Author: Mike

So…I’m well fed and suntanned from a restful Thanksgiving. Don’t remember all that many Thanksgivings when I was wearing shorts and bass fishing before dinner, but yesterday was one of those. Call me sometime, Paul George. Joe Carter Sr. was formative in my passion of fishing and I know some spots, PG. When I read Paul George is an avid fisherman he catapulted to my third favorite Thunder player. I love that he’s doing charity events for kids thru instilling the passion of fishing with the youngsters. Young men and some older need mentoring, maybe he could sponsor Trump as an enrollee in his program.

Enough of that, and just so you know I kept my mouth shut during Thanksgiving dinner and didn’t offend one Trump voter in the room. I’m not losing any loved family members or inner circle friends over this piece of shit douchebag…not happening. He’s not worth it. I hope others at other dinner tables throughout America showed similar restraint. Love is patience. That’s in Corinthians, right?

So…as I write the Thunder are 8-9 and the No. 8 seed in the West. I’ve said this from the get go that the Thunder’s record these first twenty games isn’t uber critical, but starting tonight at home versus Reggie Jackson and his Pistons it’s time for the Thunder to get on a roll. Namely, it’s time to start winning basketball games. Enough of the process, go get on a roll and win eight of the next ten is what I’m hoping for from these guys. The schedule is set for a run after a win over the Warriors.

I think OKC needs to at the least get a second or third seed in the West if they want to make a serious post season run…so it’s time. You can experience a process and still win games. No more excuses.

From what I see as I write this morning and to date from what I’ve seen in the West…I still believe OKC has either the second or third best roster in the West. Roster wise..I’d go 1 Golden State, 2 OKC, 3 Houston, 4 San Antonio, 5 Minnesota, 6 Portland, 7 Denver, 8 New Orleans. The West is improved, but overall it’s not improved to the point where this Thunder team can’t make a climb.

If you were putting a West All-Star team together with twelve members, the Thunder would have three players on the squad. And to date, I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Steven Adams, Jerami Grant, Andre Roberson, and Ray Felton. OKC’s first seven players are solid, but Billy Donovan needs to get more from Patrick Patterson, Alex Abrines, and Josh Huestis. Those three need to start pulling their collective link on the chain every night.

So, actually I feel pretty good right now, especially seeing OKC dominant versus Boston and Golden State in six of the eight quarters played against these two teams.

OKC needs to start winning close games and I’d suggest to Billy Donovan that whenever he can it might not be a bad idea to pair Westbrook and Felton together if for no other reason than to settle Russell down during bumpy moments.

But I’m not the overthink type, just find gritty ways to win…because it’s time to win.

Find your inner balance, boys. No more Pacino speeches,let’s go–winning is fun.

It was only one in eighty-two games, but the Thunder finally rung the bell last night. The key now being to keep ringing the bell all the way into April and beyond. We’ll see. For but for today, it’s Thanksgiving and I’m still celebrating till about six tonight then it’s Reggie Jackson and the Detroit Pistons on my mind. But you should always savor a big win with a cigar and a song. Winning is fun. Make sure and have fun along the journey.

Keep ringing that bell, Thunder, ring the bell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My three favorite coaches in the league are Pop, Steve Kerr, and Brad Stevens. It wood be so cool to have the opportunity to talk to any of the three for an extended period of time on the world, not so much the basketball world, but the human world we now live in day in and day out. To me, the great coaches always keep their ‘coaching voice’ interesting. Phil Jackson used to hand out each player a book to read and then they’d talk about the book. I wonder what books Phil gave to Steve Kerr when he played for him? Pop is the same way. He’d rather talk about Trump than a pick and roll play. Kerr is the same way. So is Brad Stevens. They connect with their players–which needs to be part of the job description when you play 82 games and familiarity can drag on season long relationships. Some nights you’re gonna suck out of 82 nights.. the key being to limit those nights.

I love Kerr. His take on the game, “The millennials couldn’t lock it in tonight.” Priceless.

Steve Kerr on 1997 championship winning shot.

So…I guess losing and pissing away games against inferior teams finally got old. Let’s be clear, OKC still didn’t play 48 minutes up to their full potential, but this is a start and something to build upon. I didn’t like the five minutes in the fourth period when Russell took his last shift of the game, but otherwise it was around 43 minutes of enough good basketball to make the Golden State Warriors look anything close to a lock to win the NBA championship.

