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It’s painful to watch. I was wrong on my recap. It wasn’t a no look behind the back pass. He kind of glanced and turned his body a little bit then threw it away. It try to be accurate on here.

I wonder if Russell has a close friend who can speak to him honestly about his basketball game. I like Russell because there’s a lot of good about him which should override the bad.

I’m sure he would never read a little blog like this one, but I wish I could talk to him.

I’d start with the reading bus to break the ice. How I’d love to be a volunteer at some point and help Oklahomans become better readers. I’d suggest he include adult books as well as children books. Then we’d talk about his son and his parents. I’d tell him he was my favorite defensive guard in the non-John Wooden Era at UCLA. I’d tell him how much I appreciate what he did for Oklahoma City.

We’ve both read Michelle Obama’s book. We could talk about the book. I’d also give him a book I cherish as a gift. Like Phil Jackson…I love giving books away to people I know.

What book would I give Russell Westbrook if I were his friend?

I’d give him White Fang by Jack London because if I remember correctly Russell has a Siberian Huskie or at least did.

Reading White Fang changed my life. Maybe Russell would love it as well.

Maybe I’d suggest Second Wind by Bill Russell as a second book or Kereem’s most recent book. Or maybe the book by Gary Pomerantz…The Last Pass.

There is a lot of good about Russell Westbrook.

Then I would gently shift gears and suggest he allow James Harden to be the primary ball handler in the last four minutes if for no other reason James shoots better from the field and from the line than Russell does.

I’m not Jim Traber. I like Russell. I want him to realize his potential as a player.

In 2012… when the Thunder won the West…it was James Harden with the ball closing those games as OKC beat Dallas, the Lakers, and San Antonio as they made it to the NBA Finals.

Russell, let James have the ball down the stretch and you can be a Bad Little Dude in other facets of the game.

Why not?

Your friend,

Mike Jackson

In a must win game after their worst game of the season the Oklahoma City Thunder found their brains and heart in Game 6 inside the Orlando Bubble with a clutch 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets.

What a game with so many different little twists and turns.

Evidently Billy Donovan talked to his team or maybe it was Chris Paul just taking the reins as he did so many times this Thunder season and elevating the Thunder to another big win.

There were no Mike Gundy sightings with his back to the playing field in this classic Game 6. There was nothing Mullet King about the Thunder’s gritty win which moves the series to a Game 7 on Wednesday night inside of a neutral bubble.

Chris Paul was the best basketball on the court. Period. He scored 28 points with 15 points coming in the fourth period when the season was on the line. He was a game best +20 amd made every play the Thunder needed coming down the stretch. Chris Paul was clutch.

Russell Westbrook was not clutch. With the game on the line in the final seconds with the Rockets down by two with a chance to either tie or win with a three he turned over the ball with a behind the back no look pass to Robert Covington which wasn’t even close to being caught.

Gallanari closed the deal with some free throws and it was another tragic playoff game ending for Russell Westbrook. It was so much like one of those plays in the historic meltdown in the Game 6 loss to Golden State you can’t not mention and circle it in red.

It was so bad there’s no way I could play the Wild Thing video in fear of being scolded for internet bullying by Melania Trump. ‘Donalt…don’t be cruel to Russell. Come ride the Peletons with me and you maybe can touch me for $50,000 prenup bonus. But there will be no peeing in the shower with Russians. If you behave you can touch me where Slovenian kitty really purrs. Ask former client President Bill Clinton if you doubt.’

Note to Johnny Thunder at the Daily Thunder…please Bolt this one for me.

For all you people who boo Kevin Durant…get over it. He did the right thing. He may act like a child on social media at times with his multiple insecurities, but from a basketball standpoint he did the right thing. Wanda… you did the right thing.

Gallanari was really good in this game as well with 25 points. Hard to believe this was the same player with one of the best shooting strokes in the NBA who only scored one point in Game 5. Coach Chris Paul must have said some things in private.

In all… five Thunder players scored in double figures. SGA and Dennis were just okay, but the Thunder didn’t need huge nights from them with the two Thunder vets Paul and Gallo combining for 53 points. Fortunately for Dennis Schroder…PJ Tucker never found him along the glass in the corner of the rink with the refs not looking. That would not be a good situation for Dennis…just saying.

A nice bounce back game for Lu Dort who hit two huge threes late in the third period and made a beautiful assist to fellow rookie Darius Bazely in the fourth period when instead of just chucking a three he penetrated and then kicked the ball back out to Baze who drained a three. What a play by two rookies in an elimination game. Bravo.

Bazely is going to be a nice player. He played around twenty minutes and very much didn’t seem overcome by the importance of this game.

Tough night for the Boston Bruins as their season came to an end with a double overtime 3-2 loss to the Tampa Lightning in Game 5. But there’s still the Colorado Avalanche and the NY Islanders alive so I’m okay.

