Month: April 2018

For those of us who are non-millennials or Gen ex’ers the rebirth of the Utah Jazz is kind of cool. It reminds me of those great Utah Jazz teams coached by Jerry Sloan which featured John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Jeff Hornacek.

It was an era for Utah Jazz basketball when Michael Jordan was around and the Lakers were viable. It was a time when the small market Jazz were one of the league’s best run franchises.

Stockton ended up being the NBA career leader in both assists and steals. He played his entire career in Utah. On one of his contracts late in his career, he took less money to enable his front office to make the team more competitive. But he did attach one stipulation, he wanted free ice time at the Jazz arena for his son’s ice hockey team to practice on. Trust me, as someone who was a hockey coach/father you have no idea the value of ice time. How do I not love John Stockton.

Stockton never won a ring, but Utah did get to one NBA Finals where of course they lost to Michael Jordan and the Bulls.

Upon his retirement–Stockton has been involved in coaching youth teams and even became an assistant coach for his daughter’s team at Montana State. Stockton was interviewed for the Jazz head coaching job after the firing of Ty Corbin, but Quin Snyder got the job.

Stockton played his college ball at Gonzaga and was the 16th player taken in his draft class. He played on two U.S. Olympic teams and was on the Dream Team.

As we watch rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert take this Utah Jazz to renewed heights this isn’t unprecedented in the history of the Utah Jazz.

I hate to admit this being a Thunder fan, but part of me wants them to advance because I so much more respect their approach and mental toughness than that of this Thunder team.

So, yeah, I’m torn.

I know that earlier in the week I made the generalization that NBA head coaches and robots who drive for Uber are pretty much one and the same. Of course, that’s a little absurd in that there are a few NBA coaches who can actually coach their ass off besides Greg Popovich and Rick Carlisle.

Quin Snyder is probably a coach who falls into that category. I’m very familiar with Snyder in that he both played for and coached under Coach K at Duke. You can’t get a much better pedigree than that although some of the dullards in Oklahoma might say — “What about Jeff Capel?”

But you study Quin Snyder a little deeper because he’s an interesting guy and not your normal coach. He’s actually a coach who I find interesting because of his diverse background.

Snyder has both an MBA and a law degree from Duke. Not your typical jock turned coach. Know who graduated from Duke who was a major impact on the NBA being in OKC? That would be another interesting guy named Aubrey McClendon.

Snyder has made multiple stops at both the college, the pro, and the Euro side of basketball. Again, an interesting guy.

He coached as the assistant head coach for Coach K then not long after found himself as the head coach who succeeded Stormin Norm Stewart at Missouri. Snyder lasted six years at Missouri before he was fired because of NCAA allegations of improper recruitment of a player.

Sounds a little bit like Jeff Capel doesn’t it?

Here’s the difference. Quin Snyder didn’t go back to Duke to sit next to Coach K as an assistant.

Nope. Instead, Quin Synder became humbled by his experience and exit from Missouri and embarked on a tour of coaching stops which made him understand why he failed at Missouri.

He coached in Russia. He coached in the D League. He took on several assistant jobs. He worked his ass off and made himself a better coach.

If ever a coach in the NBA earned his job it’s Quin Snyder.

And of course, he’s now head coach of the Utah Jazz and the most likely coach to win this year’s NBA Coach of the Year Award.

As a human and not an Uber driving robot, I love the fact Quin Snyder pulled himself up off the canvass after the Missouri experience and found himself as a coach.

Now…if say Coach K ever quits at Duke who would I hire?

I’m thinking Quin Snyder and not Jeff Capel would be my basketball coach… and I actually met and very much liked Jeff Capel.

I wish more NBA coaches were as interesting as Quin Snyder.

Except for a 19-0 run in the third period these were the Oklahoma Thunder we saw on many a night during this NBA season of torment. All the bad things which had me screaming profanities during the first 79 games all came back to roost as the Thunder in essence got schooled by rookie Donovan Mitchell in losing pivotal Game 2 by a 102-95 count inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.

But there was no screaming from me this time around. My screaming tirades with this team will never happen again. I know who they are even if they weren’t for those two games in Houston and Miami. Trends and numbers usually play themselves out in team sports.

In hockey, teams which win the first two games of a best of seven series go on to win 89% of the series. In NBA basketball– I would assume the number is similar–though I’m too lazy right now to google it. So, yeah this was a huge game in that Utah now has home court and the Thunder at least for this Game 2 proved all the bad habits they embraced as a team are all still there.

It was another horrible start for the Thunder as they once again came out of the locker room with nothing and were quickly behind 9-0. It was a game where Steven Adams couldn’t stay on the floor due to foul trouble before eventually fouling out and only played 22 minutes against a team which has a guy named Rudy Gobert. It was also a game were OKC’s trio of Westbrook, George, and Anthony went a combined 19-58 from the field.

