He may be a hypocrite, a soft football coach who can’t get his offense in gear against a Dave Aranda defense, and petrified of coaching in the SEC, but despite what Chris Jackson would like to have this jury believe…I know Lincoln Riley at his human worst could never measure up to Donald Trump or O.J. Simpson as a sociopath Hall of Famer.
The story is that on the morning of Lincoln Riley’s departure a group of power boosters assembled by Joe C actually made Lincoln an offer which easily exceeded the offer made by USC.
Your Honor, defense will stipulate at this time we don’t know if that offer included rapper Doctor Dre’s $2 million offer to Caleb William’s father.
Yet, regardless of the absence of that specific money trail we still know Lincoln Riley said no to OU and the SEC.
So what does that tell us as purveyors of the truth?
This is what the evidentiary money trail tells me:
If you as a coach can’t figure out Dave Aranda and Baylor’s so-so athletes in three games with OU’s offensive fire power…then why in the world would you go to the SEC and think you could beat Alabama, Georgia, and LSU?
Your Honor, as Lincoln Riley’s advocate defending him against Chris Jackson’s unfounded claims…. I at this time would like to introduce an expert video which will show the jurors what a clinical pathological sociopath actually looks like out amongst us in normal societal interaction.
Your Honor, may we please at this time play Defense Exhibits A and B to the jurors?
I thought with what Milwaukee did today they helped their ball club better as they try to repeat as NBA champions. They gave themselves some depth in their big rotation with a guy who won a ring while at Toronto was a key part in OKC getting to four Western Conference Finals and one NBA Finals.
He’s not a team cancer like both Ben Simmons and Harden. At this point in his career he’ll have a narrow role off the bench to help Giannis and Company prove they’re still the best team in the NBA one year later.
Yet as recently as February 4th…Serge recorded a 20 point, 8 rebound game against the pathetic LA Lakers. He still has some gas in the tank.
So while his season stats are…6 pts, 3.1 rbs and one block a game…there’s proof in a six-game series or so Serge could have a game or two where he could make an impact.
I love what Milwaukee has done with their team. Nothing draconian, yet enough nuanced moves to keep the Bucks as the team still to beat in the East even though I love Tyler Herro and the Miami Heat.
Giannis is the best player in the game. Period. And unlike Durant he never bailed on the city of Milwaukee, but to the Bucks credit also–unlike the Thunder they added key pieces like Jrue Holiday and Bobby Portis to make the supporting cast conducive to Giannis winning rings.
Sam Presti and the Thunder…bless their hearts. I don’t know about these dudes. I really don’t. I hate to write this because I live in the Oklahoma City area, but when you have the naive fanbase in the league with the softest local media covering the team this is what can happen.
My fear for the Thunder is that this summer Shai Gilgeous Alexnader’s agent finally represents his client like a real fiduciary and demands Shai be traded to a legitimate NBA franchise if the Thunder don’t hit Jabari Smith or Paulo Banchero in the draft.
So look what Philadelphia did today. After all those years of tanking under Hinkie they had to trade one candor in Ben Simmons to Brooklyn for another cancer in James Harden to give Joel Embiid the appearance he’s MVP caliber season isn’t being completely wasted by Sixer ownership.
How ironic…the Thunder’s two bigs in Serge and Steven are both on teams in my Top Six odds wise to win the NBA championship this season.
You know why the Thunder didn’t take on salary today with their huge $35 million cap space at the trade deadline? They couldn’t because they couldn’t take the risk of actually making their team a legitimate on the floor product this season in the hopes of landing either Jabari or Banchero.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for chirpy Little Nick Gallo or Michael Cage to make that point on air.
My top six seeds would go like this if the Playoffs were to start tomorrow;
1 Milwaukee, 2 Phoenix, 3 Golden State, 4 Miami, 5 Nets (if Kyrie gets vaccinated) and 6 Denver (if Murray is at one-hundred percent). Not sure how one values the Lakers at this point besides just being a longshot with a puncher’s chance perhaps if they could somehow mitigate the Russell Westbrook Factor.
Tragically sad for the Thunder on every imaginable front. Lot of angry white people in Oklahoma…that’s for certain. Very sad. I’m not really sure Oklahoma should even have an NBA team at this point. Tragically sad.
