I’m exhausted from all the extra work and many beats I covered on The Underground this past sports year, and I feel as if deserve a week in my birthplace with my older sister Janice would be nice.
Jan retired and bought a place very near the beach in Del Mar and this in no way sucks. Additionaly…she disdains Donald Trump even more than my wife and I do so there’s that positive of not having to ‘moderate’ any of my views in that regard.
She also has a magnificent cat named Zumi who sat next to ,me in Seattle when we watched Sterph Curry win his gold medal in Paris.
All of these are what MJ calls ‘spiritual mindset positives’ which very much plays into what Dr. Showalter and I crafted as my unique ‘Holistic Approach to Stage 4 Cancer’. I may need to write that book at some time… if I live long enough.
I will get to watch the World Cup Final today and I wish the very best to Spain and Team Messi. May the true champion emerge.
Last year…Shai was my OKC Thunderground Atlete of the Year winner. Pretty easy choice as the Thunder won the NBA championship. This year Shai didn’ get the help he needed from Chet and JDub to advance to the NBA Finals. Thus…Shai finishes No. 2 on my list and ahead of OU linebacker Kip Lewis as my No. 3 pick for 2025-26.
My recipient of this year’s prest9gous award is obviously OU starting shortstop and cleanup hitter…Jaxon Willits.
If you want to see the template for a team leader on a championship team…it was Jaxon Willits on this amazing OU team which stunned everyone, including me, by winning this year’s national champioship.
Jaxon never waivered even when his team struggled the last month of the SEC regular season. He never blinked. His leadership kept this team in line and then Skip made the move with the three freshman starting pitchers.
This run by this team will be something which stays with me the rest of my days.
This team’s magical, mystical final month of the college baseball season was for me one for the ages…literally.
Evidently… I’m not the only one who passed on Donald Trump’s latest pubescent stunt. No one covered his election fruad ‘event’ in print as well from last night. Maybe with the passing of Lindsey Graham and the political death of Mitch McConnell this sordid, sad chapter in American history will begin to wind down gradually.
Perhaps…some spiritual reckoning will come to the ‘Trump fake Christian’ whites who clamor the loudest in regards to their own self-designated divinity. You people should read the Book of Matthew, think long and hard, and ask for some forgiveness from God. That would be Mike J’s unsolicited advice.
Nothing from the Wall Street Journal or the Christian Science Monitor this morning on my iPhone feed. Their editor’s are embarrassed to be associated with this criminal delinquent since he can’t grant anymore tax cuts for our wealthiest Americans these next several years beyond the Big Beautiful Bill.
And without Lindsey Graham heading the Judicial Committee in the Senate… it is even questionable whether the Senate could confirm replacements for the aging Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Two Supreme Court justices who very much need to be replaced though.
Perhaps, in regards to last night’s Donald Trump ‘event’… I should quote an unnamed Republican staffer, “The kids playing wizard in the park have a firmer grip on reality than any of their parents.”
Bravo…Anonymous. Well said and to the point.
You know…as a three and a half year Stage 4 cancer survivor, I feel as if I need to be very careful in regards to my statements about Trump and his ‘fake Christian rabble.’ I write this because I’m fully aware that if not for the presence of God…I would no longer be here, plus I wouldn’t have gotten an opportunity to know my two grandchildren and come to love them dearly.
And I know God frowns when I write ‘Trump fake Christian rabble’. I’m fully aware of that in my own spirtual journey. When I write that it breaks my own heart because that in no way allows me to further grow from the heart, from the spirit, and my own soul in relationship with God.
So in closing if I may write to the ‘Trump fake Christian rabble,’ please grow up. Your kids in the park and Mike J are weary of this bullshit.
I want this to be as brief as possible because the notion this person who calls himself our president is even having this address on the 2020 election in which he was routed by Joe Biden is laughable at best.
You Trump people do yourself a favor and do a couple of things instead of watching this horseshit…. like maybe start reading books, reading legitimate news magazines and newspapapers, watching legit docu films…but most of all…. GTFU possibly.
Each hurdle of this continued stupidity in fact would indicate to Mike J that Stephen Miller and Markwayne Mullin could only possibly make America Great Again if white, lower-middle class Americans who voted for this idiot would become the focus demographic for exit deportation.
