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Man…what a soap opera in the West. The Lakers deal to acquire center Mark Williams fell through due to a failed physical. The options at this point to fill the center void created by Anthony Davis’s departure are limited. This is a sizeable hole for the Lakers considering Luka has never been considered all that much as a defender. In fact…he might fall into my category as a pylon on that end of the court. So unless one is considering Jaxson Hayes as a big-time rim protector–the Lakers have a significant problem.

Then there’s the drama in Dallas. Some fans in Dallas last night had to be removed from the AAA Center by law enforcement due to several unruly exhanges and ugly behavior because they feel the Mavs got fleeced in the deal. And, of course–the seemingly always fragile AD got himself injured in his first game as a Mav while Derek Lively is still out with his injury. So…like the Lakers–the Mavs are one Daniel Gafford injury away from being centerless for the time being.

It would seem to MJ…the Thunder are somewhat in what would be called a Zone of Good Fortune right now given Chet has made it through two games himself without being broken or fractured. The Basketball Gods may indeed be with the Thunder. Maybe the gods have for the time being been fooled by all the Trump fake Christian praying in faux Christian, Oklahoma. Only time will tell as we head towards the stretch run following the All-Star break.

In San Antonio and Golden State though…it’s all good though post trade deadline.

De’Aaron and Wemby seem to fit like a glove and I wouldn’t discount the Spurs’ chances of making one of the play-in slots.

Jimmy Butler in his first two games with the Warriors–which were both wins…has in fact been a perfect fit alongside Steph. Jimmy is a smart player and an All-Star level player whose skill set is a match to that of Steph in the regard he’s an excellent defender, a guy who can get to the free throw line ten times a game, and someone who doesn’t have to posess the ball all the time to score.

And so far…he and Draymond have made it look like destined love in Camelot. But then again…the Warriors haven’t lost a game yet with Jimmy and Draymond on the same team.

But so far, two games in…it ‘might’ appear Warriors’ general manager Mike Dunleavy has found his replacement for Klay for maybe two years if injuries don’t rear their head.

In closing…here come the Denver Nuggets–one game out of second place in the West. And shouldn’t that be the way it is as Shai and Nicola battle it out for the regular season MVP award.

It’s all wild in the West, minus the fact the Thunder appear to have clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference before the All-Star break.

Mike J

Jalen Hurts is the king of the football world this morning. His journey is one every young person in this country should aspire to follow in whatever their specific aspirations are in life.

How unfortunate someone like Jalen isn’t the role model for the young males in this country, but instead for some depressing inexplicable reason….so many of our young men aspire to be lazy pussy grabbing con artist crypto Ponzi grifters or worse.

Jalen’s integrity, his character, his dogged belief in himself are the qualities we as a country used to generationally embrace. But not so much anymore.

How sad for our country.

The manner in which Jalen handled his benching by Coach Saben at Alabama should be a mini-documentary for every young person in this country to watch.

He didn’t pout. He didn’t immediately transfer. He simply went to work and incrementally made the throwing part of his game better. Not only as a college player, but as a young NFL quarterback.

I’m so happy for Jalen…and proud that I was able to personally witness his last college season at OU.

Jalen Hurts…you and every one of your teammates are kings of the NFL football world this morning.

Embrace it.

Mike J

I think the Eagles have the better team. It’s tough to go against Patrick Mahomes, but in reality…if the Eagles weren’t playing opposite Mahomes to day I think the Eagles would be a 3.5 to 4 point favorite against any other NFL team currently without PM.

If the Eagles don’t do self-destructive things..and they allow their huge offensive line to take control and wear down the Chiefs–I just think Jalen Hurts has so many playmaking options not only with Saquon, but with AJ Brown and DeVonta Smitch. Plus…Jalen has former OU tight end Grant Callatara at his disposal. Jalen’s pocket presence flushes could be big in this game as the Chiefs stretch the field to control the three primary Eagle playmakers…Saquon, AJ, and DeVonta.

Nine ex-Sooners are playing in this Super Bowl and that’s cool. But the one who matters most is Jalen Hurts and this game may or may not fairly determine his place on the current QB ladder in the NFL. But that’s what comes with the position.

Hope it’s a great game…and yes–I passed on President Musk’s shadow POTUS doing his little performance for the MAGA radical right domestic terrorists on the Fox Entertainment Network.

A new low in the history of Super Bowl Sunday presentations.

