Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

Some music for the All-Star weekend might be nice. After viewing the travesty at the Grammys…I think I’ll do my own music. Best of luck to Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Hamidou Diallo this week-end. Make the angry white Trump people in Oklahoma proud. It’s been a good day already–OU finally won another game. Good for them.

I love movies. I love great storytelling with interesting characters. Usually… what I do is from January 1st to February 10th or so is go to my closest theatre and binge watch a dozen movies in a three week period. Last year I actually watched four movies on the day of the Oscars. That almost killed me and I’ll never do that again as this year I was better at spreading out my movie list. In fact, a week before the show and I’m already done. It’s a ritual with me like the seasons changing. It drives my wife crazy and she rolls her eyes at me. I see every genre possible, while she’s a chick flick girl but one who’s actually the daughter of an Air Force Bird Colonel and very smart.

She’s never seen Shindler’s List or Twelve Years a Slave or the The Color Purple. “How could you not see those movies?” I ask her. She says, ” I don’t watch depressing movies. Why would I want to be depressed?” Sigh. You can guess which movies I see alone. She almost walked out of the theatre when I took her to see The Master. Dead serious.

We’ve been together for thirty-eight years and this year for only the second time in our marriage we agree on the Best Picture of the Year.

The only other time we agreed was with Four Weddings and a Funeral. She still has a thing for Hugh Grant while I’ve moved on although we both did love…Love Actually. And of course there was Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail. That was her Meg Ryan stage.

This year was very tough for me because I fell in love with two movies which I feel like are deserving of Best Picture. One is A Star is Born and the other is Green Book which I’ll feature on my blog next week. I’d feel very good if either of these movies win the Best Picture Award. I’ll do my list next Saturday with my top eight movies and how I ranked them. I’ll pick my performers awards then.

But I have to tell you, Bradley Cooper won my heart with his movie. I loved him in The Mule as well which made my list. But for me this is the Year of Bradley Cooper. He’s come a long way since Silver Linings Playbook. I have to admit he’s become one of my favorite actors.

I don’t watch much of the NBA All-Star week-end. I’ll watch Diallo in the dunk contest and probably watch the three point shooting contest and that will be it for me. Who knows…maybe I’ll watch a little rap. Probably not. I only watch two rappers…Eminem and 2pac and since neither of them are involved in this show I’ll probably pass. Isn’t it ironic that the best rapper in the world is white and rap is the music of a league completely dominated by the black athlete like in no other sport. I just find that ironic. God works in mysterious ways. Eminem has more soul in his little finger than Kevin Durant has in his entire body. Go figure.

Back to the movies. I want to play this Sam Elliott and Bradley Cooper interview because I love Sam Elliott and I’m hoping he gets to have his Oscar moment even though Mahershala Ali was superb in Green Book, but he already has one in Moonlight.

My advice is skip the NBA All-Star game and see one of these two movies if you haven’t already.

We’re at the All-Star break and while Sam Presti didn’t make a trade at the deadline he has however acquired Markieff Morris of the Morris Twins fame. Morris was with Scott Brooks and the Washington Wizards before being traded to New Orleans where he was bought out and waived. He hasn’t played in over six weeks and is in recovery from a neck injury, but has been cleared to play.

I’ve watched both of the Morris Twins play ever since their college days at Kansas with Bill Self. Potentially–Markieff Morris could help OKC as the eighth or ninth man in the rotation if he can prove to be healthy and work himself into game shape. Marcus, the twin in Boston, is the player you’d covet, but Markieff could conceivably help the Thunder in a limited role. Kind of like would you’d want Brook over Robin Lopez. I’d covet Brook Lopez, but Robin Lopez has some value given the right set of circumstances.

You would think he’d have a shot of being the No. 8 or 9 guy in the rotation given the first seven players in the rotation are set in stone with Paul George, Westbrook, Adams, Grant, Schroder, Ferguson, and Noel. Eight and nine on Billy Donovan’s current rotation are Pat Patterson and Abdel Nadar. Ten and eleven are Deonte Burton and Hamidou Diallo. Andre Roberson is No. 12 and has a roster spot in the event he ever plays this season. Markieff Morris would be No. 13, but in reality would be No. 8 if he’s in physical condition to play.

In the past two seasons with Washington, in post season play, Morris has played 19 games with numbers of 11.4 pts, 6.7 rbs, and 1.7 asts per game in around 19 minutes a game. He’s a career 33% three point shooter at 6’10”. He’s been a bit of a ‘free spirit’ at times in his career so I’m not sure you’d get the same locker room calmness you’d get from Pat Patterson.

