Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

Caligula should get rid of Sean Spicer and replace him with Doris Burke. If she could elicit drama at the end of these NBA Finals, then I’m almost certain she could make Russiagate go away for Caligula Light. I don’t know if she was tossing back vodka shots during Game 5 and just got sloppy drunk, but if she can pull this off then she should be Trumpula’s press secretary. No wonder Barkley made the move to hockey.

No big surprise. It’s what we all knew would happen back on July 4th, 2016 after reading of Durant’s departure to the Warriors in the Player’s Tribune. This won’t be Kevin Durant’s only ring if he, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala stay together. This is a dynasty of draconian proportions in this salary cap age of the NBA.

Putting aside the other twenty-eight teams in the league, I’m not really sure how LeBron can beat these guys. LeBron James played superbly in these Finals and his team won but one game. The talent gap between these Warriors and the rest of the league is immense. Maybe Adam Silver will have to devise a B Flight champion to give us NBA fans some sense of emotional competitive connection to the league and its seasons moving forward.

I sat dumbfounded watching Doris Burke do her postgame interviews. She appeared to be crying. Why? There was no drama attached to this championship whatsoever. The only drama attached came way back when in the Hamptons when the Warriors won the Kevin Durant lottery.

Kevin Durant is a beautiful basketball player. I watched him play at the University of Texas and I watched every game he played as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s a generational player who through hard work has turned himself into an utterly complete basketball player. Plus, I don’t think he’s a bad dude. He was good to the people of Oklahoma. Always polite, always generous with the community, and an easy interview for the local OKC scribes who’d never covered the NBA until the Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City.

I have no problem whatsoever that he left. The words ‘free agent’ imply just that–the freedom to play wherever you want. I’m happy he won a ring, but sad that he ruined the league in doing so by going to the talent laden Warriors. As a fan of the league, it somewhat diminishes the interest of the overall league although from what I’ve read the NBA’s post season television ratings were good.

So while I’m happy Kevin Durant has his ring, I’m sad for the league and the fans of the other twenty-nine teams who pay money for tickets attached to the hope of competitive emotional involvement in a basketball season.

There won’t be any of that with these Warriors intact. Someone please tell Doris Burke there won’t be any need for crying next June unless she’s going to be crying for the fans of the other twenty-nine teams.

Just a great hockey game tonight in Nashville as the Penguins won the Cup for the second straight season with a spellbinding 2-0 win in Game 6. Nothing came easy for the Penguins this post season as they had to struggle through all four rounds of the playoffs, but when it came to crunch time they always responded like champions.

Patrick Hornquist, a former Pred no less, scored the game winner with 1:35 left in the third off an assist from the point by Justin Schultz. Carl Haglin secured the win with an empty net insurance goal. Rookie netminder Matt Murray was stellar with his second straight shutout, and Sid Crosby showed why he’s the league’s best player with a repeat as the Conn Smythe winner as the outstanding player in the playoffs.

A fitting repeat for this storied franchise as they won their fifth Stanley Cup in the salary cap era. The Pens have a great owner in Mario Lemieux and the perfect head coach in Mike Sullivan. And, of course, they have the best hockey player on the planet in Sid Crosby.

These Pens become the first team in the NHL to repeat since the Detroit Red Wings did it in ’97-’98.

From start to finish these Stanley Cup Playoffs were outstanding. Hopefully, Adam Silver along with Charles Barkley was watching.

Of the four major sports, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to state Sidney Crosby now stands at the top of the mountain. I’d go LeBron second, Tom Brady third, and I’m not sure who in baseball it would be.

I laughed my ass off when I saw this. Schumer knows any first year law student worth a grain of salt could ask three questions of Caligula and get three successive counts of perjury from our piece of shit 45th prez. Bring it on. Let’s see if Trump’s challenge to testify falls the same way as turning over his tax returns.

SWEAR HIM IN!

It would go something like this.

Very simple. He’ll simply do whatever he has to do to survive financially and politically. Lie, cheat, steal, break the law, bully, intimidate…whatever it takes to preserve his own position. He could care less about the country.

It was never about making America great again (America was already great), it was always about just Donald Trump’s insatiable ego.

