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I was thinking about Kobe last night after my post on here until I fell asleep. What memory do I most want to take with me in regards to Kobe and his life?

And the conclusion I came to was Kobe was completely his own man. He wasn’t Michael, he wasn’t Magic, and he wasn’t Tiger.

He was just Kobe.

This crazy driven brash kid who navigated the multiple stages of manhood for all to see.

The most compelling part of Kobe’s story is how he grew as a man. We all witnessed it. He wasn’t easy to play with at times. He probably should have won seven rings truth be told. There were times when Phil Jackson could only shake his head and hit the reset button. But in the end…Kobe Bryant got it.

If you look around the landscape of contemporary sport my guess is Kobe’s legacy as a man will dwarf those of Michael, Magic, Kareem, Tom Brady, LeBron, and Tiger Woods ten years from now.

Here’s why…because through the bad which happened in Colorado to the present as we mourn his death…Kobe allowed all of us to be a part of his life and share his journey.

In the end we loved what we saw even though we don’t get to see the second half of the story.

But in our hearts… I think we know how it ended.

Like everyone else I’m stunned. The next phase of Kobe Bryant’s life was one I was looking forward to with keen interest. Not as a coach or a basketball exec, but more to the point… where Kobe would take his life and what goals he would pursue as a man.

From the basketball part of me … Kobe is clearly one of the best ten basketball players who has ever played the game. In twenty seasons– five NBA championships and eighteen All-Star selections.

Every part of his game was excellent. Like Michael, he not only scored, but he defended, rebounded, and made plays all over the court.

Kobe is in every basketball junkie’s Top Ten Pantheon. Period.

But as his career moved along his game wasn’t what endeared me to him….it was his smarts as a human and his desire to become a better person.

Of the four stars who have played for the Thunder…three of the four list Kobe as the most influential player in their youth. Westbrook, Harden, and Paul George, all California kids, cite Kobe as the basketball role model they aspired to be.

But for me, as a fan, it was what Kobe said off the court which made this even sadder for me today. Kobe went straight to the NBA from high school in Philadelphia and yet he turned out to be one of the most interesting athletes of my life-time.

He was a smart, intuitive guy. He could speak intelligently about politics, movies, sports, ….whatever. He was interesting. Never at a loss for an opinion.

It wouldn’t have surprised me a bit if Kobe one day had run for mayor of LA or maybe even considered a bid to become a senator from California. Lord knows—that great deliberative body (sarcasm) could use some new blood.

I watched him once do this movie review of the Quinton Tarantino movie Django and he just floored me. He had me wanting to listen to his other takes on the society we live in currently. He was a rare contemporary athlete who’s skills as a human ascended as his skills as an athlete went into decline.

Very sad and tragic. My prayers are with his wife and three surviving children.

Kobe wasn’t perfect, none of us are. But what we saw was a human with a heart who aspired to be something special beyond the lines of play as a man.

God bless, Kobe Bryant.

For undrafted rookie guard Lu Dort the road to Oklahoma City started in Canada went through Arizona State and now the power hybrid guard finds himself in the starting lineup for the Thunder.

It’s kind of a magical story for a Thunder team which now stands 27-19 for the season while in reasonable pursuit of the No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the West in a year in which they were supposed to be tanking.

Five games ago after a sluggish homestand in which the Thunder showed little effort on defense—Billy Donovan inserted Dort into the starting lineup after a brief stay in the G League. The Thunder haven’t lost in those five games and head into Monday evening with a home game against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavs.

Dort has shown unique physicality, smarts, and toughness on the court for a rookie. And with each game you can see parts of his offensive game growing with confidence. You can call Dort a hybrid guard or you can call him a small power forward or you can call him a small forward. His defensive flexibility is a key to his career moving forward.

In reality–Dort has Russell Westbrook’s body with the role player’s game Westbrook had in college at UCLA. Dort is the perfect compliment to the three headed guard set Billy Donovan implements with Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Dennis Schroder.

I don’t know…you look at this team and every time they need someone to step up…someone steps up whether it be Lu Dort, Diallo, fellow rookie Darius Bazely, Nerlens Noel, or veteran Mike Muscala.

With the trade deadline getting closer everyone expects Danilo Gallinari to be traded in the coming days, but amazingly this team just keeps finding a way moving forward and winning games in the rugged West.

What makes it even more astounding this team is doing it on the road with a 13-10 road record to date on the season after starting 1-7 on the road. Stick that stat in your back pocket.

Thunder host Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavs on Monday night. I would say this is the most consequential game of the season so far.

I’m not sure it does. In fact, I would write for a significant number of Americans character doesn’t matter.

In truth this goes beyond impeaching Donald Trump even if you had the votes. I completely disdain everything about Donald Trump. There is not one part of him I admire or respect. But just getting rid of Donald Trump doesn’t in itself solve all of this.

It would be a starting point perhaps. A signal of hope that what made America great is still there begging to be exposed again. But just getting rid of Donald Trump in and of itself isn’t the only issue.

This starts with making sure we never lose sight of what a unique privilege it is to be an American. To be a part of the greatest experiment in human freedom the world has ever experienced.

