Why Native American heritage drives the new Waters warriors Originally appeared in NBC Bay Area Sports
Sitting by the pool during a family vacation in Mexico, Lindy Waters III He learned that his life was about to change on the morning of the second day of the 2024 NBA DraftBorn in Norman, Oklahoma, the 26-year-old has only known the Sooner State.
That changed a week ago, on June 27, when Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy sent the Warriors’ second-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for acquire the escort Who can light it up from behind the 3-point line?
“I wasn’t really surprised, but it took me a while to process it,” Waters told reporters Wednesday at Chase Center. “This is the first time I’ve been through something like this. I’m thankful I had my family with me.”
Waters grew up playing with Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young and played together at Norman North High School. While Young became a top draft pick in his only season at Oklahoma, Waters played four years at Young’s rival, Oklahoma State.
After going undrafted, Waters’ long journey to where he is now began in The basketball league for the Enid Outlaws in Oklahoma. Six months later, Waters was signed by the Oklahoma City Thunder’s G League affiliate, the OKC Blue, after impressing the organization in a tryout.
In February 2022, he signed a two-way contract with his hometown team, where Waters has spent the last three seasons between the G League and the NBA.
“It’s crazy, coming from where I come from, to be able to go through almost every town in Oklahoma and then make it to the big leagues,” Waters said. “That alone gives me confidence to know that I can take my talents anywhere and be successful.”
All the trials and tribulations he went through in Oklahoma led Waters to this point, but his true guidance comes from his heritage, which he is extremely proud of and will now represent in the Bay Area.
Waters is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe, whose headquarters are in Carnegie, Oklahoma. He is also part of The Cherokee NationOklahoma has the largest Cherokee population in the United States, extending into surrounding areas of Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri, followed by California.
As one of the few citizens of a Native American tribe to make it to the NBA, Waters’ pride in his people extends beyond any one state.
“It means the world to me,” Waters said. “There aren’t many people who are able to do something like that, coming from where I come from. And I know that I have a huge influence in my community. Especially coming from Oklahoma, I see a lot of people that look like me. So I’m trying to be an inspiration to them, trying to do the right thing and continue to show them that these things are possible.”
The same year Waters made his NBA debut in 2022, he founded the Lindy Waters Foundation IIIwhose goal is to uplift and support Native American youth and indigenous communities through sports, leadership programs, and health and wellness. Waters runs a golf tournament in Tulsa that offers scholarships and also hosts basketball camps for children in North Dakota, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
Waters even has a basketball tournament scheduled for his birthday, July 28, where he will award scholarships to kids going to college, and he says 10 or 11 were awarded last year. An intertribal council named Waters “Indian of the Year” in 2018. He was named a finalist for the NBA’s 2023-24 Social Justice Champion award, and in March Waters was inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame.
“There are more important things in life than what we see on TV,” Waters says. “There’s family, traditions, culture. Material things come and go. You can never control them. But what you can control is how good a person you are.”
“I think being surrounded by my family, my relatives and my tribes and trying to give back to my community, I think that has made me the person I am today and that translates to the basketball court.”
Getting the Chase Center crowd out of their seats after a deep three-pointer is a thrill Waters is eager to experience. The real work comes off the court, and Waters knows he’s not done there as he strives to continue making his people proud.