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I really didn’t care who won…I just wanted to see a great football game down to the final play as a fan of the NFL. Unfortunately… none of us got it as the Kansas City Chiefs obliterated the San Francisco 49’ers with a 21-0 blitz in a five minute stretch in the fourth quarter in route to a 31-20 win in the Super Bowl.

Fittingly, this Super Bowl championship caps a dazzling season for double MVP winner Patrick Mahomes and legendary head coach Andy Reid.

I like both Mahomes and Reid so in reality this is nice. It’s good to see a coach like Andy Reid get his Hall of Fame moment after all the seasons of almost championships in Philadelphia. He’s an innovative coach who through it all adapted to all of the changes in the NFL these past five years or so.

Who knows with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes this could be the first of several Super Bowl championships if the Chiefs can somewhat keep their team together.

Tough ending for the Niners, but we must keep in mind this perspective about the one dimensional San Fran offense. If Seattle’s Jacob Hollister had garnered three more inches on the goal line on the last play of the regular season these Niners would have been the 5th seed in the NFC. The argument could be made if Seattle had stayed healthy the Russell Wilson led Seahawks would have emerged as the NFC’s entry in the Super Bowl.

With the exception of Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl championship win several seasons ago in Denver, in my lifetime I’d never witnessed such suspect quarterback play from a team entering a Super Bowl as the Niners were in this Super Bowl with Jimmy G. Maybe Joe Flacco, but even then Flacco was superb throughout his run to his only Super Bowl championship in Baltimore.

I don’t feel Jimmy G is terrible, but he’s not a guy who ‘s going to carry a team with his play. Aaron Rodgers used to carry his teams. Tom Brady used to carry his teams. Patrick Mahomes in the present tense carries his football team.

In closing, what the f–k was Kyle Shanahan thinking in this game? In George Kittles he had the most dominant tight end in the league since Gronk’s retirement and he didn’t use his unique weapon.

Two words…coaching malpractice. How do you not game plan to get Kittles at least seven touches…especially in the second half when Kittles’ physicality wears down opposing defenses. How does this escape a head coach?

As far as the best commercial…this was my winner. This was the first Super Bowl in my life I watched exclusively with women…my wife, my mom, and my diva lab Pauli. We all loved this commercial.

I will wait until next Wednesday at the conclusion of the sham Senate trial to answer my own question. He’s not a coward for sure because unlike weaklings such as Lyin’ Ted Cruz, Sissy Boy Lindsey Graham, Little Marco Rubio, and Runt Rand Paul he has clearly put himself in the crosshairs of the national debate.

He will forever be remembered for this singular vote. This will be mentioned in his obit. This will be his legacy.

So if it was inappropriate action by Trump…then why not censor our grifter rogue POTUS? Why not put up some guardrails? Let him know he’s not Hugo Chavez or Benito Mussolini.

That would seem to be a pragmatic compromise which might hopefully reign in our evangelical pussy grabber POTUS.

Why not be Solomon and judge with some wisdom?

I need to stop myself here until I witness the official conclusion of the sham Senate trial.

I called both of my United States senators twice in the past ten days. I prayed for them as well to summon up some spine, courage, and decency for the first time since Donald Trump took office. I know their souls aren’t evil, just cowardly.

Surely, this vote on witnesses isn’t the way they want to be judged by God and mere mortals when they leave this earth. Surely…there is some basic human decency in these two men other than just aspiring to get re-elected…again, and again and again and reap the secular bounty of the Citizens United PAC.

I’m going to pray for both of my senators this week-end.

Don’t look now but the streaking Oklahoma City Thunder are 30-20 and tied with the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 6 seed in the West one game before the All-Star break. There are still deniers who hold out the hope Sam Presti dismantle the team so they can lose big for the next three years and hope the next Kevin Durant falls their way.

Good luck with that.

But for now five days before the trade deadline the Thunder with this roster have a team which is 23-9 in the months of December and January. Add to the fact the team has now won seven straight road games which I believe breaks the Thunder record for most road wins in a row.

Go a step further and you’ll notice the Thunder are four games out of the No. 3 seed in the West.