If I’m Donovan my No. 8 guy is getting at best 12 minutes of game because I’m loading up on my first seven guys and finding every way possible to get Nerlens Noel up to 20-22 minutes a game as the season hits the goal achieving portion of play. There’s only 240 minutes a game to be handed out a game–so minutes are going to be earned beyond my first seven players.

So while I don’t see this move as a game changer type of move…it certainly shouldn’t hurt the Thunder in any way and they needed to fill a spot with a player with playoff experience.

To me, this would be like the Red Sox adding a nice middle reliever to bolster the bullpen. And if you watched the last World Series you know you can never get enough arms in your bullpen.

Nice pickup. What could it hurt?

For the first time since the Miracle in Philly almost a month ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder reverted to massive underachiever status with a horrible 131-122 loss to the reeling New Orleans Pelicans.

The Thunder had a chance to go into the All-Star break as the hottest story in the NBA and draw within a game of Denver in the West for second place.

It was there for the taking with Anthony Davis not playing a single minute in the second half in front of what has to be an angry New Orleans fan base. You’d think that would be the perfect recipe for the Thunder even without Jerami Grant and Dennis Schroder in the lineup. But instead the storyline was the Pelicans won the second half 65-59 without Anthony Davis playing a minute after halftime.

Nerlens Noel was a nice story for the Thunder scoring 22 points. But even with Noel having his best night since joining the Thunder and Anthony Davis not playing beyond halftime it wasn’t enough.

Russell Westbrook had his best offensive night of the season scoring 44 points on an 18-30 shooting night and triple doubled for an 11th straight time. So in essence, you could say Westbrook absorbed the missing points from Schroder not being in New Orleans with the Thunder.

It wasn’t what you would call a bench thing either as Ray Felton kicked in 9 points to go along with Nerlens Noel as the Thunder bench actually outscored the Pelican bench by a 35-34 margin.

It was more of Paul George for the first time since Philly going 3-17 shooting threes and not being able to bail out the Thunder as he has during the previous run of games this past month. Not to be cruel, but on this night, Paul George looked more like Rudy Gay than a serious MVP candidate.

You can’t write that on the Oklahoman or Dailey Thunder, but I just did because I have my own blog and I don’t have to play the bullshit game of hovering around NBA superstars to maintain media access. This to me is the downfall or myth if you will in the age of contemporary sports journalism as it appears to me the writers with the most access both on and off the record rarely if ever write anything worth reading.

But in this game give Pelican coach Alvin Gentry some credit. He challenged his team and they responded with Jrue Holiday and Julius Randle both producing plus thirty point nights and in essence making the big plays at the end. Sometimes pride still matters in the modern era of collective bargaining in the NBA and on this night it was somewhat refreshing to see effort and focus rewarded to the New Orleans team given the fiasco which is now playing out in New Orleans.

I’m a firm believer Anthony Davis should not be playing anymore this season. He and his agent made their intentions clear before the trade deadline. He should just sit and then be traded this summer when the Pelicans can get the maximum in return to move forward with Holiday and Randle.

Kevin Durant never did this. Russell Westbrook never did this. Their agents never demanded a trade during a season as best that I know. They honored their deals. This should not have played out like this in New Orleans especially in a market of which has had to be weaned with special care since Hurricane Katrina and the entire George Shinn saga. The fans deserved better.

But at the end of the day…the NBA isn’t a fans’ game, but more of an agent-superstar driven game.

The Thunder hit the break at 37-20, but missed a glorious chance in New Orleans to continue the narrative they could be something special in May.

I thought this would be a good time to replay this video from the summer of 2017 when Paul George was traded to Oklahoma City. We all wondered…would it work between these two?

It took awhile. I remember Paul George saying last year it took him awhile to play at the same speed Russell Westbrook plays at. It took awhile for him to get healthy and lose weight to play alongside Westbrook as well.

But here we are almost at the All-Star break and if OKC can win in New Orleans tonight they’re only 2.5 games behind the Warriors for first place in the West. The Thunder are the hottest team in the league and Paul George is pretty much in everyone’s top three for the MVP while Westbrook is averaging another triple double for the season.

Its not only worked, but it’s made Steven Adams, Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant, Dennis Schroder, and Nerlens Noel better ball players. Plus, it appears this is a tight knit team which enjoys playing together. And the Thunder are doing this with Russell Westbrook having a horrific shooting season.

I don’t know one single Thunder fan who would trade PG for KD even if that became doable? That’s why it’s so stupid for all these angry white Trump supporters in rogue red Oklahoma to keep booing Kevin Durant? Why not take the human high road and see all the compliments you would get from national pundits for being classy instead of trashy.

