Any first grader with any political acumen whatsoever could have written this Op-Ed. There wasn’t one thing in that Op-Ed which I haven’t written on this little rogue Thunder blog of mine.
And who really needed Bob Woodward to write a book describing in great detail the complete embarrassment which is the rogue presidency of Donald Trump.
Who could really be surprised or should be surprised?
It doesn’t matter.
What does matter to date is that not one GOP congressional member other than the recently deceased John McCain has shown any political courage at all. Not one of them unless you count the soon to be departed Bob Corker or Jeff Flake.
Not one. Not one GOP congressional leader who I guess never read anything about Watergate or the role Howard Baker played in the final days of Richard Nixon.
Who wrote this NY Times Op-Ed?
Lawrence O’Donnell claims it was Dan Coats. Or it could Jim Mattis. Or it could be John Kelly. It could be Nikki Haley. It could be Rex Tillerson. It could be General McMaster Or it could just be me writing on this blog what I’ve written to date over a hundred times.
It could be anyone.
Or it could just be the collective voice of America stating the obvious.
Was it a game changer?
I doubt it.
There won’t be a game changer until a GOP congressional leader locates a set of balls and some semblance of a moral conscience.
I expected Paul George to sign with either the Lakers and Clippers this past summer. I then expected the Thunder to be on the worst end of any trade in recent NBA memory in giving up Victor Oladipo and Domas Sabonis for a one year rental of Paul George. I expected the Thunder to be heading into the same decline pattern of say the Memphis Grizzlies with Mike Conley and Marc Gasol becoming a fringe playoff team fighting for an 8th seed here and there.
Fortunately I was wrong. Paul George fully committed to the Thunder. Jerami Grant signed a new contract. Sam Presti got rid of Carmelo Anthony in a trade which now gives him a sixth man in Dennis Schroder and picked up a legitimate NBA backup center in Nerlen Noels.
Presti used both of the Thunder’s second round draft picks to select Devon Hall from Virginia and Kevin Hurley from Texas Arlington. Hall a shooting guard and Hervey a forward you would expect to be playing in the D League this season.
Presti acquired two nice swing players in Hamidou Diallo and Timothe Luwawu-Caborrot. Both could help the Thunder given the uncertainty of Andre Roberson’s recovery from his leg injury.
It was a solid sustainable summer for Sam Presti as the Thunder enter the first year of their second decade of NBA basketball in Oklahoma City.
But the key word is sustainable. It has been Presti’s mantra in OKC since the Thunder were moved here from Seattle.
Not in sustaining NBA championships, but more to the point in sustaining relevance in the league as OKC’s only major league team in one of the smallest markets in all of the four major sports.
I would say mission accomplished two years removed from Kevin Durant’s exodus to Oakland to join the loaded Warriors.
I’ve yet to really sit down and pick my top eight teams in the West, but given what transpired in the league this summer—I could either pick the Thunder as high as No. 2 or as low as No. 5 in the West. If OKC were in the East—I’d have them right there with the Celtics as the best team in the East.
If I were to do an overall NBA Power Poll right now…I’d probably go with the Thunder at No. 5 or No. 6 in the entire league as far as their roster heading into the season.
So I’m giving Sam Presti a very solid grade of an A for his off season as the Thunder’s general manager.
Sam Presti has given Billy Donovan plenty to work with this basketball season, plus he saved the Thunder around $88 million dollars in getting rid of Carmelo Anthony and by stretching Kyle Singler.
This will be Billy Donovan’s fourth season as the Thunder coach. My jury is still out on him. Don’t get me wrong, I love him as a decent person and a representative of the city. I think he’s a classy guy. But my jury is out. I need to see Billy Donovan soar with this roster.
In fairness to Donovan he was one game away from reaching the NBA Finals in his first NBA season. In his second NBA season the team overachieved with 47 wins and Russell Westbrook’s historic triple double season. So—for the first two seasons I’m giving Billy Donovan a B+ as the head coach.
Like everyone, I expected more form the Thunder last season. But to be fair to Donovan he was saddled with a delusional former star in Carmelo Anthony who had no realistic appraisal of his current value in this league.