Maybe they could sell arena space for Trump rallies to fill the cash flow abyss. Just a thought. Las Vegas would be an excellent NBA market.
The only thing so far which I like is Serge Ibaka headed to the Milwaukee Bucks in search of ring No. 2. BTW…our TNT Game of the Week tonight features the Finals rematch of the Bucks vs. the Suns. I could definitely see that happening again minus a serious injury to a key player.
Serge may in fact be my favorite Thunder player of all-time just because I love his smile and he never took himself over seriously like Durant, Westbrook, and Harden.
I doubt in all seriousness Sam Presti does anything today minus possibly mitigating the tax penalties for being $35 million under the minimum NBA roster salary requirement.
Bob Myer at Golden State isn’t trading away Johnny Kuminga. I knew that, it was just my pipedream deadline trade fantasy.
A trade isn’t critical as long as the Thunder don’t screw up the tank again like last year and this time come out of the draft with a top three player and perhaps a center with the Clippers pick like Walker Kessler or Oscar T from Kentucky.
Oh, wait–James Harden just traded to Philly for the mentally unhinged Ben Simmons. That might be interesting… I guess. Harden for Ben Simmons would be like trading Sarah Palin for Marjorie Taylor-Green from my perspective. Maybe one of them will surprise me and grow up. I still like the modest trade Milwaukee made though. No team drama upheaval attached.
I’m pretty much at peace with everything. Fact is, we’re planning to head south with the lab to some beach just south of Clearwater and spend our 41st Valentine’s Day together. Supposed to be 84 degrees on Valentine’s Day. Nice.
At some point this weekend… I’ll call my son Chris back and explain to him in detail why Hitler, Trump, and OJ Simpson are sociopaths and Lincoln Riley isn’t.
Embrace the day…it’s beautiful in Oklahoma today.
Forty-one years…holy shit. I remember that drive back in 1981 from Oklahoma to Montgomery, Alabama like it was yesterday. Never thought I would see her again even though I knew I’d fallen in love with her and kept it to myself.
She said we needed to have a talk. I bought a ring and two airline tickets from Montgomery to an outer island in the Bahamas. I finally admitted to her I was in love with her like Noah did with Allie in The Notebook. Seems like yesterday and yet forty-one years of marriage isn’t an easy thing.
I bet I played this Marshall Tucker love song at least twenty times on the drive to Montgomery.
Click for best ever version of Boomer Sooner. There’s Only One Oklahoma, Baby!!!
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I left the Thunder vs. Toronto game after about ten minutes of that premeditated fabricated bullshit and found myself a sports bar and settled in for the OU-Texas Tech game.
I have to admit… I got on OU the other day after that abysmal second half versus the dysfunctional Oklahoma State Cowboys in one of the worst second half performances I can ever remember in OU Bedlam basketball history.
But man, oh, man…Porter Moser’s team put on their big heart big boy hard hats tonight in Norman which could have in effect been a play-in game for the Sooners. Granted, Joe Lunardi already had the Sooners as one of his final four teams in the draw, but this coupled with the win over now red-hot Arkansas gives the Sooners some breathing room heading down the stretch.
Nothing went right for the Sooners in the first half and I thought there was some sketchy officiating by Bob Bowlsby’s zebra’s…especially on the Flagrant One on Tanner Grove just before halftime.
But OU fought through it behind a career thirty-point night from Moj Gibson. That’s the Moj Gibson the Sooners have to have if they aspire to win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament.
No backup point guard tonight with freshman Bijuan Cortez out for the night, so in essence…Moj played quite a few point-guard minutes tonight and that maybe moving forward is the recipe Porter Moser needs to follow the rest of the way.
Moj was 8-11 on the night behind the arc and played with grit and toughness. If I had been there in the arena, I would have hugged him after one critical defensive rebound late in the game which cinched it for the Sooners. Moj Gibson…three helmet stickers.
I got all over Ethan Chargois after the Bedlam game as well. He gets my other helmet sticker. Tanner was in foul trouble the entire night with what I thought were several tough calls which went against him, but unlike the case in Stillwater…Ethan stepped up and gave the Sooners valuable positive minutes.
