Kevin Durant Rookie Season In Seattle

Then the next season the Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City as if anyone on the planet thought the city of Seattle at that time was going to build a new arena to replace Key Arena.

A great deal of NBA history then moved to Oklahoma City and with it the impetus for a NY Times bestseller titled Boom Town by Sam Anderson.

No one in the Oklahoma City market ever questions Sam Presti despite the fact as general manager he’s never won a first round playoff series without Kevin Durant or for that matter even won a Northwest Division title.

And it is Durant who is the villain in Oklahoma City. I wonder if Durant had still left in the summer of 2016, but had gone to the San Antonio Spurs to replace Timmy Duncan and play for Pop if the hatred would still be in place in Oklahoma.

There really is a great deal of white hatred in Oklahoma considering none of the sports teams in the state in football or basketball would be elite without black players.

It is tragic the state has an attorney general who graduated from an Oklahoma law school who believes January 6th wasn’t that big of a deal.

It’s genuinely sad that Oklahoma having an NBA franchise has in no way moved the needle for the collective mindset in the state. You can put lipstick on a pig, but we all know you’ve still got a pig under the lipstick…so to speak.

Truth hurts.

So here we are in 2021 as the Thunder stand 21-48 with three games left and shamelessly tanking in the hopes they land another youg black man from Texas to give the franchise the feel of relevance once again.

I will admit I love hoops. But I also have come to realize with me now probably being in the last ten years of my life that nothing is going to change in Oklahoma while I’m still living.

I find that somewhat sad and not very inspirational.

In fact it makes me want to cry.

Miami Heat Wins At Boston On Mother’s Day

Finally…the Miami Heat the defending Eastern Conference champs seem to be healthy and in some semblance of what they should be with one week left in the NBA’s regular season.

Miami with four games left is the No. 6 seed right now which isn’t great because Milwaukee is the No. 3 seed. I would think Eric Spoelstra and group need to bump up to the the fourth or fifth positions in this last week of the season.

But finally the Heat seem to be ready to defend their crown in the wide open Eastern Conference. Actually, this will be be the first year in the Thunder Era where I plan on watching more of the playoffs in the East than in the West. My former Philly Sixers are the the No. 1 seed in the East and then of course there’s Tyler Herro’s wink with the Miami Heat.

Tyler’s wink only saw seventeen minutes on the Boston floor on this Mother’s Day.

If you can’t tell I’m fairly jacked about the East right now. But the West will have some moments depending on the health of LeBron.

As far as the Heat…Jimmy Butler is playing like he should be playing and the other eight guys who saw the floor on Sunday in Boston are playing to their roles.

Tyler Herro isn’t starting as he was earlier in the season and was actually the ninth guy on Sunday for the Heat. I think what Coach Spoelstra is trying to convey to Tyler right now is the thought…’Tyler, please pick it the fuck up or else some of your minutes will go elsewhere.’

Trevor Ariza played over thirty minutes on Sunday and Dwayne Dedmon has assumed the blue collar Nick Collison role for the Heat.

I watched the Heat on Christmas Day and thought they’d be the best team in the East come the playoffs. But I’m still holding my breath because both Philly and Milwaukee are decent.

But as a fan of the Heat living in the woods of Deer Creek, Oklahoma…I’ll close this post out echoing Coach Spoelstra’s passion in regards to Tyler Herro..’Tyler..please pick it up and play like the player we know you should be.’

In spite of the Thunder’s tanking this season…I’m very jacked about the overall potential of the NBA Playoffs this season. It should be fun.

Sam Presti very much wanted Tyler Herro a year ago. This is why. Pick it up, Tyler. This would be the time. Jimmy Butler is the best player on your team. Your job is to make Jimmy Butler the best player on an NBA championship team. This is not complex.

Tyler… Jimmy Butler needs you to understand he’s the best player and if you played up to your potential you could be the second best player on this team which could make another run this post season. Let’s go. Love the suit you wore on Draft Day… btw.

Russell Ties Oscar For Most Triple Doubles All-Time

What an interesting night of NBA play. The Thunder allowed Steph to shred them for 24 first period points as he easily scored 49 points in a Warriors blowout of the feeble Thunder in Oakland.

Either Steph or Chris Paul will get my MVP vote, but I haven’t decided yet.

The horrific Thunder have now lost twenty of their last twenty-one games in their quest to somehow land Cade Cunningham unless Sam Presti decides to go with all-white players next season in Trumpland-OKC and surprises everyone by using his lottery pick to go with OU combo guard Austin Reaves. That was sarcasm if you’re wearing your MAGA ball cap on Mother’s Day. I like Austin…but not that much.

If you’re paying attention the Thunder are getting awfully white this basketball season…. Kid Poku, Ty Jerome, Svi, Gabriel Deck, etc.

I have to think about what would be the NBA’s all-white team currently. Obviously…Luka would be my captain.It would seem to me though in Oklahoma City… the home of domestic terrorism and Proud Boys an all white approach could be a way to keep players here beyond their rookie scale contracts and rekindle season ticket sales post Covid.

