-way. In my head, I was just like, Any opportunity, I’ll take it. But I won’t lie, it was hard going through that. I was embarrassed. I cried when I went back to my hotel room. I was still crying the next day on the way to Oklahoma City. I was just going through so many emotions. I was pissed off. I wondered what went wrong. And I couldn’t really get a clear answer. I started to doubt myself. I was in my head like, Am I not ready for this? Am I not good enough?

But at the same time I was like, I’m gonna show them who the f*** I am — that I belong.

One thing about me, I’ll do whatever it takes to get to my goals.

My parents immigrated from Haiti to Canada when they were in their 20s, to build a better future for me and my siblings. They had to start from scratch. Seeing everything they had to go through to start a new life, I learned that everything has to be earned through hard work. Nothing’s given. Words I live by. So, when the draft didn’t go the way I wanted, I saw it not as an obstacle, but as a way. When I got to summer league and training camp, my approach was simple: Go earn it.

And that’s the thing about our group. I think a lot of people look at us like, Oh, the Thunder? They just those fun young guys, that NEW generation…. And that’s cool. But honestly, it’s bigger than that in our locker room. Yeah, there’s a lot of joy. We know we’re young, and we embrace the position we’re in. But we all have something deeper we’re playing for.

For me, it’s the city that made me. A gritty and beautiful place called Montréal.

I wouldn’t be here without it. You can go anywhere in the city and find so many people who speak Kreyòl, especially in Montréal-Nord, which is really like Little Haiti. Haiti’s been going through it for a lot of years now, so when somebody has a chance to go live in Canada or America, they’ll do it. And that’s basically how my story started, with my parents making that journey.

Where I grew up, most people, especially Haitians, just immigrated and are starting their new lives. Just keeping it real, it’s a tough neighborhood. Basketball was my way out.

Every summer we had this big street basketball tournament. The games were extremely physical, and there was a lot of trash talking. All the youngins would hoop, and the older guys would crowd around the court. Like PACKED. If you are from New York, picture Rucker Park, or Dyckman. Chris Boucher used to play in those tournaments, and I remember we used to go at it. He was way older than me, but it became like must-see TV. It was crazy.

The crowds at that court were always the LOUDEST, most passionate basketball fans. They rooted hard for us. Having them there just made you want to play your best. You wanted to be nice in front of that crowd. It was like for a few hours, everything was peaceful, everyone was together having fun. That gave me a vision. I thought, This is just a random street ball tournament. And look how much power it has. What if I keep going? I hoped that one day I could bring so much more to this neighborhood.

I have two older brothers, and they kind of told me from the get go, like “Lu, you got a chance to go.” They really believed that, so they motivated me to stay on the right path. When I was 16, I moved to the States to play basketball at a prep school in Florida. That took me to ASU, which took me all the way to the league.

Fast forward to where we are now, and, inside our locker room, my journey just connects me with all the guys. We might be from different places, but everybody has a chip on their shoulder. A backstory. A hometown.

And yeah, over the past few years, we all started to form a deep bond over this shared goal of bringing a championship HERE.

To this city.

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There was a small moment about five years ago, when I realized Shai was like no joke. This was in the 2019–2020 season, before the bubble. I was a rookie, and Shai had just been traded to OKC at the time, with Chris Paul and Dennis Schröder and those guys.

It all goes back to this one night in Detroit.

I remember Coach Donovan had called a timeout, and we were in the huddle. Shai was one of the youngest players on the team, but I think he was already our best scorer. And I don’t know who was calling the play, but basically, the ball wasn’t going to Shai. Shai’s a chill dude. He didn’t get mad or anything. He just kept it real. He was like, “Let me get a couple plays,” or something like that. A young player saying that at the time was like, Oh. He wasn’t out of pocket or anything, it was just bold. It would’ve been one thing if he had said it and gone out and got a few buckets. But it was Shai, so he went on like a 12–0 run by himself. I was like, That’s real.

The chemistry that we got on this team just goes above and beyond. Some of my relationships with these guys go all the way back to high school. I played against Shai growing up — and Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe, too. And then Isaiah played with Jaylin Williams in college. JDub is from Arizona, and he saw me play at ASU. Now we’re all on the same team. So that made it easier for us to connect from the start. And as we added new pieces, everything just clicked. Whether it’s Cason hitting tough shots, or it’s Hartenstein being a dawg on the boards, or it’s Chet doing it all. Everyone has their own personality off the court, and brings their own strengths on the court ... but it’s like it’s all part of this one dynamic. We’ve become super, super close. I don’t know how we built that. One day you look up, though, and you just realize you’re part of a family.