Denver and Utah play the first ever Game 7 inside of a bubble tonight. So there will be a precedent for this happening heading into Wednesday night.

As far as Russell Westbrook.I don’t know what to write. I mean, to be that uber competitive and to still be making dumbshit plays at critical junctures is not acceptable. I find it stunning.

Maybe Coach Chris Paul should talk to him in private.

Some karaoke would be good after the Thunder performance in Game 5. I mean…if Sam Presti and Clay Bennett are cool with what Billy Donovan gave them on the bench in Game 6 why should it matter to me.

I’m just a little blogger having some fun. So if they don’t care then why should I.

My glass half full take is the season was fun considering the Thunder was supposed to be tanking. We were all playing with house money and amazingly Golden State finished as the 15th seed in the West.

For me…not being able to watch Klay play this season was devastating.

I wouldn’t even look at film or have practice today. In hindsight Vegas had the Rockets as a five point favorite in a neutral bubble on Saturday with Westbrook coming back. That should have told us something.

I wonder if Dennis is a little nervous as Game 6 approaches. Of all the guys in the NBA… I wouldn’t want to fight and piss off PJ Tucker would be at the top of the list. Good thing for Dennis this isn’t hockey.

Does coaching matter? It appears so because Barry Trotz has the New York Islanders one game away from making the Eastern Conference Finals. I know Barry Trotz is a hockey coach, but if I were Clay Bennett I’d hire Barry Trotz and not in any way allow Sam Presti to select another Thunder coach.

Can you imagine a hockey coach putting at the point Lu Dort on the power play and sitting SGA and Danillo Gallanari? What sober sane person amongst us would do that?

The only thing I can figure is Billy Donovan reads the Daily Thunder and doesn’t know any better.

Anyway…I’m going to enjoy the game tonight. I’m thinking some chicken parm and some Italian beer. Maybe talk to the girls back in Italy who are following the Thunder on the blog.

If ever one basketball game completely validated Kevin Durant’s decision to escape from Oklahoma in free agency this was the game.

As I sit here about to write this on my little blog I realize we all owe Kevin Durant an apology. He did the right thing. He should have just openly said why he made the decision at the time and put it behind him.

Let’s start with Russell Westbrook. Russell played 26 minutes and behaved himself. He only took 13 shots of which 3 were made. He went 0-3 shooting threes, but at least didn’t play like a chucker. He played within himself and was the Rockets fourth best player behind James Harden, Eric Gordon, and Robert Covington.

In essence, Russell was a non factor in the game. He didn’t need to be a factor because the coaching mismatch between Mike D’Antoni and Billy Donovan was so off the charts it was like watching Bill Belichick coach against Mike Gundy.

I’ve watched a lot of basketball in Oklahoma at the college and pro level. This was perhaps one of the worst coached games I’ve ever seen in my life.

It was stunning to observe how out of touch Billy Donovan was as a coach in perhaps the Thunder’s biggest game since the Game 6 collapse to the Warriors.

Maybe he thinks Lu Dort is more like Ray Allen than Tony Allen. Maybe he got Lu Dort and Shai Alexander-Gilgeous confused in the game plan.

I wonder if Billy Donovan realizes Clint Capela was traded to the Atlanta Hawks and the Rockets play without a center or a rim protector.

OKC was 7-46 shooting threes in the game.

7-46.

For reasons I cannot understand…Lu Dort shot the ball sixteen times and went 0-9 shooting threes. Combined SGA and Danillo Gallanari shot the ball thirteen times…combined in 56 minutes of floor time.

I worry Jim Traber might have harmed himself during this spectacle of coaching malpractice. What do you as a Thunder blogger/fan even say to this?

It isn’t even rant worthy. It was embarrassing. It was like watching Mary Fallin coach the Thunder.

Lu Dort has as much business shooting the ball this much as I do in becoming a Chippendale dancer. Even Mike Gundy in his darkest Mullet King moments wouldn’t have allowed Lu Dort to shoot 16 times while SGA and Gallo got 13 shots.

There’s no reason to break the game down beyond this. You could mention Dennis Schroder got ejected for going Draymond Green on PJ Tucker in the third period, but that didn’t decide this game.

The lack of a coach on the Thunder bench decided this game or at the least made the game a total mismatch.

In NBA post season play the team which wins Game 5 goes on to win the series 82% of the time.

This was a huge game. Too bad Billy Donovan and his team didn’t show up to participate.

Game 6 on Monday evening in the Bubble.

It’s a big game for Russell Westbrook today in the Bubble. He hasn’t been on a team which has won a playoff series since the Thunder beat the Spurs in the 2016 Western Conference semis. Since the Thunder went up 3-1 to the Warriors in the next round Westbrook has been a collective 3-15 in post season games coming into today.

