Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

The NBA trade deadline is upon us today and I hope Sam Presti has some sort of nuance trade planned to get Russell Westbrook some help this season on the offensive end of the floor. Taj Gibson’s name is coming up a bit with —so we’ll have to see how that might play out. Russell Westbrook needs some help, and I would assume Russell and his agent want to see a sign that Sam Presti is serious about making this a better ball club heading into the stretch run and into this summer’s draft in which OKC still has their first round pick.

We’ll just have to see if Presti can get something of value for either Roberson, Payne, or Kanter. As bad as OKC’s three point shooting has been, I’d think Abrines and Anthony Morrow are staying put. I’m not sure if Kyle Singler or Josh Huestis are even tradeable. And, of course, Nick Collison is absolute royalty and none of us would ever want Nick to be traded unless he requested it.

I’m not a trade guru at all, but the trade I’d love to see is Kanter going to the Milwaukee Bucks for Khris Middleton. The spelling is correct with the K btw.

Neil Young, Southern Man

OKC’s Thunder gets back in action on Friday night hosting the LA Lakers. It will begin a stretch of three very winnable home games for the Thunder as they begin the post All-Star break portion of their schedule. As far as team goals, the Thunder look to be headed for either a 6th or 7th seed and probably something like a 47-25 record if Russell Westbrook stays free of injury.

The primary drama for OKC fans and quite honestly the entire NBA is whether Westbrook can notch the first seasonal triple double since Oscar Robertson accomplished the feat in ’62.

Much has been speculated as to how they would fare in a one on one duel of sorts. Robertson is two inches taller and played a more deliberate style of play. He was more of a pure distributor, but then again Oscar Robertson never had the Andre Roberson dilemma to deal with which makes floor spacing a continual issue for Westbrook. Westbrook is faster and even though he’s smaller than Robertson, he rebounds with the physicality of a forward. It would be an interesting duel if the two ever met in a one on one duel while both were in their prime.

As far as the overall NBA season, there’s not much drama. Golden State with their four all-stars clearly has the best team in the league. Whether LeBron has enough talent on his roster to beat the Warriors is debatable. Does Cleveland have enough scoring to deny Kevin Durant his first championship would seem to be the major storyline as we resume play after the trade deadline.

Donald Trump visited the Black History Museum this morning in D.C. Too bad he didn’t make Steven Bannon, Steven Miller, and Jefferson Sessions tour the museum with him as well. I hope this was a first incremental step gesture by Trump to begin to reach out to all Americans and not just the white ones who make up a majority of his New Confederacy political coalition. People generally are pretty much ingrained in their beliefs at the age of seventy, so I’m not sure how sincere all this is, but at least it’s a perfunctory gesture from the person who’s supposed to be the president of all three hundred million Americans. But in closing I would warn, this is a man who between the ages of sixty-four thru sixty-nine spent five years of his life setting the groundwork for his presidential campaign by instigating the Birther Movement. So–if George Wallace were at the museum today, I’d say, the same thing, a nice perfunctory political gesture, but beyond that—I’m not sure what can be read into this.

If Trump got rid of Bannon, Miller, and Sessions then I’d maybe think there was something genuine in this. If he’s really serious abut reaching out to all Americans those three would be gone. This isn’t complex—get rid of those three. Actually, with the subtraction of Flynn and the addition of McMasters the Trump national security team is pretty solid. So…maybe if we’re lucky — Bannon, Miller, Spicer, and Conway will be gone before the summer. Sessions’ removal would be more problematic given he was confirmed by the Senate. But the removal of Bannon, Miller, Spicer, and the nutjob Conway would I think to some degree make more of America at least somewhat view Trump as an almost serious president rather than the freak show president we witnessed during the first month.

Then of course there was all this stupid bullshit which revved up his base before, during, and after his campaign.

The NBA All-Star weekend is behind us and thankfully so. The dunk contest wasn’t much. The future stars game is I guess okay is if you don’t have a life, but not something I’d schedule two hours of my life around. I’m not even sure what they call the thing Oladipo won. Same thing with the celebrity game—Kevin Hart can only go so far for a period of time. Nothing personal against Kevin Hart.

The game itself was won by the West I think as neither team played any defense whatsoever. Russell Westbrook scored 41 points, but Anthony Davis scored fifty something and broke the all-time scoring record previously held by Wilt Chamberlain back from the 1962 game.

I enjoyed the Westbrook commercials, especially the one with Cam Payne in the barber’s chair. I’m tired of the whole Westbrook-Durant thing. It’s almost as exhausting as the Trump presidency, but obviously doesn’t have the same serious consequences. They’re grown men, give it a rest. They’ve both moved on as should others. The little play were Durant assisted Westbrook on the dunk was nice, but it’s not like the Tetonic plates shifted or anything.