OKC led from wire to wire and fed a frenzied Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd like this was Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in a lopsided 108-91 standing eight count TKO in which Steve Kerr waved the flag and benched his starters early.

Note to Kevin Durant: it’s okay to tell everyone you were texting Draymond Green this morning— he’s on your team now. Maybe this will be a game changer for you and you’ll be texting Paul George now and see if you can be on his team next season. Just so you know…that’s how fucking weak you looked in going from the Thunder to the Warriors after blowing the 3-1 series lead.

Where to start?

How about with the league’s reigning MVP who was brilliant, simply brilliant. In 36 minutes of play Russell Westbrook in essence triple doubled with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists and was a +17. Westbrook set the tone, established the flow, and worked the crowd into a frenzy. MVPs rained down from all points in the arena as Westbrook took center stage and delivered the goods to rout the Warriors for the Thunder’s first win against the Durant version of Golden State.

As was the case last season when the Warriors swept the Thunder all four games by double digits—there was some wolfing between Westbrook and Durant. The difference tonight was on this night Westbrook didn’t have a rookie scale team surrounding him. Instead, he had two other future Hall of Famers in Paul George and Carmelo Anthony who stepped up with 20 and 22 points respectively. Collectively, the Big Three scored 76 points, but more importantly, for the first time this season all played well at the same time.

Steven Adams was easily the best big on the court in this game and double doubled with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Adams could have had an even bigger night if he’d finished on two dunks, but it’s not like I should be bitching on a night when the Thunder made Draymond Green and Klay Thompson look like the Cupcake Twins…or Lollipop Twins, or whatever. Weakest game I’ve ever seen Klay Thompson play in the Peake, but again…OKC’s perimeter defense was stellar.

I thought OKC’s defense was excellent tonight. This is an OKC team with enormous defensive potential with guys like Paul George, Andre Roberson, and Jerami Grant. Name another team with three wing defenders like this. I challenge you, name another team. You might say Golden State with Thompson, Green and Durant, but the Thunder showed tonight what they can do defensively when they want to show up.

My key stat of the game was OKC scoring 34 points on 15 steals and getting their transition going early and keeping it going throughout the game. Another key stat was OKC pounded the Warriors 50-39 on the boards. And if you want another key stat…the Warriors didn’t live on the free throw line.

Random Observation: Draymond Green didn’t kick Steven Adams in the crotch tonight. Is that a trend to victory for the Thunder?

Not all that much from the bench tonight, Ray Felton was solid and his minutes gave Westbrook a chance to get some air while the lead was kept intact. Jerami Grant provided some key defensive energy early, but never got going offensively.

Abrines, Patterson, and Huestis played, but didn’t do much except absorb some minutes to rest the starters.

So… is this that fork in the road game we’ve been waiting for? Is this that moment Westbrook, George and Anthony huddled up and said enough of this bullshit…we’re so much better than this?

I don’t know, but what we all know after seeing OKC seriously outplay Boston and Golden State for six out of eight periods is that this team has the potential to be as good as they want to be if they show up to play.

For the first time this season, I’m heading out to the back porch in Deer Creek to smoke a victory cigar, so for me at least–I feel like a bridge was crossed tonight.

Here’s Cox sideline reporter Leslie M in her black S&M outfit interviewing Paul George postgame. Brian Davis needs to buy her a whip. I’m liking the look. It’s much more provocative than Jenni Carlson on Thunder Buddies.

It’s early in the season, but at some point these guys have to look within themselves and either compete for 48 minutes and take some fucking pride in their craft or come to terms with some things about their respective games. OKC is already five and a half games out of first place in the Western Conference and three games back in the Northwest Division. I feel like it’s late April with all the bullshit excuses from the Cox telecast crew so far. There’s four guys on this team making in excess of $20 million dollars and a decent enough bench. Scott Brooks was fired to make room for Billy Donovan so there’s no need here for any excuse making moving forward. Just do your job.

Mentally bear down. Stop looking around at each other. Read and react. Head on a swivel. Move the ball. Talk on defense. Move your goddamn feet. Rebound the basketball. Talk some more. Command your space. Get out in transition. Play hard. Move the ball. Finish like a winner.

That’s it. There’s no need for metrics figuring this out, there’s a need for some coaching and some heart to manifest itself in Oklahoma City tonight when the Golden State Warriors come to town.

