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Inside OKC Thunder pick Jaylin Williams' NBA Draft party celebrating Arkansas basketball star

Bryant Roche
Fort Smith Times Record

Jaylin Williams sat in the center where multiple tables in Northside's arena lined up the Arkansas All-SEC forward with his family on Thursday night. There were his four siblings, his parents to his right and left when the Grizzly great was selected 34th overall in the NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder, the closest franchise to his Fort Smith home.

Projected as a late first or second round selection, Williams socialized with guests for much of the evening. The biggest tease came when the Thunder selected Santa Clara's Jalen Williams 12th overall. Same team, different player, but the same pronunciation was enough to quiet the crowd and catch Williams off-guard.

Williams and his family came together at the tables after the Minnesota Timberwolves made the 19th overall pick. As teams passed, Williams kept his emotions inside like the tattoo honoring his grandmother who died in November hidden beneath his gray suit's sleeve.

At 10:15 p.m., a call from his agent informed him that he would be joining the Thunder, about 2 1/2 hours from Fort Smith. Two minutes later, the announcement was made public with the arena's video board showing ESPN's broadcast.

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"The main reason I wanted to bring it back here was just because I wanted all of my family here," Williams said. "Probably more than half of the people in this room are family to me and this past year hasn't been the easiest for us and just sharing this with everybody I love and my family, I didn't want anything else."

The 2020 Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year in high school, Williams played two  seasons at Arkansas. As a sophomore, he was third on the team with 10.9 points per game while averaging a team-leading 9.8 rebounds.

Williams led the nation with a school-record 54 charges and also set new Arkansas single-season marks in total rebounds (364), rebounds in SEC games (183) and rebounds per game in SEC games (10.35) for the 2021-22 campaign.

Despite his great college success, the 2019 state champion didn't forget about his roots as he prepared to become the third Northside player to be picked in the NBA Draft and the sixth Fort Smith native.

Fort Smith Public Schools athletic director Michael Beaumont had previously talked about the ability of the $14.5 million venue that opened in January to hold marque events beyond games. So  they couldn't decline when Williams sent coach Eric Burnett the request for a private party on draft night.

"When he texted me about three weeks ago, I was actually taking a nap and then I woke up and saw it," recalled Burnett, his high school coach. "And I couldn't dial his number back fast enough. I didn't want to text him and called him and said, 'Yes, that would be great. I'll do anything you need me to do.'"

From there, Burnett met with Williams' father Mike  every week to organize the watch party. 

Williams' mother Linda ordered the food, catered by Gusano's, a pizza restaurant whose Fayetteville shop had a name, image and likeness deal with the Razorbacks star.

Those attending included family, friends, coaches and teammates. His brother Marquis and sister Synora Phillips were Northside basketball state champions  in 2007.

"I was just telling someone else, I thought that was going to be the biggest sports memory I would ever have ... I thought it couldn't get any better than that, but here we are," Linda Williams said. "I was proven wrong."

You can follow Bryant Roche on Twitter @BRocheSports and you can email him at BRoche@gannett.com