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If the Thunder win tonight they’re probably one game out of the expanded NBA playoff format this season given the NBA is experimenting with a 7-10 seeding tournament to determine the 7th and 8th seeds.

How can Sam Presti tank at that point?

Maybe what he should do is first see if Adam Silver has a sense of humor and see if the commish will give the Thunder a 17th pick mulligan do over in this coming draft.

Sam Presti could point out to Silver if five of his former players didn’t comprise the Brooklyn Nets’ core then the East wouldn’t have a viable team to play the winner of the rugged West in the NBA Finals.

Lu Dort had me at hello last season when he was given a chance to make the team as an undrafted player.

I love his toughness and willingness to guard the other team’s best offensive player every game. And day by day he’s brought his offensive game around.

How ironic…that Daily Thunder’s Justin the Contrarian with his 24/7 negative take and Jim Traber were both dogging Lu about his shooting eariler this week. In the last two Thunder wins…Lu is a combined 8-16 shooting the 3 point shot…with a game winner to boot.

Lu and Kenrich are my two favorite Thunder players, but I have to admit the whole team is winning me over slowly as Sam Presti so far hasn’t pulled the rug out from under them yet by trading Big Al Horford.

It’s become evident George Hill not playing is not a game changer given how the young Thunder guards are evolving before our eyes.

The awesome video above was again the work of Thunder Chick my Amy Adams friend over at Daily Thunder all those years before I intentionally got banned like a coach getting his second tech on purpose. I love the video, TC. Thanks, kid.

Tin Cup – YouTube

Sam Presti…as a John Marshall guy…at this point I have to say…hit the goddamn three wood and let her rip.

So…Ty Jerome from the 2019 national champion Virginia Cavaliers made his debut for the NBA Thunder on Friday night inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena.

How is it he didn’t win the Thunder player of the game is beyond me, but then again rookie guard Theo Maledon scored 11 points and set a Thunder rookie record with 12 assists.

Jerome in his first start for the Thunder after moving up from the G League because of Diallo’s hamstring injury finally got his chance to show if his game at Virginia translates to the NBA.

In twenty-two minutes of play Jerome’s numbers were 9 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. The assist number should have actually been higher if some of his teammates, most notably Justin Jackson, hadn’t bricked some wide open shots following prescient passes from the heady Jerome.

For the second game in a row it appeared the Thunder players aren’t really on board with tanking this season…especially after the dramatic March Madness game winner by Lu Dort and subsequent celebration pile in the win over the Spurs.

Ask yourself this…when was the last time you’ve seen a tanking team pile on each other like that?

At this point the 14-19 Thunder players don’t seem all that on board with a tank for the ages via the Sam Hinkie era in Philly.

If with Big Al Horford back in the linueup tonight at home versus the struggling Denver Nuggets the Thunder win their third straight…I’m not sure what we say about these guys.

Maybe what we say is we should start admiring their competitive heart to basically…you know…compete.

In the Friday night win over what should be a contending in the East Atlanta Hawk team—the Thunder played some of the best ball movement basketball ever played in the Oklahoma City NBA era. The Thunder had 31 assists and it easily could have been 38 assists if some more wide open shots had fallen. It was a ball movement clinic and a great deal of it had to do with Maledon and Jerome.

Danilo Gallanari must be the most perplexed of all as he left the Thunder to join a more competitive Atlanta team and the Thunder won 108-99 with Big Al Horton, George Hill, and Diallo all not playing in the Friday night game in Oklahoma City.

Just think if Sam Presti had used the 17th pick in this past summer’s draft to draft a ready made basketball player….instead of a NATO alliance project.

So…what if the Thunder win tonight over Denver and crawl to 15-19 with two games left till the All-Star Game break?

I would say at that point it’s in the player’s hands and not those of Sam Presti.

I actually went to Kevin Durant’s one and only game he played in Norman during his freshman NPOTY season. I went to the trouble of getting a first row seat to see Durant along with point guard DJ Augustin take on a Blake Griffin team which went on to make the Sweet 16… if I rememebr right.

Durant and Texas pretty much handled OU with ease that winter day in Norman. Fran Fraschilla and Ron Franklin did the TV call for ESPN that day. I hung around after the game and went down on the floor and struck up a conversation with Fran and Ron Franklin after their on air duties were complete.

They were like two little kids talking about Durant and what they’d just seen. I mean..it was great–two great guys and I was lucky enough to be sitting with them after the game talking about Kevin Durant and where his future might be headed. I never dreamed it would be with the Oklahoma City franchise which was still a work in progess.

