Author: Mike

I would say probably…yes–given how much better the Denver Nuggets should be if they avoid serious injuries during the season.

But I will add this hastily–there need to be nights when we witness both JDub and Chet play at Superman levels themselves.

Shai is the star. JDub is Robin who on certain nights will play at an MVP level himself. Chet is the extra piece. If he can stay healthy and go thru an entire season without serious injury—he’s the piece which potentially makes the Thunder a possible repeat team, but perhaps even a little more, maybe a mini-dynasty which could do what we’ve just witnessed the Kansas City Chiefs do these last six years or so.

Sam Presti has done his work.

As the Thunder are currently structured this franchise at the least has an open window to an NBA championship for at least six seasons.

Injuries and fate will play a part in this. Those two unpredictables always come into play. A general manager cannot control those two variables.

I have not watched either the the Thunder or Nuggets play a combined ten minutes of pre-season basketball.

MJ detests NBA pre-season games. Pre season games are for evaluation and in some cases conditioning.

This is by far the most amped I’ve been for an NBA season since I started my modest award winning underground NBA blog.

So…in closing—does Shai have to be Superman for the Thunder to repeat?

Yeah…there are and will still be times he needs to be Superman like George Springer was last night, but what I think most NBA bloggers like myself are looking for…is how far JDub and Chet move their games upward this season.

I’m ready for this to get going.

MJ

MJ is back from an idyllic week in Greenwood Village, Coloardo. It was perfect as we caught the immense and stunning autumn foilage at peak color. Just stunning the colors were of the maples, ash, gingko, spruce, pistache, oak, and aspen trees. And the burning bushes with their deep red are absolutely stunning. Don’t sleep on the burning bushes.

Plus, we spent a half day at the Denver Botanical Center on Thursday…and then ate at a vegan restaurant by the name of the Next Level Burger. It was right there on the strip at the University of Denver…and it was awesome. Not as good as the Red Cup in OKC, but awesome.

Robert was solid in his hockey game on Saturday and Aubrey did well at her gymnastics event as well. We are blessed as grandparents.

Throw into the mix the Sooners’ complete physical domination of South Carolina on the road and the Denver Broncos remarkable fourth quarter rally from a late 19-0 deficit to beat the NY Giants on the game’s final play by a score of 33-32. And of course… another win for my Packers and it was a great football week-end as well.

What more could an old ‘iconic’ NBA blogger ask for?

Plus…it was nice to see the O State students took my advice and diversed their in-game antics to include not only dancing partially nude, but to include some include jumping human bananas as well.

I like it. I admire their creativity. This is what life is all about..that being, responding to adversity. How were any of these young people to know O State would would self-administer the death penalty to their own football program by allowing Mike Gundy to return this season?

These youngsters in Stillwater did nothing wrong. They and their parents thought or assumed they would be attending a school which played Division I football.

So MJ’s advice to these younsters is the same…partial nudity, the bananas were a nice touch, now maybe some sort of dangerous live animal like a lion, a tiger, or a bear would add to the diversion to what is actually transpiring on the field.

What a nice moment last night for George Springer and the entire country of Canada as GS’s 7th inning dinger propelled the Jays to their first World Series since 1993 when Joe Carter Jr. went yard off of Mitch ‘Wild Thing’ Williams with the most famous walk-off homer of all-time.

I must admit..it was emotional last night for me…thinking back to my father’s close relationship to Joe Sr. who became my fishing mentor as a youngster. I will admit–I teared up a little. I was 36 years of age when Joe Jr. went yard off of Wild Thing. Mitch Williams was never the same as a major league pitcher after allowing that homer.

The Thunder open their defense of the NBA championship tonight with a home opener versus the Houston Rockets minus Fred van Fleet.

I’m more than excited about this NBA season.

MJ is pumped.

Eternal peace.

MJ

Despite OU’s feeble performance in the second half of the Red River Rivalry…life goes on. Yesterday’s NFL games all went the right way for me as Green Bay beat a punchless Bengal team, Baker Mayfield’s amazing Bucs improved to 5-1, and the Denver Broncos leveled their record at 3-3.

