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Due to Covid protocol Oklahoma State has had its last two games versus Oklahoma and West Virginia postponed. O State stands 9-3 with a big home date scheduled this Saturday against top-ranked Baylor. This should be a great measuring barometer for Cade as the Bears feature one of the best players in the Big 12 in guard Jared Butler. Baylor is loaded…period. The most athletic team I’ve seen so far this season.

Cade is currently the No. 1 ranked player on the ESPN Big Board for this summer’s draft. He’d clearly be the player I’d take because of his NBA ready made frame, his BBIQ smarts, his skill set in that he does everything relatively well… plus his 6’8″ body allows him great defensive flexibiity to effectively guard multiple positions.

If I were Presti and I was fortunate enough to land Cade I’d team him with Shai and Dort and create a three headed guard tandem with Cade being what Chris Paul was last season. Then maybe what Coach D could do is move Bazely to the Sixth Man coming off the bench like some sort of Lamar Odom type. I could see Bazely developing more game to game consistency in this role. Maybe move Roby to the starting four at some point with a physical rim protector at the five. It’s fun to visualize a team as the process evolves.

With the Houston pick if it stays outside of (1-4) I’d look for a mobile rim protector. I actually like some of what I’m seeing from Isiah Roby, but with another young big it would give the Thunder some much needed punch defensively. I’m looking with that pick to make my team much better defensively down the road.

Cade is currently the leading scorer in the uber rugged Big 12. His stats so far read… 17.8 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1 bpg, 1.2 spg. I’m not worried about his assist numbers because O State is an extremely young team and his teammates have been streaky shooting the ball at times.

Cade’s shooting efficency so far this season goes…45% fg, 39% 3pt, 81.7% ft. His balanced shooting numbers are a microcosm of the overall balance to his game. He does everything well and is an excellent rebounder. He’s too unselfish or else his rebounding numbers would be higher. He is clearly not a Russell Westbrook stat padder. A great kid. Excellent family. Super teammate.

Sam Presti…that’s who I’d take.

Great inaugural show on CNN. Fireworks were spectacular. I may take this into the wee hours tonight celebrating.

I can’t believe the Bidens didn’t play this song at some point.

Pharrell Williams and Miley Cyrus – Happy (One Love Manchester) – YouTube

The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter – the best version ever. – YouTube

Pearl Jam with Neil Young – Rockin in the free world Toronto 2011 COMPLETE – YouTube

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car [Wembley 1988] – YouTube

Eminem & Rihanna The Monster – Live – Bing video

Neil Young – Southern Man – Carnegie Hall – 2014/01/09 – Bing video

Runnin’ Down A Dream – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – YouTube

I’ve got to start winding this down. I”m wearing out. Feels like I’ve done a concert myself. One more song.

This is dedicated to Amanda Gorman who became an American hero today. Dream big, young lady.

Aerosmith – Dream On (with Southern California Children’s Chorus) – Boston Marathon Bombing Tribute – YouTube

Robert F. Kennedy’s Funeral Train – Bing video

No surprise Joe Biden has a Bobby Kennedy pic in his White House office. Joe Biden is an empath, while Donald Trump is a sociopath—and beyond the dogma of political ideology that is what most profoundly separates these two men.

Joe Biden actually cares about people while Donald Trump could care less about any living human beyond himself.

That’s precisely what was on the ballot in my mind in this presidential election.

It wasn’t a party line vote of any type. Ideology wasn’t on the ballot per se because Donald Trump has no ideology or doctrines being he’s an empty vessel.

The choice was simple. Do you want an empath or sociopath to be the leader of the greatest democratic country in the world?

Do you want a president who wants to empower the American Dream for many or the president who caters to only the very top of the economic ladder?

And, yes, much of this is symbolic.

The fervent hope the American Dream is there to be had by everyone if they work hard and dream big, modest or small.

I couldn’t help but think of Bobby Kennedy today who was loved equally by poor whites and poor blacks alike.

Hopefully…Joe Biden cannot only re-stoke the American Dream, but he can ignite human commonality in all of us which should transcend race or economic standing or political affiliation.

Joe Biden is an empath. Donald Trump is a sociopath. To be clear, that’s what was on the recent ballot.

Poet Amanda Gorman reads ‘The Hill We Climb’ – YouTube

It’s hard to imagine a mere two weeks ago today Donald Trump’s lawless collection of punks, losers, and thugs were rioting in the very spot where Amanda read her poem to the world today.