OU improves to 14-10 and goes to Lawrence to play nationally ranked Kansas on Saturday.
There’s nothing easy in this league, but on this night in Norman…Porter Moser’s team finally found a way to finish over a Top Ten team and in the process greatly enchanced their Big Dance March Madness aspirations.
BOOMER!
I’m so happy. I’m still like a kid in this regard after a big win. Chris Jackson called me from Denver after the game to just check on me and make sure I was okay which was cool.
Then my son the OU MBA says just out of the blue…”I think Lincoln Riley is a sociopath.”
Trust me…I know what he was doing there.
I replied, ” You mean like Donald Trump and O.J. Simpson?”
He said, ” Worse. Much worse. He doesn’t even know when he’s lying at this point.”
I said, ” You don’t think he’s just scared to play Alabama, Georgia and LSU? Gundy would never play in the SEC and that doesn’t make him a sociopath. He may be a Mullet King who’s team can’t score from a yard out in seven plays, but he’s not a sociopath.”
Chris said, “No. Lincoln Riley clearly possesses all the traits of a textbook sociopath.”
I said, ” Don’t ruin this for me tonight. We’ll talk about Lincoln Riley the sociopath some other time.”
We’re now a day away from the NBA’s trade deadline and two big trades were made yesterday. Of course…none of them involved the tanking Thunder who are somewhere around $35 million under the NBA’s minimum team payroll allowed by the stipulated salary cap requirements. Who could have thought that possible considering the product on the floor?
In some circles the above would be called frugality, in some it might be called being brilliant creating cap space to acquire a stud free agent, or in others like Oke City it could be called criminal fraud.
The Warriors, who are in a win now mode with the excellent team they have in place, get Kenrich Williams, Lu Dort, Poku and the Thunder in exchange get Johnny Kuminga and one second round pick.
You have to understand where I’m coming from with this trade. I no way think Sam Presti could ever win a championship in Oklahoma City even if he had KD and LeBron, but Oke City’s arena is twenty-five minutes from my front door and if the Thunder could somehow acquire Johnny Kuminga by trade and Jabari Smith in the draft…. that would be hard for me to resist as a passionate NBA fan. That would in a word be…lit.
You have to also consider how much I love and respect what both Lu Dort and Kenrich stand for as NBA players who have both clawed their ways into solid NBA careers. This gives both of these guys a chance to win a ring and live in a woke city.
I have no idea what it would mean for Poku because I have no idea what he is as a player, but maybe he would start to improve some with Steve Kerr as a coach.
So visualize this as the Thunder’s starting five next season if Sam Presti could pull this off…. Shai and Giddy as the guards, Johnny Kuminga at the three, Jabari Smith at the four, and his Auburn teammate Walker Kessler at the five. That would leave a bench unit of Aaron Wiggins, Ty Jerome, Tre Mann, Darius Bazely, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
My eleven and twelve guys would be Mamida Diakite and maybe Theo Maledon if I decide to keep him…. his spot could be upgraded fairly easy.
Tell me that wouldn’t put the Thunder back on TNT and on the Christmas Day NBA package again.
Might need Putin to invade Ukraine to get West Texas Crude up to $130 a barrel to pay for all of this in five years, ‘but if you’re not going to dream big then you might as well play with yourself’ is what Texas oilman Big Ed Bookman always used to say in Dead Solid Perfect.
Nick Collison… you can tell them this was your idea.
Even if Sam Presti can’t pull the Johnny Kuminga part off…I wouldn’t sneeze at the idea of using that Clippers picks to acquire Walker Kessler from Auburn as one of our three bigs. You could keep Mike Muscala around as the 13th guy since his body doesn’t seem to be able to absorb more than 14 minutes every third game and tell the completely nonexistent collection of Thunder scribes his role is that of a player/coach. I like his bullshit smile when he’s talking trash around the free throwline as well.
I like Walker more every time I see him. His three-point shot has been bouncing around between 18-23% and he’s big boy on the boards. Perk, Nick, and Steven combined never shot 23% from the three-point line ever in one Thunder season.