I’m not living and dying OU football this SEC season. . It’s up to them. They need to go to South Carolina this week-end and basically block better and tackle better in space. If the Sooners can win this game they’d improve to 6-1, 2-1, and have Ole Miss coming to Norman the next week-end. It’s an amazingly tough gauntlet of seven games. So put the RRR away and my advice would be to not listen to local talk radio. Anotherwords—shut out the outside noise and become a more mentally intuned team.

I was young once, and I have to admit…I did smile when I saw what these kids did at the weekly O State Big 12 blowout loss. Yeah, I mean—it is what it is. If you’re going to attend these games–then I would say keep going topless to deflect attention from the games themselves. Have the women do it as well… that might induce some national interest in the program and a potential sugar daddy donor. Make it kind of like the Rocky Horror Show and conduct an entirely different event taking place in the stands while the game plays itself out.

Drink copious amounts of cold beer, and somehow find something entertaining and fulfilling about this football season. But don’t drink and drive though. Just have a massive area designated for passing out after the game.

There’s no one else left to fire. You’re lucky interim coach Doug Meacham is actually still attending the games. Turn this adversity into something spiritual and positive if you can. Don’t let this define you. Mike Gundy created this bullshit….let it define him.

This song came on today while I was working out. It hit me just right as I was winding down the last fiteen minutes of my very serious cardio/mobility workout. The student stadium organizers at O State might consider using it in one of their routines this week-end versus Cincy. I forgot what a great song this was and still is. Very nice beat.

I’m outta here. Greenwood Village, Colorado bound to see the Fam, Perk, and Tucker… and of course enjoy the natural beauty of the Rockies.

Eternal kindness, love, and peace.

MJ

Not much from the Sooners in the second half yesterday as they led 6-3 going into halftime, then basically were dominated in the second half by the Longhorns.

John Mateer played, but did not play well as he was intercepted three times and almost a fourth time on a backwards pass which was ruled a lateral.

OU did not create a single turnover and only sacked Arch Manning twice. OU gave up a punt return touchdown as well in the fourth period as the wheels came off for the previously unbeaten Sooners.

Adding to problems was OU’s poor clock management in the last minute of the first half cost them a field goal which would have increased their lead to 9-3 at the half.

In the third period, Texas scored its only offensive touchdown from scrimmage on a bust from OU’s Kendal Doby who left a Texas receiver wide open in the back of the endzone on a third and long.

Texas definitely won the line of scrimmage defensively and OU averaged a meager 1.9 yards per rushing attempt and sacked John Mateer four times.

Long story short from me.. if OU wants to finsih 9-3 or even 8-4 Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line needs to pick it up in a big, sigfificant way next week-end at South Carolina.

OU’s next six games are all tough. There is not a single game on the remaining slate where I would see OU as a favorite minus perhaps the South Carolina game… and that will be a tough, tough road game.

OU’s blocking and tackling were both poor in this game. It was by far OU’s worst game tackling of the season in the entire second half. Way too many yards after the first contact by the Soners.

Hence…I in no way as the editor of content on this blog can play the OU Greatest Physical Hits of All-Time on the blog this week.

We have a butterfly mini-park out here on the Deer Creek mini-ranch—so instead of brooding over the Sonners’ poor perfromance yesterday…I’ve been watching the monarchs today. When I was younger…I in no way could have handled a Sooner loss in this manner, but at sisty-eight years of age and a Stage 4 cancer survivor–you learn to modify the order of importance of things in your life.

Would I trade a half day of watching the monarchs for a Sooner win? Of course I would… probably. But since that hasn’t been offered to MJ–I’ll just work my way through the loss in a calmer manner.

Eternal peace.

MJ

My 2-1-1 Packers were idle after their defensive meltdown in a 40-40 tie to the Dallas Cowboys last week. That Packer defense needs to figure some things out in a hurry given the way the Detroit Lions are now playing. Detroit in fact…is now the hottest team in the NFC…or maybe the entire NFL for that matter.

I don’t watch or write much about NBA pre-season games on my blog. I cover games when they’re real games and not just evaluation tools for the eighty-two NBA regular season marathon. Hence…my NBA coverage is in idle mode for the most part currently.

Although I did watch maybe five minutes of the Thunder’s Monday night game versus the Dallas Mavs. My only observation is Michael Cage is still talking way too much and Paris isn’t getting the air time she deserves.