Except for Jerami Grant…Billy Donovan didn’t get much from his bench like he did in Game 1 when they went a collective +44. On this night, Donovan rolled Ray Felton, Alex Abrines, and Pat Patterson on the floor for 40 minutes and got a -26 in return. Abrines and Patterson were both scoreless in this game.

But even more than these things it was a game which showed OKC’s shooting numbers from Game 1 were an outlier of sorts as the Thunder reverted to seasonal norms of going 11-35 (31.4%) from three point land and 12-18 (66.7%) from the free throw line.

It was also a game where the Thunder as a team choked shooting the ball in the fourth period going a collective 6-28 from the field as Utah rookie Donovan Mitchell shone as the brightest star on the floor while Westbrook, George, and Carmelo went poof into the Oklahoma night.

The Utah Jazz were the hottest team in the NBA the last thirty games of the NBA season and now the Thunder travel to Salt Lake in desperate need of a split to get back to Oklahoma City at 2-2.

A big game for the Boston Bruins looms as they have a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 in Toronto tonight.

You see, although what happened in Houston was nice, bad habits don’t just go away with one game though. It just doesn’t work that way in team sports.

There has to be a collective will of sorts.

Prayers and best wishes for the Popovich family. I’m clearly an outlier in dumb red Oklahoma. I love Popovich and the honesty he’s had in saying publicly the things about Trump which not one single sports journalist or member of the Thunder has had the balls to say. Not one, except for Russell Westbrook. Prayers are with you, Pop.

I wasn’t even going to write about this again, but I was browsing newsoksports and read some bullshit Barry Tramel wrote on this whole ordeal of typical Oklahoma stupidity.

Here’s the thing to me, the comment Brian Davis made is completely irrelevant.

This man is not a racist. He’s a dude who realizes his viewing base is how do I put this… not all that smart.

He’s just a homer of a sports announcer who somehow ascended to a great job of being the television voice of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Which by the way has probably been the most interesting NBA franchise to follow these past ten years when you consider guys named Durant, Harden, and Westbrook all got their professional start in the league via this organization.

But what this whole story says to me reaffirms why Oklahoma ranks near dead last in education. Why Oklahoma has regressed these past ten years as a state rather than the opposite despite the international fame the pro hoops has provided. Why Oklahoma has a governor who many in this country rank as the worst in the nation. Why Oklahoma has two United States senators who don’t between the two of them appear to know much of anything. Why states like Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Alabama are states where Trump got his largest voting pluralities. Why Oklahoma appears to actually have become dumber these past ten years rather than the opposite.

This is the question Barry Tramel should have posed instead of a page full of words on the origin of the phrase cotton pickin.

Why has Oklahoma actually become dumber these past ten years?

This isn’t about political correctness in Oklahoma. This state has no political correctness. This is the state which gave Donald Trump the gift of Scott Pruitt to run EPA into the ground.

This isn’t about political correctness, it’s about why Oklahoma as a state and a people can’t smarten up and as group start moving into the current century and addressing it’s very pressing issues…like for instance coming to that flash of genius moment where it might want to realize it doesn’t have enough revenue with it’s current tax laws to have something more than the worst state educational system in the country. Or maybe the thought it might be helpful to elect smart people to run the state.

Maybe this is the crux of the issue and it somehow correlates as to the how and why a goofy homer like Brian Davis ever got this job in the first place.

The answer is transparently clear.

Dumb.

Oklahoma is a dumb state.

And in reality–Brian Davis, a smart dude from Northwestern, realized being dumb on the air in Oklahoma was the perfect career move.

Google Peter Principle or Grover Norquist Tax Pledge instead of the origin of cotton pickin’ if you want to reach the truth as to how Brian Davis has kept his job all these years.

Brian Davis back for Game 2.

Go get ’em, Tiger.

So as we witness this Kawhi Leonard debacle in San Antonio–I ask the question are there any Tim Duncans left in the agent driven world of the NBA?

It’s sad to see this happening with Greg Popovich and the Spurs. It truly is because they appeared to be the one organization in all of pro sport who were immune to the axiom that the NBA is merely nothing more than an agent/super star driven league.

So much for that naïve thought.

But here we sit watching this sad drama where Kawhi Leonard not only doesn’t play, but he doesn’t even accompany his team and sit with them as they go through the process of being eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

Kawhi Leonard doesn’t have time because he’s with his people in New York going through the process of forcing the Spurs to unload him this season to a team who has a coach who won’t ever get on him. I guess Kawhi’s people are his uncle/agent and some doctors who won’t confirm what the Spurs’ medical staff has said about Kawhi’s quad injury.