I really like this video because you don’t get this from the local college media around here. I mean, have you ever once read any writer from the Oklahoman or the Daily Thunder ever honestly discuss what the Thunder need to get from Billy Donovan as a head coach?

Here’s what they need from Billy Donovan right now. They need Billy Donovan to be a head coach who can look Russell Westbrook right in the eye and speak truth to power about what Russell needs to do become a championship point guard.

That’s it.

And what’s the worst Russell can do to Billy Donovan except for firing him?

I wish these dudes would read my website. I wouldn’t waste their time with bullshit questions after the games. I was raised by a trial lawyer. This isn’t complex.

How bad does Russell Westbrook want to be an NBA championship point guard?

This is fluid and I only rank eight teams. I in no way like the homers over at Fox Regional favor the Thunder in any way. If anything, I might be harder on the Thunder than any team in the league. But at the end of the day—I’m a fair person. Going into the All-Star break this is how I would rank the teams as they are playing right now. This isn’t how I would pick seeding per se, but just more of a reflection of their recent ten game stretch of games. The West is vastly overrated as I can only see three teams with any window to the conference finals right now.

1 Golden State

2 Oklahoma City

3 Milwaukee

4 Toronto

5 Boston

6 Houston

7 Philly

8 Indy

Amazing this is already in motion given what the country has gone thru in these two years, but here we are with Donald Trump officially kicking off his 2020 reelection campaign with yet no word still from Robert Mueller. Perhaps, since 1968, America has never been more divided. A country which cannot govern itself coherently at the present and yet here we have Trump beginning his reelection bid in El Paso using his wall still as the impetus of his movement.

It’s truly fascinating how this person still appeals to somewhere around 35-40% of those who vote. I would never attach all that much to polls because Trump is a completely unconventional politician in completely unconventional times. It wouldn’t shock me if he somehow found himself re-elected. I can’t believe I just wrote that, but I did.

Think back to 2016 and what was the best thing Trump had going for him politically in the general election besides James Comey?

My answer would be the Democratic Party was divided between the Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps. No real unity. No real message.

They swore they would learn from this, but I’m cynical as I now see so many different candidates on the Democratic side that I literally can’t list them without using Google. On one hand, it’s good to see this many people throwing their hats into the ring. On the other hand, if you have so many different conflicting themes you probably won’t have a united simple theme at the end of the day.

Let me give an example. One day after her first speech lauding Medicare for all–Kamala Harris had to rewalk that part of her first day platform because the moderates in her own thought that was too much. Same thing with AOC and her New Green Deal. I don’t remember FDR wading around with 20 other candidates from his own party challenging him for the presidency.

Think back to the Dem convention in 2016 and the divisions which never healed in the Bernie Sanders camp. Trump currently still holds around 81% of the Republican vote. If he survives Mueller these people will stay with him. If the Dems go way too far to the left then part of the middle will go with him again.

In reality the election will probably be decided in Florida, maybe Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Think about everything which is going on in Virginia currently. How will that square with independents who are repelled by Trump, yet in reality can’t really see any difference in a progressive state like Virginia which gave Hillary Clinton her running mate in Tim Kane in 2016.

Then there’s Howard Schultz or someone else like him. Will there be an Independent candidate who can take enough away from the middle to keep Trump in office. Think Ross Perot in 1988, but only this time in reverse as it would hurt the Dem more than Trump and whoever he has on the ticket with him this time around. I think Trump will have a woman running mate this time around. I also don’t see anyone left standing in the Republican Party who could challenge him right now given the fact they’re all terrified of him politically.

Again, I would throw the polls out. They didn’t matter at the end in 2016 and with two years to go anything can happen. People vote their base beliefs or at the least the economy and how it affects them. Remember what Bill Clinton said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Bush 41 had an approval rating of 89% following victory in Desert Storm, then lost two years later to the governor from Arkansas named Bill Clinton.

Two years is a decade in these times. The game and the rules have changed.

My advice to the Dems is get a message, keep it simple, and don’t lose yourself chasing Donald Trump down his rabbit holes. Quit following Trump on Twitter and discover exactly what it is you believe in as a party.

This is basketball history…pure and simple. This is the side of Westbrook you forget at times when he’s very humble about his place in basketball.

This is the kid who got scratched from an elite high school camp in Atlanta and his coach had to do some talking to get him in the camp. This is the player who had to wait for a spot to open up at UCLA before he got his scholarship. This side of Westbrook is the one I personally love because when you take the totality of his journey from there to here it is truly a remarkable journey in this era of NBA basketball. I love this Westbrook, the peacock Wild Thing Westbrook not as much. Westbrook also took full responsibility for the ending in Boston—which is exactly what he should have done. Good for Russell Westbrook.