In Russell’s NBA career he has never been on a team to date which has won a playoff series which didn’t have Kevin Durant on the same team.

Chris Paul has had his playoff demons as well through the years with both the Clippers and the Rockets. There’s a lot to take in coming into Saturday’s Game 5 in the Bubble.

It’s tough to win in post season. It’s a whole different animal than the NBA regular season. You can’t piss away posessions. You have to value the ball like it’s your life.

To date…I think most who seriously follow the NBA have dropped Russell out of their top ten players list because of his post season problems the last several years.

No one thought Oklahoma City would even make the playoffs this season after they unloaded Paul George, Westbrook, and Jerami Grant. It’s a game today with a great deal of irony attached to it from various angles.

I wouldn’t be crushed if Russell and the Rockets won today. There’s a lot about Westbrook which is good. His relationship with his parents. The manner in which he has helped his little brother. His family with his wife and children. The reading bus in Oklahoma City which was made possible by his foundation. He hates Donald Trump like I do. His loyalty to Oklahoma City when the city desperately needed it to stay NBA relevant was essential.

There’s a bunch of good about Russell Westbrook. There is for certain. I have very mixed feelings about today’s game.

Can Russell Westbrook morph his game at this stage in his career in the post season when it matters?

I assume the reading bus is still going in Oklahoma City. When I retire I’d love to be one of the volunteers on the bus from time to time. If ever a place needed more reading it’s Oklahoma. Maybe we could take the bus to Karsten sometime and pull Mike Gundy away from the Breitbart newsletter and help him with his reading skills and comprehension so as he could more resemble a polished adult.

Good luck, Russell Westbrook.

Big surprise, eh?

Was there really any doubt the agents of the NBA players were not going to monetize their commissions with a lower salary cap looming next NBA season?

Not a chance because Adam Silver and the NBA Player’s Association don’t run the league—the agents do. Why do you think Woj is the most realible off the record source in the league?

Here’s another thing which somewhat bothers me…as of yesterday only 20% of the members of the player’s association have even registered to vote in the upcoming election. How does anyone expect any change to occur with this type of apathy from some of the world’s most generously compensated black athletes?

Has anyone even considered the possibility some of these black players voted for Trump because it brought down their effective marginal rates?

So OKC will play Houston in Game 5 on Saturday…TBD-time to be determined. Westbrook will play. Even Vegas has no idea what Wild Thing will do coming out of the bullpen for the Rockets. No one.

Will he be a chucker, a rebounder, or a turnover machine or Harden’s partner who does the dirty little things over the court which make the Rockets a better team? Kinda like a smoker, a joker, or a midnight toker?

What will Wild Thing be on Saturday in the Bubble?

I would call it a pure even pick ’em game. One thing to consider though…Westbrook is a combined 3-12 in his last fifteen playoff games. 2-8 with Paul George as his sidekick…. versus Utah and Portland. It’s not like Westbrook has been clutch in post season play without Kevin Durant on his team.

I think the biggest question mark in this game is how many minutes does Billy Donovan allow Steven Adams to play against the small ball Rockets?

I assume Adams will guard Wild Thing at the start. Maybe even intentionally lay off him to induce a veritable plethora of three point chucking from one of the league’s poorest three point shooters. A basketball rope a dope… pun completely intended.

This is a huge game for Russell Westbrook. He’s slipped out of the top ten players in the league because he’s been such an up and down player in post season the past three years.

Smart teams with smart clutch players advance in post season. Dumb teams don’t go far.

Game 5 on Saturday for me could be the most compelling game yet in these NBA Playoffs in the Bubble.

I’m very interested to see what happens and who emerges from the Bubble smoke.

Bring the heater, Rickey. God, I’m so glad he’s back so I can play this video.

This will be awkward for Little Nick Gallo in the press room after the game. Hopefully, he’ll be able to conduct himself like a professional and not swoon too much from rubbing himself against Russell’s body. Post game presser should be awesome.

Long story short…I took the Ancestry 23 test and it turns out I’m somewhat Italian. I wrote about it on my blog and some Italian women have been private messaging me ever since telling me I’m their favorite Thunder blogger. This is for the women in Italy who follow the blog and hate Donald Trump even more than I do.

This was not a Republican Convention per se because that party no longer exists. The party which gave us Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and even Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney went poof and is gone.

This didn’t have the feel of Cleveland four years go either because so many of those Trump henchmen like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopolous, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, and Roger Stone are either in prison, being released from prison, or being reassigned to some other federal program where they can’t assault the constitution of the United States for the time being.

I’ve always maintained the Trump presidency closely resembles the storylines of Tarentino’s Reservoir Dogs. Still do. It’s more about a group of mini-mafia wannabees than the government of a first world country.