Sigh

Mike J

Well…f–k, it would appear Donald Trump’s second term presidency ended after his dual trips into POTUS magic mushroom wonderland delusion after the clueless plane tragedy presser and the even more senile Gaza real estate proposal.

Here’s how I think it went down…Elon phoned FLOTUS 47, Ivanka and Jared and pretty much said, “Just keep him medicated and Besos, Zuckerberg, and I will run the country. JD Vance is not in play….we own his Silicon ass. Allow Trump to speak once a week…that’ll keep the MAGAs satiated.”

My, my, my….you Trump faux Christians have really at this point abdicated anything even remotely attached to half a moral compass, but, hey…this was always about the lowest effective marginal tax rates and you’ll probably get those with POTUS 48 Musk.

I can tell you this though, me being the lone voice of steady courage in Oklahoma out here at the studios of okcthunderground.com in no way is going to change any of this.

Nope.

I’m going to absorb the tax cuts and hope some the Oklahoma MAGAs in Oklahoma and around the nation feel okay about all this and don’t set us all on fire.

But this in no way means I’m going to buy any Donald or Melania crypto, buy an advance timeshare in Columbia overlooking the Panama Canal, or buy a costal view time-share in Gaza. Mna…this go around the grift makes Trump firstterm seem innocent in comparison.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

What MJ is going to do is sit in the OU student section tomorrow at 11:00am and see if we the ‘students’ can lead our Sooners to a huge upset over No. 4 Tennessee.

Big, big, big game for the Sooners tomorrow. Congrats to the Lady Sooners for a gritty road win last night at Ole Miss without Reagan B in the lineup.

You Trump people in Oklahoma…you never fail to amaze. Nor do our elected GOP officials in the U.S. Senate.

I think I’m going to pick the Eagles to win the Super Bowl, but I’ll do that in detail on Sunday morning. Denver Nuggets climbed into third place in the West last night. The Lakers looked great and Dallas beat Boston in Boston without AD and PJ Washington. Vintage Klay in the first half. The West is about to be lit. Plus…Clevelanded landed DeAndre Hunter at the deadline. DeAndre and Ty Jerome reunited. Very cool.

Eternal peace, MJ

Holy shit. I would say with this last move the Lakers won the Luka trade. My goodness.

What a trade deadline in the West! Not so much in the East.

Jimmy Butler is now a Warrior. De’Aaron Fox is now Wemby’s running mate in San Antonio, and all of the sudden the Lakers sitting in the 5th seed look like ‘maybe’ they could have the second best starting five in the West if Luka can get his fat ass into shape.

I hope I have this right with all the Laker departures still swirling in my head. The Lakers’ starting five would now go LeBron, Luka, my favorite lunchpail player in the league–Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Mark Williams at the center position. You people out there…take notice–Austin Reaves was not traded among the Laker departures. MJ has been right about Austin since Day 1.

This is why I wrote what I wrote yesterday. That being, “I want to see who the Lakers land as their incoming center before we judge the trade in its totality.”

The Jimmy Butler trade, I’m not so sure how that will work. Pray for Steve Kerr is my first thought. Coach Kerr now has to manage Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, and Gary Payton Jr. Maybe it’ll work. The Warriors didn’t give up all that much in Aaron Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Dennis Schroeder. We’ll see is all I’m saying. Draymond and Jimmy Butler together just seems like an ‘ask’ of sorts.

The sleeper trade I like though is De’Aaron Fox going to San Antonio to be Wemby’s point guard. The battles for the play-in slots are going to be fascinating in the West.

And the Thunder picked up some center ‘insurance’ with the addition of Theis. I don’t see Theis being a factor at all unless either Chet can’t stay healthy or Isaiah gets hurt again. This is like a personal center umbrella liability policy for Sam Presti—if you you know what those are. For you Oklahoma-Trump readers on here…well, never mind. Let’s move on. You’ve got to rebuild Gaza and figure out where you’re moving 2 million Palestinians.

Of course… the deadline isn’t over till midnight.

The West needed this.

Mike J

Good game last night in Cleveland as the defending champ Celtics reminded all of us why they’re still the team to beat this spring in the NBA Playoffs.

The Celtics are starting to get that look of a team focusing in on the goal achieving arc of what it takes to repeat in the very challenging landscape in the NBA Collective Bargaining Era. It’s tough to repeat. Only the Kansas City Chiefs currently have had success in this regard amongst our four major sports leagues.

The Thunder play tonight and OKC is currently the No. 1 seed overall in the NBA. OKC…39-9, Cleveland, 40-10, and Boston 36-15.