It was cold this morning in Deer Creek. So this is my pregame music to get myself in the right frame of mind. This song always gets me in a positive frame of mind when things seem somewhat cloudy. It reminds me of the beach ending in Shawshank Redemption. I’d play the Pacino video, but I’m not sure that’ll work with these guys. Have a wonderful first ever Caligula Thanksgiving and thank god the constitution has somewhat held up so far.

Sixteen games in and the Thunder are clearly the league’s biggest disappointment. With each passing game, it becomes harder and harder to watch as no identity, no chemistry, and little urgency seem to be aboard this Thunder super team.

One observation I made tonight while watching the Thunder lose to the Pelicans 114-107 was that the team just isn’t very good even though on paper they would appear to have one of the league’s top five rosters. Even when DeMarcus Cousins got ejected for a Flagrant 2 elbow thrown into Russell Westbrook’s head I never once had the feeling this team had the mental stuff to take advantage of the ejection and turn it into a measurable advantage.

Billy Donovan looks lost. He looks like a college coach who should still be coaching level ball in that he can’t seem to put any offensive identity together with this team, nor on this night any defensive identity.

Calling the Thunder horrible at this point would be an overreaction, but they’re not good, especially not good when you consider what Clay Bennett and his ownership group paid to put this poser Super Team together.

You look into the eyes of Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo and they just look hollowed out like they have no idea what is going on. Billy Donovan looks even worse if that’s possible.

The Thunder now stand at 7-9 and headed nowhere for the time being. Kevin Durant and the Warriors come to Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday night. I would strongly suggest Thunder fans leave the Cupcakes at home and not do anything overboard to motivate the Warriors to beat the Thunder by twenty or more points.

I know that’s a horrible attitude to have a mere 16 games in, but from I’ve seen to date…that’s how I honestly feel about Wednesday. Just hoping they play well enough to be competitive and not embarrass themselves on national television.

In Year 1, when the Thunder went 23-59, I never felt this way. I loved every game because the team was young and you could see them work hard every night to get better. This is the polar opposite. This is the side of the NBA you try to avoid if possible.

My check engine light went on tonight.

I’m concerned.

Warriors in town on Wednesday night.

Oh, boy.

Well, in the end, I’m disappointed in first year head coach Lincoln Riley because I believe he took the easy way out and made a decision based on national optics and overreaction versus what actually happened on Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas.

At today’s weekly presser, Coach Riley announced Baker Mayfield will not start against West Virginia and will be relieved of being a team captain. I find this interesting because Lincoln Riley in reality is the head coach at the University of Oklahoma because Baker Mayfield has been the engine which turned the OU football program around three years ago when he left Texas Tech as a freshman walk-on to compete for the starting job in Norman in what turned out to be Lincoln Riley’s first year as offensive coordinator.

The first rule of coaching never changes despite what some might want to think:
Rule # 1 … Players make the coach. Period.

When Baker Mayfield walked on at OU the Sooners were a mess. The team had just come off an 8-5 season in which they lost a Bedlam game because Bob Stoops repunted to current Kansas Chief Tyreke Hill and blew a game they never should have lost. The team then went to something called the Russell Athletic Bowl and virtually quit in the first period in getting blown out by Clemson the year before Clemson became a national power.

But Mayfield and Riley joined the team the next year and it was magic. Year 1… a Big 12 Championship and an appearance in the College Football Final Four, last year… a 2nd straight Big 12 Championship and an easy Sugar Bowl win over Auburn, this year so far a No. 3 ranking and the inside track to a second College Football Final Four appearance.

One could say Lincoln Riley melded Baker Mayfield into the leading Heisman candidate heading into Thanksgiving, but one could also say Baker Mayfield made Lincoln Riley into a viable candidate to succeed Bob Stoops for his first head coaching job at the DI level… let alone at a blueblood program like OU where seven national championships are in the trophy case.

I thought Lincoln Riley would have Baker Mayfield’s back a little more than this. I mean, if the game officials had done their jobs correctly and ejected Hassan Defence for the obvious targeting hit… would we even be having this conversation?

And my answer is no. If that play had been called correctly I don’t think we’re having this discussion.

So Baker Mayfield crossed an imaginary line which Donald Trump crosses every morning on his Twitter account unscathed, but for Mayfield he’ll now be demoted on Senior Day at a football school which he was instrumental in restoring to greatness these past three years.

