Month: March 2020

What a great March Madness it was last season as Virginia, Texas Tech, Auburn, and Michigan State fought their way to the Final Four. It was one of my favorite tournaments of all-time.

Granted, college basketball has significant issues, but these three weeks are what basketball fans live for year in and year out. It is a pure slice of Americana.

How sad it will not be part of our collective American souls this year because the pussy grabber almost six weeks ago couldn’t distract his attention long enough from trolling Nancy Pelosi to order some test kits for President Obama’s then $22.5 trillion economy.

If only Pussy Grabber could have just this once elevated himself from his fourth grade level norm and been presidential… maybe we’d be having March Madness. Maybe the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Maybe the Masters in Augusta with Jimmy Nance.

Putin is laughing his ass off. Even he couldn’t have envisioned that getting Trump elected could so thoroughly eviscerate every thread of what used to make America great on every level.

It would have been a great tournament this year. Complete and total parity unless you considered Kansas noteworthy special. I didn’t.

Anyway…in case you weren’t paying attention this was AP’s Top Sixteen this previous Monday before the tournament was cancelled.

1 Kansas

2 Gonzaga

3 Dayton How screwed do you think the Dayton Flyers feel right now? Ohio should go blue on this alone.

4 Florida State

5 Baylor

6 San Diego State

7 Creighton

8 Kentucky

9 Michigan State 2019 national semi-finalist

10 Duke

11 Villanova

12 Maryland

13 Oregon

14 BYU

15 Louisville

16 Virginia 2019 defending national champion

Both Auburn and Texas Tech swooned late in the season. Auburn would have still made the field. Not sure about Texas Tech.

We’ll never know.

Since Donald Trump has ended American culture as I once knew it….this was the first Saturday since I was four in which I wasn’t playing, coaching, watching, or blogging about a sporting event.

It was rainy and cold today in Deer Creek so I didn’t work or even want to walk the diva lab Pauli. I had about half a dozen movie discs from what I call my Sleeper’s List and just watched movies all day into the night.

They were all good, but one in particular blew me away. It was a small budget movie filmed in Oklahoma by the title of ‘I Can Only Imagine’ starring Dennis Quaid and Trace Adkins.

It’s a true story about the Christian music group Mercy Me and how their hit song “I Can Only Imagine’ became a No. 1 hit single.

It was especially touching for me because the story is primarily about a son who has an up and down relationship with his father until his father is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. But in the end they work it out in a beautiful manner which left me in tears. It did.

I’m not saying this was an Oscar type movie, but if you’re ever looking for a nice change of pace story you might like it.

So my first Saturday without sports in fifty-eight years was actually quite eventful for me. God works in mysterious ways.

This is one of the primary reasons I endorsed Michael Bloomberg and thought he would be a qualified person to absorb the previous three years of the Donald Trump trail of corruption and neglect.

There will be profound challenges on multiple fronts given the neglect from the previous three years. Nothing has been done to healthcare. We pulled out of our historic alliances. We told the world we don’t believe in science or climate change. We told the world we don’t understand the nuance of free trade. We told the world we value relationships with leaders like Putin and Ergodan more than we do with the leaders of democracy.

Most of all we gave our wealthiest record tax cuts on both the individual and corporate levels which juiced the markets with artificial liquidity….yet led to our first and second trillion dollar budget deficits.

So ask all of your your Trump friends this week how much love they’re feeling for their Trump 401k this week? Then ask them where they think that $7.5 trillion of liquid equity went?

Yes, please ask your Trump friends to answer these two questions.

Then ask them what they think America’s GDP rate of loss will be these first two fiscal quarters of 2020?

Please ask and demand an answer from your closest Trump humans in your life. Don’t call them a deplorable. Don’t call them any names. Just seek answers to the questions.

This is no time for stupid people to be left to making decisions. This isn’t like the 2008 crisis per se, but some lessons should be gleaned from that fiasco as to how nuanced decisions should be made moving forward in 2020.

Beyond surreal is how I start this post on the Saturday morning of my life without sports.