El Prez is bullish on Walker Kessler later in the first round if he’s still around. Jabari Smith is basically just Kevin Durant waiting to happen. No one in the league is going to able to defend that perimeter jumper of his.
What all of this means of course is that all the white fanboy nerds over at the highly dysfunctional Daily Thunder who never played or coached any sport in their lives are probably all Chet from Gonzaga.
I can’t believe OU fans are still obsessed with Lincoln Riley. He left. Get over it. Lincoln divorced OU just like I divorced the feeble Oklahoma City Thunder this week.
Unless OU was planning on heading to the snowflake PAC 12 instead of going to the rugged SEC, Brent Venables is the better coach culture-wise for OU moving forward. If OU were staying in the cupcake PAC 12 … I could see the angst with Caleb, Mario Williams, and Lawrence McCutcheon heading west to follow Kathleen Turner from Body Heat.
The one part of this however I will call complete bullshit on with Lincoln Riley is the notion that all this with him going to USC came to a conclusion just after Bedlam. That’s total bullshit. From the point Barry Helton was canned at USC earlier in the season was when this whole scheme was hatched.
If anyone in all of this has a right to be pissed it might be Dabo Sweeny and Clemson at this point because he lost quite a bit of his staff.
Truth be known…. I can’t imagine that Alex Grinch and the other coaches who left OU are all that big of a loss.
Again, OU with Jeff Lebby is always going to get one of the top Texas high school quarterbacks and more importantly OU will start getting four star defensive players from the South… where they still play defense in high school football. Thet don’t play that kind of physical football in Texas in high school. Texas high school ball has become a very finesse brand of football with the advent of the spread offenses.
There’s no reason for OU fans to keep hanging on every word of Lincoln Riley. It’s over. Culturally he and his wife probably weren’t Trump Proud Boy domestic terrorist types and I’m sure that may have played a part in all of this as well.
I had a great time. I bought myself three nice, collared shirts this Christmas for the Heat, the Warriors, and the Grizz. My ticker broker not only got me a seat behind the Warriors’ bench he got me an even better deal for the Raptors game coming up later this week. I’m not buying one of their shirts even though I think Nick Nurse is one of the best coaches in the league.
Like Melvin…I only sit low at this point in my life. Those dumbass suckers up in Loud City who paid full price to ante up this season I genuinely feel bad for, but I’m guessing those folks are primarily Trump Proud Boy types who don’t understand free market economies enough to sit down in the lower seats.
There were quite a few Warrior fans like me in the building. Almost what I would describe as an expectant electricity in the air even though the Thunder are in reality a G League team. I would love to see the Thunder without Shai play at either Kentucky or Auburn in a packed gym on the road. Those are the two best college teams I’ve seen this year and both have rosters and coaches in reality superior to the Thunder. But I’m not sure how they would handle Dort, Bazely, and Giddy in a forty minute game.
Calipari or Bruce Pearl vs. Presti’s little G League coach. You can’t be serious.
Klay and Steph basically just kind of walked thru the motions most of the game coming in on an eight-game winning streak. But when the annoying G League Thunder drew within five points late in the game it was winning time for the Splash Brothers. Like Tony Bennett finishing the night with an encore rendition of I Left My Heart in San Franciso.
No Shai as expected. His deal with Presti doesn’t require him to play games the back third of any of these tanking seasons in Oke City.
But I have to write this, as far as Lu Dort, Bazely, Giddy, Tre Mann, Ty Jerome and Kenrich…they worked their asses off so as folks like me could witness a fairly entertaining game between a serious contender and an NBA pretender.
My respect for those six players is genuine, but I feel sorry for them in that they got stuck having to play in what in essence is a Triple A minor league city pretending to be something it’s not.
Lu Dort and Kenrich on a real team with a real GM and a real coach could be tangible contributors this season. It hurts me that both of these guys have done everything right and find themselves trapped in this shit show in Oklahoma City.
Lu Dort has what I think is one of the worst contracts in the league while Shai gets paid a max deal in essence for playing limited minutes every season. Somebody needs to transfer some of Shai’s money into an account for Lu Dort.
Sam Presti never learns, does he? He created the monster known as Russell Westbrook, and I fear if Shai’s agent allows him to stay here too long Shai will turn into the same type of entitled brattish star Russell evolved into. How can he sit there and watch his young teammates play so hard and not feel any guilt?