Mayfield said he crossed the line at his presser on Monday and is taking responsibility for his actions which is good. I’m a Baker Mayfield fan either way because like I said this line or the planting of the flag weren’t really that much of a line for me.The deal in Arkansas was a line, these weren’t serious lines. I didn’t always like Mayfield, but he won me over with his love for the game and fearless manner in which he plays the game. I’m a passion guy, I want to see the passion and Baker Mayfield has always brought the passion and restored the swagger to the OU program.

In closing, I’ll write this, if you’ve attended an OU football game these past three years you’ve known one thing for certain, that being, Baker Mayfield would bring his A game and give the fans something for their time and money. And, in the end, whether he crossed a real line or an imaginary politically correct line…I’m a Baker Mayfield fan and sad that his Senior Day won’t be honoring the greatest quarterback in OU football history the way it should be honored.

Here’s the end of Lincoln Riley’s press conference on Tuesday.

The Baker Mayfield Story so far.

If you answered yes then I’m hopeful you would suspend the sitting POTUS as well.

I’m not encouraging crotch grabbing and fuck yous to other players on other sidelines, but it’s what we are, who we’ve become, and quite honestly 82% of the Christian Coalition said all of this was okay in our recent presidential election.
Evidently, effective marginal tax rates trump (pun intended) The Golden Rule and Psalm 23… so when did I need to become a moral guardian.

In the heat of battle after being targeted near his head, Baker Mayfield at the age of 22 lost his composure, grabbed his crotch, and said fuck you to the state of Kansas. Not exactly choirboy stuff and bordering on the Johnny Manziel bad side of midnight, but this is exactly what America says they are right now. That being, a country with no moral bar whatsoever separating right from wrong.

If it’s okay for Caligula at the age of 70 to grab handfuls of pussy, belittle Marco Rubio’s dick, brag about seeing Miss Universe contestants half naked, disparage handicapped people, troll Gold Star families, and share with us the thought some Nazis are really nice people–so I’m kinda sitting here asking myself… does it really matter that a college football player is acting as boorish as the sitting prez? And the answer is no, fuck it.

So what I’d say to Baker is no prob, bud. There are no consequences for our behavior in America circa 2017. None. See Sodom, see Gomorraah, see Nero tip toeing through the flames.

Caligula set the bar and it currently resides three feet underground.

You just followed the president’s lead.

Play on, bruh. Play on.

It’s fairly clear what KU coach David Beatie told his team prior to kick-off yesterday,that being, “get Baker Mayfield ejected.” And to be honest, Kansas is truly a horrific football team and with Mayfield on the field they had a zero chance of winning this game. From the poser bogus antics during the coin toss to the dirty play administered by punkboy No. 13 Hassan Defence, this was a clinic in gooning up a football game like inferior teams do in hockey. The only thing missing from Beatie’s arsenal yesterday was the Hansen Brothers.

OU has to learn from this and move on. Baker Mayfield has to know he can’t get ejected or suspended moving forward. It cannot happen.

My favorite hockey scene other than the locker room scene from ‘Miracle’.

OU improved to 10-1 this afternoon with a relatively easy 41-3 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence. Baker Mayfield threw for three TDS, grabbed his crotch, and told the opposing bench to fuck off after not shaking his hand in pre-game, and then targeting him with a cheap hit late in the first half once they got behind 21-3. Normally, I wouldn’t condone the crotch grab and subsequent fuck yous to the other bench, but given what the Kansas players did I feel like Mayfield was ‘somewhat’ justified.

On the ESPN video below, former Alabama QB Greg McElroy goes off on Baker Mayfield. Now, I’m almost certain McElroy being a white male from Alabama probably almost certainly voted for Caligula for POTUS. So, in essence, it’s okay to disparage a handicapped person, to disparage TWO Gold Star families, and pretty much let it be know to women everywhere that it’s okay to grab a handful of pussy whenever.

So, I have to be honest with you, I’m laughing my ass at Greg McElroy for his serious concerns about the effect Baker Mayfield is having on the youth of America.. Seriously….laughing my ass off.

Here’s Baker on the Dan Patrick Show earlier this week. Little did Dan know Baker would be grabbing his crotch and telling the now 1-10 Kansas bench to fuck off after they cheap shotted him.