OKLAHOMA CITY — Lindy Waters waits.
But don’t worry about Waters. He’s good at waiting. If Waters was jumpy, or anxious, or nervous, he’d never have made the NBA in the first place. Never would have written one of the league’s great longshot stories.
But Waters waits well. So the Norman North and OSU graduate waits for his next NBA contract, and his next stop on a journey that finally took him out of Oklahoma and exposed his story to other ports.
Detroit's Lindy Waters III dribbles around Oklahoma City's Luguentz Dort during an April 2 game in Oklahoma City.
Kyle Phillips, Associated Press file
Waters, who played the previous three years with his homestate Thunder, only to be traded last summer and miss out on Oklahoma’s NBA championship, is a free agent. He might return to the Detroit Pistons, who traded for him in February from Golden State and who seem to like him a lot, or he could be headed elsewhere.
Waters and a bunch of NBA players were in limbo until Sunday, when the league’s new business calendar began and trades became official, like the seven-team deal that included Kevin Durant going from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets.
Now teams will be finalizing rosters, and hopefully there’s a spot for a sharpshooter and straight arrow like Waters, whose story is well-respected in NBA circles.
“Lindy is one of the hardest-working guys that I’ve been around,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said in April. “Look at his background, his story of how resilient he’s been to get here. The way that he had to climb every single day, every step of the way, and you see a guy who deserves it.”
Waters is believed to be the only alumnus of The Basketball League, an independent organization, to go on to the NBA.
“I took a path that not too many guys go,” Waters said Saturday, sitting in an office of the Hive Sports Complex in north OKC, where the Lindy Waters III Foundation hosted the annual Elevated Native Basketball Tournament, for the third straight year. “It’s always fun, getting to tell somebody (his story), when they don’t know. Then they realize, ‘oh wow, this guy grinded it out. Now he’s here.’”
Lots of NBA players came through the G League, the developmental program that the Thunder and all kinds of franchises have embraced. Twelve rotational players in the 2025 NBA Finals had G League experience — the Thunder’s Isaiah Hartenstein, Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin (Arkansas) Williams, Kenrich Williams and Aaron Wiggins, and the Pacers’ Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard, Thomas Bryant and Tony Bradley.
But Waters grinded just to _get to_ the G League. He played for the Enid Outlaws of the TBL in 2020-21, then was invited to a tryout with the G League OKC Blue. That turned into a two-league contract with the Thunder, who eventually signed him to a full NBA deal.
Waters got a bunch of playing time his first two seasons with the Thunder. He averaged 18.6 minutes and 8.0 points a game in 2021-22, then was in the Thunder rotation in April 2023 for the play-in games against New Orleans and Minnesota.
Oklahoma City forward Lindy Waters III attempts a shot during warmups before a preseason NBA game between the Thunder and Dallas Mavericks in Tulsa on Oct. 5, 2022.
Ian Maule, Tulsa World Archive
It’s a magnificent story, and it explains why now, at age 27, Waters is not riding waves. He remains low-key and steadfast.
“It wasn’t like, ‘if I keep working, maybe I’ll get a shot,’” Waters said of his days when he didn’t even get picked in the 2020 G League Draft. “I was not even thinking about it at that point. I was just working out. I just did what I needed to do, and if one day someone would call and give me a chance, great, if not, it wasn’t like hoping, praying, please give me a chance.
“I felt like if I got to that point, then I’d be desperate. But then I had to think about the things that I did have, and it goes back to what I’m doing now. Being where my feet are.”
Waters figures that if he never got that call from the Blue or the Thunder, he’d still be the same person he is today.
But he did get that call and that chance, and now he’s played in 156 NBA games; 2,054 NBA minutes; made 212 NBA 3-pointers; and scored 806 NBA points, including 25 in a single game.
It’s a storybook tale, but it’s not Hollywood. Hollywood would have kept Waters with the Thunder as it went on its championship run, culminating with an NBA Finals Game 7 victory over the Pacers two weeks ago.
“It’s a little bit of mixed feelings,” Waters said. “Obviously, I wanted to be with them. I know everybody, have great relationships with them, still talk to them to this day. But at the same time, I was very happy watching their success. I couldn’t be more happy for our city to have a championship.”
Waters is part of the Thunder alumni that helped build the foundation but didn’t get to walk in the parade. Guys like Josh Giddey, Tre Mann, Mike Muscala and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
But those guys didn’t grow up in Oklahoma. Weren’t a proud Kiowa Tribe member in Native-rich Oklahoma. Didn’t come to Thunder games as a kid. Waters is that rare NBA player who played for the team of his youthful fancies. He got to be part of the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander/Jalen Williams/Chet Holmgren/Dort/Wiggins/Joe/Jaylin Williams/Kenrich Williams group that made history.
“They’re just as proud of me for my journey, as well,” Waters said of his pride in the Thunder’s championship. “Obviously they all wish I was there, just as much as I do. At the same time, I’m not going to let it hold me back or make me feel any type of way. I just gotta be present where my feet are and be grateful for what I have.”
The Pistons have lost one sharpshooter, Tim Hardaway, in free agency to the Nuggets, and another, Malik Beasley, is in limbo after being named in a federal gambling investigation. Most believe Waters will return to Detroit, an upstart franchise that made the playoffs for the first time in six years and took the New York Knickerbockers to a rousing six games in the first round.
“There’s a lot of options right now,” Waters said. “I’d be glad to go back to any of the teams that I’ve played for. I know it’s business at the end of the day. I’d love to go back to Golden State or Detroit. I loved their organizations, they were awesome. Oklahoma City would be a dream as well. Right now, I’m just looking for wherever I can play the most.”
Waters made a quick connection with Detroit star Cade Cunningham, who arrived at OSU the season after Waters graduated. Cunningham’s older brother, Cannen Cunningham, was on the OSU staff in Waters’ final two Cowboy seasons.
“The (Pistons) organization is kind of embodying how Oklahoma City runs things,” Waters said. “Very tight-knit group, young talented corps and a coaching staff that actually cares. So everybody was bought in, from top to bottom of the organization. Everybody had a relationship, and it was fun to go into work there.”
Waters is not an outgoing personality. But he makes solid relationships. He calls himself a “Cowboy for life,” after his four years at OSU. Waters calls 36-year-old Wayne Runnels, a teammate on the Enid Outlaws, an “older brother,” and Runnels was at the Hive on Saturday, helping out with the tournament. The Golden State Warriors, a team for which Waters no longer plays, sent two representatives to Oklahoma over the weekend to support the tournament.
Who doesn’t want to be a part of a story as great as Waters’?