Melania Trump was very green tonight and she should be given credit for not reading a Michelle Obama speech at this mini-mafia gathering earlier in the week. She can now get back to protecting the world from the menace of internet bullying and riding her Peleton. Sigh.

I thought Mark Meadows missed a great opportunity by not having Russian prostitutes pee on members of the Falwell family to galvanize the Christian evangelical vote…but Trump has that locked anyway I guess. But still.

That’s pretty much it for me on what transpired at the White House this week in lieu of a Republican National Convention.

I don’t consider myself white even though my birth certificate says I’m white. I was the darkest kid at both my elementary and junior high schools.

There were times I was called a nigger, a half nigger, a wop, and a spic. It hurt. But for me sports was an equalizer. I was the starting third baseman on two state AAU baseball teams and not a terrible football player when I was trying. I was a starting two guard in junior high.

Sports gave me the chance to silence those comments by some weak white kids who weren’t taught any better by their parents.

Then when I went to John Marshall for high school half of the student body was black. I fit right in. Sports have been an equalizer for non-whites because the whites want to win.

You think Mullet King Mike Gundy would be making $5 million a year if he only had played white running backs and receivers?

You think that O-State fans? Cause let me tell you something you are completely full of shit if that’s what you think. It is a completly different deal with the speed of the black athlete. Night and day.

Same tbing with Barry Switzer. You think Barry Switzer would have won without black players at OU? Barry Switzer hosted a Donald Trump fundraiser at his home in 2016 which is absolutely shameful.

Same thing with Bobby Knight. You think Bobby Knight would have won a national championship without Quinn Buckner, Scott May, Isiah Thomas, or Keith Smart?

And while I understand the pain and frustration of Kenny Smith and the black athlete in our society…like Shaq…I ask how does this move anything forward?

It doesn’t.

Black people were getting murdered during the eight years of Barack Obama. Chicago became a war zone. When Michael Bloomberg was mayor of NYC he instituted stop and frisk because in a certain geographical region of his jurisdiction people were getting murdered at an alarming rate.

I just don’t think calling off the NBA season does anything of consequence.

It has to start in the black communities with black men becoming better fathers and dedicating themselves to their sons becoming strong contributors to society. This applies to white fathers across this country as well. Some of you suck as fathers as well. Try and be a role model for your son. Try and make sure they don’t turn out like Fred or Donald Trump.

Your dream should be your son becomes a better man than you. That was always my dream for Chris Jackson. Mission accomplished.

Easier said than done for sure, but for me that’s where all of this starts. Canceling the NBA season does nothing except signal a surrender to Donald Trump and other racists like him in white mainstream America.

I’m not sure how suspending the NBA Playoffs does anything to get Donald Trump and William Barr out of the White House. If one looks at the last election in 2016 in the three pivotal states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania….somewhere around 70,000 total in those three states determined the election which enabled Donald Trump to take office.

The black turnouts in Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia were anemic.

I don’t see how canceling the NBA Playoffs in any way energizes the black turnput in those three cities which in essence turned the Electoral College red for David Duke’s candidate of choice.

There are injustices taking place in this country everyday where white people take advantage of uneducated white people. White people abuse white people every day in America.

Black people abuse black people everyday in America. If I recall that was a theme in the movie The Color Purple.

The poor white people in the three states I just listed have in no way been helped by Donald Trump’s presidency. Just ask Dave Chappelle.

I hate to be blunt and direct, but both poor whites and blacks who didn’t vote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House in no way will be aided by the NBA season being cancelled.

In fact…I think doing this will only help Trump.

Freedom and democracy aren’t just given out like Halloween candy. Nor should they be. Some effort is required if you want change.

It’s called voting. It’s called getting more people who aren’t white to participate in the governance of their own country.

I think this is a terrible move by the NBA Players Association.

Jackie Robinson retired from baseball the year I was born in 1957. Several years before that my father and Joe Carter Sr. were refused service in a downtown Oklahoma City cafe.

In my view the election of Barack Obama infused a renewed hatred in certain whites from the old school Silent Majority which was fueled by George Wallace, Richard Nixon and then again in 2016 by Donald Trump.

But these police murders of blacks by police officers aren’t just taking place in the Solid South. They are happening throughout the United States.

What I’m saying here is if Major League Baseball had canceled their season because of all the vile treatment Jackie Robisnon received in his first season what would have happened to other black athletes in other sports? In other realms of our culture?

It is incredibly sad for our country to have literally no presidential leadership on race relations, but that’s where we find ourselves and the only way out is to climb back out of the darkness and into the light together.

Been to Jamaica. Been several times to the Bahamas of which we’re headed back to go this January. I love this song. It’s such a happy upbeat song and video.