Placating Carmelo will not be an issue for Billy Donovan this basketball season.
The Thunder should be both an excellent defensive team and one of the league’s best rebounding teams. I would also think the Thunder will lead the league in defensive deflections with their exceptional overall team length and athleticism.
This won’t be a Thunder team waiting for Carmelo to lumber up the floor and catch up with his teammates. Sam Presti has a team of greyhounds in place for Billy Donovan.
Shooting will decide this team’s fate. Unlike last year–they can’t suck shooting the three and be one of the league’s worse free throw shooting teams.
Amazingly for me, I think Alex Abrines is one of the team’s real keys this season. I ripped Abrines for his defense the first third of last season, but to his credit he worked his tail off and became a decent defensive player. If I were Donovan—I’d seriously toy with the notion of starting Alex Abrines if his defensive play continues to evolve.
I’d go maybe Westbrook, George, Adams, Grant, and Abrines as my five starters because I’m assuming it’s going to take some time for Andre Roberson to fully recover from his season ending injury in Detroit.
Dennis Schroder is the Sixth Man. He needs to come off the bench and score the basketball. He needs to be a content version of Reggie Jackson.
If Noels can stay healthy and Patrick Patterson can shoot the three ball at a 36-39% clip the Thunder have a nice top eight players without even taking Roberson into account.
Diallo and TLC should be able to help this team. There is some nice depth.
But in the end this is Russell Westbrook and Paul George’s team and as they go the Thunder will go. It’s a star drive league. Your stars have to play like stars in the goal achieving portion of the season.
It was a solid off season in Oklahoma City. The Thunder are still relevant without Kevin Durant heading into their second decade of existence.
It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything on here. I needed a break. The dog days of an Oklahoma summer usually do this to me. Clearly—living in Oklahoma the months of July and August test your toughness if you work outside like I do.
My son and daughter-in-law both took new jobs in the oil and gas industry this past March. Their dream was to work in Denver and be near the skiing, fishing, and hiking outside of Denver.
So on August 23rd my wife and I embarked on a four day trip to Denver to see how they were doing.
It was a great trip. They rent a three level condo right in the heart of the Washington Park district of Denver. The area is green and there are trees, shrubs, and flowers of every variety. Walking paths, hiking paths, and bicycle paths are everywhere. The park is bustling with humanity to an extent which almost made me claustrophobic.
I loved the park. However, I could never live with this many people on top of me on a daily basis. I need space—which is exactly what I got for the last three days of the trip.
Crested Butte–that’s where I got my space. The kids took us to her family’s cabin in Gunnison County. Idyllic is how I would describe it. Set amongst the dense pines, spruce and firs the cabin nestles just above a stream which is a feeder stream to the Taylor River. You can literally hear the stream from the back deck of the cabin.
There is lushness everywhere. The high temperature was around 75 degrees all three days. Trout streams, trout rivers, and trout mountain lake abound. I was in heaven. I could retire to this place and be happy and at peace. My daughter-in-law told me they once had a black bear wander into the cabin in search of food. It’s that kind of place.
They took us to a place called Washington Gulch at around 12,000 feet elevation where I saw one of the great sunsets of my life which did not include the Pacific Ocean. I swear I could hear John Denver singing in my ears. “He was born in the summer of his 60th year…coming home to a place he’d never been before.”
The fishing was great. My son has become a fly fishing addict and we fished non stop for two days while exploring every stream, river, and lake we could cram into two days of fishing. I can fly fish so this was not new to me, but my son has become somewhat of a fly fishing purist.
We came upon a pool with about six trout in excess of two pounds idling in the water. We tried several dry flies and nymphs, but nothing interested the trout. One of the trout was a brown trout and weighed every bit of three pounds. I said to my son, ” Why don’t we rig our lines with a worm and let it bump along the bottom with the fish.”
