Even on rare off days, Brooks Barnhizer keeps himself busy. As the Oklahoma City Thunder sit atop the NBA standings with a league-best 10-1 record, the 23-year-old has absorbed knowledge like a sponge. He’s taken advantage of perhaps the best staff of teachers he’s had — no offense to his alma mater.

There’s no better group to get advice from than the reigning NBA champions. The Thunder continue their regular-season domination as they enter their second year with mostly the same group. Plenty to learn if you’re a two-way rookie hoping to carve out an NBA career.

One intangible Barnhizer has related to is the Thunder’s ongoing community involvement. Sure, all 30 NBA teams engage in community work throughout the year. But it means especially more for small-market franchises whose only professional sports team is their NBA team.

After a grueling four-game road trip, Barnhizer spent Monday supporting blood donations. Abbott and the Big Ten Conference have partnered to raise awareness of critical blood shortages across the country. They enter their second season together of ‘The We Give Blood Drive’ initiation.

All 18 Big Ten schools compete to see who can donate the most blood throughout the college football season. The winning school receives a $1 million grand prize to advance student and community health initiatives. Of course, Barnhizer spent four college seasons at Northwestern from 2021-25 before being taken with the No. 44 pick of the 2025 NBA draft.

While the inner competitor of Barnhizer hopes Northwestern wins the blood drive, he’s just happy to see an entire generation of college students become educated on the importance of giving back.

The United States is constantly in need of blood donations. Someone needs blood every two seconds in the U.S. Every donation saves up to three lives. The competition’s goal is to see future generations donate blood more often. For Barnhizer, he collaborated with the program because of his firsthand experience growing up.

“It’s really special to me because my grandma had cancer when I was growing up, and she was a really big role model for me,” Barnhizer told Thunder Wire. “And then, kinda seeing her journey with cancer, I kinda learned that a lot of cancer patients need blood. And they can’t really get it because we have a shortage.”

If there’s one fanbase Barnhizer can count on to help out, it’s the Wildcats. He sees similarities between Northwestern and Thunder fans. He described it as being a family-oriented bunch. The prestigious school might have an acceptance rate of 7.2%, but if you get in, you’re immediately welcomed with open arms.

Barnhizer can attest to that as he spent his four college seasons there. Northwestern was backed by an active fanbase that loved to watch hoops. And he’s confident they also love to help others out. He hopes they can climb the rankings among the Big Ten schools.

“I can go back there whenever for the rest of my life, and it’ll always be home,” Barnhizer said. “… It’s a gritty fanbase. Like in a lot of the ways that we would play on the court. I would just really, really embody just the student body and the fans, too.”

Thoughts through 11 games

He probably already anticipated this heading in, but Barnhizer has realized there are levels to this. Going from the Big Ten to the NBA is quite the jump to make. That’s not to say his old collegiate conference was filled with cupcakes, but there’s a reason only about 1% of D1 college players graduate to the next level.

Barnhizer has appeared in nine games. He’s tallied eight points and 15 rebounds in his minutes. The short-handed Thunder have juggled injuries all season. Mainly Jalen Williams’ absence. That’s allowed Mark Daigneault to call on his two-way rookies to provide some sorta spark when needed.

“I think the one cool thing about me and Thomas (Sorber), we definitely knew that this year would be a really big learning year, but we’re also trying to get better every day in that learning process and period,” Barnhizer said. “Through growing, through our experiences and just trying to stack days. Whether it be the NBA, G League or whatever it may be. Just trying to positively impact this organization.”

Preparing for the G League

It’s no secret that Barnhizer will likely spend time on the G League’s OKC Blue this season. The two-way rookie only has 41 games left this season to be active on the Thunder. You don’t want to burn through all of those right now before the calendar even flips to New Year’s.

As the Blue kicked their season off this past Friday, expect Barnhizer to don their jersey now and then. It comes with the territory of being a second-round rookie on an NBA champion. You don’t get as many live reps as you’d like to see.

