If you get a chance this holiday break, pick up a copy of Writings on the Wall by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Given the year we’ve all experienced as Americans I would deem it as must read. Kareem is an extremely talented writer and his unique takes on America circa 2016 are those which shouldn’t be ignored by anyone in this country regardless of your background.
If you don’t get a chance to read the book, here’s an excellent interview.
As I watched this game being played in Boston on Friday night, the sight of Celtic GM Danny Ainge’s face on the screen brought back emotions of this summer with the subsequent drama which followed Durant’s treasonous departure to Oakland. Many, myself included, figured Westbrook’s agent and Presti would cut a deal with a team like Boston with assets to start the Thunder’s massive rebuild to respectability.
There was talk of Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart attached with two first round picks for Russell Westbrook. But in hindsight that was just crazy talk as Westbrook signed an extension to finally captain his own ship in little Mystery, Oklahoma where the arena the Thunder play in originally housed a Double AA minor league hockey team named the Oklahoma City Blazers.
None of us were really sure what to expect with what Westbrook could be without Durant, but now thirty games into the season we know. Russell Westbrook is the best player in the NBA this season on Christmas Eve morning.
Tonight in Boston, Danny Ainge must have suffered mightily as he saw Westbrook in perhaps his grandest showing of the season to date. Another triple double. His 14th and 51st respectively.
46 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. He wasn’t just grand, he was Michael Jordan is what he was. There was an airness surrounding Westbrook tonight. He reeked of regalness (word?). He smiled knowingly. He teased and laughed with teammates. If the Denver mascot had been there—Westbrook would have stolen his lunch money and hopped away with that little devilish smile of his. He turned it on and off as he chose, but more than anything when he finally decided it was time–he scored the Thunder’s last 15 points and willed the Thunder over a decent Boston team by a 117-112 count. And he did it because he knew he was the best player on the floor and he could. That’s why.
This is the Russell Westbrook we live with in Mystery, Oklahoma, and the thing is, we never would have seen this Westbrook if not for Charlie Bell and Nike moving Kevin Durant over to Oakland to boost west coast Nike sales. Granted, it defrocked OKC’s title hopes, but then again we wouldn’t before our very eyes have seen Russell turn into Michael.
So here the Thunder sit on Christmas Eve at 18-12 tied with the Utah Jazz for the Northwest Division lead and in wait of Victor Oladipo and Cameron Payne’s return to make this a much more interesting basketball team.
But this isn’t a season like most during the Durant Era. This is the Westbrook Era and it has a different feel, a different ambience as fans try to figure how far Michael can take the Thunder without Durant if Sam Presti adds another piece before the trade deadline.
Minnesota Timberwolves in Oklahoma City on Christmas.
Lots of stress right now. Segments of our country seems bent on turning into Germany pre WWII, and simultaneously the University of Oklahoma football program seems bent on immulating Art Briles’ template in Waco. It would be easy for a guy in Deer Creek, Oklahoma to become discouraged, but sometimes you have to fight through things. Some Christmas music might help even though Oklahoma City is going to be under a tornado watch on Christmas day.
Here’s the thing, this story won’t be going away from a national standpoint as we head into the major bowls and the college football playoff. If anything, it will intensify. Even more chilling than the actual assault is the fact other OU football players were both outside and inside the restaurant and did nothing to stop this incident from escalating. Rather, it appears Michiah Quick could have had a part in encouraging all of this. A cheerleader, so to speak. Plus, other OU football players were both inside and outside of the restaurant and not one of them did a single thing to prevent Joe Mixon from assaulting Amelia Molitor or helping her in the aftermath. Not one.
On Wednesday, Bob Stoops made himself available to the press for the first time since the release of the Joe Mixon videos. In essence, he said if this had happened recently the penalty would have been more severe and Mixon would probably have been kicked off the team. My response would be, “No you wouldn’t have” because you didn’t do that with DeDe Westbrook, you didn’t do that with Dorial Green-Beckham, and you didn’t do it with Frank Shannon. The only reason Rhett Bomar was dismissed in 2006 was because of the potential NCAA ramifications which could have negatively impacted the cash flow considerations of the football program.
The only reason Joe Mixon was allowed to stay was because he could help OU win football games and possibly become nationally relevant again. That is the only reason as it was with Westbrook, Green Beckham, and Frank Shannon.
The only reason Bob Stoops did the presser yesterday was because the national response to the video has been complete and total disdain for Stoops, Mixon, and the University of Oklahoma. This story has become the No. 1 story in college football. National writers aren’t contemplating an Ohio State–Alabama matchup–they’re talking about the Mixon coverup in Norman, Oklahoma.