Agents and money drive all of pro sports, but especially in the NBA because if one superstar is landed you can build a team around that one star fairly easily with the aid of a smart GM.

But we live in an age where loyalty doesn’t really mean much across the landscape of pro sports.

We live in an NBA age where the concept of awarding an NBA Coach of the Year award is somewhat of a joke. So who’s this year’s NBA Coach of the Year I ask aloud?

Steve Kerr’s quadruplets of stars have publicly admitted they were burned out after only being together for 18 months. LeBron has had better years than this one as an NBA coach. Pop looks like a dinosaur. Billy Donovan’s team didn’t appear to be all that concerned about winning games until the first 79 games were in the books. The jury is still out on Mike D’Antoni until we see what they do in the playoffs. And Portland’s Terry Stotts’ team has cratered a bit coming down the stretch.

The answer is there isn’t such a thing as an NBA Coach of the Year any longer. There should be the MVP Award, the NBA Executive of the Year Award, and the NBA Agent of the Year Award. The coaches are just there to give the appearance that there is some reason for their outdated existence in the NBA world. You know.. kind of like where robots are going to start driving for Uber.

But if forced to pick the one player left standing in the NBA who’s career path most resembles that of Tim Duncan to date…I could only come up with two players to date. Russell Westbrook and maybe Anthony Davis in New Orleans.

But primarily Russell Westbrook as he’s the only star in the NBA who in my estimation would sign a long term deal to stay in Oklahoma City once the constraints of the NBA’s collective bargaining allowed him to freely do otherwise.

Russell Westbrook stayed when he didn’t have to and displayed loyalty to Clay Bennett, Sam Presti, and the Oklahoma City fans.

So while I never saw Tim Duncan dress like Russell Westbrook there are some other common threads between the two.

I love this! First off—Westbrook is half naked wearing some new powder blue outfit I’ve never seen before. Then, after Tramel asks some predictably overthink question, Westbrook allows Carmelo to handle the question so he won’t be mean to Tramel with a curt reply.

Here’s the thing for you Oklahoma college media types. This isn’t nuclear fusion. Billy Tubbs and Eddie Sutton told you this numerous times. Even they rolled their eyes at you at times.

When you shoot the ball well, good things usually happen to your team. It’s a contagious confidence thing. You run faster and play better defense. Your testosterone count may even go up depending on the individual.

Note to the Oklahoma media types…quit overthinking all this. It’s a simple game.

When OKC shoots 48% from three point land and 87% from the line—I’m thinking to myself on those nights they’re going to be close to unbeatable.

I would have had two questions for Russ last night:

1 Bad Little Dude…how much did you pay for this outfit and 2 could you buy an extra one for Tramel to dress him up for these presssers?

We’ve been told the OKC Thunder have been holding back in anticipation for the NBA Playoffs. They almost held back too late, but on this opening game of post season for the Thunder they looked like a team who could make some noise in notching a 116-108 win over the Utah Jazz in Game I of this first round series.

Paul George was a monster. Literally a monster as he scored 36 points on a 13-20 shooting evening and going a Thunder best ever in going 8-11 from the beyond the arc. Even KD never made eight threes in a game. I had no idea.

Russell Westbrook was excellent as well scoring 29 points and looking every bit the part of a player Paul George should hang around with beyond this post season.

OKC came into this game ranked 29th in free throw shooting and 27th in three point shooting efficiency.

So who were these guys tonight at the Chesapeake Energy Arena?

OKC went 14-29 (48.3) shooting threes and 20-23 shooting free throws (87%).Basketball is fairly simple. If you play defense, move the ball, and shoot the ball like the Thunder did tonight you give yourself a chance of being pretty good. The Thunder were pretty good tonight.

Steven Adams, Carmelo, Corey Brewer, and Alex Abrines were all pretty good tonight as well.

Even though OKC got off to a horrible start—I was calm just by the fact I wasn’t having to listen to dumb goofy stuff on the Fox Thunder telecast. I hung in there, stayed calm, and allowed Matt Pinto to steer me thru the early game waves.

Not that Clay Bennett or Sam Presti give a shit what I think, but I think what I’d do is kind of change things around and stay with this new broadcast lineup and move Brian Davis to the post game show if he can contain himself and not come across like Trump’s buddy Sheriff Joe with his murky use of adjectives in describing the team’s franchise player.

The BBQ from Earl’s was sublime. I put away a slab of the St. Louis style ribs and a box of okra.

The Thunder lead the series 1-0 and Game 2 is in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

I’m thinking the German beer hall in Bricktown with the food order going …German pretzel, duck fries, and the green pepper and German sausage plate platter with maybe some German beer.

This is me, the new casual Thunder fan who can roll with it.

Life is good.

Paul George postgame.

