Warriors’ Lindy Waters III is fueled by Native American heritage – NBC Sports Bay Area & California
Sitting poolside on a family vacation in Mexico, Lindy Waters III knew his life was about to change on the morning of Day 2 of the 2024 NBA Draft. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, all the 26-year-old had ever known was 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 to acquire the shooting guard who can shine from behind the 3-point line.
“I wasn’t really surprised, but it took me a little while to process it,” Waters told reporters Wednesday at Chase Center. “This is the first time I’ve ever been through something like this. I’m grateful to have my family with me.”
Waters grew up playing with Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young, and starred together at Norman North High School. While Young became a top draft pick in his lone 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 at a tryout.
In February 2022, he signed a two-way contract with his hometown team, where Waters spent the last three seasons between the G League and the NBA.
“It’s pretty crazy, coming from where I come from, to be able to play in pretty much every town in Oklahoma and then make it to the big leagues,” Waters said. “That alone gives me the confidence to know that I can take my talents anywhere and be successful.”
All the trials and tribulations he went through in Oklahoma have guided Waters to this point. But his true guiding light comes from Waters’ heritage, which he is very proud of and will now represent in the Bay Area.
Waters is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe, based in Carnegie, Oklahoma. He is also part of the Cherokee Nation. Oklahoma has the largest Cherokee population in the Americas—extending into neighboring 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 state.
“It means everything to me,” Waters said. “There aren’t many people who can do something like this, coming from where I come from. And I know I have a huge influence in my community. Especially coming from Oklahoma, I see a lot of people who look like me. So I’m trying to be an inspiration to them, trying to do the right thing and continuing to show them that these things are possible.”
The same year Waters made his NBA debut in 2022, he founded the Lindy Waters III Foundation, which aims to enhance and support Native American youth and indigenous communities through sports, leadership programs, and health and wellness. Waters runs a golf tournament in Tulsa that provides scholarships and also runs basketball camps for kids in North Dakota, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
Waters even has a basketball tournament scheduled for his birthday, July 28, where he will give away scholarships to kids going to college, and he says 10 or 11 were given out last year. An Intertribal Council named Waters “Indian of the Year” in 2018. He was named a finalist for the 2023-24 NBA Social Justice Champion Award, and in March Waters was inducted into the North American Indian Athletics Hall of Fame.
“There are more important things in life than what we see on TV,” Waters says. “There’s family, there’s traditions, there’s culture. Materialistic things come and go. You can never control those things. But the thing you can control is how good a person you are.”
“I think being around my family, relatives and tribes and trying to give back to my community has shaped me into the person I am today and that translates onto the basketball court.”
Raising the Chase Center crowd to their feet with a three-pointer is an adrenaline rush that Waters is ready to experience. The real work comes off the court, and Waters knows he’s far from done there, striving to continue making his people proud.
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