It was an amazing Week 5. The upstart young Denver Broncos stunned the defending NFL champ Eagles 21-17 on the road after trailing 17-3 entering the fourth period. This may or may not be a wake-up call for the Eagles to get the to ball Saquon Barkley and take advantage of his skills. The Eagles appear to have a bit of a Super Bowl championship hangover.

Same could be said for the Kansas City Chiefs who likewise blew a fourth quarter lead on the road to the likewise upstart young Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 31-28.

And then earlier in the week…the upstart young New England Patriots took care of the heavily thought of Buffalo Bills.

Add to the thought the fact the Baltimore Ravens….. who many predicted to upend the Chiefs i the AFC have been brutal defensively to date.

Hence…my NFL Tier I-Top Six Poll reads this way heading into Week 6:

1 Detroit Lions

2 Philadelphia Eagles

3 Buffalo Bills

4 Kansas City Chiefs

5 Tampa Bay Bucs and their frontrunning MVP QB Baker Mayfield

6 Green Bay Packers

That’s it for MJ as far as the NFL goes heading into Week 6. Hope your favorite team is giving you some hope and thrills so far this season.

Peace. MJ

MJ turned 68 on Friday. It’s been awesome, especially considering 66 didn’t appear all that possible at one point.

Love, joy, and loving-kindness just can’t seem to get enough of me. Kindness begats kindness. I’m in this miraculous bubble of faith, love, and mercy and its beyond wonderful. Surreal…would be an appropriate adjective.

I haven’t put anything political on the blog in quite some time because I finally came to the common sense conclusion this is Oklahoma… half of you can’t, don’t, or won’t read anything objective, while the other half of you thought it was a really good thing to put Donald Trump, Markwayne Mullin, and Oklahoma’s Radical Right Superman Ryan Walters in office at the same time.

No additional thoughts on that one from MJ. He has learned his lesson with you people in those 74 Oklahoma counties mentioned on here frequently. My obvious Antifa radical left views surfaced in the mid-70’s and still persist. Those being… I voted for Ford, John Anderson, Bush 41 and John McCain. I had nothing against Reagan, but he just cut taxes too much to in reality be anything close to a monetary pragmatist or responsible fiduciary.

MJ can only hope at this point he isn’t circled by the FBI as a dangerous Antifa copycat subversive of the Oklahoma state government and beyond.

Editor’s Footnote* below.

The defending champ OKC Thunder get their pre-season started later today with a pre-season game versus the Charlotte Hornets. Minnesota beat the Nuggets last night in their first pre-season game. These games aren’t about winning…they’re about evolving and finding out about those guys 11-15 on the roster.

Have a beautiful Sunday. Take time to smell the roses, enjoy the last days of the hummingbirds, and take notice of the butterflies in Oklahoma. I know the previous sentence will brand MJ as a radical left dude even moreso who voted for John McCain…but que sera—it is what it is.

Peace, MJ.

• Fellow left-wing subversive Jeff Bridges asked MJ to block cover pic of this video. Can’t say I blame him. MJ

It’s early October and one shouldn’t make predictions this early, but for me the two best rosters with the two best cores are the OKC Thunder and the Denver Nuggets. Maybe Houston third if Kevin Durant’s body can get him to mid-April healthy. Minnesota should still be a force, but they as a team have to find offensive consistency. IN BOLD TYPE. OFFENSE HAS TO BE MUCH BETTER.

San Antonio and Dallas interest me, but based on their season endings last April … that’s a wait and see for me.

Golden State is another wait and see for me. Too many minutes on the bodies of Steph, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond, plus the unknown of how many times Draymond’s antics will hurt his own team.

If there were an official NBA.com metric for most stupid, bone-headed plays which cause a team to stall…I would guesstimate Draymond has been the runaway leader in that metric ever since he slugged then teammate Jordan Poole several seasons ago. I’m done trying to figure out Draymond’s head. Steph and Jimmy Butler can have that assignment.

The Denver Nuggets are loaded and three of their core members, Nikola, Aaron, and Christian ar coming off career years as far as offensive production. Quite frankly, on my sheet I had both on my lis as playing better than Jamal Murray during the playoffs. They both exceeded expectations, while Jamal struggled at times.