The people in Oklahoma City… I guess are going to take Kevin’s decision to leave for Golden State to their graves. They shouldn’t. Instead what they should do is embrace the notion they were lucky enough to see this guy play for nine years in their city as the player I would rank right after LeBron from a generational standpoint.

So–if Durant had stayed would he have ever won a ring? I would say no because to this day I don’t think Russell Westbrook fully gets it even as his career is in decline.

So much NBA history from the Durant era in Oklahoma City. What if Presti had gone with Harden instead of Westbrook. We’ll never know although if Durant can stay healthy we might get a glimpse of that in this summer’s NBA Finals.

Is there a player in this NBA draft with as much upside as Kevin Durant? It doesn’t appear so from a generational standpoint because Durant is a gym rat and has worked his tail off becoming what he is from a basketball standpoint. Kevin Durant never cheated on his natural talent. He worked his tail off beoming the player he is today.

Thinking back to Durant’s one and done season has me very interested in Cade Cunningham’s lone season of college ball.

No comparison so far as Durant played with such a natural ease and flow which we haven’t seen from Cade to date. We’ve seen some great individual snapshots here and there…but not the whole thing for a forty minute game. But starting tomorrow in Norman is when we really for the rest of this season should see Cade’s game. I would hope this is when Mike Boynton turns it a little more loose with Cade.

I can’t wait for tomorow’s Bedlam game in Norman.

One Shining Moment | 2019 March Madness – YouTube

I watched parts of four games tonight as we begin to veer towards the goal acheiving portion of the season.

Michigan handled Iowa. A very nice Kelvin Sampson coached Houston beat Western Kentucky. Michigan State out-toughed Ohio State. And I watched Colorado literally dismantle USC and Evan Mobley behind the dazzling play of point guard McKinley Wright.

Michigan maybe the second best team in the country. I have Baylor on upset alert this Saturday night at Lawrence. We’ll see.

Evan Mobley may be an NBA lottery pick, but McKinley Wright was the best basketball player I saw on the night. It’s mostly about guard play in the NCAA Tournament. Evan Mobley wasn’t really relevant in this game because he didn’t have the ball in his hands enough to make a difference.

Put Jokic aside and maybe Embiid…and it’s a guard game at both levels because of usage or who has the ball in their hands most of the game. That’s why I’d easily take Cade given he can play four positions on any given offensive or defensive possession. But OKC isn’t going to lose enough to get Cade.

I haven’t seen McKinley on anybody’s first round draft projections, but he’s kind of a Kendrick Nunn type. It would be an interesting pick in the second round if he’s still around given the Thunder have two second round picks this summer.

I’m actually kind of excited about watching the Thunder play tomorrow night. Might as well settle in somewhere between six and twelve at this point annd find a running mate for SGA and a rim protector with the two first round picks.

I mean…here’s the thing…if you think the kid is an all-star and the face of a franchise…. then why would you be losing on purpose.

McKinley Wright IV breaks Colorado men’s basketball record for assists as a freshman – YouTube

It’s a shame a defensive specialist hit a game winner like that with no fans in the building. I wonder how many game winners Tony Allen and Shane Battier or even Iguodala have/had in their careers. I may have to google that for myself.

We as basketball and hockey fans miss the sheer adrenal rush of the crowd at a great game. It’s like a drug. It really is.

Beautiful read by Al Horford on the play BTW. It was like an RPO (run-pass-option) in football. He sucked Lu’s man towards the middle then made the perfect pass for a catch and shoot.

It may not get any better than this for the Thunder this season so I better embellish the play as much as possible. Maybe blog about it thru next Tuesday so I have something Thunder relevant to blog about on here.

Should be a really great college game tonight with the Buckeyes at Michigan State. Tommy Izzo’s team needs this one in a big way for their resume. Could be a play in game of sorts for them.

I’m going to put Dort’s shot up again just because the contrarian Justin from the abyss of nothingness… A.K.A. as the Daily Thunder messageboard has been so hard on Lu Dort…no matter what the kid does.

An historic game as SGA joins the 40 point club for the Thunder against a pretty decent team coached by Greg Popovich.

I’m not a huge fan of the NBA All-Star Game…especially this year when they probably shouldn’t even be having it…so for SGA this is better than anything he could have done at the ASG.

Maybe this will propel him into the spot which was going to be for Anthony Davis. He shouldn’t feel too bad in that some other deserving players didn’t make the game either. Domas Sabonis, Jerami Grant, Mike Conley, and Devin Booker weren’t selected either.

With what we saw last night from SGA that makes a basketball fan want to tune onto Fox Southwest for Friday’s game versus the Atlanta Hawks.

