Doug Gottlieb on the Thunder’s Drafting of Chet Holmgren

I’ve been saving this for the Thunder’s bullshit training camp…so I think on the heels of the trade with Houston which took place yesterday this would be the right time to post it on my modest Thunder blog.

I don’t mean to be cruel and I don’t want to be cruel on my blog, but if I had two dogs who looked like Poku and Toothpick…I’d shave both their asses and walk them backwards on a leash. This is ridiculous is what it is.

I respect Doug Gottlieb’s takes at both the NBA and college level. So I’m going let him give his opinions on the Thunder’s drafting of Chet Holmgren with the second pick in the 2022 NBA draft and how Lebron broke Toothpick in half so easily.

BTW….the trade with Houston makes the Thunder worse because they actually traded away a nice second unit center in Derrick for nothing which in anyway makes the Thunder a better basketball team.

The only thing Presti did with that trade is dump around $10 million or so in salary to make the pathetic even worse.

After Dark Post Thunder Thoughts for the Day

Here’s what I’ve decided to do on my blog this NBA season.. Anytime this basketball season I write something related to the heaving piece of shit a.k.a as the Oklahoma City Thunder …I will reward myself with one of favorite songs of all-time.

Tonight’s entry is Blurry by Puddle of Mudd.

I loved this song the first time I ever heard it.

Tanking Thunder Begin ‘Training’ Camp

Yawn. How sad it is Sam Presti’s version of sustainability has come to this in the mecca of American domestic terrorism and adult illiteracy.

Sustainable…..color me dubious for certain.

The things Sam Anderson didn’t write in Boom Town could easily make for another book calulating the Thunder’s symbiotic demise with the cultural abyss known as Oklahoma.

Perhaps at some point Senator Markwayne Mullin and some of hie more fervent Q supporters will purchase the Thunder. Glass half-full, right?

For the sixth time since Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon purchased the Seattle Super-Sonics then kidnapped the franchise to Oklahoma City the Thunder will shamelessly tank away another NBA basketball season.

Vegas has moved the hapless Thunder down to 21.5 seasonal wins for the time being. I would agree and move them down from 24.5 to 20.5 on my sheet given it apppers Shai Gilgeous-Alexander the max player who never plays probably won’t cross thwe barrier of forty games played this NBA season. This cat has to be the most rested player in the league at this point who basically never plays. Which is somewhat sad.

I have no idea what I’m going to write abut this season in relation to the Thunder given the domain of my blog is okcthunderground.com. But I’ll wing it and follow the new arena versus moving the team to markets like Seattle and Las Vegas who actually make sense as an NBA city.

I’ll cover not only the Golden State Warriors, but the Colorado Avalanche on my blog this season. You know…real professional sports team with real coaches and real general managers. Imagine that.

If Aubrey were still living…I wonder if he’d be calmly sitting by as his team continues to embody the very worst aspect of the NBA as a league.

Which is of course …shamelessly tanking a third consectutive season because his GM didn’t hedge his 2nd pick in the draft by picking a real player with a body which wouldn’t break the first time he played in something akin to a real NBA game where big, fast, strong, black players would take Chet on in the paint.

Have a nice weekend watching college football and the NFL.

Sooners Can’t Tackle in Home Loss to K-State 41-34

Okay. Let’s do this. I don’t want to rant on my blog coverage on OU’s most recent inexplicable loss to Kansas State. So I’m going to defer to Coach Mike Leach and allow him to do this for me. I’ll be fine after Coach Leach does this for me. It’s like having multiple football epiphanies. Save this….you’ll probably need this later in the season.

Pepperdine Law School Graduate, Michael Leach swinging his sword.

…………………………………….

For the third time in the past four years the Oklahoma Sooners lost to the K State Wildcats. This time the score was 41-34 and in reality the game wasn’t that close as OU scored a prevent defense touchdown with around thirty-five seconds to make it appear this was a one score game.

OU’s defense in a word….was putrid. Coach Venables said as much in his post-game…so this isn’t me just ranting. Missed tackles. No sacks. Giving up generous yards after contact when a Sooner actually touched a K State ball carrier.

Tulane must be pretty damn stellar given they beat these same Wildcats 17-10 the week before.

The typical OU dumbass fans who call into Jim Traber were blaming the loss on Sooner quaarterback Dillion Gabriel because he missed Drake Stoops on a deep route in the seond quarter.

Really?

OU never led in this game. Ther defense was horrific…pee wees pretending to be a man like Mike Gundy.

Wildcat QB Adrian Martinez had his second staright career game against the timid OU defense.

Hard to believe this is the same school which produced the Selmon Brothers under Barry Switzer in the mid 70’s.

