Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

I attended the Cowboys-Vikings game on Sunday night at AT&T Stadium. It was magnificent even though the Cowboys as a Vegas at home three point favorite found a way to lose the game in the final minute.

The final score was Minnesota 28 – Dallas 24…but it does not matter because these Cowboys are no longer a championship contender but more of a never ending off Broadway show which has its own genre of half sports-half show.

If you attend be sure and get inside at least ninety minutes before kick-off.

It’s simply stunning and a show you won’t you forget even if the Cowboys lose.

The Dallas Cowboys are the highest valued sports franchise in the world at $4 billion dollars. Jerry Jones individually has a net worth of $5.6 billion dollars. Obviously, the Cowboys are the primary holding of his assets currently.

Take the tour on-line and in person to get to understand the utter audacity of what Jerry Jones has done with his football stadium.

Jones to my knowledge is the first owner in the collective bargaining era of pro sports who has proven that a venue might actually be more important than winning on the field as long as you keep the paying customers entertained and diverted from the fact they haven’t won anything in almost a quarter of a century.

Maybe the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley before they finally won a championship this decade would qualify, but looking forward to the future maybe these Dallas Cowboys will be the next version of the Chicago Cubs produced in a high tech level genre.

Winning big and often won’t matter….even in Texas.

TO BOONE’S CREDIT:

In historical perspective you have to give Boone some credit for never hiring Jason Garrett as his head coach of his franchise. At least Gundy got Boone that one Shining Moment championship in 2011 with the same Brandon Weeden he had mired on his bench behind Alex Cate.

I’m thinking this deal with Jerry Jones wasting almost a decade of his ownership time on having Jason Garrett as his head coach should give everyone in this part of the country solace to realize it could be worse.

But it does give me pause, ‘How could one have a franchise worth $4 billion dollars and have a head coach who couldn’t win the American Conference championship running the team’?

The fans in and around the AT&T Stadium jokingly call it the 23 year-old process.

If he does enter the race I hope he’s doing it to actually try to become president rather than just helping the party neutralize Elizabeth Warren.

He’s a guy who would appeal immediately to my moderate leanings. He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s a real billionaire, and he actually believes in helping other people.

But most of all he’s not Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. He’s not a far left Dem who would help Donald Trump sway moderate Republicans and Independents his way if Warren remains the Dem frontrunner.

He wouldn’t have a chance in a places like Oklahoma, but neither did Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.

I hate to be this way, but the two best things Donald Trump has going for him are his Jerry Springer-like dysfunctional base and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Actually, I guess that’s three things.

If the Dems go to bat with Elizabeth Warren as the Dem candidate they are basically pushing the Republic towards the cliff of another four years of Donald Trump. Not complex.

So, yeah…..I hope Michael Bloomberg runs for president so I could have someone to vote for this time around. If he made Michael Bennett his vice-presidential choice…even better.

As an OU fan I’m totally aware the current world of big boy college football resides in the South. As in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida.

They play real tackle football in these locales while the rest of the Union plays touch football. Maybe it’s a Blue-Red thing. These states all love Donald Trump as well. In Alabama and Oklahoma they love the New York yankee. Very odd. They love Trump in Bama more than they love Jeff Sessions. I won’t play the Dave Chappelle video today.

College football is life in these states. David Boren made a horrible mistake by not moving OU to the SEC for the simple reason his then university went thru a decade of not being able to recruit defensive players from this part of the country on a level with the elites. David Boren never came to the real life realization college football drives the University of Oklahoma…not the other way around.

My wife attended Auburn. We used to go to watch Auburn play Arkansas every other year in Fayetteville. It’s a lovely campus and downtown Fayetteville is idyllic if you love the South. I love the South…I just don’t love Donald Trump. I don’t have a personal thing with Trump. I just think he’d be better suited for hosting a Jerry Springer-like slutfest reality TV show then being POTUS.

SEC football gets in your blood because it’s real football. Sure LSU and Alabama use variations of the spread offense, but the kids coming out of high school in the five or six state region from which these college programs recruit primarily play tough in your face defense in high school. They play tackle football.

With the national attention focused on concussions and making the game more safe only five states in the most recent years have seen an uptick of participation of high school football.

These states are moving from West to East….Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida. I need to go back and make sure I read the data correctly on Mississippi.

Another words, these are the states where the data on head trauma associated with the game hasn’t hurt high school football participation rates. These are the states where kids and their families still see football as a ticket to something better down the road in college and maybe at the professional level.