Did Lu Dort do all this by himself?

No… of course not, but he hasn’t hurt either.

This is Chris Paul’s basketball team. It is a reflection of Chris Paul’s smarts and attention to detail on the floor. Chris Paul made the All-Star team this week and rightfully so. I have Chris Paul as my No. 3 choice in the West as conference MVP… behind LeBron and Luka.

Without Chris Paul this team might be a 26-28 win type of team. With him—the serious argument can be made the Thunder could contend for a No. 4 seed depending on what transpires at the trade deadline with Gallo.

On Friday night in Phoenix the usual three guard monster was a tweaked a bit as Shai G. Alexander had a pedestrian night scoring the ball.

Didn’t matter though as Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Danilo Gallinari combined for 71 points on 52 shots.

But most of all it was Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder doing what they’ve done ever since the early season west coast road trip when the Thunder were discovering what they hoped they could be at 8-12.

I have no idea what Sam Presti will do on the trade deadline. But I know this group with a healthy Chris Paul and Danilo Gallinari is a pretty good team right now.

Next up the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Chris Paul missed Monday night’s game versus the Dallas Mavericks as he was trying to get over the shock of losing close friend Kobe Bryant. They were close and in reality the league should have canceled all games on Monday following the tragedy on Sunday in Los Angeles.

In case you doubt the value of Chris Paul to the Thunder this season Wednesday night was a primer on why the Thunder with a healthy Chris Paul are a good basketball team as they rolled the Kings by a 120-100 margin.

With Chris Paul on the floor the ball moves, it flows, and it ends up in spots on the floor where the right player has a shot in their particular wheelhouse spot.

On the night the Thunder had a giddy 32 assists to but 13 turnovers as the Thunder look like a playoff lock if Sam Presti decides to keep the team in place beyond the trade deadline of February 6th.

Lu Dort started for the seventh straight game and the Thunder are now 6-1 in those games with six straight road wins which ties a club record set back in 2013.

For me…I’ve seen enough to write this Thunder team could be a competitive first round team if they can avoid playing the Lakers in the first round. Against any other team in the West—I think this team could conceivably be very competitive.

What Sam Presti has to decide is if a contending team is willing to part with a promising younger player, not a draft pick, to make his team still solid around Chris Paul. I wouldn’t trade Gallo otherwise. If Gallo walks in free agency… then he walks. Kevin Martin walked after the 2013 second round exit versus Memphis, yet the Thunder were back in the Western Conference Championship the next season.

If Sam Presti genuinely believes in rookie Darius Bazely down the road then roll the dice and see what happens. You have to have a set of balls to be the GM in Oklahoma City. It’s not like OKC ever going to be a destination for free agents on the whole because their isn’t any opera and there’s the David Duke-like state legislature.

The Thunder are now 29-20 overall, 14-10 on the road, and close the pre-All-Star Game break on Friday night in Phoenix.

If you live in South Carolina this must be extremely painful to observe. Tragic…would be a more apt adjective.

Lindsey Graham has become a national tragedy almost in scope exceeding the tragedy named Donald John Trump. Perhaps—next hurricane season the first two hurricanes should be named Donald and Lindsey.

As a historian and an ever evolving student of history…I pose this hypothetical aloud to myself and any other who might ponder things such as this from time to time:

‘What if it had been Lindsey Graham who had passed and it was today John McCain still alive and well in the Senate chamber.

Would will still be witnessing this pathetic exhibition of cowardice to this degree inside of what Chief Justice Roberts generously described as our greatest deliberative body?’

I don’t think so.

If one looks at the pathetic half drowned river rat excuse of a man Lindsey Graham of today versus the cool seemingly poised adult sitting next to John McCain in the video….the two Lindsey’s don’t appear to be the same human.

Lindsey Graham should go back home. He should probably retire. Maybe Nikki Haley could nestle him next to her breasts and nurture him back to a level of emotional stability since John McCain isn’t available at the time being.

Go home, Lindsey Graham…go home.