Granted, 99% of Caligula’s supporters probably think mens rea has something to do with mounting Nancy O’Dell in a furniture store (sigh), but with Comey’s testimony this week–I thought it might be an appropriate time to introduce the doctrine mens rea before this goes any further. I know this sort of thing doesn’t appeal to Trump supporters, but in the event you want to learn something…here it is as related to Caligula’s obvious obstruction of justice. In short, what was the degree of premeditated intent to perpetrate the crime in question.

This is me working the Russiagate story for okcthunderground.com. And, yes, if you voted for this piece of shit you are a dumbass.

I love Bobby Costas. He’ll be the Carl Bernstein of this entire sordid yarn when all the story is finally unraveled to the public.

The Cavs finally won a game and averted a sweep. One would think it will be over back in Oakland in Game 5 though. All this in Game 4 made me somewhat sad for Durant. He’s played brilliantly in these Finals and just when I was about to come around and say, ” Maybe Durant and Draymond Green aren’t the biggest pussies in the league’…….all of this drama for no reason whatsoever.

Note to Steve Kerr—I’ve agreed with the things you’ve said about Donald Trump, but as a coach your two players need a little wisdom from you. Just saying.

I’m not really shocked. Being the head football coach at OU is a meat grinder. Bob Stoops came to OU when the program was absolutely horrible after the 1998 season. OU under Gary Gibbs, Howard, and John Blake suffered the worst ten year streak of OU football in my lifetime. When Stoops took the job, OU had gone through five straight losing seasons and ten straight seasons without playing in a major bowl.

My dad and I went to that first Independence Bowl in Stoops’ first season on a New Years’ Eve night. OU lost to Ole Miss on a late field goal. In season two OU won the national championship by beating heavily favored Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Year Three — a Cotton Bowl win over Arkansas. Year 4 — a Rose Bowl win over Washington State. We were there. Pretty much a Bucket List trip. We made the coastal drive from San Diego to Pasadena in a convertible. It’s a day I’ll never forget. Then a national championship game in New Orleans against LSU. Then another trip to the Orange Bowl to play USC in another national championship game. Great memories. Other than the Rose Bowl win, the bowl trip which forever stays with me though was the incredible ending against Boise in the Fiesta Bowl. We were there for what many call the zaniest ending of a major bowl game in college football history. My father and I hugged on two separate times thinking we’d won, but not to be.

All told, Bob Stoops won 190 football games and exits as the winningest coach in OU football history. He won one national championship, had his team in four national championships game, won ten Big 12 titles, qualified for a Final Four berth, won a Rose Bowl, won two Sugar Bowls, won a Fiesta Bowl, won a Cotton Bowl, and won an Orange Bowl.

But most of all, he restored OU football to its place as one of the premier programs in the country, and he did it with class. Under Stoops, the Sooners never had a losing season, went to a bowl game every season, and never were sanctioned by the NCAA during Stoops eighteen years at the helm. Add to the fact, the College Football Coaches Association voted Bob Stoops as the coach they’d most want their sons to play for.

This last season with the Joe Mixon issues was the only time in eighteen years I seriously questioned a decision by Bob Stoops. I still disagree with what he did. But he took the heat. Hopefully, Joe Mixon grows from all of this and makes all of us realize redemption is a very big deal in the journey of life.

I like what Stoops did today. The program is in good shape and he’s leaving with two straight Big 12 titles and a Sugar Bowl win over Auburn. He’s leaving on a high note with the stadium newly renovated.

In closing, the thing which impresses me the most about Stoops is how he won ten conference titles with a multitude of quarterbacks. It makes for a great trivia question. The answer is …Josh Huepel, Nate Hbyl, Jason White, Paul Thompson, Sam Bradford, Landry Jones, and Baker Mayfield.

White and Bradford won Heismans. Huepel and Mayfield were Heisman finalists. And Paul Thompson’s season of redemption was one of my favorite OU football seasons. Paul Thompson’s season just made you feel good as a fan of the game.

It was a glorious run. Some of my best memories with my father were at OU games during the Stoops Era.

Thanks for the very special memories, Bob Stoops.

The most fun ever in a loss. You just kind of sat there in the stadium awed by what happened.

Chuck said basically what I’ve been saying, the NBA Playoffs really aren’t all that much unless you’re either Kevin Durant or his mother. Glad to see Chuck making Game 4 in Nashville in what was a fairly easy Pred win. We seem to have a series where neither road goalie can bring his game to the rink.