Thunder Rookie Domantas Sabonis Visits NW Classen High School

Domantas Sabonis hasn’t been in Oklahoma very long, but the Thunder rookie is already making a name for himself around the OKC community.

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Sabonis stopped by Northwest Classen High School on Monday afternoon to walk the halls and meet various students, while he also made an announcement on the school’s intercom system.

“I think it’s awesome,” Sabonis said of his experience. “I just love being with the kids, I know when I was a kid and I had basketball players come over and visit us it meant to the world to me so I just want to give back to the kids.”

Along with meeting students, Sabonis was able to give the Knights’ football team a pep talk, seeing Northwest Classen will host Piedmont this week for homecoming. Sabonis’s message was short and sweet, but coming from the newest member of the Thunder, there’s no doubt it made an impact on the Northwest Classen players.

“Just stay strong, fight together and everything will work out,” he said.

Sabonis is an incredible talent out on the basketball court, but seeing the big man spent most of his childhood in Europe, he isn’t very familiar with the sport of football.

“I hope I can finally get a real lesson in American football,” Sabonis said. “Some of my teammates at Gonzaga would teach me a bit, but I don’t know much. It doesn’t exist in Europe.”

Sabonis was acquired by the Thunder in the draft-night deal that sent Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic, and his tough style of play should fit in nicely with OKC’s already rugged batch of post players. Sabonis averaged 17.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game in his final season playing collegiately at Gonzaga.