COVER STORY
Lessons from the Tulsa Race Massacre
BY PARIS LAWSON
BROADCAST AND DIGITAL REPORTER
IN OCTOBER OF 2016, the Oklahoma City Thunder played the Memphis Grizzlies in a preseason game in the BOK Center. The exhibition contest in Tulsa was all but irrelevant in the grand scheme of an upcoming 82-game NBA season.
This game, however, was different.
Sitting courtside was a 4-year-old boy, giddy with excitement as he buzzed in and out of the aisles. He watched wide-eyed as towering, celebrity NBA players sprinted up and down the floor with highlight-worthy crossovers and posterizing dunks.