Think about what I just wrote. Oklahoma City of all places with its past of Timothy McVeigh and the tragedy of 1995 probably has more season ticketholders than not who think January 6th was a good thing for America. Sam Anderson…help me out here. What am I missing?

Four games left for the now 21-47 Thunder. The Warriors conversely look like they’re getting to be respectable even without Klay in the lineup this season. Draymond and Andrew Wiggins have become nice second and third pieces to compliment Steph. I would love to see the Warriors vs. the Lakers in the play-in game.

If I had to vote MVP right now … I would vote Steph MVP because he has simply been incredible.

Meanwhile…Russell notched his 181st career triple double last night as the surging Washington Wizards beat the Pacers 133-132 to solidify their position as the 9th seed for one of the play-in games in the East.

A very nice turn around for Scott Brooks and his Wizards as they’ve been one of the hottest teams in the NBA as of late to have a respectable season after a horrible start.

The Wizards probably won’t turn out to be a fairly tale ending like the Capitals and the Nationals of late, but still a nice turnaround by Russell and Bradley Beal to give the D.C. fans a respectable basketball season.

It’s hard to believe how loud it was in Oklahoma City back in 2016-17. Sam Presti needs to draft a player who can help sell tickets and make downtown OKC a fun place to be again on game day.

Thunder Find A Way To Lose At The End Versus Kings

The regret of losing the Miracle on Wood game in Boston will historically haunt Coach D and his tanking Thunder. If not for that blip of about two minutes when Darius Bazely and Isiah Roby made mutiple clutch baskets…this Thunder squad would be losers of nineteen games in a row with six games left on the slate.

The Thunder though are friml;y back on track as they’ve lost all four games since the setback win in Boston.

It’s eerily of microsm of sorts as the basketball team and the Daily Thunder blog seem to be in a battle of sorts to prove ultimate inferiorty in their genre of competition.

Six games left…we’re almost there.

Thunder Continue Tank Tonight vs. Kings

There’s ‘our’ Chris Paul above from last season. Of course…he’ll probably be the league MVP this season as the Phoenix Suns at 46-18 along with the Utah Jazz are two of the NBA feel good stories.

In retrospect…I think Shai and Lu are every bit as good at the guard slots as Devin Booker and the rest of the Suns backcourt players. Shai can score the ball and Lu can defend…so I might even say the Thunder had more to offer. So in retrospect…what Sam Presti could have done was use the draft capital of Steven and Dennis to acquire a functional big to go along with Mike Muscala and Isiah Roby and the Thunder would be an interesting basketball team this season.

Presti would have freed himself of Galinari, Steven, and Schoeder’s salaries and not even taken on the salary of the sitting Big Al Horford who’s been getting more quality time with his new baby than most American fathers ever get.

I know it’s hindsight, but my goodness. Chris Paul if he wins the MVP will become the fourth former Thunder player now on another team. I don’t know if this is what Clay and the ownership group envisioned when they took Seattle’s team and moved it to Trump Country USA.

Namely—the Thunder are pretty much like our AAA baseball LA Dodgers. A really good developmental franchise which develops players and then disperses them throughout the NBA to other cities.

Kind of sad when you really think it through. So what if the Thunder somehow land Cade? Will it just be Presti’s job to develope Cade to the point where he can become the fifth former Thunder player to win the MVP?

The Thunder play the Kings tonight. OKC is a collective 1-17 in their last eighteen games. The lone win was the Miracle on Wood in Boston where despite Darius Bazely trying to throw the game in the last ninety seconds with some dubious laydown turnovers…the Thunder held on to win.

Seven games left. I honestly don’t know what to write except Sam Presti has a lot of draft picks to develop players for other cities in the NBA.

After Dark

Haven’t felt like blogging for a a couple of days. The Thunder’s season is almost over. James Carville says the Dems are too woke. The GOP is about to try and get rid of Liz Cheney because she actually is a conservative. It never ends with these two parties. It’s exhausting.

I thought about writing about some of this, but instead decided to celebrate the fact Ronnie Perkins and Rhamondre Stevenson were both drafted by Bill Belichick and the Patriots…which I think is cool.

Patriots could be fun to follow this upcoming NFL season.

Sometimes even the alpha bloggers have to take a break and recharge the battery. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Be good and be kind to others.

Ronnie Perkins Drafted By Patriots In The 3rd Round

I’m excited to see how Ronnie Perkins does in New England playing for Bill Belichick. New England will be a team to keep an eye on this season as their roster is being tweaked.

Ronnie Perkins was OU’s best defensive player last season and a constant threat behind the line of scrimmage to opposing quarterbacks. His motor never stops and he’s always in the other teaam’s backfield.

Hated to see him declare for the draft, but when a kid needs to go pro he should go to the next level and start making money.

Creed Humprhey was taken in the second round by the Kansas City Chiefs and I would think that’s a great place for his versatile offensive line skills.

Rhamondre should be the next Sooner drafted as the fourth round gets going later today.

Congrats to Tulsa’s Zaven Collons for being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals as the 17th player taken in the draft. Great story.