Oklahoma should have joined the SEC when they were asked to join. For crying out loud a group of Oklahoma state legislators are in the process of naming a part of Route 66 after Donald Trump. Are you kidding me? If ever there was a school which was a cultural fit for the SEC it’s OU.

Missouri should have stayed in the Big 12 and it was OU who should have joined the SEC along with Texas A&M.

It’s about recruiting and having a pipeline to a certain type of athlete which separates college football programs. Do you think when Jalen Hurts played at Alabama that Kansas State would have hung 48 points on one of his teams in a must win situation?

I don’t think so.

And so while I still think Jalen Hurts is having a season which should have him in New York as a finalist for the Heisman–he doesn’t have a defense in Norman which will allow him to win the Heisman…and that’s sad for not only Jalen, but for Lincoln Riley as well.

The college football national play-in games start to commence this Saturday with LSU at Alabama. I would think both teams will be in the Final Four unless this is bad blowout loss for the loser. Then it might become interesting.

OU’s chances are two-fold: slim and very slim. When you can’t tackle people at Manhattan, Kansas and give up scores on eight straight defensive possessions you pretty much aren’t sending the right message to the committee. The only difference I have with the committee on OU currently is that I would have OU at No. 8 ahead of Utah.

You make your luck. OU knew they didn’t have the luxury of losing a game this season given the weakness of their schedule. This is on OU.

But I still love college football and I can’t wait for LSU vs Alabama then Alabama vs Auburn.

So why is Nick Saban’s program different? They have better players and better coaching staffs. Duh.

Mike Gundy isn’t forty years old anymore. He’s in his fifties and forever the rant will brand his career at O State as head coach. Gundy went on from the rant to become the winningest coach in the program’s history.

Bobby Reid eventually left O State and transferred to a smaller school in Texas.

After a somewhat nice career back in Texas, he went on to play a little Arena Football and never became the next Vince Young.

Mike Gundy made amends with Bobby Reid and at one point Reid was a graduate assistant under Gundy at O State.

Zac Robinson, the quarterback who beat out Reid at O State, was a mid round draft pick by the Patriots and had a brief career in pro football.

Jenni Carlson–the columnist who wrote the story which fueled the rant is still with the Oklahoman.

Mike Leach, who was coaching against Gundy that fateful day in Stillwater for Texas Tech, fired his defensive coordinator the next day and is now coaching at Washington State.

Berry Tramel is still a columnist for the Oklahoman and enjoys pulling Mike Gundy’s chain here and again to get a good quote. Tramel’s voice is the one in this interview asking Gundy about him calling the defensive alignments in the last minutes against TCU. That had to be priceless to witness in person.

It’s hard to watch Gundy this season talking of taking double doses of Ambien to get him through the nights when his team doesn’t play well. Maybe there comes a time when maybe it might be time for Mike Gundy to take a break from his alma mater and let someone else coach football at O State.

Given the Thunder are supposed to be tanking this win isn’t a good thing. But let me make this clear—I hate the very concept of tanking. It runs counter to everything I’m about.

You shouldn’t have to lose by design to be better. There’s nothing wrong with losing honestly as long as you learn from it and it makes you stronger down the road.

But I don’t think premeditated losing is what competitive sports should be about.

So what if the Thunder really don’t need to tank this season?

What if the Thunder won’t be able to move Chris Paul or Steven Adams’ contracts this season?

What if the Thunder with the money they’re going to save from not resigning Jerami Grant and Andre Roberson could keep Gallinari in Oklahoma City on a three year deal which would assure Shai Gilgeous-Alexander he would a have stretch four who can make shots on his team?

Because here’s the thing I’m thinking and it’s a very positive thing—what if Sam Presti has already won the lottery with the acquisition of a silky smooth hybrid guard from Kentucky named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? What if in essence Presti beat the system per se and got his lottery guy a season earlier than anticipated?

What if Sam Presti now uses his Oklahoma City first round pick and his Denver Nugget first round pick and does the unthinkable and drafts two more players who can actually shoot a basketball to this group he already has in place?

Or maybe I’ve just lost my mind and this is crazy. I don’t know.

But I’m fairly certain I know this…small market Oklahoma City is not the market where you can carry out a long-term death march tank.

I’ll say this for this group of players in Oklahoma City so far…they’ve played hard and they’ve played smart. The dumbest team in the NBA no longer resides in Oklahoma City. That would be Houston at the moment and’s that’s not a snarky cheap shot at Russell Westbrook. That’s a cheap shot at Daryl Morey and Mike D’Antoni for playing this type of bullshit basketball in the first place.