If we get it done…. That will be the best part of the story. It won’t just be about the games, you know?  It’ll be about getting to do it with my brothers.  

It might sound crazy, but some of this season almost feels like it played out how it would in a movie. Life can be weird like that. Like 99.9999% of the time I just try to stay focused on the present and what’s in front of me. But sometimes you get a feeling that something big is coming. And you keep thinking: Appreciate this moment. Try to remember everything. 

I got one of those feelings back in April. A feeling like we had a chance to go deep. I remember we were up to like 60-something wins and had a win streak of 11 games. And still, you never know how it’s gonna play out, so you have to stay humble. Not get too high or too low, with wins and losses. But every now and then…. You could see it. You felt it. It was like, Yo, we got a squad. Damn we NICE.

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In the NBA, your situation can change overnight. That’s how it felt experiencing the playoffs for the first time my rookie year in the bubble. I started on a two-way and by the end of the season I was starting for a playoff team. It all happened so fast, to the point where, I don’t want to say I got exposed … but I got a huge reality check. I wasn’t a good enough shooter at the time. So teams were daring me to shoot the ball. That first trip to the playoffs just opened my eyes. I showed that I could be an elite defender, and I realized that if I could work on shooting the ball at a high clip, I could be a problem. I worked a lot on my three-point shot, and it’s gotten better every season since. Our whole squad got better. Suddenly we went from winning 22 games in 2021 (oof), to 40 a couple years later, to 57, to 68 (!).

One thing I’ll never forget from those losing seasons, though, is that Thunder fans are real ones. Since the team’s been here, you guys have seen so many ups and downs. This city has seen a lot of great players and superstars come through, who put on the jersey and left great memories. I know OKC is a city that LOVES hoops. That fought to get a team here and then treated this franchise like it’s just been here for decades. I came here six years ago as a young kid with something to prove, and I’m just grateful the city embraced me. Now the love I get just going to the gas station or walking around Bricktown or at the mall or just anywhere in the city is insane. We know what we mean to OKC. And every time we can show up for you, we’ll do it.

Last year, we were right there. It just came down to a lack of experience. We were a young team that had a lot of success in the regular season, which is always a good thing. But the playoffs and the regular season are almost like two different seasons. Teams scout the playoffs differently because a team can play in a way that maybe they hadn’t all season. And we expected that, but it was new for us to adjust so quickly. Dallas was tough for us to stop. You can’t really listen to what the people are saying outside, even when you’re the favorite in a matchup. You can’t let that stuff get in your head. One big thing we learned this time last year is that sometimes you’re supposed to win something … and you don’t.

And yeah, I guess as we grew from that disappointment, we also started to find our identity as a defense-forward team. This season I think we cemented that we can compete in anybody’s arena. We’ll make it tough on your best player. We’ll make you turn the ball over. We want to make it hell for you. When you play us, you have to make sure you’re taking care of the ball. It’s crazy, we’ll be watching film after games sometimes, and we see what we’re doing and get really hyped. Just off the energy on the tape. It’s not just a couple dudes getting stops, either. It’s really something that everybody on our team can take pride in. We all put in the effort. And we stood on that the whole season. That’s why we’re one of the best defensive teams in the history of the NBA.

It’s like I said: Earned not given. That’s what I’m about and what this whole team is about. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

That was my mentality back when I was growing up, and that’s how I’m approaching it now. Shoutout Montréal, and all my Haitians, too. In the neighborhood I grew up in, we’re always proud to represent where we’re from. I always repped Montréal-Nord, anywhere I went. And when I got to the States, I was proud to represent Montréal overall, and Canada. I feel like Montréal is an underdog city that people are sleeping on. Don’t sleep. It’s a dope ass city.

I guess you could say I have a soft spot for underdog cities in general. Those places that people maybe don’t see as blockbuster. Small towns, blue collar, you know what I mean? Those places where it feels like they’ve seen a tough moment or two … so the good times feel just a little bit sweeter.

Thunder fans, I know you’ve been through it all. I know you’ve heard all you can hear about how young we are, about how we have so much potential to do great things, about how our window for a title is wide open. And yeah, that might be true for what’s ahead. But for right now? This isn’t about our age, or about our window. This is about the opportunity that’s right in front of us. This is about us being where our feet are — and our feet are right here in OKC, right here with you all, ready to do something special.

It’s the FINALS, you know what I mean? There’s no potential about it.

It’s real now.

So are we.

—Lu