That’s not leadership…that’s for certain.
The Warriors will definitely need Draymond back if they want to beat Phoenix though…that’s for certain. It was fun watching Johnny Kuminga and Moses Moody play extended minutes. Johnny Kuminga has the body and jumps of Giannis, just saying.
In closing, I laughed when I came home and watched the delayed broadcast. The pathetic Thunder telecast team evidently saw this as a ‘barometer game’ of sorts. Hilarious. The only barometer games this Thunder could hypothetically play are if they play either Auburn or Kentucky on the road. If you’re playing five fouls like in the college game that would make it even more interesting.
Those would be true barometer games for the Thunder.
Next up…the hot and always well coached Toronto Raptors in Oke City.
1. How many NFL black head coaches have won a Super Bowl? Two. In 2007, Tony Dungy became the first African American NFL head coach to win a Super Bowl. Ironically, the Colts beat the Chicago Bears 29-17. Then Bears’ head coach Lovie Smith who along with Dungy became the first black head coach to lead a team to the Super Bowl.
This is how that decision to kick the ball to Devin Hester went from inside a Chicago sports bar. Bob re-kicking that punt to Tyreke ‘The Cheetah’ Hill was child’s play considered to this. Yet, the Colts came back and won a Super Bowl.
The second NFL black head coach to win a Super Bowl was Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin in 2009 when the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23. With that win, Mike Tomlin became the youngest coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl.
In 2011, the Steelers returned to the Super Bowl under Tomlin and were defeated 31-25 by Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers. This was Aaron’s only Super Bowl victory in his illustrious Hall f Fame career to date.
Word has it Jimmy Garoppolo will be Mike Tomlin’s next quarterback in Steeler Town. That will be interesting because for any AFC team to make it to the Super Bowl they would have to get past Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Justin Herbert. My first thought there is Jimmy G isn’t quite in the league of those guys.
2. Who are the three black NFL quarterbacks who’ve won the Super Bowl?
The answer is three. 1 Doug Williams, 1988, 2 Russell Wilson, 2014, and 3 Patrick Mahomes, 2019.
3. Since the current trend in the NFL is for offensive coordinators to ascend to NFL head coaching positions how many NFL offensive coordinators are there currently?
Only two believe it or not. Eric Bienemy with the Kansa City Chiefs and Byron Leftwich with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Hard to believe neither of these two guys are head coaches given the same Joe Jon Bubba white boy retreads we keep seeing in various NFL head coaching positions. My analogy on the Joe Jon Bubbas is that if you failed as the general manager of a McDonald’s why would you be given a second chance at the Burger King down the street? That makes no sense whatsoever.
One of Berry Tramel’s greatest lines of all-time was in reference to OU firing its only black head football coach in history in 1998… John Blake. Tramel stated, ” Just because you work at a Taco Bell doesn’t mean you should manage a Taco Bell.” I thought it was a great line and I agreed with it because I would have fired John Blake if it were me.
But my question is why does the NFL keep hiring the same failed white Joe Jon Bubbas who litter NFL sidelines?
4. Since the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003 how much progress in the NFL has been made as far as the hiring of NFL general managers?
As of 2019, when Ozzie Newsom stepped down as the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens, one black general manager was left in the NFL, the Dolphins’ Chris Grier. As recently as 2016, however, the NFL had seven black general managers. In other words, inclusivity at the front office level has trended in the wrong direction since 2019 even with the Rooney Rule in place.
That’s it for my NFL Black History Month posts. Next up my U.S. Supreme Court Black History Months thoughts.
I’ve had this game circled for a while. I’m going and have my Warrior shirt for the game. I’m too old to wait on Sam Presti to see a legitimate team again in Oklahoma City. I hope the Thunder get there eventually, but I don’t have time for this nonsense for another three years or so.
I wish the Thunder well because I enjoy seeing other teams from major league cities with major league payrolls come here to play.
I wouldn’t call it my divorce from the Thunder, but more me just coming to the realization of what this franchise is all about. I’ll gladly pay the money, but not for this nonsense. And it’s not just this tank. It’s the fact they had Kevin Durant for a decade and never pulled the trigger on obtaining a real shooting guard to be on those Durant teams. Not acceptable.