To be part of the last standing barrier between freedom and fascism.

If not for America who do you think is watching guard? You Trumpers think it’s China, Russia, or a European Union which is in disarray? Good luck with that.

Is Donald Trump guilty?

Of course he is. All his lawyers have to do is call Donald Trump, Mick Mulvaney, and John Bolton to the stand if he’s innocent. Those three witnesses could by themselves put an end to this.

But Trump’s Dream Team can’t do this because the truth isn’t on their side and it would be legal malpractice if they did so. Trump would sue his Dream Team if they were stupid enough to do this.

In reality the American public is the jury since an election is nine months away. There is no voir dire in a real election. There are no challenges made to excuse jurors or no legal tactics to prevent one from voting.

It is that unique time in American democracy when we the people are the jury.

This trial of sorts is still clearly rigged. In a real trial at the minimum Mulvaney and Bolton would be called to testify.

This requires only four Republican senators vote to do as such.

Just four. If these two witnesses take the stand it won’t matter if the Senate convicts Donald Trump. It won’t matter because nine months from now I do think the American public would do such unless Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are the Democratic nominee.

Each of us should hope in our own unique manner that character does still matter in American democracy.

But for it to matter we have to participate and vote in an intelligent way.

Frank Galvin.. closing argument from The Verdict.

Justice in our hearts. The fervent hope for justice in our hearts.

Maybe the Trump evangelicals will riot and set a major American city on fire this week-end. Gosh….who could have seen any of this coming?

I wonder if this means Mike Pence won’t compare Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt again?

Nah…it’s okay, Donald. Just f–k her right there in the parking lot. It doesn’t matter. Give those stupid motherfuckers a tax break and two Supreme Court Justices and Hitler would have a 90% approval rating with them. No foul , no harm.

Yeah, I already knew he a star. My father from heaven whispered in my ear one night, ” Michael, me, boy—you’re watching Hakeem aren’t you?’

Of course I was. He stands out in a courtroom like Michael Jordan did on a basketball court.

He was born to be a trial lawyer. It’s like turning the lights low and listening to Tony Bennett.

I cried for a moment today when Hakeem challenged our character as a country. I did. I know my father did as well watching from above.

It was breathtaking.

Adam Schiff is a very accomplished trial lawyer, but the lawyer who has caught me eye so far is Hakeem Jeffries. He was brilliant yesterday as he deadpanned Trump’s version of The Perfect Call. He was brilliant. As soon as I can find it … it will be on my blog.

Hakeem gets it. No bullshit. He knows how to examine a witness. With Dan Goldman not present for this Senate trial… Hakeem should clearly be the second lawyer up after Schiff. In fact, from this point forward I’d sit the other five House lawyers down for the remainder of the trial. I didn’t see anything special in those five. My father would have run circles around these five….not even close. Kid you not.

There is an art form to witness examination. There is a beauty to it when it’s done the right way. Hakeem is a natural. I’d limit the Dem’s cross-examinations to Schiff and Hakeem only. This is like basketball when you sit the second unit down for the night. Cross-examination is when a trial is won. This is the time your two best lawyers have the ball in their hands.

Call it mens rea. Call it corrupt or criminal intent. It should start to be getting somewhat clear for all to see at this point unless you’re an utter dimwit.

Here’s Hakeem from this summer with Bob Mueller. You can tell from Mueller’s manner he was relieved someone excluding Schiff finally ‘got it.’

To me, observing a good trial lawyer is like watching an elite athlete. It takes my breath away.

I hope these people who profess to be Christians and the faux family value moral guardians understand how history is going to treat them in books.

It won’t be pretty. The Nixon era was marked by a unanimous Supreme Court decision of 8-0 which struck down Nixon’s assertion of executive privilege on the tapes. Republicans in both the House and Senate acted with honor and responsibility when the moment arrived.

In the Clinton Senate trial at the end enough Republicans regained their sanity to not remove Bill Clinton.

There is a history of bipartisan sanity in these impeachment hearings….even with some Republicans who decided not to remove Andrew Johnson in 1968.

53-47 with 71% of the American people wanting a real trial would leave a historic stain on the Constitution.

Trump’s Dream Team….don’t make me laugh. Ken Starr should be in prison and Alan Dershowitz is merely a legend in his own mind not even regarded as a valid constitutional scholar. The only dreams these guys could put together are those of the wet variety….. as in Russian hookers peeing on their idiotic client.

Jon Meacham talks of America’s better angels in his haunting narrative ‘The Soul of America’. Some of these better angels need to migrate towards the burning wreckage previously called the Republican Party.

Just so we’re clear if there was any doubt of the existence of something still standing called the Grand Old Party that was extinguished during the first day/night of an event which won’t resemble anything vaguely resembling a real trial.

There is no drama as to if Donald Trump will be convicted by the likes Little Marco Rubio, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, Sissy Boy Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, or even Mitt Romney for that matter.

The only positive the Dems will glean from these proceedings is Bernie Sanders will be locked up for a week or so and won’t be able to further damage his party’s chances for the White House for a brief period of time. Maybe the strategy moving forward for the Dems is to keep Bernie locked up until Iowa is in the books.

