See a preview of the new film ‘The Oklahoma Standard,’ coming to ESPN
ESPN’s E60 storytelling brand tells how the rise of the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder helped the city emerge from the shadow of the 1995 bombing.
As the OKC Thunder continue to fiercely defend their title as reigning NBA champs, “The Oklahoma Standard” is getting a second cinematic moment of the 2026 playoffs.
“Two documentaries and one standard,” said National Memorial & Museum President and CEO Kari Watkins. “We’re thrilled — THRILLED in all caps — to be sharing this story with different audiences, different generations, through different storytellers.”
ESPN, through its award-winning storytelling brand E60, will debut a moving new feature documentary “The Oklahoma Standard” at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 26, on ESPN. After its broadcast bow, it will be available for on-demand viewing on the ESPN App.
Chronicling the special bond between the OKC Thunder and the Oklahoma City community, which was devastated by the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the E60 film will premiere one week after the 31st anniversary of the bombing and one week after the Thunder tipped off Round 1, Game 1 of its playoffs run.
The ESPN film also is debuting one week after the premiere of a powerful new short documentary also titled “The Oklahoma Standard.” The 14 1/2-minute short film is executive produced by Thunder starting center Isaiah Hartenstein through his Hartenstein Foundation and is available to view for free via Hartenstein’s YouTube channel.
“We’re honored that two different groups wanted to share the story we’re teaching in this museum,” Watkins said. “They have a different reach, a different audience, both of them, and they’re sharing the story with the world.”
SGA, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and more are featured in the new ESPN documentary ‘The Oklahoma Standard’
On April 19, 1995, in downtown Oklahoma City, a truck bomb parked outside the Murrah Building detonated at 9:02 a.m., leaving 168 people dead, including 19 children, and injuring more than 680 others.
In the days and years that followed the bombing, the consistent acts of compassion, generosity and neighborly support by Oklahomans in the wake of the tragedy became known as “the Oklahoma Standard.”
“As a kid, growing up in the northeast, working on this documentary taught me things you can’t learn in textbooks. You can learn about the events from April 19, 1995 — but until you visit Oklahoma City, you can’t get a sense of the strength, resiliency, and warmth that resonates from the entire community, a beautiful thing born from such a tragic event,” said David Seronick, director of E60’s “The Oklahoma Standard.”
“To then see the deep and true connection that exists between the city and the Thunder is such a remarkable thing to witness and makes this kid from Boston want to root for the Thunder. None of this would have been possible without the help of the Thunder and wonderful people at the memorial.”
Detailing the Thunder’s ties to Oklahoma City’s painful past, the emotional 48-minute documentary “The Oklahoma Standard” — designed to run in an hourlong time slot — is produced by Simon Baumgart with reporting by ESPN senior writer Baxter Holmes. A Choctaw Nation citizen who grew up in Oklahoma, Holmes previously explored the story in an ESPN.com piece published last fall, a few months after the Thunder won the NBA championship.
The ESPN documentary details the horrifying impact of the 1995 bombing, briefly covers the capture and conviction of the bombers and chronicles the building of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. It includes interviews with Watkins, current OKC Mayor David Holt, former Mayor Ron Norick and Thunder fans Kyle Genzer and Sara Sweet, who both lost parents in the bombing.
See a clip from ‘The Oklahoma Standard,’ ESPN’s new Thunder documentary
The documentary debuts at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 26, on ESPN and will be available for on-demand viewing afterward on the ESPN App.
But most of the film is devoted to the Thunder’s move to and success in OKC, delving into General Manager Sam Presti’s search for the new NBA city’s “origin story,” his own initial experiences visiting the National Memorial and his decision to require all new Thunder players and staffers to tour the museum upon their arrival in OKC.
Along with footage of Watkins leading the team’s first tour in 2008, plus photos and clips of subsequent players’ tours, the film includes interviews with Hartenstein, reigning NBA and NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star big man Chet Holmgren and Thunder legend Nick Collison.
It also features interviews with former Thunder stars Kevin Durant, who says he’s “grateful to be an alumni of the Thunder,” and Russell Westbrook, who says he was happy to see “the best fans in sports” get to experience last year’s championship season.
“I think when it’s done, people have a different outlook on their opinion of Kevin. This place, this story, has made an impact on players since 2008, and we don’t always know exactly the impact,” Watkins said. “We’re thrilled that they remember their time here.”
She noted that the ESPN documentary’s debut on Sunday, April 26, will coincide with the main events for the annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, which brings thousands of runners, volunteers and visitors to downtown OKC for the “Run to Remember.”
How is Isaiah Hartenstein’s ‘The Oklahoma Standard’ documentary different than ESPN’s film?
Although Hartenstein is included in both new documentaries titled “The Oklahoma Standard,” the Thunder star was much more involved in the creation of the short film through his Hartenstein Foundation.
The new short documentary immediately immerses people in the chaotic terror of the April 19, 1995, bombing. Within the first 3 1/2 minutes, though, the archival footage shifts to images of Oklahomans delivering food, water and medical supplies, plus waiting in line for hours to donate blood.
The short film includes interviews with survivors, first responders and family members of those who died in the bombing as well as Hartenstein’s first-person account of how his tour of the memorial and learning about the Oklahoma Standard changed his life.
“Coming here, I didn’t really know so much about it, and it really helped change my perspective,” Hartenstein told The Oklahoman. “That was our biggest goal, just educating people on the Oklahoma Standard, just helping people maybe change their views a little bit on giving back. That’s definitely important to me, but then also just showing people how great Oklahoma City is.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.oklahoman.com ’