My odds right now go…1 Boston, 2 OKC, and 3 Cleveland. If OKC were to meet Boston in the NBA Finals with homecourt, I’d probably be picking OKC to win in seven games. If OKC were to play Cleveland…I’d probably take the Thunder in six games.

So while the Thunder probably aren’t going to be able to pull off the 70-12 feat, I think it would be a fairly substantial accomplishment to have homecourt throughout the playoffs.

On the 70 win deal…the Thunder still have mathmatical chance. They would have to reel off a 31-3 to reach that incredible goal in the era of load management.

But, hey…they’ve got a chance and Shai shouldn’t be sitting because he’ll be dueling with Nicola for the MVP.

So…there’s a lot of interest in these final 34 games for NBA people like me to keep a close eye on the Thunder.

The Luka-Anthony Davis trade? I don’t know yet. I want to see if Dallas or the Lakers make anymore moves on the trade deadline before I cement my view on the trade. I want to see LA’s final roster as pertaining to the center position after tomorrow. Dallas should be a contender if AD plays as he should. I think for me the emergence of PJ Washington as a star and the addition of Max Christie make me think Dallas got the better of the deal for this season. But let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Closing…if I were Adam Silver… I would have fined the Milwaukee Bucks at a minimum $100,000 for that bullshit team they put on the floor in Oklahoma City the other night. What an insult to the overall integrity of an NBA regular season game which was a rematch of the Emirates NBA Cup Finals in December.

Pathetic.

Have a nice evening.

Mike J

It was an emotional day for those of us who attended the game yesterday in Norman. It was the OU Cancer Day Walk as a pink T-shirt was on every seat as we took our seats. I gave my pink T-Shirt to a young woman who said she had two grandmothers who wanted a shirt. Last season when OU beat Baylor on the CDW… I gave my T-shirt to my daughter-in-law, Elaine..as a means of me saying, “Thank you for all the love and thoughtfulness you’ve shown me through of all of this. Words cannot express my love and gratitude.”

Toby Keith’s wife and what I’m to assume were his grandchildren were sitting on the floor my side. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with Toby Keith and a heart in crimson on the front of the shirt. She did not walk and there was no big deal made about her being there.

I didn’t walk for the second straight year because for the most part this cancer journey of mine… this has been a very personal thing between God, me, my family, and my inner core friends.

It was a very emotional day. The crowd stood and applauded for about ten straight minutes as it took awhile for the overflowed tunnel to empty to allow every person who took the walk.

Every OU player before the game held up a card as to who they were playing for..be it a parent, a grandparent, a sibling, or an aunt or uncle. It was truly moving.

My favorite player, Lexy Keys’, a defensive guard specialist said, “She was playing for her Grandma.”

OU lost the game to a good Kentucky team. No big deal.

Sometimes winning and losing doesn’t define a game.

This was one of those games.

Mike J

Great second half by the Sooners after a sluggish first half. This was a huge game for OU in that it could very well be OU and Vanderbilt are battling for one of the last SEC slots in March Madness.

You can see the pressure Porter’s feeling right now. He needs his team to make the Tournament. OU improves to 16-5 and 3-5 in SEC play, but winners of three out of their last four in the mighty SEC.

I’m giving out three games balls. 1 Dalton Forsythe was my MVP for the incredible energy he brought to his team late in the first half. Dalton is a baller, not just a shooter. 2 Fellow freshman guard Jeremiah Fears who was the one solid Sooner player from start to finish and had a great bounceback performance from his horrible road game earlier this week at College Station. And 3, OU’s best player Jalon Moore, who started slowly… but was incredible in the second half surge by the Sooners. Jalon is clearly the captain on this team, but it was the two freshman guards who stole Lloyd Noble Center’s heart in this game.

My hoops weekend marathon continues today at 1:30PM as Jenni B’s 15th ranked Sooners host Kentucky. I’m reset and reset. Still in disbelief though with the Luka-Anthony Davis trade if I read that right which I think will very much hurt the Thunder’s chances of advancing in the West if indeed that happened.

I’ll blog about the trade on Tuesday or so unless Trump starts a war with Panama or Greenland or Canada or Mexico on Monday. One thing is certain–though with POTUS 47…he will not send troops to Taiwan and f–k with China, China, China. He only bullies those who are weak and kiss his ass ring….like 49 of the 51 GOP senators do on a regular basis and most of the gutless Dems as well.

I’m amped about the Lady Sooners today. Ever Since Jenni took over for Sherri Coale she’s had me as a fan. And the fact of the matter is, and I hate to write this because I love Porter—she’s done a better job than Porter. Jenni was not a DEI hire…just sayin’. She’s a ball coach.