I’ll never boo or act poorly at the games, but I’m divorcing these people because of irreconcilable differences on how they operate. But clearly, I want the team to survive so I can see other NBA teams come to the city…like the Warriors with Klay Thompson.
Klay since his return is averaging 16.3 ppg, 3.5 rbspg, and 3.1 astspg. He’s averaging 43% from the field and 38% from threes.
He’s coming off his best game since his return in a win versus the Kings.. On February 4th, Klay scored 23 points while shooting 72.7% from the field and 77.8% from behind the arc. That’s pretty good and Porter Moser would kill for half of that from his entire team.
Other than the OU women the basketball in this state this season is close to unwatchable. People shouldn’t have to pay to see this level of basketball. It’s horrific.
I think I have a ticket behind the Golden State bench if my ticket broker comes thru on the deal he thinks he has for me this game. He knows I’ll only pay 40-50% of face ticket value for any Thunder ticket. That’s our agreement. I don’t pay full price to see Tony Bennett tank at a concert and this is pretty much the same thing. This is entertainment, not some horseshit deal like being a Posse Club member and waiting once a decade to see a good team. That’s absolute bullshit.
I wish the Thunder the best in this game and I hope they give us a show…which I think they will if both Dort and Wiggins play in this game. I’d love to see Dort and Kenrich come with me to Golden State. I love what both of those two guys are all about. Just saying.
I’ll keep the blog just so there’s an honest voice on the Thunder in the market, but that’s the extent of it. No sex or intimate contact. Simply platonic.
LET’S GO WARRIORS!
I swear…it just seems like every day I’m becoming more and more like Melvin. Maybe it was these insane Trump people combined with Covid and the Daily Thunder messageboard which put me over the ledge. I don’t know. I just want to hang around with Auburn Chick and the dog, blog a little, and try to avoid the rest of humanity as much as I can this winter. Hopefully…it’s just a stage.
It’s Black History Month and we have an off Sunday for those of us who are passionate NFL fans.
We just can’t seem to get past race issues in this country even though the only black person to ever win the White House served two terms and today still has the highest approval rating of any living president. My guess is if you went further back with approval ratings even beyond the living presidents… Barack Obama would probably garner the highest approval rating of any POTUS in the past century.
Not because of his policies per se, but the fact he brought some dignity to the office.
Isn’t that odd considering for some reason the NFL today only has one black head coach?
I’m guessing Barack Obama’s popularity didn’t translate to the NFL billionaires club.
One black head coach in a league dominated by black athletes. One, that being Mike Tomlin with the Pittsburgh Steelers. One.
Thank goodness for the Rooney family or that number would be none. There’s even a rule named for the Rooney family in this regard called the Rooney Rule, which just recently fired Brian Flores is challenging in a lawsuit. Flores won his last eight games with the Dolphins and lost his job while Mike McCarthy in Dallas somehow kept his job. That seems a little odd.
Isn’t it strange the NBA, another black dominated American professional sports league, boasts a forty per cent ratio of coaches?
Who was the first black quarterback to start an NFL season? It was Joe Gilliam with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1974.
Who was the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl? That would be Doug Williams in 1988 with the Washington Redskins. I in no way plan on calling the Redskins the Commanders…that’s just silly at this point and I’m not generally a politically correct person. But racism in America isn’t silly because it still exists and it was emboldened openly by the 45th president of the United States.
Can you imagine we have white people in this country who today question a black female judge being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court despite the fact she graduated from Harvard and has the exact amount of experience on the federal appellate court as Clarence Thomas?
What would be the problem I ask aloud?
Same qualifications, same color.
Both are much more qualified than the four times bankrupted dimwit who liked to share erotic furniture store shopping tales to his bus buddy Billy B. I mean…that person’s main qualification minus being the Celebrity Apprentice magistrate was the fact his Daddy left him a $420 million trust fund.
Go figure these Trump people with some logic attached. I double dare you. Tell me what it is I don’t understand.
But it’s stunning in professional sports we still in America can’t come to terms with the notion of racial equality.