Sevens games into this season and I have to admit I’m not looking to adopt another city’s team right now. Maybe, just maybe, Presti minus Patrick Beverly has this year’s blue collar NBA team which plays hard and plays smart for forty-eight minutes.

Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not going gaga on here and suggesting this Thunder team could be the Washington Nationals or the St. Louis Blues or anything like that, but what I’m saying is these guys are playing hard and playing smart and you have to respect that if you love sports.

I think I’ll start going to some games and sit low as it appears these guys could use some people from Oklahoma City to fill some seats and watch the games in person.

I shudder to close out like this in what should or could be a season of serious tanking, but LET’S GO THUNDER!

I have quite a few nice things to write about the Oklahoma City Thunder’s solid win over the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night in what used to be called the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

I’ll get to the Thunder and Chesapeake Energy itself maybe tomorrow, but given the shameful performances by Lindsey Graham of late this has to be on my blog right now….as in now.

Yes, Lindsey Graham is the biggest phony and the biggest pussy to perhaps ever have a seat in the history of the United States Senate. With all due deference to Little Marco Rubio, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul—this isn’t even close.

Lindsey Graham—the long-term best bud of John McCain wins this award hands down. Lindsey Graham one of the original Three Amigos with McCain and Joe Lieberman in and of himself stands alone as the winner.

It must with Lindsey Graham be a masculinity thing. As in—such he possesses none—that he likes to attach himself to stronger men in the headlines like John McCain, Putin, Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump.

Lindsey Graham– the make believe Russia hawk national security phony hawk wins this award hands down. We now clearly know he isn’t this generation’s Howard Baker who went and told Richard Nixon he had to resign. We now know this with certainty…absolute certainty.

I think Michelle Obama would be okay with this. I could go much lower, as in on my knees like Lindsey Graham does every week with his stronger male evangelical friend Donald Trump every time they get together behind closed doors. But I won’t do that on here. I’m going high. Michelle Obama should be proud of me.

I feel like I’ve grown some today.

If you live in Oklahoma watch at your own risk they don’t talk like this on Fox.

I’m not concerned about OKC’s record because they’re tanking. I have the Thunder slated for something like a 30-52 record with Gallanari for sure being traded as soon as we reach December 15th or so and not quite sure how long it will take to find a taker of Chris Paul’s contract.

I don’t even know what the final score of this game was even though I watched parts of the second half in between play stoppages of the O State-TCU football game. If OU hadn’t been idle…I probably wouldn’t have watched what I did.

The Thunder are tanking. They need at some point point to rid themselves of the three salaries of Chris Paul, Steven Adams, and Andre Roberson which this season add up to just around $70 million for this season alone.

One is too old, one can’t shoot beyond six feet, and one tragically suffered an injury which is hard to come back from for an NBA player. I love all three of these players as guys, but this is a business.

I will actually start going to Thunder games once the resale value of tickets plummets even further for season ticket holders.

If I’m Sam Presti–I would follow the Lawrence Frank-Jerry West model with the Clippers the previous two seasons in honing my team for two seasons down the road.

This is what I want…I want to have three young stars as my core moving forward. All three need to be able to score the ball and be decent from outside the arc. No more big contracts for guys who can’t shoot the ball. SGA is a player. Sam Presti now needs to start using his assets and put two other young core players around SGA.

I then want hungry, tough role players making up the rest of my roster. No stars. I want guys like Pat Beverly and Nick Collison. I want guys with a chip on their shoulder who have something to prove. I want guys that want to prove they belong in this league and can be signed for contracts with some real value for the team.

As I see it the Thunder already have four of these in Diallo, Ferguson, Bazley, and Noel. Possibly—Nadar and Burton, but I would need to see more out of both of them as the talent level on the roster starts to rise again this late spring and into the NBA draft next summer. BTW…in case you didn’t notice Adams and Ferguson didn’t even play versus the Pels.

Centers in the NBA have become like running backs in the NFL. That being, you don’t need to pay a lot of money for a center to win a championship. Find a center who can run, rebound, play off the pick and roll…and be at the least a 68% free throw shooter. I love Steven Adams as a mate, but c’mon…. he’s to the Thunder as to what Todd Gurley is to the Rams…. too damn expensive for what he does. NBA centers are the running backs of the new style of play in the league…Jokic being an extreme exception.

And of course I’d probably part ways with Billy Donovan. You couldn’t find a nicer coach in the league. I don’t want a nice coach. I want a coach who can extract the maximum out of my roster and monetize the investment I’ve made in my team per wins and per high basketball IQ culture once they set foot on the floor.