That struggling needs to end this next April if the Nuggets are to deny the Thunder a back to back and in the stead win their second O’Brien Trophy themselves in the past four seasons.

Peyton Watson needs to be more consistent as does Julian Strawther. Don’t forget it was Julian who in reality sparked the Nuggets past the Thunder in Game 6 in Denver.

I’m not at all concerned about Bruce Brown, Cam Johnson, and Jonas V playing well. If you can’t fit your game to Nikola then it probably isn’t happening for you in the NBA. Ask Russell Westbrook’s agent if you doubt MJ on that one.. I love Russell and that’s the only reason I’m not adding another sentence or two to the previous thought.

Bottomline…Jamal needs to be more consistent this season and stay healthy if possible.

Have a beautiful Friday.

More love and less hate. We have to be better than this. We have to.

MJ

I absolutely love listening to this young man speak his mind. What an amazing asset he is for Oklahoma City to have as an international ambassador.

He completely changes the narrative of Oklahoma’s image outside of the city, or even the state for that manner.

Smart, mature, and way beyond his chronological years for certain. Wouldn’t it be something if someone like Shai were actually elected to a position of prominence in Oklahoma at some point in state history.

This dude would have my Nobel Peace Prize votye if I had one. To do what this young man has done in Oklahoma goes beyond the basketball court. It goes to the culural transformation of an American city.

Don’t ever change, Shai. Continue to be the man you are and make sure that is the man Ares immulates to become some day.

Eternal peace and mercy, MJ.

The Thunder finally won a championship in Oklahoma City. The failures of Durant, Westbrook, Paul George, and others have been wiped clean. The slate is full of the possibility of an NBA repeat for the first time in the league in eight seasons.

To make this even more personal…the last NBA repeat was when KD left the Thunder to hook up with Steph, Klay, and Draymond.

The Thunder with the exception of two-way player Dylan Jones return a roster intact. On first blush only the revamped roster of the Denver Nuggets should throw a scare into the Thunder. The East is in turmoil and disarray.

But here’s what MJ would say…for some the Thunder’s championship has an asterisk next to it. The Nuggets pushed them to seven games with four healthy players. Aaron Gordon could hardly walk in Game 7. Russell Westbrook turned into Russell Westbrook. Michael Porter was virtually a non-enity the entire series and yet if the Nugs had held on in Denver in Game 4 …Sam Presti probably wouldn’t be having this discussion with his team this pre-season.

Throw into the mix the asterisk argument…Tyrese Haliburton pulled up lame six minutes into Game 7 of the Finals after getting off to a torrid shooting start. These things have to be written…even in educationally challenged Oklahoma.

I loved the parade..it was awesome. But fans in Denver are amped for this season to begin.

Does Mj adhere to the asterisk? Well, yes, somewhat even though I came to love these Thunder players during their ‘championship’ run.

But the Thunder didn’t prove they could beat the best in the league without injuries seriously weakening Denver and Indiana. That’s just an objective fact.

Denver with great prescience has removed Michael Porter and Russell Westbrook from their roster and added Bruce Brown, Cam Johnson, Jonas V, and Tim Hardaway Jr. Nikola, Jamal, Aaron, and Christian will not be playing the Thunder without a roster this season.

If I were Presti…I’d address this straight up with his players. Denver will be formidable and I don’t think they’re at all scared of the Thunder.

That being said, many in the league are nodding yes to the asterisk theory. The Lakers bubble championship was an asterisk season as well. Alex Caruso has him two asterisk ‘ships…put that one away on a trivia list.

Lombardi wouldn’t skirt that with his team. Neither will MJ.

Show the league and the basketball world last season wasn’t a fluke.

That’s it for the first episode of the 2025-26 MJ Thunder Repeat Season installment here on okcthunderground.com. I’ll try and feature some of the Thunder podcasters this season here and there.

Eternal love and peace, MJ

My grandson turned six this past Monday. And what a beautiful thing it is to have two healthy grand-children you adore. Aubrey will turn five in mid-December.

Words cannot properly describe the love both of you have brought into my heart.

Live life to the fullest. Try and learn something new every day. Be kind to others. Have a sense of inner justice and integrity throughout the days of your lives.

Follow passions which bring joy and meaning to your lives.

But most of all live the Golden Rule every day and good things will come to you in abundance.

Love, Mike