iStockphoto
NBA players spend a good chunk of the season on the road, and while they typically stay at the nicest hotels the cities they visit have to offer, there’s one allegedly haunted option in Oklahoma City that’s been the source of some spooky stories over the years.
I can’t say I’m intimately familiar with the hotel scene in Oklahoma City, but plenty of teams who’ve headed there to face off against the Thunder have ended up staying at the Skrivin Hilton Hotel, which is a ten-minute walk (or two-minute bus ride) from the arena.
While it may be a convenient option, it’s also one with links to the supernatural.
The hotel is named after former owner William Balser Skirvin, who opened it up for business all the way back in 1911. Skirvin supposedly had an affair with a maid named Effie, who got pregnant as a result. He allegedly locked her in room 1015 in an attempt to cover up the misdeed only for the worker to commit suicide by leaping out of the window, and many people are convinced her restless soul has haunted the building ever since.
While there’s no hard evidence to support that legend, it’s nonetheless stood the test of time—and there are more than a few NBA players who seem to buy into it based on the tales that have surfaced over the years.
NBA teams and players claim they’ve been haunted by a ghost that roams the hall of the Skrivin Hotel in Oklahoma City
Getty Image
The supposedly haunted nature of the Skirvin Hotel was famously an issue when the Knicks faced off against the Thunder on January 11, 2010, as multiple members of the team said they had trouble sleeping due to mysterious noises and occurrences the night before a loss.
Eddy Curry said he was only able to get a couple of hours of shut-eye while staying on the 10th floor (where the maid was supposedly imprisoned) and eventually went to stay in Nate Robinson’s room on a different floor as a result (Jared Jeffries also firmly stated “This place is haunted” when asked about his experience).
A few weeks later, multiple members of the Bulls claimed they also ran into some issues. Taj Gibson asserted a bathroom door had slammed in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason, while Derrick Rose said he also heard strange bumping sounds that convinced him something was amiss.
When the Lakers headed to Oklahoma City in 2015, Lou Williams decided he wasn’t taking any chances and opted to book a room in a different hotel to avoid staying at the Skirvin. The following year, Ron Artest dropped a hilarious quote when he discussed an experience he had at one point in time, saying:
“The ghosts were all over me. I just accepted it. They touched me all over the place. I’m taking one of the ghosts to court for touching me in the wrong places.”
Kyrie Irving (a man who has been known to buy into some fairly outlandish theories) seemingly managed to avoid a similar encounter, although he received an official apology from Hilton when he was forced to play limited minutes after being bitten by bedbugs during a stay at the Skirvin in 2016.
A few years later, he announced his plans to star in and produce a horror movie inspired by the hotel, but it appears the film got stuck in development hell.
Again, there’s no concrete proof the Skirvin is actually haunted, but those stories do make you wonder if there’s some truth to the rumors.