This is the template I’d want if I were Sam Presti and Clay Bennett moving forward.

So at 2-4 and probably headed for the cellar in the Northwest Division along with the Timberwolves the Thunder are right where we thought they would be.

I’m actually much more upbeat than I was two months ago. Diallo is a high energy role player. Bazley appears to have much more upside than I thought he would have. Noel should have been played much more last season and we already knew that.

And here’s another thing..Jerami Grant is averaging 9 points a game shooting the three ball at 22% for Denver so far in his option year. Who’s to say last season at 38% Jerami Grant had an outlier high season shooting the three. Maybe Presti got lucky and sold higher than we thought he did originally.

This is the second decade of NBA ball in Oklahoma City. The fans and the local writers need to grow up. It’s a business. It’s not all fuzzy warm with butterflies and rainbows at times.

Actually–in hedge parlance…I’m bullish on the Thunder moving forward and my guess is Sam Presti would like what I just wrote.

Thank god PBS was on hand to chronicle the return of world champion Washington Nationals at Dulles Airport. There will be no question of crowd size or some sort of deep state conspiracy by the Nationals to steal this championship from the oil and gas lobby favored Houston Astros.

With the exception of reliever Shawn Doolittle….. I believe most of the Nats are going to visit the most overtly corrupt POTUS in the history of our country regardless of politics.

Like myself and Michelle Obama—the team is going to go high and do their best to ignore the Corrupter in Chief and conduct themselves as role models for our youth throughout the country.

I’m pretty sure the Washington Caps visited the White House after their Stanley Cup championship and in reality this is the way it should be even with Trump in office.

I’m certain GM Mike Rizzo has instructed the players and coaches to smile politely when Trump says something completely off color and inappropriate. I mean…this franchise has to sell season tickets to Republicans as well as Democrats. You can’t just openly insult half of your season ticket holders at the apex moment of the franchise.

Hopefully, Trump can get through this without causing some sort of controversy or uproar.

I had no idea a Romney was the current chair for the rogue RNC. This must be my design by Trump to have the niece of his harshest GOP critic as the head of the RNC following the spineless tenure of Reince Priebus.

I can’t believe I never saw her before extolling the spiritual virtue of Donald Trump on television. She must have missed the parts where he throws a handful of Tic-Tacs in his mouth, grabs the next handful of pussy available, and then brags about it to Billy Bush on a bus.

How is it she and Mike Pence aren’t having an affair is my first thought?

I wonder if she and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders are Facebook buddies?

This is why I can’t watch Fox Television.

I learned something today.

Of course they had to vote yes, unless you don’t believe in our constitution or democracy….. how could they vote otherwise if they have children, grandchildren or a dog.

Not surprisingly not one Republican crossed partisan lines. I was embarrassed Tom Cole of Oklahoma took the floor as he did. For those not aware—Tom Cole used to be a Democrat until gerrymandering changed the Oklahoma congressional districts.

I was wrong in regards to Kendra Horn’s vote. She voted yes on moving the impeachment forward on our most overtly corrupt president in the history of America.

Good for Kendra Horn. I actually called her congressional office and told one of her aides I admired her political courage for voting in this manner. Too bad for democracy James Lankford and Jim Inhoffe don’t have her set of balls to cast their votes in the impending Senate trial of the most overtly corrupt POTUS ever.

I’m going to try and use restraint on my blog as this moves along. I want to be thoughtful, deliberate, and ‘somewhat’ restrained as the trial of our most overtly corrupt POTUS moves to the Senate trial stage.

Hopefully, Trump won’t read his own transcript at his trial in that it in plain print supports the claim he’s guilty of treason, obstruction of justice, and perjury.

Sigh.

Trump seems to forget it was the erased gaps in the tapes which finally led to senators from his own party walking over to Nixon’s office and demanding his resignation. Most don’t know Bush 41 was the chairman of the RNC at that time and wrote the letter stating the need for Nixon’s to resign. Of course there was Howard Baker and others, but in Jon Meacham’s biography of Bush 41 the letter he wrote to Nixon at that time is covered in the book.

I don’t even know who the chairman of the RNC is right now. Is it one of the flunkies from Trump’s Reservoir Dogs-like mini mafia operation? I need to google the current RNC chairman tonight. Is it Liz Cheney? I can’t believe I don’t know who it is. History will not be kind to previous GOP chairman Reince Preibus. He was a chief enabler to this bullshit when our country needed a mature patriot instead of party-line yes man.

Good for Kendra Horn though.