It is a stunning contrast not only to two weeks ago…but to four years ago when Donald Trump read from Steve Bannon scripture his take on American Carnage.

Amanda stopped me in my tracks with her beautiful poem which gives me some hope we’re moving away from the historically pathetic four years of Donald Trump.

To think during Trump’s time we witnessed Rush Limbaugh and Jim Jordan be awarded Congressional Medal of Freedom recognition…then in the very first hour of Joe Biden’s presidency went from that bullshit to Amanda Gorman’s poem which will go down in the footnotes of history.

Amanda, thank you for giving someone old enough to be your father… that a ray of hope is on the horizon even if only in symbolism.

Thank you. You wouldn’t last a day in Oklahoma, kid…but thank you nonetheless.

(2) WATCH: Garth Brooks sings ‘Amazing Grace’ for Biden inauguration – YouTube

It was refreshing to witness someone from Oklahoma not talking like a blathering idiot in relation to Trump. Hopefully, James Lankford will take some inspiration from Garth and for the first in four years show personal integrity and vote to impeach when we get to the Senate trial.

Amanda Gorman was just incredible. I’ll save her for later in the evening.

God bless, America.

(2) Donald Trump’s Farewell Speech – YouTube

I know I got a lump in my throat as Donald Trump made his farewell speech earlier. How fitting the photo from the Shawshank warden was placed on the desk of Trump in the video.

Good luck, President Trump. Job well done, sir. Your four year stay in the White House will forever be remembered. The path of destruction in your presidential wake is historically unprecedented.

Can’t wait for the memoir as you’ll go down as the first ever POTUS who can’t read his own book. Job well done, Mr. President.

Maybe the guy with the horns will be your cellmate.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural March 4, 1865 – YouTube

This is all very surreal to say the least. A lovely ceremony on Tueday to honor the the spirit of the 400,000 to date who’ve lost their lives to the Covid virus. What a unique thought by Joe Biden…to actually display some human decency and empathy the day before being sworn into office.

What a very tough job Joe Biden has in front of him with the nation in essence at war, an unchecked pandemic, an economy in shambles, and race and class division in our country reminiscent of the Civil War.

It is truly stunning to think how far we’ve devolved in slightly less than a century. To the point the exiting president can’t even extend the grace with which the Obama family gave to him four years earlier.

For the first time since Andrew Johnson’s exit from office…a sitting United States president will not attend the inauguration of his successor. I can’t think of any other word other than pathetic.

Not just the worst president in American history, but such an abysmal feckless coward of a human being he should never have held any office at either the municipal, state, or federal level.

Just a punk who inherited $420 million dollars from his daddy and avoided serving his country with some bullshit excuse about bone spurs.

Your brave courageous leader…Captain Bone Spurs.

That’s the person those dumbasses marched for on their attack of our nation’s capitol. If I had the power to close my eyes and throw all of these losers in federal prison it would be done.

This is the human debris Joe Biden has to sift through while rebuilding a country.

Good luck, President Biden. My prayers are with you.(

How far we’ve truly fallen as a nation with any aspirational values. Who’s next on deck for the GOP nomination in 2024?

Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Mike Gundy, Joe Exotic, or maybe Tommy Tuberville? Those are five off the top of my head who would be an immediate upgrade from what just crawled out of the White House.

So much for draining the swamp and the exit of American carnage.

Seventy-four million humans who ostensibly didn’t roll their collective brains in the dirt before voting… voted for this clown after observing this bullshit for four years.

Fourth graders at our worst schools in the country have more common sense.

Grow up and start acting like adults or don’t vote. Good lord.

Every Presidential oath of office (Franklin D. Roosevelt – Donald J. Trump) – YouTube

One of the things I want to do this NBA season is from time to time feature all of our Oklahoma City players who have moved on to other NBA destinations.

Jerami Grant is tearing it up currently with the Detroit Pistons. So I’ll start with him.

I saw a post on the Daily Thunder messageboard by OKC Jim. I don’t think he’d care if I posted the content of his recent post on Jerami so far this young hoops season. Jim’s a good dude and a passionate Thunder fan just like me.

Per OKC Jim…’Just a year ago, his fourth year in the league, he was a 29% 3 point shooter. Crazy how far he’s come. Still a small sample for this year, but he’s had a great start.