It was a great Saturday for me sports wise as the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia 76’ers both rolled with impressive first round home wins.

Very few in Oklahoma City follow hockey even though at one point back in the 60’s the Boston Bruins top AAA affiliate played in Oklahoma City and spawned my love affair with the game. Some really good pro players came thru here back in the day and I find it very sad that Oklahoma City has no pro ice hockey being played in the city currently.

Anyway, the Bruins are loaded this season with a roster put together to give the two-time Stanley Cup champs Pittsburgh Penguins all they can muster.

These Bruins can score goals and have a good netminder in Tuuka Rask.

So while the Thunder try and decide if Brian Davis is a racist or not I have not only the Boston Bruins, but my Philly Sixers alive as vibrant contenders this spring.

To be honest with you, my emotional gauge for these two teams is probably higher for them than the Thunder right now.

But still–of course I’ll watch the Thunder this afternoon. The diva lab much more prefers the hockey and the Boston Bruins. She told me she’ll sit with me during the Thunder game, but if I start acting up and cursing at the screen she’s going to the other room to watch hockey because those guys try all the time.

And the Sixers? Yikes. That’s where the future of this league is right now…in Philly. I hope somewhere in a bar…Sam Hinkie is at peace with himself for how it finally turned out in Philly.

But since I’ve got the underground Thunder blog and it appears there it isn’t one local sports journalist in Oklahoma City who can string two honest paragraphs together in regards to the Thunder…I’ll keep my head up and do the best I can on here to record this for historical reference.

It’s going to be a great sports spring…with or without the Thunder. Hopefully, with though. And since my son and daughter in law moved to Denver—I now even have the Avalanche and Colorado Rockies to follow. My sports cup overfloweth. But the Avalanche drew the Nashville Preds in the first round and that’s a very tough assignment.

Make me proud, Matt Pinto.

I love Russell Westbrook. He’s the same age of my son. Everything about Russell over these ten years or so has me even more fond of him as a young man than just a basketball superstar.

His relationship with his parents touches my heart. He calls them every day. He’s been a wonderful big brother to his younger brother Ray.

He married his college sweetheart from UCLA. He appears to be a wonderful father. His college coach at UCLA still talks about him fondly and his devotion to his alma mater.

What do you not like about Westbrook other than the fact he doesn’t like the college level media in Oklahoma? He shouldn’t be rude to them, but when every friggin day you’re taken apart on the Sports Animal I’m sure it gets old. You’ll notice Russell is always polite to the national media. Know what I mean?

But that comes with territory. If only these same people were so lazer focused on our sitting president and his performance.

But again, I don’t think Brian Davis is a racist. I don’t see that in the man. What I see is a savvy career announcer who knows his viewers in Oklahoma aren’t the sharpest pencils in the NBA pencil jar. I think what Brian Davis does is basically just dumb it down to the level of a certain percentage of the Fox audience–much like Sean Hannity does on Fox News Network.

But I don’t think there was any malicious intent by Brian Davis. Just more of the same in a market which went almost 70% for a sitting president who ran the Birther movement as a prelude to his presidency… and the same person who picked Jeff Sessions as the top lawyer in America.

If I were a black player would I want to play and live in Oklahoma City?

No–I wouldn’t. And again this isn’t to insinuate every Trump voter is a racist. Not at all. But if I were a black man this isn’t the place where I’d want my son to learn every man should be judged by the character of his heart as opposed to the color of his skin.

No preaching intended. Just the way I honestly feel.

Oklahoma City was very fortunate Russell Westbrook decided to stay here. He could have taken an easier route, but he didn’t.

So while I don’t think Brain Davis is a racist, it’s Westbrook as a man who has won my admiration as a man beyond what he does on a basketball court.

Every parent in America should pray to be as fortunate that their son turns out like Russell.

And you know what—I don’t think there would be anything wrong with Clay Bennett or Sam Presti saying in public what I just wrote. But they won’t because the people who buy their tickets wouldn’t think that was cool.

I love Tom Petty. He talks to me from heaven every now and again. He says, hang in there, Mike…the next place you’re going won’t be like Oklahoma. So–I’m thinking Tom Petty will be my theme music throughout these playoffs even if the Thunder get bounced in the first round.

You haven’t lived until you’ve karoked to either Tom Petty or Bob Dylan. Trust me on this.

Knock yourself out. Trust me…you’ll feel better…even in Oklahoma.

This is so cool. This could never happen in a stadium in Oklahoma. They’re too dumb to pull it off. Eventually… me, the wife, and the diva lab will end up in a nice little place a few blocks off the sleepy beaches of Melbourne, Florida. They both told me they love me, but they’re not going to Toronto with me in that it’s too cold for the wife and the lab despises the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s all about compromise I guess.