My son was aghast. Fly fishermen don’t rig a line with a worm and bump it along the bottom. The look he gave me is one I’ll never forget. But keep in mind—my father and the legendary Joe Carter Sr. taught me how to fish and they wouldn’t have had a problem with catching a three pound trout on an earthworm. Land the fish, Michael me boy would have been their advice. Joe Carter Sr. was one of the truly great fishermen in Oklahoma history and when he was teaching me how to fish as a kid we had no idea Joe Jr. would hit that walkoff homer to torment Mitch Wild Thing Williams for the rest of his life.
But I get it. Fly fishing in Crested Butte is a religion. It’s not about just catching the fish. It’s the purity of the process. About placing your dry fly in a pool by a boulder and seeing the water bubble as a rainbow, brown, or brook trout takes the fly. It’s about nature. It’s about replicating a natural process in getting the trout to take your fly.
It’s why I loved the movie A River Runs Through It.
We ate at two great restaurants. One was a quaint place which was exactly like the Sleepy Hollow in northeast Oklahoma City used to be. You eat one thing. That’s the menu. Relish tray, then all you can eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, cream corn, and honey biscuits. Desert is one option. Do you want your vanilla ice cream plain or with chocolate syrup. It was excellent. Sometimes simple is hard to beat.
The second night we ate Italian at a place called Michael’s Garlic which backs up to the Taylor River. We sat at a table as close to the river as possible. I love Italian food. I’m part Italian. I pretend to be Michael Corleone at times. This was a wonderful experience. The waiter talked me out of getting chicken marsala, eggplant parmesan, or chicken parmesan and instead steered me to the house special. It was chicken smothered in garlic, spinach, and mushrooms. It was stunning. I had a salad and the two sides of mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts were the perfect touch. I love brussel sprouts and I have no idea why I don’t eat them more often.
Anthony Bourdain would have loved this place. A bunch of New Yorkers running an Italian restaurant on the Taylor River in Gunnison County. I gave it five stars. The only thing missing was Michael drowning Fredo in the Taylor River as the sun set.
The last day of our trip my son and I tinkered with the idea of getting back to Denver to see the first place Colorado Rockies play the St Louis baseball Cardinals at Coors Field. But we opted to just hang out at the cabin where I started a book called the Secret Life of Bees which my daughter-in-law loaned to me. Even though I’m neither a mother or a daughter it’s a great Southern novel which I should have read several years ago. Both bees and human dysfunction fascinate me.
I wish I could have stayed another week. I was at peace, but I sorely missed the diva black lab Pauli and was ready to pick her up at the Lucky Dog Spa and hold her in my arms.
So I’m ready to get back to blogging on the Thunder. Other than not acquiring Klay Thompson…I like what Sam Presti did with his basketball club this summer.
I could see Sam Presti fly fishing. I really could. Because it’s not just about catching that three pound trout–it’s about the purity of process in OKC and sustaining this franchise. I’m guessing Sam Presti would have rolled his eyes when I suggested throwing an earthworm with my fly rod and letting it bump along the bottom. But I’m also sure Sam Presti is obsessed with landing that three pound trout. If you kind of get my drift.
From a historian’s standpoint–I find Nixon fascinating. He is someone who was a passionate student of presidential history and he enjoyed ranking previous presidents. He made the claim Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ were the three smartest presidential politicians of the previous century. I agree. All three were shrewd pols. Although TR’s run on the Bull Moose ticket was regretful.
My five greatest presidents go in this order… 1 Lincoln, 2 FDR, 3 Teddy Roosevelt, 4 Washington, and 5 maybe Eisenhower. Whereas I would have been keenly entertained talking over this list with Nixon-I would be completely bored doing it with Trump. He’s just not that deep. He’s not a thinker, he’s a grifter. If I were with Trump I’d ask him to rank his five greatest porn stars or pro wrestlers. That might be interesting coming from him. You know…keeping it in his wheelhouse of expertise.
Today is the 44th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. He was never indicted in that Gerald Ford pardoned him before he could be indicted.
We’ll never know for sure what turns history would have given us if Nixon had served two full terms.
Would Ronald Reagan have emerged as the leader of the conservative movement? Would Jimmy Carter have beaten Teddy Kennedy in 1980 as the Dems nominee? History is funny in that way.