This is one of the few positives for me in this entire Donald Trump ordeal the past three years. That being, I’ve come to know and admire George Conway’s honesty even though he is married to Kellyanne Conway.

He’s a moderate like me. Even though he’s still a Republican and married to a crazy woman who defends a pathological liar and cheater—he somehow speaks the truth. I have no idea how they even live in the same house let alone have stayed married. To me…their marriage is even more baffling than Trump being elected in the first place. But all I can surmise is the sex must be so Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction over the top he can overlook having to talk to her.

Here’s George Conway on Jake Tapper last Sunday discussing our fifty-three profile of courage Republican senators.

It was a night when in reality I think most in the NBA would have preferred not playing games if possible. In fact, the emotion is still so raw in LA the Lakers-Clippers game tonight has been postponed. All across the league even in culturally regressed Oklahoma City—there was a hushed awkward feel as the game went on with the exception of Chris Paul.

Chris Paul sat and we saw what the Thunder looked like without their best player and easily their MVP this season.

What we saw was a group of young players missing their veteran point guard MVP who without him would have been the No. 11 or No. 12 seed in the West.

Such a bizarre week for Oklahoma. Kobe passes. Both Oklahoma senators prove me right with their cowardice not even considering witnesses in the Trump impeachment trial. Then new Tea Party governor Kevin Stitt bans any state funded travel to the state of California.

So I’m just sitting here wondering in reality should Oklahoma even have an NBA franchise in the first place. I don’t write this like some goofball extremist, but rather I sit here wondering how it is a place like Oklahoma even has an NBA franchise in a league in which around 75% of the players are black and 70% of the state voted for a president who was endorsed by David Duke.

Hypocrisy much?

I don’t know. One week removed from Martin Luther King Day something has gone off in me which says this isn’t right. Even in diversity challenged Utah they have politicians like Mitt Romney and Mike Lee who have openly challenged the grifter racist Donald Trump.

But in Oklahoma with the exception of Kendra Horn and former OKC mayor Mick Cornett… not a whisper, not a word. Not a hint of even a thread of any moral outrage at what is transpiring in our country.

Nothing.

What would happen if owner Clay Bennett a Heritage Foundation Republican to the core came out in public and torched Donald Trump as any reasonable person should have done by this time? What would happen if he showed that type of courage to have his black players backs in a market dominated by the racist Tea Party mentality?

I wonder if the young black Canadians Shai Alexander and Lu Dort think this is awkward and makes no sense whatsoever. I can’t imagine at this point being black and from Canada or even California wanting to play in a city like Oklahoma City.

At some point somebody in this market needs to show some courage and in reality it needs to be Clay Bennett. You won’t lose the tax cuts and the two uber right Supreme Court justices, but you need to say something publicly.

Mitt Romney from Utah is going to vote to hear John Bolton later this week in the trial. My guess is five or six other Republicans could do so as well. We sure as hell know the two cowards James Lankford and Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma won’t be two of those—but somebody in Oklahoma beyond a first term congresswoman needs to step up. If for no other reason than to show the two young black Canadians what kind of city they’re playing in?

This ain’t no Toronto for sure, we know that, but even the Deep South had Atticus Finch. Please say something, anything…Clay Bennett.

This was beautiful. This will be a good place for me to bring my tribute to Kobe to a pause for the time being. This interview speaks for itself.

It was a tumultuous relationship at times. Kobe the stubborn colt who refused to change in the beginning almost chased coach Phil Jackson off the Laker bench. The Kobe-Shaq thing was almost too much for the coach who would eventually win eleven NBA championships combined with Michael and Kobe.

Phil was a different coach. He wanted his players to be readers. He wanted them to meditate. He clearly equated winning with being a smart team and a clutch team. From a book I read on Phil he would give each player on his teams a book he specifically wanted that player to read and they would discuss the book in private as the season moved along.

At the ceremony I genuinely hope Phil speaks of what his relationship with Kobe taught him as far as life and his journey as a coach.

Kobe was not stupid. He didn’t buy in just to buy in. He was too prideful to walk that road.

I would love to hear Phil talk of this relationship when the emotion isn’t this raw.