But Barnhizer is ready for whenever that time comes. He’ll get a chance to grow a rapport with Blue head coach Daniel Dixon. He’s in his first season of his new gig. But both have had a chance to get to know each other a little bit through the 2025 Summer League.

“He’s just a really cool. He played, and he’s a younger head coach, so he has a really good feel for young guys trying to find their way. That’s what a lot of the guys on our Summer League and G League team would be trying to do is just trying to find our way,” Barnhizer said. “So I think he’s a great man to lead that. And I can’t wait to go play for him.”

Playing with the MVP

It’s surreal how quickly life can be in the sports world. Just eight months ago, Barnhizer suited up for the final time of his collegiate career. He kept up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s historic MVP and championship ring season from a distance, but just as a fan.

Now, eight months later, Barnhizer shares a practice gym with Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s had a front row seat to the price of all-time greatness. Fans only get to see the glitz and glamor. But for every two-hour game, there are hundreds of private workout hours and buckets of sweat that go into the equation.

What has Barnhizer made of his first couple of months as Gilgeous-Alexander’s teammate? He said the reigning MVP stays connected to his teammates. When you reach the all-time status he has, it’s easy to feel alone at the top.

“I think that some of the coolest like moments for me just being around him are just seeing how down to Earth he is and how he’s just like everybody else,” Barnhizer said. “It just makes it even more cool to just see somebody like that. He’s a great dude and an awesome family man. Just go out there and just do what he does on a nightly basis.”

Part of Barnhizer’s development is how he complements Gilgeous-Alexander. Best-case scenario, he’s another energy guy off the bench. If his jumper can be sharpened, he can be a role player who gets plenty of outside looks as the reigning MVP slices through defenses and demands the attention of all five opposing players.

“It’s just really cool to see because I think everybody knows that he reps every shot he takes a million times. And he has counters to those shots, like he says. And he has counters to those counters,” Barnhizer said. “… As a young guy, how do I make his job easier? That’s all you want to do. Just try to go out there and get some stops for him, make some shots for him and get him the ball back.”

Initial impressions on Hartenstein

Just a couple of days after the Thunder celebrated their NBA championship with a parade, the front office had to pivot to the 2025 NBA draft. The league schedule-makers did them zero favors with quite the whiplash. All things considered, Sam Presti made out pretty well with their light two-player draft.

As Barhizer addressed the OKC media for the first time in late June, he revealed an interesting anecdote that sounded uncharacteristic for the tight-knit group that had other fanbases upset over their postgame interviews together — none of his new teammates had reached out to him.

Wait, what? Seriously? Thunder fans were surprised. They gave them the benefit of the doubt, though. After all, just days removed from an NBA championship, most were probably still in party mode or in the early stages of recovery.

Either way, no excuses. Isaiah Hartenstein quickly corrected that miscue. He texted Barnhizer to welcome him to OKC. Soon, the rest of his new Thunder teammates followed suit.

Let’s put that in the proper context it deserves.

The new guy — who’s only been in OKC for barely over a season — felt like it was his responsibility to reach out to Barnhizer. While they play polar opposite positions with vastly different skillsets, both had similar starts to their NBA journey. Hartenstein was the No. 43 pick of the 2017 NBA draft. It took several years and NBA homes before he found his footing in the league.

If anybody knows the importance of building a relationship, it’s Hartenstein. He was rewarded with the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award last month. His foundation has quickly become an OKC staple. On Halloween, he had matching costumes with his child to look like Sullivan and Mike from ‘Monsters, Inc.’ at a community event.

“Even in the last two games, he’s been playing amazingly. And it’s cool. It goes to show that I think character really does have a really important part to play in people’s basketball careers,” Barnhizer said. “I feel like this is an organization that really values that and knows that. It’s honestly just a joy to be around guys like — from top to bottom.”