Beyond surreal is the thought the world’s greatest country with the greatest economy with the greatest military could have sixty million people within its borders stupid enough to vote for Donald Trump to be anything beyond the Grade B reality television punk he was in his previous life.

Greed and fear. Evidently these are the two words which guide the Ttump base through their daily activities. But greed mainly. Nothing else matters. Just greed within the U.S. tax code to pad your nest without much concern for anything else.

Too strong?

I don’t think so. Because what America is seeing right now is what Puerto Rico witnessed first hand when Trump was callously tossing rolls of paper towels around a press room as an outlier member of our country lay in ruin—albeit one without Electoral College votes.

The markets shot back up yesterday just under 2,000 points mainly because it appeared some adults are going to finally declare the coronavirus a national emergency if not for its people, but for its financial markets which were headed for the abyss.

Do you really think Trump would have given a shit otherwise in finally getting half a million test kits on board? No way. In Trump’s world the virus was for him a method of death paneling elderly people. The only reason whatsoever this action finally got announced yesterday was because the markets were headed for sub-20,000 territory by next Monday.

This is the person the white evangelicals in America embrace as their leader. Why even go to church? Why even embrace the notion anything means more to you than your net worth dashboard? At least be open and honest about who you really are.

It’s pathetic. I’m to the point where I’m cracking. I’m to the point where I’m starting to say some things to my Trump friends and relatives. So be it. It’s just pathetic.

So…I’m sitting here on Saturday morning and at least Smerconish will be on…I hope.

No NCAA Tournament, no NBA, no NHL, no golf, no MLB… effing nothing in the wake of Donald Trump and his grifters who probably played the U.S. economy short the $7 trillion and have the funds wired somewhere in the world as I write. There has to be some reason Wilbur Ross wasn’t fired three years ago.

Michael Lewis is writing his next bestseller as I sign off to go watch Smerconish…. The Big, Big, Big Short.

My, my, my….. isn’t Little Donald Trump something? In this video I’ve mercifully posted on Trump of his brutal/horrific management of the coronavirus situation which he personally worsened a hundred times fold—he’s doing two things which he should continue to do moving forward.

1 He’s hiding his tiny woman-like little hands behind his folded arms,

and

2 Allowing people around him who are much smarter than him to do the talking in things coronavirus, oil, Putin related.

I could go into much deeper detail as to all the harm this POTUS has wreaked upon what was once known as the United States of America, but I don’t want to be on here when it is revealed that the country with a $22.5 trillion dollar economy has a president who finally pulled his head out of his ass and started testing Americans for the very virus which has shut down President Obama’s once robust growing economy.

The end.

What a week in Oklahoma City. Where do I start? Do I start with the part where Donald Trump got absolutely torched by Vlad Putin on the oil markets or the part where he handled the coronavirus threat like a third grade flunky?

And in Oklahoma of all places on the world stage Donald Trump’s acute incompetence on almost anything with the exception of pussy grabbing with his tiny little hands was exposed to the world.

On the NBA front, Oklahoma City’s game with the Utah Jazz was postponed by the NBA because Rudy Gobert evidently has the virus which can’t be tested in America even though Trump constantly boasts of Obama’s $22.5 trillion dollar economy as if it were or was his own.

Even more to the point any third grader with any science common sense whatsoever knew this was coming the way of the NBA and the NCAA Basketball Tournament as the virus has spread across the continent. Since you know–no one in the country evidently knows how to test for the virus.

I wonder if in Bernie Sanders health care plan they’d be able to test for coronavirus?

What a bad week for Oklahoma City as both Devon Energy and Continental Resources have been absolutely ravaged by Donald Trump’s ignorance and indifference to energy production in America. Let’s put it this way…if you were an investor who wanted to acquire either Devon or Continental a decade ago….it would have cost you around $80 billion to purchase one of these two Oklahoma based companies.

Tomorrow? The markets are already set to open down another 1,000 points before the opening bell. You could probably purchase either Devon or Continental for around $5 billion each if you were into acquiring an energy company on the cheap.

What a great thing it was to have Scott Pruitt as head of EPA and Rick Perry as head of Energy with another reality television star in Lawrence Kudlow running the show. I guess we should be surprised Wilbur Ross got the nod over Mary Fallin to head Commerce….right?