Jerami Grant stats this year… 24.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.1 spg, 1.4 blpg, 39.3% from 3 on 7 apg, 85% ft.’

——————————————

Great stuff, Jim. Hope you don’t mind I did this.

The next ex-OKC player I want to feature is Domas Sabonis with the Pacers.

Imagine if you will if Sam Presti hadn’t made the Paul George trade or the Jerami Grant trade to Denver… and stuck with Sabonis, Oladipo, and Jerami as the building block foundations of the franchise.

Of course that means Shai would still a Clipper. But consider what the core could have been in Oklahoma City this season.

The Thunder could have been in theory Jerami Grant, Sabonis, Oladipo, Lu Dort, Darius Bazely, Diallo, Mikey Muscala, Theo Maledon, Isiah Roby, and grinder Kenrich Williams …who you know I just love for the TSN he has in him. I’m not sure I rememeber where the second round pick came from which gave the Thunder the rights to draft Maledon. Jim…could you help me out?

Of course with my scenario… OKC wouldn’t have been able to move up in the draft and use a pick on Operation Poku. But still..it’s food for thought.

Anyway…not a bad young team above. And let’s say you added a three point wing gunner like say a Duncan Robinson type to the mix. It seems to me too much volume of moves in Oklahoma City when in theory Presti’s intial personnel decisons could very well have been the right ones to transition away from Russell Westbrook.

Just thoughts. You can do that on a blog when you don’t sell your soul to the Thunder.You just write the truth.

OKC is at Denver tonight as an uber tough stretch of road games begin.

Enjoy the Inauguration tomorrow as the United States transitions back to the quaint notion of reverting back to the last standing example of democracy in the world.

Michael Cohen: N.Y. PROSECUTORS WILL BE THE “FIRST ON LINE” TO BRING “TRUMP AND FAMILY TO JUSTICE” – YouTube

It’s the Tuesday after MLK Day and I’m to assume this will be Donald Trump Super Pardon Day. A mere thirty-four hours or so and Donald Trump will no longer be the sitting Grifter in Chief.

Who could possibly know how much each pardon will be paid to Trump for each pardon granted.

Will he pardon himself?

Will he pardon the clueless dumbasses who listened to him and committed sedition at our nation’s capitol?

The last in office poll by Gallup was released and Trump has a 34% approval rating. Never once in his four years in office did Trump have a Gallup approval rating of 50% or above.

Trump will go down with James Buchanon and Andrew Johnson as one of the worst if not the worst president in American history.

His Slovenian escort first lady who prioritized internet bullying on the internet as her national cause gets an F as well. She should go back home with father Vichtor and finish her Melania’s FLOTUS Secret Diary. I’d love to read that prenup.

Will at some point alpha daughter Ivanka cut ties with her toxic father?

So many questions, but unfortunately there’s that 30-35% of the GOP which makes up the Trump base who are still out there…especially in places like Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi…but quite frankly everywhere in America.

Did Donald Trump originate the race card in American politics?

No…there were clearly others before him. But what he did was politically monetize hate on a Twitter account on a daily basis. What Trump did was give oxygen to hate and bigotry every single day during his four years in office. Otherwise please explain to me what Donald Trump has in common with dudes in Oklahoma and Alabama who own shotgun, a deer stand, and a lab.

Trump doesn’t have a lab. Doesn’t hunt and doesn’t to my knowledge spends most of his time cheating at golf than hunting a deer.

So what was it which drew all thse rural white whites to Donald Trump?

Could it have been when fellow Birther Jeff Sessions became the first office-holder to give Trump the first hint of any political legitimacy by standing on the same stage with Trump at a political rally?

Truth hurts.

Donald Trump and his base will go down as perhaps the most pathetic/tragic footnote in American history to date bar none.

My advice to the Party of Lincoln moving forward would be trying something new circa 2021…like telling your members the truth every now and again.

Just try telling the truth.

★ Ray Charles ★ America the Beautiful ★ 2001 World Series ★ – YouTube

This will be very short. We’re all in this together as Americans. In these extrodinarily difficult times we find ouselves in we need to aspire collectively to help one another in our joint quest to experience the American Dream from each unique prism.

If we could each remove ourselves from the hate and look for the best in one other that would be a nice starting point.

Have an introspective MLK Day and rememeber what it is to be American.