Bob Stoops kept Joe Mixon for one reason–to help his football program win games. That’s it. If he were genuinely concerned about Mixon’s development as a young man he would have suspended Mixon for the remainder of this season after Mixon had an incident with an OU campus parking attendant. Stoops did suspend Mixon for one game against lowly Iowa State, but reinstated Mixon for important late season conference games against West Virginia and Oklahoma State. So…no, nothing is really different.
I’m pretty sure this story hasn’t played itself out just yet because it’s not just what Joe Mixon did, but rather the disturbing systemic manner in which Stoops and OU have handled a sequence of abuse cases involving football players. I’m not saying OU is on a par with what happened at Baylor, but I’m also guessing this story at OU hasn’t totally reached its conclusion just yet.
Monday’s home loss to the Hawks was a game the Thunder probably should have won. Tonight’s game in New Orleans with OKC catching the struggling Pelicans on the second night of a back to back is a game the Thunder needed to win. OKC played their fifth straight game without Victor Oladipo, but on this night it didn’t matter as OKC’s bigs, Alex Abrines, and Russell Westbrook hit on all cylinders in a 121-110 Thunder win.
I thought Billy Donovan was awful on Monday night, as basically he coached a game where he allowed Atlanta to dictate the terms, the pace, and the matchups. Not so tonight. Donovan addressed everything I picked at in my recap of in the Atlanta game.
Let’s start with the bigs. In Monday’s loss, Adams, Kanter, and Lauvernge seemed to be Billy Donovan chalkboard afterthoughts. Combined those three players attempted 11 shots. Tonight? The ball moved and at times it was moving from big to big in some beautiful interior playmaking. Try this on for size–Adams, Kanter, and Lauvergne went a combined 17-29 from the field and hauled in 28 rebounds. All told, OKC scored 56 points in the paint and to me this is tonight’s number one storyline with Alex Abrines’ breakout game coming in second.
It’s not really fair to say Abrines has been a disappointment because he hasn’t been a regular member of the rotation. On Monday night, Abrines scored 9 points and showed a pulse for the first time in a month. Tonight, it was Abrines’s 18 points and five threes which turned a Thunder 87-84 lead entering the fourth into a relatively easy 11 point win on the road. Abrines played heavy minutes and was a major reason the Thunder won on the road tonight. Hopefully, this kick starts his confidence and he can get it going.
Another thing, as of late, Donovan has been screwing with Lauvergne’s minutes. Note to Billy Donovan–“Please stop this.” Unlike the two previous games where we saw Kyle Singler get significant minutes and run around doing some track and field nuance things, Singler didn’t see the floor tonight. Lauvergne played 25 minutes scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Plus, his interior passing game with Kanter was beautiful. I understand Kyle Singler can run, I get that. But let’s make sure we don’t dick with Lauvergne’s role on this team. This is basketball, not track and field. Sometimes…overthinks are the worst things and they just drive me crazy.
Russell Westbrook was the best player in the NBA tonight, and depending how seriously you feel LeBron James takes November and December games—Westbrook has been the best player in the league so far this season. Westbrook scored 42 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished 7 assists. Yawn.
OKC improves to 17-12 and plays the Celtics in Boston on Friday.
Even though it’s going to be 60 degrees in OKC on Christmas Day I need some warm weather Christmas music on here to get me going.
Two things of late have buoyed my soul amidst the rabble of our election and the disgraceful Joe Mixon situation in Oklahoma.
The first was reading a lovely book entitled Writings on the Wall by Kareem Abdul Jabbar. If you watch either MSNBC or Fox and find yourself completely depressed about the current state of America–turn off your flat screen, buy this book, and enjoy the read. It might give you some hope moving forward. It did for me.
The second thing which made me feel better was watching this ceremony honoring Tim Duncan. This is what sport is supposed to be about at the end of the day. It’s why we follow teams and admire certain players for what they are on and off the court. Not sure who the next Duncan will be, or even if there will be one, but Tim Duncan is the standard every NBA player should aspire to become.
1 Russell Westbrook By a hair over Harden. Needs Oladipo back.
2 James Harden Having a great season, but Capela out for a month.
3 LeBron James The best player in the NBA.
4 Kawhi Leonard My favorite player in the league.
5 Kevin Durant If Super Team cracks 73-9 we’ll talk.
6 Steph Curry America’s most loveable smurf.
7 Chris Paul Has the Clips in 3rd in the West. Team will probably
surge with Blake Griffin sidelined.