I seriously wonder what thoughts are running through Clay Bennett’s head right now as I finish this post?

I watched Trump’s pathetic eleven minute speech to the country tonight instead of the Utah Jazz at the Oklahoma City Thunder. What a downer on both counts.

Starting with tomorrow’s opening bell on Wall Street it will become official….that being, the end of Barack Obama’s eleven year Bull Market is over. It was raped by the guy with the very little hands who has in his lifetime ruined everything and anything he’s ever been involved with as an owner.

In closing, this thought strikes me most…what does it say about our country that the NBA commissioner Adam Silver is ten times more qualified to be the POTUS than the fool living there now?

It will be a tough time for Oklahoma City in the coming days as oil continues its slide in the Trump economy to levels below the $30 per barrel dollar level. But to help assuage the pain—at least Oklahoma City has an NBA team with a veritable truckload of grit and character.

In easily this season’s biggest win, the Thunder answered every challenge on the road against a Celtics’ team very capable of winning the Eastern Conference. It could be hyperbole on my part, but I would rank this road win in Boston as one of the three greatest regular season wins in the history of the franchise being in Oklahoma City.

Again—the coming days for companies like Devon and Continental will be looming with profound challenge, but at least Oklahoma City has a basketball team to be proud of in every way.

I know this for certain—this Thunder blogger is proud of the team. This game encapsulates everything good about this team and why it was smart not to tank in a year in which the Dow coupled with depressed oil prices would have put an even darker cloud over the city. But, hey…the Trumpsters here in Oklahoma have their guy and none of this was of Obama’s doing.

So this game. Wow. Does Chris Paul have the biggest set of balls in the NBA? I would say maybe.

This was a game in which Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a pregame hip contusion scratch. Then there was the 18 point deficit to the Celtics in the second period. Then after scratching, clawing, and bleeding the Thunder pulled even and had three free throws taken away from them on an overturned call. Then there was Steven Adams predictably clanking two huge late game free throws which should have caused the Thunder to lose this game.

There was all of this…and yet Chris Paul with that big sets of balls of his steered his team to victory.

With around 11 seconds left the Celts had the ball with a one point lead and one assumed Billy Donovan with two timeouts would play the foul game.

Not so much. Billy D ordered a backcourt trap of Kemba Walker by Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder. Chris Paul turned Walker into Schroder and lo and behold Dennis Schroder took the ball and scored the game winning layup with eight seconds left on the clock.

Just to solidify his mythic god status set of balls…Chris Paul then stoned Jason Tatum’s last shot as the Thunder won their 12th road game out of thirteen since this team found itself after Thanksgiving.

NY Knicks…are you listening? RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and two first round draft picks–Sam Presti will think about it.

Chris Paul finished the night with a line of 28 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists. His point guard soulmate partner Dennis Schroder went for 26, 6, 2 and the game winner. This was their signature game of a season in Oklahoma City which most likely won’t end like the Washington Nationals’ improbable world championship.

But what this team most likely will end up with is being the team most loved and respected at the end of the day in Oklahoma City.

Thank you, Chris Paul.

What a game for Austin Reaves last night in Fort Worth as he scored 41 points plus the game winner to in essence put OU into their sixth NCAA Tournament in the past seven seasons with a clutch road win at TCU.

After somewhat choking at home on Tuesday night in the final minutes against Texas, the Sooners basically had to win this road game to get itself off the bubble and into the tournament field.

OU was down by eighteen points at one point in the second half, but never gave up and rode Reaves’ OU career game to the final shot with 0.5 left to advance to the NCAA Tournament. The comeback from18 points on the road is an OU school record.

OU is the kind of team which will have a chance to win a game like they did last year in beating Ole Miss in the first round before bowing out to eventual national champion Virginia in the second round.

Next season Lon Kruger has everyone back from this team minus Christian Doolittle. Kruger needs to find a grad transfer who can shoot the trey to go along with Reaves and Brady Manek. The rest of the OU squad has some relatively solid role players. But Kruger needs to go find another consistent scorer.