On the game’s biggest play… on a third and seventeen at midfield near the two minute mark–nary a Sooner touched the previously beleagured Nebraska QB as he cruised fifty-five yards near the Sooner goal-line to put the game away.

Gabriel, minus his offensive line for committing multiple dead ball fouls, was actually decent considering he only had possession of the ball ten minutes in the first half.

If after seeing this game on film, Mike Gundy should be hung if Spencer Sanders doesn’t get at a minimum eighteen run play touches in Bedlam.

Duece Vaughn was Duece Vaughn…the latest in a line of K State scatbacks like Darren Sprouls and Mack Herron.

I’ve now wathced every team in the Big 12 play at a minimum two games. I was wrong about the Big 12 being a third tier football conference. It’s a fourth tier conference without one single team in the league who has any business playing in this postseason’s four team NCAA Playoff format.

If it wasn’t for the surrendering aspect of writing this…I’d write I hope the Kansas Jayhawks win the football crown this season in the Big 12.

If anything this completely unphysical, pathetic loss reinforces to me the Sooners need to join the SEC so as they can recruit some players for their defense who can tackle someone and display some ‘hit them in the mouth mentality’ of sorts.

O State at Baylor next Saturday is the game I’ll be following on my blog next Saturday.

Top Ten Trump Declassification Alibi List for White Rabble Deplorables

From the Dave Letterman Home Office in Deer Creek, Oklahoma

10 Declassified pussy grabbing comment on bus with Billy Bush. Deep State.

9 Never seriously suggested Nancy O’Dell join on a furniture store sport f—king foray with POTUS 45. Delassified before leaving bus. Uneven fake tits aren’t right for POTUS 45. Never happened. Judy Woodruff….PBS, radical left.

8 Declassified hanging of Mike Pence idea to Proud Boys and various other idiot groups from Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama. Radical left with RINOS like Adam Kingsinger. We need more strong MAGA men like Markwayne Mullins from Oklahoma. He can’t read, but reading is vastly overrated.

7 Declassified transfer of $150,000 dollars from non-profit account to Stormy Daniels for pay for play scam with POTUS 45. Too rough for POTUS 45.

6 Never suggested having sex with daughter Ivanka without Jared joining. Declassified thought at first commercial break on The View. CNN fake news.

5 Declassified multiple photos of Lindsey Graham with creamy white liquid dripping off his chin before leaving hotel room in Moscow. Must have been RINO Liz Cheney.

4 Wasn’t really serious about several off color racist jokes told to Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. at Trump golf course in New Jersey at Trump evangelical event to raise GOP scam money. Dan Scavino declassfied. Declassified…are you kidding? POTUS 45 was on 17th green picking up from seven feet out. Never happened. Golf Channel and PGA very far left…almost Antifa on turf.

3 Secret Service with due POTUS 45 diligence declassified and erased every text message sent to or from Mark Meadows on Jan. 5th and 6th in Washington D.C area codes. George Will or Chris Wallace must have hatched this one.

2 Delassified bidding war with Iran and Israel for top priority Middle East intel after wire transfer occurred at Duetsche Bank in Geneva.

1 And the No. 1 declassified POTUS 45 alibi is/was….drum roll, please, totally declassified January 6th insurrection before going to bed. It was all Mike Pence and Dan Quayle’s idea. It never happened. Fake news.

Did OU End Bedlam Unilaterally? Op-Ed

Of course OU did.

I listened to a bit of Jim Traber today and he finally got something right.

OU did so with complete and total premediated intent, but with no malice attached. OU mercifully ended the lopsided 90-17 fiasco referred to as the Bedlam Series.

I asked one of my friends who played football and baseball at O State this question the month all this went public.

I asked, “What do you think about all this?”

He said, “Mike, if my next door neighbor kicks my ass eight of nine times for over the course of over a hundred games do I follow him when he sells his house?”

Of course not. 90-17 isn’t a small sample size…it’s more of an indictment of the mentality at O State. OU made a business decision…pure and simple. In fact, in the long run this should help O State and its fanbase get over its inferiority complex in relation to OU football.

I mean think about this…Gundy is 5-22 versus OU during a time when the Sooners fielded some of the school’s worst defenses in its storied football history. If Gundy can figure out a way to gain a single yard against Dave Aranda from the one yard-line versus the Baylor Bears his school might even hoist some Big 12 conference championship trophies.

OU is a football factory. It has been my entire life. OU should never be confused with Harvard, Cal Berkley, or Stanford. It’s a football blueblood where football drives the unversity bus per se. David Boren never came to terms with this and that ‘s on him.

Mike Gundy and Kayse Schrum shouldn’t take this personally. OU negotiated a deal…pure and simple. Joe C is OU’s chief fiduciary and he did exactly what any responsible CEO should have done.