As we enter the second half of the most corrupt presidential administration in the U.S. modern presidential era with Donald Trump–it at times is hard not to compare the two presidents. But again, Nixon was interesting while Trump is a predictable self absorbed bore who panders nonsense to people who don’t read and who view the world only from one prism.. namely their own economic standing or the belief anything he is doing will eventually trickle down to them.
In honor of Nixon’s resignation here’s Pat Buchanan interviewing Nixon in 1982. I love the part where he’s cursing Robert Cairo’s biography of LBJ as only Nixon could. Whereas…since Trump doesn’t read, Buchanan would have to ask him if he preferred Ric Flair Nature Boy, Hulk Hogan, or Rowdy Roddy Piper as his favorite pro wrestler of all-time.
At this point I’m not sure. At some point you risk being perceived as being as brain dead as Donald Trump and his ‘followers’ if you do so.
I’m probably more in the Aaron Rodgers school of thought where you should just ignore Trump like any other petulant fourth grader who needs constant attention. Responding to Trump while probably somewhat gratifying gets you nowhere except in his twitter universe. It’s plays into his game of perpetual trolling.
It has gotten General John Kelly and General Bulldog Mattis nowhere. Where it has gotten these decorated generals is the perception they’ve ruined their legacies by even being part of Donald Trump’s team. If two American heroes like Kelly and Mattis can’t even handle Trump’s random yet constant stupidity—where do you think athletes are going to end up playing this game?
This is where we’re at…in a current poll…43% of Republicans who ‘still’ support Donald Trump believe he should have the constitutional authority to do away with parts of the media who aren’t in his corner. Consider what I just wrote. Consider the implications of living in an America which has become this stupid.
Especially stupid is a segment of white America which I guess thinks the answer to all of America’s problems is reverting to Dwight Eisenhower’s first term in 1952.
Even Richard Nixon in 1960 when he lost to JFK by a razor thin margin after some dubious election returns from Chicago would never have behaved like this. He went on. Nixon actually thought a recount in 1960 would be bad for the country. Can you imagine in 2016 that Trump and ‘followers’ would have ever done something like this?
I wonder what Ike would say? I wonder what fellow WWII general and creator of the Marshall Plan…General George Marshall would think?
I wonder if these 43% which Mitt Romney accidently missed on with his 47% comment know who Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall are? I wonder if they know of Nixon’s grace in 1960?
Maybe Mattis and Kelly could explain some of this to the 43% who two of our greatest generals were and Richard Nixon’s finest moment were.
Good luck with that…Generals.
2+2=5 in Trump World.
So…here’s what I’m saying here. Stop responding to Donald Trump. This is the oxygen a petulant fourth grader like Trump and his fans feeds off of.
Ignore Trump and continue doing wonderful things to help children in this country.
I was raised by a trial lawyer in part. I watched this part of the hearing where lawyer Bob Menendez questioned the successor to Rex Tillerson as something the United States used to call their Secretary of State.
It was embarrassing for Mike Pompeo. There was nothing he could do. There’s nothing Sec Def Bulldog Mattis can do. There’s nothing General John Kelly can do unless you decide to quit and discontinue lying on behalf of Donald Trump.
It’s not like these were Perry Mason questions. Any first week first semester law school student would have asked them.
It’s all so embarrassing.
Welcome to the Banana Republic. But I guess we should be grateful in that Scott Pruitt wasn’t elevated to Attorney General.
So…this is what it feels like to be a Banana Republic. Man oh man. Why didn’t Rex Tillerson and his wife tell Mike Pompeo how it feels to be a make believe pretend Secretary of State?
Well, of course, I guess he can’t given that he’s a former KGB agent and president of Russia. But in a way, this is the Republican Party of Putin circa 2018.
Stunning when you think this is the same party which gave us Lincoln. Gave us Teddy Roosevelt. Gave up Ronald Reagan winning the Cold War.
Stunning how history in two short years has gone from Lincoln-Roosevelt-Reagan into a collection of people who look like the characters in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs movie.
It is what it is.
So, yeah, given what the defenders of Trump are still saying… why not Putin in 2020 winning the American presidency?
