Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

This might be the best speech I’ve ever heard from the floor of the United States Senate. I plan on calling Senator Bennet’s office in D.C. tomorrow morning and telling him as much.

Bravo.

So…in actuality, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity in equal one-third parts are in reality the 45th POTUS. The person you see embarrassing himself and our country is a mere puppet of historical proportions. Historical proportions which make every president which preceded him as Mount Rushmore worthy.

William Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Richard Nixon…you were just absolved. You weren’t really all that bad in retrospect.

I’m not sure if Mitch McConnell got his third in as much as like Paul Ryan he’ll at some point have his legacy set on fire and be kicked in a ditch as well….if not already. Oh, what it is to be a Trump enabler bitch in the days of cable television. Yes, Mitch…this is when you swallow.

This is Donald Trump’s shutdown. He bragged about it. He pumped his chest about like the dumbass he truly is. Only the most deplorable of the Deplorables will spin this any other way. If only Ayn Rand were still living she could be standing next to the Art of the Deal Prez who’s only deal to date was being born into Freddie Trump’s inheritance. This is why not one creditable financial institution in the United States other than five star escort services will deal with Caligula.

Every day is an embarrassment of monumental achievement with our boy Trump.

One would assume if a random group of fourth graders were chosen off the streets they could run the White House and the country better than Trump and his enablers.

So tell me in this byzantine yarn of sorts how in monetary lingo did that tax cut to our wealthiest trickle down to a point where the United States projected GDP for the first fiscal quarter 2019 could actually be zero if this Trump shutdown continues two more weeks or so. Just so our keen Prez doesn’t know…the airline industry alone and related parts contribute $1.5 trillion to the annual GDP.

And we assume Trump our Village Idiot is aware the Super Bowl takes place in Atlanta next week which is in essence the most nightmarish security watch in America. Can you see a Tom Clancy-like novel already taking place on Super Bowl Sunday in Atlanta?

Trump can’t. Because he’s on his knees in front of Sean Hannity with his back turned to America.

Watching Bedlam last night made me think of Kelvin Sampson’s recent coaching milestone he just passed at the University of Houston. Kelvin’s run at OU was excellent before he went to coach at Indiana. He was an assistant in the NBA during his five year hiatus from the NCAA due to the fact he got in trouble for texting. Can you believe that given that the world of college hoops is now under an FBI probe for pay for play.

People don’t realize it but OU’s last four head coaches have all made significant runs in the NCAA Tournament. Billy Tubbs made four Sweet 16’s, two Elite 8’s and one NCAA championship game. Kelvin Sampson took OU to two Elite 8’s and one Final Four. Jeff Capel led OU to an Elite 8 and coached a National Player of the Year in Blake Griffin. Lon Kruger led OU to a Final Four and coached two National Player of the Years in Buddy Hield and Trae Young.

OU in my view has the best athletic director in the country in Joe Castiglione in that regardless of the sport he finds coaches who work at OU. Name another program in the country which has had three National Player of the Years in the past ten years then maybe other than Duke.

Anyway, Kelvin Sampson is a good basketball coach and I’m pretty sure his coaching skills would translate to the NBA level if the right NBA head coaching job ever came along.

Maybe something to put in a file and consider if the right job ever opened… as in either Houston or Oklahoma City. He’s a hungry coach. He coaches with a chip on his shoulder. His teams play with a chip on their shoulder. Just saying.

This isn’t all that complicated. If the Thunder had simply taken care of business as they should have and beaten Minnesota twice at home, Washington at home, LA at home without LeBron, and beaten the woeful Hawks in Atlanta those five wins would have the Thunder at 34 wins and battling the Warriors for first place in the West. Instead, they went through intermittent periods of indifference and some little league like coaching rotations from Billy Donovan.

I didn’t watch the Knicks game so that doesn’t hold any merit with me. But in the wins against Philly and Portland… Billy Donovan finally tightened his rotational minutes and was more careful how he staggered his lineup combinations when he brought his bench players into the game. The emergence of Terrence Ferguson has made that an easy decision and one which should continue. Only nine players saw the floor against Portland. The starters played heavy minutes with all five scoring in double figures. Then Schroder got his twenty minutes or so. Diallo didn’t see the floor in this game. That doesn’t need to be the norm every night, but on this night it was smart. Noels, Patterson, and Nader played, but not heavy minutes. I like the way Donovan distributed his minutes. It had the look of grownups being coached by a pro coach instead of a teenagers being coached by a college coach.