OU and Texas in fact stayed in the third tier Big 12 football wise about ten years later than they should have.

Mike Gundy doesn’t want any part of OU. OU owns Mullet King and Mullett King knows this. This ate at Boone constantly btw. Boone would hold his little Boone pressers lamenting Gundy’s inability to beat OU even after he relented and gave Gundy the contract he felt he needed to stay at his New York Yankee’s job.

So it’s complete nonsense to keep talking about Bedlam.

Like I wrote yesterday…90-17 isn’t Bedlam. It’s more like premeditated bullying and Mike Gundy knows this.

Have you ever seen him happier?

In fact…I think both schools win the way this is going down.

You need a consequential win or two, Mullet King. I’ve got some books I want to sell.

Be happy. You have a magnificent life out there on the Karsten ranch. They didn’t fire you in spite of the Tennessee and Arkansas fiascos. Boone stuck with you even with the 5-22 mark. maybe Mike Holder and Burns Hargis wouldn’t let him fire you…but still. See the glasss half full, buddy. You make more than a member of oil and gas royalty. Well almost. But most of all you only have to play OU one more time. Dude, you’ve got life by the proverbial balls

Breath in. Breathe out. Enjoy the sunshine on your shoulders. Inhale life. Embrace it. Smile at your wife like she’s Kathleen Turner in that ending scene from Body Heat. This is your time. Be happy. Life is good, MK.

Mike Gundy… Point, Counterpoint

Oh, boy. Mike Gundy had himself another little mini rant yesterday on OU and Texas. About them leaving the third tier football-wise Big 12 for the SEC.

I’m a Mike Gundy expert. Truly. I know thru a couple of sources who covered his beat all the stories going back to the recruitment of T-Boone’s oil gas bidness money.

I’ve even written a first draft of 90,000 words entiled Mullet King: The Boone Pickens-Mike Gundy College Football Saga. Netflix said no though. They have current cash flow problems and like their supervisor of new stories said to me, ” Mike, we’ve all seen Tiger King and know Oklahoma is the dumbest state in the Union. This guy doesn’t even have a consequential win on his career resume. Why would anyone outside of Oklahoma read this book?”

I still may try self-publication if Gundy ever notches a consequential win. If I could sell 25,000 to 50,000 books…maybe it would be worth it. I might call John Grisham and ask him what he thinks. He’s written a couple of sports books.

Back when Les Miles was head coach, Eddie Sutton and Harry Birdwell were the defacto ADs, and David Schmidley was the university prez is where this story starts. Throw in golf coach Mike Holder and you’d have yourself a story if Mike Gundy could just notch a few consequential wins.

Gundy went off yesterday about OU following Texas to the SEC for more money…which is somewhat true. Which btw is really a smart thing to do considering how tough it’s going to be moving forward economically from these past two seasosns of COVID and the ever changing face o college football.

What Mullet King didn’t mention is that Joe C is smart enough to keep the Red River Rivalry intact for the fertile recruitng in Texas and the fact the Dallas area provides OU with a significant source of students from Dallas who I believe are granted in state reciprocal tutition at OU.

Add to the fact OU-Texas is one of the premier rivalries in college football while Bedlam is a grotesquely one-sided series in which OU leads 90-17. That’s not a rivalry. That’s cruel and unusal punishment or internet bullying.

Mullett King a player, as an assistant coach of Les Miles is a putrid 5-22. If Big Game Bob hadn’t repunted to Tyreke ….Mullet King would be a collective 4-23 versus the Sooners.

Trust me on this as an OU fan…when we see Mike Gundy over there across the field we know all the numbers. We’ve seen that look on Mike Gundy’s face.

Ask Dave Aranda from Baylor about that look. Can anyone even in Payne County name a football coach who with seven tries from inside the Baylor one-yardline could choke to that extent in a conference championship game.

I have no idea why Gundy said these things on Tuesday. Anyone who’s ever played sports knows the truth. Gundy can’t beat OU unless Lincoln Riley is loading his assistants in a private jet in the fourth period of Bedlam headed to Los Angeles.

Another thing. If OU ever wants to win another national championship in football they’re going to have to recruit the South for defensive players like Georgia and Alabama put on the field every Saturday.

In closing what Gundy should have said was…”I can’t beat OU. The record speaks for itself. Even as a QB here I couldn’t beat them with Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, and Hart Lee Dykes. I just feel fortunate Mr. Pickens didn’t fire my ass for not beating OU more often after I pulled all that shit leveraging him with that Tennssee and Arkansas nonsense.”

The end.

I don’t rant anymore myself.

Have a nice day…Mullet King. Win a conference championship so I can sell 50,000 books.

Mike Jackson

Merrick Garland: The Rule of Law, March 2021

The Rule of Law should be very simple. It should be equal justice for every American. There is no written exception to this doctrine, It’s why we have the law.