I like Kruger. During his tenure the Sooners for the most part have made the tournament field, made a Final Four, and produce two National Player of the Year winners in Buddy Hield and Trae Young.

For next season what Lon Kruger needs is another gunner to go alongside Austin Reaves and OU could possibly have a team which could make some noise beyond the second round of March Madness.

This is what happens to you when you no have no real message and no history of getting much done in the United States Senate except for being the moral guardrail for the far left.

The most striking comment of the last debate was when Amy Klobuchar correctly stated that the Delusion Twins…Bernie and Elizabeth both ranked in the bottom third of the U.S. Senate as far as getting anything done of any consequence.

I laughed when Elizabeth Warren finished third in her own home state of Massachusetts. Let’s put this in political perspective.

In 2016–even Ted Cruz won his home state of Texas as Donald Trump made his way to the GOP nomination. John Kasich easily won his home state of Ohio the same year. But Elizabeth Warren ran third in Massachusetts and she wasn’t even competitive.

So I ask myself why did MSNBC give her so much heroine play after she took down Michael Bloomberg for some things he said thirty years ago?

Why take down someone who actually has a record of getting tough things done and helping in worthy causes regardless of party affiliations? Things like climate change, gun control, job creation, and education.

So here’s what I’m saying to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as Elizabeth Warren is making like her endorsement is a real game changer….don’t seek her endorsement. She’s a monumental pain in the ass who ranks in the bottom third of the Senate and wasn’t even competitive in her home state.

But Bernie Sanders will wait for her endorsement this week as the pivotal primary in Michigan takes place. My guess is she’ll stall on the Bernie endorsement because she probably figures Joe Biden will pick either Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, or maybe even Elizabeth Warren to be his running mate.

For pure competence — it should be Klobuchar, but she’s not black and she’s not a progressive.

Again–isn’t it odd not one of these women ever mentioned Hunter Biden or his job at Burisma as the primary process heated up for the Dems.

Rest assured Donald Trump and every GOP surrogate will mention both every single day once it becomes apparent Joe Biden is the nominee.

It was like a college football Saturday this past season.

In the first game on Fox Southwest we saw the feel good Jalen Hurts Sooners bury the miserable Kansas Jayhawks in Madison Square Garden by a 126-103 count. It’s almost uncanny how much these Thunder with Chris Paul resemble the Sooners with grad transfer Jalen Hurts.

But as we all know that story at some point turns ugly when the feel good story has to play a big boy monster in wait from the SEC with a mobile quarterback who can pass.

Enter the ESPN Game of the Night with Mikey Breen, Jeff van Gundy, and Mark Jackson on the call as real basketball junkies salivated to witness LeBron duel Giannis for the lead in the regular season MVP race.

It was like Joe Burrow versus Tua. Neither disappointed the viewers as the Bucks hung around until finally succumbing in the fourth quarter and losing by a score of 113-103.

It was great stuff. But we know for sure Clemson and Ohio State fans already know how this story ends. But what I don’t know right now is whether quiet stealth assassin Kawhi Leonard or LeBron is Joe Burrow this NBA season.

Does LeBron still have enough in him to carry the Lakers to four wins on a Texas-OU national stage setting to get his Lakers past the Clippers?

I don’t know. But I can’t wait to see.

On the Thunder-Knicks front—the game was a disgrace from a standpoint of how bad the Knicks are and how little they give their fans for the price of a ticket. Truly—at some point Adam Silver needs to step in and orchestrate some sort of deal with Chris Paul as player coach going to the Knicks at the conclusion of this season.

If I’m Sam Presti this is what I want….I want RJ Barrett, I want a first round draft pick down the road, and I want Julius Randle if he still has a year left on his contract beyond this season.

This is where Sam Presti gets his rebuild with another talented piece in Barrett to go alongside Shai G. Alexander and another Canadian at that to go along with Alexander and Dort. I wonder if any of these guys can skate?

In watching that dumpster fire of a Knicks team last night–Barrett’s potential is still obvious if someone gets him out of there and puts him in a winning culture.

To conclude–remember early on in this season when the narrative in New York was they were going to build around this young core. How’d that go?

Go make your deal, Sam Presti….but remember to sell high.