8 DeMar DeRozan Having a stellar year in Toronto.
9 Jimmy Butler The best thing going in Chicago this winter minus the Blackhawks.
10 Kyrie Irving Hard to be higher playing with LeBron.
Earlier today, newsok released the original police interview with Joe Mixon and his lawyers. Mixon’s lawyer, Kevin Finlay, entered an Alford plea later which in essence, is a legal mechanism which allowed Mixon to proclaim his innocence without ever having to go before a judge or jury, plus the enormous benefit of not having to go through a brutal cross examination by the DA. Additionally, some in the media termed this as a sworn deposition. This was not a deposition, but rather a police interrogation. A sworn deposition carries all relevant penalties of perjury–so it might have been a stretch for Mixon to maintain ‘It felt like a man hit me’ during a sworn deposition.
And Justice for All anyone?
If you want to view that video it’s on newsok. I will not put it on my blog for the very simple reason Mixon was never cross examined in a normal legal process and the veracity of anything Mixon and his lawyer maintained never went under the scrutiny of a cross exam by the state.
Instead, I think I’ll go with actor Mickey Rourke’s take on the Mixon situation.
I’ve always loved Mickey Rourke with Diner and The Wrestler being my two favorite films of his. Maybe Boren and OU compliance should have allowed Mickey Rourke to handle all of this and they wouldn’t be in the middle of a public relations disaster twenty-six months later which makes OU look like the Little Rogue Sisters of Art Briles.
Russell Westbrook’s 46 points were exciting to watch on Monday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena, but in the end, Atlanta’s ball movement and overall team play were just enough to get the Hawks an exciting 110-108 road win over a now struggling Thunder.
From a fan’s standpoint, it was an exciting game to watch as the game went back and forth all night long up until the very end when a Steven Adams put back dunk at the buzzer was just half a second late at the buzzer. But the trend is clear now for the Thunder, since the Oladipo wrist injury the Thunder are a collective 1-3 with only a win over the lowly Phoenix Suns to show for their efforts.
I thought OKC got outcoached on Monday night. Atlanta was without it’s best rim protector in Dwight Howard, yet the Thunder in no way ever made this an issue for the Hawks. Steven Adams and Enes Kanter weren’t even factors in the game as together they attempted nine shots on the night, granted they made six of the nine, but they never were significant factors in the game.
Atlanta went small with Paul Millsap as their only big and dictated the terms of the game all night long as they clogged the lane and took away the rim. On the other side of the ball, Atlanta spaced the floor, moved the ball, and continually created great looks for Millsap and Dennis Schroeder. So while Westbrook scored 46 points on 33 shots, Shroder and Millsap scored a combined 61 points on 34 shots. OKC defensively never really had an answer for either one of them.
OKC without Oladipo is an ugly basketball team. It’s not just his 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists–it’s more than that. He’s a player Russell Westbrook trusts and at times on Monday night it didn’t appear Westbrook had much faith in his teammates as the ball did not move all that much. Don’t get me wrong, from a viewing standpoint, it was exciting to see if Westbrook could beat the Hawks by himself, but against decent teams which are well coached that’s not going to work on most nights as this season moves along.
Oklahoma City had 13 assists on the night, Atlanta had 24 assists. Plus, there was little transition from OKC on the night as they only scored four fast break points.
Anthony Morrow started, yet was ineffective. Sabonis in no way fit as the game stayed small while Adams and Kanter never touched the ball much when they were on the floor.. Andre Roberson did score 14 points and hit some threes, but he was erratic and never created any consistent spacing for the Thunder. He never will because the book is out on him…let him shoot the ball and see if he can beat you. As an opposing coach would you rather have Westbrook and Adams getting to the rim or Roberson shooting threes? Duh.
Abrines scored nine points. Jerami Grant had a nice game scoring 15 points and was OKC’s second leading scorer. When Jerami Grant is your second leading scorer my guess is OKC won’t win on most nights and didn’t on Monday night. Both Lauvergne and Collison didn’t play much, while Kyle Singler played some significant minutes, yet he never once attempted a perimeter shot of any kind. I have no idea what Billy Donovan is doing in that if you’re going to go small that’s fine, but the guys you’re going small with have to be able to score some.
Bazemore, Thabo, and Kyle Korver all finished in double figures for Atlanta and supported the scoring of Schroder and Millsap very nicely.
In the four games Oladipo has missed, the Thunder are 1-3 as a team while Russell Westbrook is 1-3 versus the ghost of Oscar Robertson. In each of the three losses he came up short in the assist department. To make a long story short, the Thunder, Billy Donovan, and Russell Westbrook all need Victor Oladipo back on the floor.
Still no word from the Thunder on either Oladipo or Cam Payne’s return to the floor.
OKC drops to 16-12 and has fallen to the No. 7 seed in the West.
The Thunder in New Orleans on Wednesday to play a Pelican team which is getting healthier.