If SGA takes his game to the next level it doesn’t matter if the Thunder only have the sixth or sevenh pick because they’ll know they have their guy and will just need a solid two way versatile wing player who can SHOOT and consistently score the ball. Maybe even someone like Jalen Suggs from Gonzaga who doesn’t have as much star appeal as a Jalen Green type.

I mean…SGA did this on a night when Bazely was 0-8 from the field and Dort was actually struggling until the the last half of the fourth period.

I didn’t know he had that type of end to end speed. That was impressive….almost Westbrookian in that regard.
SGA’s game just moved the Thunder up on my tiers beyond OU spring football and the NBC Sunday National Hockey Game of the Week.

I’d like to see Diallo and Bazely switch roles and see how that starting five looks with Diallo as a part of that mix with SGA, Horford, Dort, and Robey.

Anyway…great game from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Plus…a shout out to Coach D for a great play call with Horford having enough faith in Dort to make the pass in a game ending shot situation.

I actually watched all of this game because Shai was remarkable and I couldn’t change channels…then Lu closed it with three 3 pointers in the fourth period.

Our two Thunder Canadians shined in the clutch.

Most fun game of the year for me.

Maroon 5 – She Will Be Loved (Karaoke Version) – YouTube

If you’ve mastered Marilyn McCoo’s ‘One Less Egg to Fry’ at Level 1….then you should be ready for Level 2.

This one is a tougher harmony to follow. You might want to do a practice run on this one before you do it in public at a piano bar or somewhere else.. This is just so lit. This might be bettert than Bitcoin. Call OKC Bitcoin market maker Jim Traber for Bitcoin buy orders.

This weather is incredible. Good karaoke weather.

This is how it should sound.

It was such an odd day/night of Big 12 basketball for pretty much the entire conference minus West Virginia and TCU who played the night before on Big 12 Monday Night.

First… the Big 12 announced O State will have to play both of their road games which were cancelled due to Covid protocol just prior to the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City. This means O State has to hit the road to play in Waco vs. Baylor on March 4 then head to Morgantown on March 6 to play the Mountaineers. Clearly—this is a tough ending for O State’s regular season heading into Kansas City. Brutally tough.

But for those us who love to see Cade play bigtime games it’s a plus. For Cade if he brings his Danning Manning game he could play his way into NPOTY if he shines in both games. We’ll see.

OU–conversely came out of the Covid reschedule smelling like a rose. Their home game versus Baylor will not be played and the Texas home game will be played at Lloyd Noble on March 4.

The Sooners as a Vegas 10 point road favorite then promptly went out and played their worst game of the Big 12 season and lost 62-57 to the Wildcats.

Other than Austin Reeves who scored 25 points and DeVion Harmon who had a good first half scoring 12 points no other Sooner scored in double figures. It marked the first time… both EJ Harkless and Moj Gibson were subpar on the same night. Circle that in red.

This is not a conference where you take the floor and sleepwalk to a win. You have to get your motors running and keep them running for forty minutes.

Just ask 2nd ranked Baylor from last night as well as they almost got beat in Waco by winless Iowa State.

Ask Bill Self’s Jayhawks as they went to sleep in the second half in Austin and consequently had their five game winning streak snapped by the Longhorns after blowing a double digit lead.

It’s a grind it out blue collar conference and if you don’t play hard forty minutes you won’t win.

Despite the fact Austin Reeves was fouled at the end shooting a three which would have tied the game…I’m not going to bemoan that fact because OU didn’t deserve to win the game.

O State at OU on Saturday afternoon…if that doesn’t get the Sooners’ motors revved then nothng will. OU doesn’t play an easy game from here on. I would expect the hard hats to be strapped on moving forward. I’m sure every member of the Sooner coaching staff was conveying that message in the locker room after the game last night.

That was a bad game you want to wash out of your system as fast as possible. A Marshall Tucker song would be good on a warm sunny day in Deer Creek. You learn from it move to the next game.

Tiger Woods’ Greatest Major Moments (updated!) – YouTube

As a kid growing up… Jack, Arnold, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd and maybe Hale Irwin were the players I watched the most.

The only black player I remember from my youth was Lee Elder.

When Tiger exploded upon the golfing world it was different thing than I’d ever seen before.

You could not take your eyes off Tiger in his prime. One of the most uniquely gifted athletes to ever compete in any sport.

And there was that toughness his father Earl ingrained in him.

I couldn’t watch the second half of the Tiger docu film …it was just too dark.

Hope he gets better and can find some inner peace with his children after he puts this car accident behind him.

TIGER WOODS HYPED PLAYS (LOUDEST CROWD REACTIONS) – YouTube