My main focus is seeing if Sam Presti makes a nuance trade this week which will help this Oklahoma City team scoring the basketball. Otherwise, the Thunder pretty much share the dilemma every other team in the league faces in that none of the other teams are good enough to beat the Warriors four out of seven games.

This was much better than the ‘game’.

Umm, it’s a beautiful day in Deer Creek, Oklahoma with magnificent spring-like weather in mid February. The bass and crappie fishing is pre-maturely good of which I’ve taken part of already twice this week. So…here’s the thing, I saw this clip of the Trump Trekkie groupie taking the stage with Caligula Lite and at first it made me shake my head and utter a few F bombs. But at this point, what’s the point? He’s probably a decent guy. It is what it is. I just hope this guy didn’t pee in his pants as he left the stage. Maybe…when the smoke clears, he’ll be the Sean Spicer replacement.

This is my choice as the New Confederacy’s national anthem moving forward at the rallies.

It was a good week for Serge Ibaka as he was traded by the Orlando Magic to the Toronto Raptors for Terrence Ross and a draft pick. I’m happy for Serge because he goes from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. Plus, Toronto is the perfect city for Serge with it’s beauty, culture, diversity, freedom of thought, cuisine, beautiful women, art, etc.

Serge will always be one of my favorite players to have donned a Thunder jersey and his contributions in Oklahoma City both on and off the court will be remembered with respect and affection. He always had a smile on his face and a positive word for everyone. Toronto will be an interesting team to watch moving forward and except for the Philly Sixers will now be my favorite team in the East. I’m happy for Serge–he deserved this opportunity.

Serge’s beginning in OKC.

Serge’s last exit interview in OKC.

Serge’s return, a career scoring night, and the game winner.

Donald Trump gave his first real press conference and to say the least it was illuminating. What I mean by this is that if any doubt remained our president is an unhinged pathological liar then all doubt was removed unless you’re one of the 35% Trump base with Build the Wall poms firmly in hand.

It was so Nixonian to the core. But of course, that 35% base could care less about things like Nixon and the truth. It is what it is…which will ultimately be sad for our country. Evidently, U.S Navy Seal Robert Harward wasn’t impressed by Trump’s ‘presentation’ and said pass to taking over for Michael Flynn. Smart guy—don’t taint your name and diminish your career to date. Just sit to the side and observe the train wreck.

So onward Trump rolls into Florida for a pep rally to escape the reality of governance and a remembrance of more innocent times when things were light, innocent, and fun. When all a reality television star had to do was say Build the Wall or Lock Her Up and get a symbiotic rush from his cult followers.

I know I’ve been tough on all you Trump supporters, but this is for you from me. Play if right before or during the pep rally tomorrow in Melbourne, Florida.

Another song for the rally in Florida. If only Trump could have Little Marco there in cheerleader garb singing this to the core. It kind
of has an Eisenhower feel about it, no?

Howard is friends with Donald Trump and let it be known recently he’s fairly certain Donald being president will be detrimental to not only our country, but to Trump as well. I couldn’t agree more with Howard. It’s so many things with Trump. The pathological lying, the need to win big, the obsession of Marco Rubio’s penis, the whole birther thing, the whole trophy wife thing, the inauguration crowd size, but more than anything it just seems likes he’s just this very insecure person who doesn’t have a dog and maybe never came to terms with certain things during puberty.

He never should have run for president. He doesn’t have time to be president. This interferes with his golf, shopping for furniture with married women, and sex chatting with bus bud Billy Bush. One month in and he looks miserable to me. He shouldn’t continue doing this just to prove the whole thing from that D.C. correspondents dinner when Obama destroyed him. Enough already, he gave it a month. It’s not working. If he’s not careful he’ll be right there with Kellyanne Conway in a mental ward by Month 2.

Yeah, I admit it…I love this. This whole thing says so much about our country and how racism hasn’t really changed all that much.

At some point one has to wonder if this is all premeditated chaos versus ignorant dysfunction. Everyday the world follows Trump into a new rabbit hole and is left trying to figure out what just happened. Nobody knows except maybe Trump, Bannon, and Kushner. Trump is using the GOP and the GOP is using Trump to get Gorsuch confirmed and the GOP tax cuts enacted. Otherwise, it looks like a game of Trump playing the country for a bunch of fools and laughing all the way through it so far. Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing date was announced today to begin on March 20th. It’s almost like reading a John Grisham novel of a Supreme Court nomination by a rogue president. But I doubt Grisham could even make up half of this writing fiction.

This is classic Trump spinning chaos and darting down the nearest rabbit hole.

I hope this turns out well for those who put their trust in Trump. I seriously do because I fear for some of you. Hopefully you’re in a good position.I hope so because this is a guy who thought the bust of the subprime mortgage bubble was a good thing… for him at least.

Never give a sucker a break and kick him when he’s down. Always remember–that’s Trump’s mantra. I hope that’s not the average Trump supporter when all this is over. You might want to pick up a copy of The Big Short, just saying.