Not even close.

A warmup song for me today would be nice.

Good luck today, Lady Sooners.

MJ

It’s beautiful weather in Oklahoma this week-end. Low 60’s and sunny skies. The Super Bowl is next week-end and our white apartheid country ‘hope’ both black quarterbacks can figure out how to get their teams into their sets because we know Donald Trump still has his racist Birther doubts about black QBs, black head coaches, and black GMs. BTW…Trump white apartheid–Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin both have Super Bowl rings. Yep.

And you know what I would like to see if I’m still living in 2026? I’d like to see a Trump vs. Barack Obama 2026 presidential election. Shit man….turn ’em loose. FDR was elected to four terms. Let’s see how the oviously almost as senile as Joe Biden…that being Donald Trump embraces a presidential race against a candidate not named Hillary or Kamala. Let’s go…Trump Nation.

I’ll wait till next week or maybe even after the Super Bowl till I invoke my thoughts on the 25th Amendment and how we will probably at some point be talking about it in relation to the mentally errant King of the Anglo World.

This week-end it’s all hoops for MJ. I’ll be sitting first row right behind the Sooner bench today as OU hosts Vanderbilt in what I think is pretty much a must win if Porter’s team wants to stay on Joe Lunardi’s bracket. This is a big game. Jeremiah Fears, six words words…show up, buddy..we need you.

Then tomorrow…I’m sitting first row on the students’ side as Jenni B’s ranked Sooners host Kentucky. Another big SEC game. They’re all big and tough in the monster SEC. Ironically…it appears the SEC in basketball is now a better conference than the SEC is in football post Saben era.

I need to write this…the OU athletic department has treated me like royalty since my health issues became very serious over two years ago. These wonderful human beings and the people at Lloyd Noble have treated me with more love, compassion, and empathy than I can express.

I love you people. Thank you so much for your kindness.

This is a big test me for today. I’m doing so well on this one-hundred and twenty day regime of infusion chemo that Dr. Showalter and I agreed if I wear my Sooner Hoops mask then its time for me to start living again, but in a very smart, measured manner. It’s all about livin’ every day to the max.

And then we have the leveling off Thunder hosting the Sacramento Kings tonight. The 70 games deal isn’t going to happen for OKC, but the Thunder could still win the overall NBA Playoffs No. 1 seed in the event they meet Cleveland in the Finals.

Awesome. I need to do my mini-workout this morning and then get down to Norman.

Eternal peace,

MJ

I’m ashamed to be an American after witnessing the bullshit Donald Trump just laid on America following the air tragedy in Washington D.C.

Before I go further..to the loved ones who just suffered this heartwrenching loss…my heart goes out to you. I lost my father-in-law twenty years ago in a sudden and unexpected airplane crash. It forever changed my wife’s life. Which in turn forever changed me. I know exactly what you’re about to go through the rest of your lives. It will never leave you. It’s far worse than Stage 4 cancer. Not even close. Take my word. Get a Bible, keep your family close to your heart, and a good dog wouldn’t hurt. A really good dog.

Since I married the daughter of a U.S. Air Force SAC Bird Colonel…over the years by assimilation I’ve become pretty well versed on some of nuances of aviation. For instance, a sitting second term President and his equally unfit just confirmed Secretary of Defense shouldn’t use the words ‘height’ and ‘elevation’ in an American presser like the one today. In American aviation the word ‘altitude’ would be the appropriate word usage.

Note: SAC or Strategic Air Command was the branch of the U.S. Air Force when the Soviet Union was America’s chief adversary. I’m not sure if Donald Trump or Partyboy Pete are aware of SAC and its history. So there’s that.

I’m not going write on here what I think will be the final verdict of this tragedy. But I have a very good hunch and it has absolutely nothing to do with the complete bullshit Donald Trump just laid on his MAGA base and the others who just voted for him.

This guy’s lack of ground level basic decency never fails to amaze me. Though…I am proud I helped him carry out his Execuive Order to Fire Mike Gundy. Somebody had to do it.

So basically…I thought it would fun to see the Al Campanis video from 1987 on race in baseball. Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts…any of you MAGA dipf–k racists? Yeah..that’s what I thought.

Or Mr. Trump..since the Super Bowl is just round the corner…do the names Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, CJ Stroud, or Jaden Daniels ring a bell…at all?

Whatever.

Wake up, America…before you really do lose your country.

Mike J