Now…having written all that I’d like to see Russell Westbrook call Kevin Durant and personally invite him to Nick’s jersey ceremony and help these Oklahoma City fans get over this hurdle with Durant. It would make for a helluva chapter in my book, besides—it’s the right thing to do from a human standpoint. I would say from a personal view…patience, decency, and forgiveness are the things you really learn more at the age of fifty than thirty, but I think the Westbrook I like has all this inside of him. Yes, at times you want to strangle him, but he always pulls it back together and acts beyond his years off the court.

Keep in mind, if Paul George does end up winning the MVP then this will be the third regular season MVP in a ten year period of which Russell Westbrook played a major part in three different players winning the award. That’s something to think about. Cousy only did this with Bill Russell with each winning an award. Magic did this with himself and Kareem. Oscar did it with himself and then with Kareem in Milwaukee. Steph and Durant have neither won a regular season MVP since they’ve been together. Kyrie in regular season play was only a part of LeBron’s MVPs. Karl Malone won a regular season MVP, but Stockton never did. I hope all these fans in Oklahoma City can take a break from hating Durant and be sure and take in all of this NBA history. For a junkie like me…it’s fascinating.

Very simply–it was a historic night inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena as Russell Westbrook and Paul George both triple doubled on the same night as the Thunder beat the Portland Trailblazers by a 120-111 count.

For a small market city which has seen Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and George already in its young NBA history this was a special night not just for the win, but for the history which was attached to this game.

Russell Westbrook came into this game tied with Wilt Chamberlain with nine straight triple doubles. It was a record Wilt had held since that magical season of 1962 when Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game against the New York Knicks in a game played in Hershey, Pennsylvania. That record won’t be touched. But on this February night in Oklahoma City year 2019…Chamberlain’s record is no longer intact as Russell Westbrook tripled doubled for the tenth straight game.

1962 was the Year Wilt averaged over 50 points a game and scored 50 points or more in sixty straight games. History is stepped all over what Westbrook did tonight in Bricktown and what Harden is trying to do in Houston this season. Good for the OKC fans that they realized what they were witnessing when Westbrook pick and popped with Paul George late in the fourth period to assist PG on his eighth three point basket of the game.

Paul George…what do you say at this point other than….MVP. Since the Divine Miracle in Philly on January 19th the Thunder are 11-1 and Paul George during that stretch has been the best player in the league. Better that Harden, better than Giannis, better than anyone in the league.

I don’t worry about national narratives as this MVP race to me right now is a two man race with Giannis in third place. I do think though that for Paul George to win the MVP the Thunder need to finish in second in the West with somewhere around 56 wins.

Paul George has been the best player in the league in 2019 and he’s doing it in every manner on both ends of the floor and in the locker room. Just for fun in this one he tripled doubled along with Westbrook on a 47 point night which was efficient.

Both Schroder and Grant were DNPs tonight and Terrance Ferguson was in foul trouble early in the night. But on this night rookie Deonte Burton and vet Raymond Felton answered the call and scored 18 and 15 points respectively.

The thing I liked about tonight was the Thunder’s early focus with two non rotational players not playing and Terrance Ferguson in early foul trouble. It was a professional effort for 48 minutes with the team’s two stars putting their team on their backs as they now have the Denver Nuggets very much in their sights for the No. 2 seed.

If you’re not happy with this game then you shouldn’t be watching NBA basketball. So many good storylines for the Thunder now with one of them being Paul George trying to become the third Thunder player in eleven years attempting to win the regular season MVP award.

They should still be a 41 or 42 win team right now, but screw that for the time because the Thunder are on a roll even though Westbrook is still struggling with his shot. Paul George says relax and he’s got Russell’s back and why wouldn’t you believe him at this point.

The Thunder visit New Orleans on Thursday night and I guess Anthony Davis is going to play some even though he shouldn’t be playing.

Below is the audio from that night in Hershey where no live cameras were in the building. For a great read order Wilt–1962 by Gary Pomerantz. When you think about it that may have been America’s last year of innocence as JFK was assassinated in Dallas in ’63. It’s a great period piece read.

Just to be clear…Alicia Keyes was phenomenal as the Grammy’s host. She wasn’t the problem with me. Her music and style are elegant beyond reproach. She personifies grace and talent.

If only they would keep the rappers and that group down the street and in another building I’d be fine. I would have even been okay with Dolly Pardon trying to sing a Neil Young song.

I need to move beyond this and get Cardi B off the front page of my blog as soon as possible.

I feel somewhat stained even putting her on my usually high content cover page.

The world we live in has become so confusing. Surely…Mr. Rogers won’t be coming back as a rapper. That would put me over the top.