I have no idea what the Abrines story is, but he was dressed and never got into the game—which I think is good. Save him as emergency luxury, but don’t put yourself in a position to depend on him. He should be a folk singer in Spain. I bet he has a beautiful voice. The team finally has shown something in these two nice wins so why mess with it. Go with nine guys and ten if you use Diallo on given nights.

Paul George and Westbrook were both excellent and spearheaded a Thunder defense which accounted for sixteen steals on the night. The Chesapeake Energy crowd was doing the Paul George MVP chant and that’s fine, but he won’t be a serious MVP contender unless Westbrook can consistently be the point guard he needs to be for this team to win fifty plus games. Let’s be clear…Paul George regardless of how well he plays isn’t winning the MVP on a 47-48 win team. So while we appreciate the play of Paul George it will ultimately be Russell Westbrook who either does or doesn’t take this team to where they want to go.

Again, I have no idea why this is so complicated. If the Thunder play with focus and some smarts they can be a relevant team, if they don’t do these things they’ll be another first round exit. The West isn’t that good. All the hype is misguided. Other than Golden State, the Thunder have on paper the second best roster in the West with the highest payroll and with Houston’s injuries should be the second best team in the conference.

It’s time for Billy Donovan to exert his will as a coach. Time for Westbrook to define his legacy. Time for Paul George to have a career year. Time for Adams, Grant, and Ferguson to continue trending upward. Time for Schroder to not be a defensive liability, or at least as much. Time for Nerlens Noel to get more minutes. Time for Patterson, Nader, and Diallo to fill their roles given the opponent and the night. Time for Little Nick Gallo and Low Energy Royce Young to write like adults covering an NBA team with the league’s highest payroll.

It’s time for Oklahoma City as an NBA market to grow up a bit.

The Thunder host Anthony Davis and the Pels tomorrow night in what should be an intriguing game at the Peake.

The Terrance Ferguson Story

I’ll try and work in a recap on the Thunder’s win over Portland maybe tomorrow. I know this a Thunder blog, but when they continually never showed up and loafed … I thought I might start paring down my Thunder coverage on here some and follow other stories more than I usually do during the Thunder season. It was a nice win over Portland and they tried …so that’s a good thing. There’s so much going on in the world of sports and politics you can’t stayed glued to a perennial underachiever too long. Plus, the Oscars are coming up. I’ll try and find some space for the Thunder on here though.

For the first time in the history of the Thunder I didn’t watch the Thunder play a game either live or on the delay. My sports heart just wasn’t interested. The underachieving Thunder evidently beat the pathetic NY Knicks rather easily, but the game held no appeal for me. I watched a couple of Martin Luther King historical videos and finished Michelle Obama’s book then took the diva lab for a walk instead.

I noticed Kamala Harris got into the presidential race along with a slew of other Dem women. Here’s what I would warn the Dems not to do…don’t steer yourself too far left just reacting to the Empire of Caligula. Presidential elections in the Electoral College are precarious creatures. In two out of the last five presidential elections the Dems won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

If I were the chairman of the DNC this would be what I would have circled in red:

FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, VIRGINIA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, MICHIGAN, AND WISCONSIN…. as in making sure I win at least five of these states. Because if the Dems don’t win five of these states then they probably lose the White House again would be my guess. Please explain to me how a politician from San Francisco finds wide appeal in these states if say Nikki Haley somehow ends up on the GOP ticket. I’d also make sure both of the Obamas are on board given the fact they’re the two most admired humans in this country currently. Funny how that worked out for Trump.

Another thing… I wouldn’t assume Caligula will be the GOP candidate. I would think if at any point Mitch McConnell could drown Caligula–he will. McConnell has gotten what he needs already from this dubious person. Namely, a tax cut and two Supreme Court justices. At this point, Trump serves no further purpose to the GOP. I’m sure what McConnell is doing is hoping for the right moment to in a word put Trump in some form of a political box where he can’t run again per the Mueller findings.

So…let’s say that happens amidst this whirl of diversity and women of all kinds are determined the next president is a woman…which btw I think would be a good thing because women are inherently smarter than men. Not even close. Are you kidding?

But again — I wouldn’t go too far left. Always remember the middle. The middle is where the election will be won, not the far left nor the far right. I wouldn’t discount the Nikki Haley scenario or another GOP woman being on the ticket. And I’m not talking about some sort of nut job GOP woman like Sarah Palin, but one who has a resume and can actually speak without frothing at the mouth.