Given the situation with Carmelo, this is a fairly decent ending as far as I’m concerned. OKC gets rid of the elephant in the locker room and will save itself around $100 million dollars without having to stretch Carmelo’s $27 million over three years.
But more importantly OKC gets a talented guard in Schroder who if he will embrace the Sixth Man role could genuinely help the Thunder.
When I think of Schroder’s game I immediately think of Reggie Jackson. Two players who can get to the rim and score the ball. I do not think of either as premier starting point guards for contending teams in this league.
OKC has a premier starting point guard—his name is Russell Westbrook. What this Thunder team needs is for a guard like Shroder who averaged just over 19 points a game last season to come off the bench and score the ball. This also makes the Thunder much faster. This also gives Billy Donovan the opportunity to develop sets with Westbrook, Paul George, and Schroder all together on the floor.
I’m thinking 28-30 minutes a game for Schroder if he embraces this role in Oklahoma City. I’m thinking he would clearly have a chance to be one of OKC’s six best players who could fill a role which has been empty since Reggie Jackson was traded to the Detroit Pistons.
So if you had to pick between Reggie Jackson, Dion Waiters, and Dennis Schroder as your Sixth Man…I’m thinking Shroder and Jackson are about the same with Waiters being better on the defensive side of the game.
To me, this was very simple, Carmelo is too old and too slow to play with the greyhounds Sam Presti has on his roster. Never again will we see the Thunder wait for Carmelo to lumber up the floor and run an awkward offensive set geared to get Carmelo a touch.
The Hawks will waive Carmelo and someone in Houston, LA, or Miami will eventually pick him up. Good luck, Carmelo.
It was a horrible situation, but given the options, this is interesting. This gives the Thunder a chance to become a better basketball team and save a $100 million dollars.
If Schroder can score 19 points a game and not turn over the ball the Thunder just completed their team makeover which in reality started on July 5th, 2016.
And, in essence, that’s precisely what has happened these past two years as Sam Presti has remade his team in Oklahoma City after Durant’s departure to Golden State.
Say what you want, but I would give Presti an A for the manner in which he put a team around Russell Westbrook which should have a chance to win around 50 games this season if Billy Donovan can connect the dots as an NBA head coach.
Fantastic summer for one Sam Presti. He’s done everything I’ve asked for as a rogue Thunder blogger with the exception of getting Brian Davis out of the Thunder broadcast booth.
This isn’t cruel. Put Matt Pinto in the booth and re-assign Brian Davis as the sideline reporter and put Leslie Mac with Antonio on the post game show. Nobody has to be fired. Nobody has to be a grinch.
Anyway, it’s a good sign for me when that’s the only thing I can bitch about heading into August.
On a sidenote, as a Philly fan, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot never made an impression on me one way or another. A bit of a project, but clearly an athlete with fluidity and speed. Maybe they can turn him into another Thabo—although I guess he was Swiss. Here’s the thing though, he was the 24th player selected in the first round of the 2016 draft. So, in essence–Presti is already hedging on the 2022 conditional first round pick he just gave up to make today’s trade. Watching this dude is like reading a Michael Lewis book on commodity values. He’s always thinking two moves ahead. I think he has a history degree as well.
The third leg of golf’s Grand Slam begins in less than an hour with the beginning of the 147th British Open.
And what a glorious Grand Slam it has been so far this golf season with Patrick Reed holding off Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth with some of the grittiest golf ever displayed at Augusta National.
Then the U.S. Open where Brooks Keopka overtook Dustin Johnson with a win which puts him in elite company as one of the game’s current greats.
Jordan Spieth has struggled a bit this season with the putter. Yet, since 2015, he has been golf’s pre-eminent player in golf’s major events. Since 2015–Spieth has the lowest aggregate score in the majors. And put this on your data card…he’s one putted 360 times in the majors since 2015.
Spieth is a bulldog. A champion’s champion. I’m not picking him to win, but I wouldn’t discount it either.
I love the British Open. I truly do.
I’m going in this order with my picks:
1 Tommy Fleetwood, 2 Rickie Fowler, 3 Patrick Reed, and 4 Jordan Spieth.