Merrick Garland knows what he has in front of him as the acting Attorney General of the United States. This is not complex.’

Earlier in his career he served as an Associate Attorney Gerneral in the Justice Department. He was instrumental in prosecuting the Oklahoma City bombing case, the Unibomber case, and the Atlanta Olympic bombings.

His niche is prosecuting domestic terrorism cases. January 6th is right in his wheelhouse even given the daunting task of organizing his case from the bottom up.

If you take your right to vote or the Rule of Law for granted that’s on you regardless of your political affilation.

Sooners Thrash Huskers in Lincoln, 49-14

I’m just taking it easy here on the blog. There’s nothing of note to write about the Thunder since they’re in essence a G League team pretending to be an NBA team for the third straight season.

Both the college and NFL seasons are now well under way and that’s a positive for those of us living in Oklahoma. Both OU and O State are 3-0 after their first three games with both Dillion Gabriel and Spencer Sanders look like they’re the two best quarterbacks in the Big 12.

OU went up to Lincoln this past Saturday and eviserated the once proud Cornhuskers by a score of 49-14. Brent Venables was a total gentleman in this game as OU bascially could have scored seventy points on the porous Nebraska defense which was in essence eleven pylons wearing Nebraska jerseys.

It’s sad to see Nebraska this low. I havee no idea who they should hire for their next football coach. Since Tom Osborne they’ve gone thru Solich, Callahan, Pellini, and Scott Frost to no avail.

They never should have left the Big 12 and the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas. Why do think OU stays cleaved to the Longhorns? Answer… for those Texas high school football players.

Putting the Huskers aside..Brent Venables appears to have the Sooners headed in the right direction at 3-0 on ‘Both’ sides of the football. These guys actually tackle, play hard, and are amassing TFLs (tackles for losses like those Switzer teams of yore.

It’s a fun time to be a Sooner football fan. The roster is deep and young on both sides of the football. The program didn’t wither and die with the Lincoln Riley/Kathleen Turner move to USC and the Pacific Ocean.

I have OU ranked No. 6 in my current poll just behind Clemson and ahead of Caleb Williams by a hair. That would be an intersting game…OU vs. USC in a bowl game.

O State is No. 8 on my current poll. The Pokes will go as far as Spencer Sanders can take them is my take. Spencer has finally been turned loose by Gundy and Casey Dunn it appears.

As far as the NFL so far….I simply love NFL football and it’s very hard to repeat in this league. Very hard. The Rams without Vonn Miller and Odell Beckham Junior appear to be very mortal to me, while the Bengals are 0-2 and better be careful these next several weeks if they don’t want to play themselves out of a playoff space.

I have no idea what the Oklahoma Thunder are up to. My guess is the main pre-season emphasis is calibrating injuries to SGA, Lu Dort, and Josh Giddey so as Sam Presti’s ‘team’ doesn’t screw around and win more than twenty-four games this NBA season. I guess it just depends on what dictionary you’re using when you look up the word ‘sustainability’.

“Lincoln, buddy, could you put a little more sunscreen on Caleb’s shoulders before the next hotly contested PAC-`2 football game.”

OU 45- UTEP 13

I think what I’ll do this season is to do my OU recaps on Tuesday after theCoach Venables weekly presser.

OU for the first in a awhile will entually once again be a two-dimesional football team. No more of the PAC 12 type of football.

Lincoln taking the USC job is the best thing which could have happened to OU football. It may take two years for it to show versus the likes of Alabama and Georgia, but with Venables and his staff recruting nationally elite defensive talent and then actually coaching them—the potential is in place for OU to once again be a top three or four team if they stick to the plan.

I thought the best thing I heard from Coach Venables this week was that of the OU players who stayed in Norman was the fact they came to him and told him they didn’t know what to look for for or how to adjust from watching the game films.

Think about that.

This was a nice first step. Nothing like the fiasco at home against Tulane or trailing 10-0 at halftime against the feeble Kansas Jayhawks. This was an incremental learning step.

OU actually tackled today at the point of first contact. That’s a big thing. To be able to actually tackle in space and stop the ball at the point of contact.

What a great Labor Day Weekend of college football. Georgi literally dismantled the Oregon Ducks. Men against boys. That’s what Coach Venables wants OU’s defense to look like a year from now with that same kind of depth.

I’m going to go watch Notre Dame to see if they can be remotely competitive against the Buckeyes in Columbus.

Have a nice week-end.

Texas plays Alabama next week. The weak at heart shouldn’t watch that massacre. I’ll savor every minute as I hate the Longhorns with a passion.

Lombardi once said, ‘Basketball is a contact sport, same with dancing… football is a human collision sport.’

ROLL TIDE.