So on this MLK Day… I felt more like being Nate Silver than a Thunder blogger. Easy choice. The Thunder have become a boring beat minus the Miracle in Philadelphia and wondering how Russell will mix his blouse and pants color schemes. But I won’t fret because I’m certain Little Nick Gallo and Low Energy Royce Young had it covered. Erik Horne will be fine because Tramel will rein him in if he gets too far into the rough.

I’ll do tonight’s game versus Portland. This should be a good game if the Thunder can find it within themselves to focus enough to win another somewhat meaningful game after Philadelphia.

This is a day for all Americans to reflect or at least it should be. A day when you reflect on what it is to be an American. A day to reflect within as to what we’re seeing every day in our country magnified on a Twitter account. How each of us can do things which make us better as a people and as a nation.

To close your eyes regardless of party affiliation and simply live the Golden Rule with your actions.

To give of yourself to make your small corner of the world a little better.

I finished Michelle Obama’s book. It was excellent. I understand why it’s still the No. 1 bestseller on the NY Times non-fiction list. I understand why two years after leaving office both Barack and Michelle Obama are the two most admired people in America.

Watch this video and then close your eyes and think about what you’ve witnessed these past two years. Or think about how proud Martin Luther King would be that we got the opportunity to know who Barack and Michelle Obama are…but that we might not have really come all that far given that the Birther movement was the catalyst for Donald Trump’s presidency.

I would think Martin Luther King would be somewhat conflicted today.

I only moved yesterday to take the diva lab Pauli outside for her walk. Otherwise, I didn’t move except to infuse myself with some food and liquids to keep me going through the epic doubleheader. This may very well have been the best day of NFL football I’ve witnessed in my life. Maybe it has something to do with the voices which came to me at the end of the Thunder-Sixers game. Maybe my time is near and the Big Dipper is being especially nice to me.

For starters, I loved Jimmy Buffet singing the anthem. I have no take on the microphone drop, but I thought he sang the anthem
very nicely.

There were so many huge plays on this day, but the one which will linger for me the most is when Rams coach Sean McVeigh fake punted down 13-0 in the first half on his side of the field. I thought it was the biggest play of the day minus the blown interference call and then the coin toss in overtime of Game 2. The Rams looked ready to be knocked out before halftime, but instead fed off that play and in reality I thought played the best football on both sides of the ball for the remainder of the game. Fitting that the game ended with a game winning 57 yard field goal in overtime to put the Rams in the Super Bowl. As far as the blown call which allowed the Rams to have that last game tying field goal — obviously the refs blew it. It was clearly pass interference. The NFL needs some tweaking to their replay rule as well as their overtime format.

In the nightcap it even got better. It was epic. Brady versus Mahomes on Mahomes’ home field and in the end it will go down as one of the greatest games or at least second halves I’ve been blessed enough to see. Add to the fact…Tony Romo in the booth was incredible in giving the audience insights to play calling and pre-snap sets which you would think should make him the obvious choice to be Andy Reid’s next defensive coordinator. He knew exactly what the Pats were going to do on most of the plays excluding the one fourth down play where Burkhardt got stuffed on fourth and one.

What a game! But the overtime format has to be changed. We ‘needed’ to see Mahomes with a chance to answer in overtime. As much as we treasure Tom Brady as a national icon…I at least wanted to see Mahomes with the ball and Andy Reid I’m to assume going for two if the Chiefs had scored.

Great, great, great games!

So we now have the Rams vs. the Patriots in Atlanta for another New England Super Bowl. This doesn’t grate on me like watching the Warriors repeat year after year simply because the Pats have never stacked their teams. What they’ve done over the years is ride the massive shoulders of the greatest NFL quarterback of all-time to continue the longest dynasty in the collective bargaining era. Plus, Belichik manages his roster year in and year out with more smarts and nuance than anyone else ever has in the history of sport. It is breathtaking to observe. If only our government were run as well as the Patriots. Trump couldn’t even run a USFL team, business, or a government as he has showed, but seeing the Patriots running the government might be interesting. Belichik would be tough on Putin. Brady would be the Golden Child Vice President in await while Gronk would be a Secretary of Defense who’d really kick Isis’s ass. Given what the GOP gave us in 2016–tell me how that wouldn’t be an upgrade.

CBS has the call in Atlanta. Tony Romo will have an encore performance. My wife loves Tony Romo. This will be the first Super Bowl without the Dallas Cowboys she might actually watch. It will be hard for that game to measure up to what we witnessed yesterday. Young Jared Goff who played like a seasoned veteran himself in the second half versus Tom Brady and his Pats.

How can you pick against Tommy Brady?