But there will be no trial.

What there will be is a sequence of bullshit which will be overseen by Mitch McConnell to mitigate as much damage as possible to Donald Trump’s senators who are up for re-election in 2016.

The margin of 53-47 can’t be a shock for the simple reason that since Day 1 of Donald Trump’s presidency there hasn’t been one viable sign other than John McCain that there was a GOP member of the United States Senate who would openly challenge Donald Trump in public on anything.

With John McCain’s passing evidently the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and perhaps Bush 41 decided it no longer existed.

That political party no longer stands. It is officially dead and it died when on the last amendment of the night proposed by the Dems which would have allowed GOP appointed Chief Justice John Roberts to decide on witnesses and evidence allowed… it was voted down by a straight party vote.

What does it say when the Dems have more confidence in John Roberts than the Trump Zombies?

Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush who will go down in history as the last president of the GOP as we knew it.

What is left standing is a new party with a new abbreviation…. as in POT. Party of Trump if you will.

This is a party which has no party presidential primaries. No presidential party debates. No other party member allowed to question the legitimacy of party ideology outside of the inner circle of the Chief Grifter.

Call me cynical if you must, but this is the way I see it as I sit with eyes a glaze at what I just witnessed. That being, the official death of one of America’s two major parties for the time being.

Evidently every Party of Trump senator is terrified of Donald Trump and what he could do them in a party primary if they ever cross him on anything whether it be pussy grabbing, interfering with an election, or obliterating the Constitution.

This party is to Trump what the system in Russia is to Putin. Laugh at me and tell me I’m wrong. I hope and pray I’m wrong. But I don’t think I am because this was the chance for all the Never Trumpers in the U.S. Senate to have their moment of inner courage and conviction.

Sadly…all fifty-three slithered into the D.C. early morning darkness as the genuine political cowards they have truly become during the past three and a half years.

GOP…rest in peace.

If you read my blog here and there you’ll observe I didn’t see Russell Westbrook’s exit from Oklahoma City as a cataclysmic event as far the level of NBA basketball which would be played this season.

Russell was good for Oklahoma City given the nature of Kevin Durant’s departure. So I’ll try to always keep that in mind this season and beyond. I will write though…as a hoops fan it’s been a great deal of fun to watch this new Thunder team which in essence plays three point guards together in Chris Paul, Shai-GA, and Dennis Schroder. Throw in the silky smooth shooting stroke of Danilo Gallinari and when they’re all in sink this Thunder team is a little bit sneaky good.

Maybe not Washington Nats winning it all good, but still sneaky good as long as Sam Presti keeps the above four together this season.

You couldn’t have scripted a better evening of basketball for the Thunder to close out Martin Luther Day if you’re a Thunder fan. On the road, the Thunder fought back from a fifteen point fourth period deficit to beat the Houston Rockets by a 112-107 count.

On a night when the Thunder didn’t have Steven Adams, Nerlens Noel, or Terrance Ferguson the Thunder simply sucked it up and found a way against Westbrook’s new team in Houston.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t per se have a vintage night scoring the ball with 13 points but on 10 shots attempted, but it didn’t matter as CP3, Big Gallo, and Dennis Schroder combined for 76 points to cover his back.

On the defensive end, Billy Donovan finally pulled his head out of his ass and reinstated rookie Lu Dort back into the rotation these past two games. Don’t confuse Lu Dort’s value to this team. He isn’t needed to score the ball. He’s needed to shut down the other team’s best guard and infuse his teammates with defensive energy.

I honesty have no idea what transmits through Billy Donovan’s mind at times. I have no idea why Dort was sent back to the G League after in essence he had a part in kick starting the Thunder’s turnaround in December while injecting the fanbase itself with some much needed feel good for those like me who actually enjoy seeing NBA players ‘trying’ on the defensive end.

Dort didn’t just play in this game–he started and played 32 minutes with his primary assignment being to harass James Harden playing the Patrick Beverly role. On the night, Harden scored 29 points on 29 shots attempted and was 1-17 shooting threes. Mission accomplished for Lu Dort. He made Harden work his tail off. He did his job. That’s what role players are paid to do.

Don’t look, but this Thunder team is now 11-10 on the road this season after the 1-7 road record to start the season. In fact, this group seems to play much more focused locked down basketball on the road.

The Thunder are securely the No. 7 seed in the West and it’ s not crazy to write they have a chance to challenge for a couple of spots higher.

I just hope Billy Donovan had a bit of a Lu Dort awakening this week-end. I’m not saying to start Dort or even play him heavy minutes. What I’m saying is play him and use him in an intelligent way as a defensive role player who’s energy is contagious to his teammates.

The Thunder now stand at 25-19 overall and are at Orlando on Wednesday night.

Parra to Dort…why not. If I were Sam Presti I’d get some Baby Shark music playing on the sound system for home games. I mean, if you can steal Seattle’s team why not steal the Washington Nats’ fight song? I’d roll with it. The Trump evangelicals will love it.