With all the great things in sports going on right now…I will admit it’s been hard for me to focus in on the tanking Oklahoma City Thunder of late.
I’m not into losing on purpose or by design. But given OKC can’t keep elite black athletes in a Trump city like Oklahoma City this is pretty much the template Sam Presti has to work with going forward.
Sam Presti basically has two contracts with his players here in Oklahoma before they’ll leave for other corners of the NBA where the new Jim Crow laws aren’t as strident as they are in Oklahoma. You get a player on his rookie deal and then perhaps Restricted Free Agent contract and that’s it pretty much except for Russell Westbrook.
The notion Paul George was a free agent signee was Fool’s Gold Given he asked to be trade after two years.
I’ve always been clear on my blog that if I were an elite black athlete in the NBA… Utah and Oklahoma City would be the two cities I’d least like to play in for more than a year.
The cities I’d most prefer playing in would be Toronto, Golden State, and maybe Denver. Those would be the three at the top of my list for beauty, culture, restaurants, things to do, etc.
If I had to pick between Utah and Oklahoma City…I’d pick Utah because of the mountains and the fact that at least in Utah politics aren’t as toxic red as they are in Oklahoma. Give Utah at least some credit for having a U.S. senator in Mitt Romney who can vote to do the right thing every now and again beyond the dogma of the Tea Party and the American Freedom Caucus. Not the case in Oklahoma where the politics have never left the 1950’s. That wasn’t sarcasm.
So…with no other path available to team building in Oklahoma City the Thunder need to keep losing more after losing three straight to fall to 6-9 on the season and in the 12th seed position in the West.
Don’t look now but Minnesota at 4-11 is the current No. 15 seed in the West. If Oklahoma City can lose to Damian Lillard and the Blazers tonight in Portland they’ll fall to 6-10 and only be one down in the loss column to the Timberwolves.
The good news for me is I enjoy watching other teams in the NBA and both OU and O State have entertaining teams who should both be NCAA bound if O State is cut some slack on the LaMont Evans penalty. They should be allowed in the tournament given the lattitude the NCAA gave Bill Self and Kansas.
Here’s a Kenrich Williams video. I’m familiar with Kenrich because he played for TCU in the Big 12 and played against both OU and O State.
I love Kenrich’s attitude and hope he can turn this opportunity in Oklahoma City into an NBA contract at some point.
You have to look for the glass half full stories when your team is tanking.