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Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams was named to his first All-Star Game. The third-year forward spoke to the media after practice on Saturday. He discussed how surreal the weekend had been thus far before Williams' mom's emotional reaction put things into perspective.
Upon Williams' arrival on All-Star Weekend, catching up with Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and his coaching resonated with the 23-year-old, as Williams revealed during his media availability after practice, per The Oklahoman's Joel Lorenzi.
“Just sharing this experience with them is dope. I actually haven't even seen Shai yet, but just seeing my coaches is cool,” Williams said. “Obviously, they get to have their families here. It kind of just brings you down to earth a little bit because everybody's going through this really cool experience; a lot of us are doing it for the first time. So, it's been really cool to go through this with my team, people that I'm in the trenches with every day.”
Before then, Williams admitted that the honor of making his first All-Star Game hadn't completely sunk in. However, that began to change when Jalen shared a special moment with his mother.
“It's starting to a little bit,” Williams replied. “My mom got a little teary-eyed yesterday. So, that made it [sink in] a little more. I think practice made it a little more real. It's starting to hit me now that we're not playing.”
Williams was selected by Team Kenny in this year's All-Star Game. His All-Star teammate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will play for Team Chuck in this year's new format.
Jalen Williams reacts to his first All-Star selection with Thunder
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams says he and his team are blessed to have high expectations. After leading the Western Conference standings throughout the 2024-25 campaign, Williams revealed he wasn't concerned about not being named an All-Star.
For Williams, improving as an individual and as a team is always the goal.
“I don’t really worry about that,” Williams said. “I wanna do more to win games; wherever that falls is where it falls. I feel like once you get wrapped into that it starts to hinder team success. It’s something cool. I think that would be awesome to go. Obviously, my school is right there too, so that would be pretty cool as I’m telling you the reasons I’d like to go.”
Williams' hard work is undoubtedly a testament to making his first All-Star appearance.