ABC and NBC have already said no to this nonsense. Our country is still at war in a misguided war which any sane village idiot would have avoided in the first place. The Strait of Hormuz is a shit-show dumpster fire and Lindsey Graham isn’t any longer around to make public excuses for Trump policy in the Middle East.
You Trump MAGAs…do yourself a favor and start reading and stop making fools of yourself every news cycle.
Put some stock in Atticus Finch or anything else other than what emits from the mouth of Donald Trump.
CBS should be ashamed of itself and can no longer be viewed as a substantial legitimate news network in America. No big surprise there as we have already witnessed the tragic situation with 60 Minutes.
Here at okcthunderground.com we refuse to even recite or evaluate what this person says or does any longer.
Enough is enough.
And to Donald Trump’s little eye-candy press secretary Caroline Leavitt…always feel free to come over here to The Underground where true journalism is still an American thing.
God bless what’s left of our country, and remember 270 million still living Americans didn’t vote for for this embecile.
FIFA mob chief Johnny Infantion makes it difficult for me to post World Cup videos on okcthunderground.com, but please just hit the Watch on Youtube line as you must watch this film on the Goat, Lionel Messi… before Sunday’s Argentina-Spain final.
Also of note…please note the new cover pic with yours truly posing with OU’s third baseball national championship trophy at the championhip celebraton several weeks ago in Norman. Much thanks to okcthunderground.com executive technical producer Taylor Culpepper for this magnificent addition to our cover.
We figured since the OKC Thunder so massively underachieved in their Western Conference Finals showdown with San Antonio…that it just seemed logical to give Skip Johnson and his great group of young men this sort of honor on our blog cover.
Sam Presti…get it done this next NBA season and we’ll have your pic next to MJ’s on our cover. This blog is about winning championships, and we’re tired of hearing passive-submissive excuses in regards to JDub’s hamstring. Find a way. Get it done while there’s still a window, buddy.
Anyway, what a magnificent comeback by Argentina yesterday in Atlanta. My goodness…down 1-0 with six minutes left… Messi and Company showed us why you never count this group of gritty champions out of a soccer match.
This is more of what I want to see from you Sam Presti and your alleged two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. No excuses. Just get it done next season while Mike J is still on this earth running the Underground.
Just get it done.
Spain-Argentina on Sunday in Atlanta for all the World Cup marbles before MJ and wife head to San Diego.
We hope it is a magnificent soccer match..perhaps one for the ages.
Just a very dominant overall performance by Team Spain yesterday inside of Jerry’s World as they somewhat easily put France away by a score of 2-0.
It actually felt even more dominant as Spain had a third goal just barely rescinded on a very close off-side call. If that had been a USA goal…that one was so close Trump might have called FIFA mob boss Johnny Infantino and gotten that goal put up on the board inside of Jerry’s World. Spain has little political clout….hence—go goal.
Spain is the best team I’ve seen in this tournament. In seven games they’ve given up a grand total of ONE goal with six shutouts.
Spain literally stuffed France superstar striker Mbbappe. I have no idea if I spelled his name correctly, but this is a soccer post and as far as I’m concerned it’s close enough.
For whoever coaches Team USA in the future…this Spain team is what you want your group to look like defensively. Their defensive shape is immpeccable. They rotate and help seamlessly. Time and space are just not there for the opposition. It is beautiful to behold. Listen to me…I almost sound like a frilly European on here.
Argentina vs. England later today from Atlanta with the winner advancing to the finals in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Hopefully…this game will give us a little more drama than yesterday’s game. But if nothing else I can proudly state I didn’t waste a minute of my life watching NBA Summer League action this July.
I need something European to get me in the mood for this second semi-final.
I’m going to have to watch this movie again. The reason being, there has always been a part of me which has somewhat visualized Lindsey Graham as a clone of Charlie Wilson… minus the girls.
He still gets a C- from me even after I watch the movie again. And to be clear…if Gerald Ford had pursued any path which would have allowed Richard Nixon to hold any federal office ever again…I would grade Gerald Ford at an F-.
So I want to be clear on that point.
I actully somewhat liked Lindsey Graham till he sold himself completely out after the January 6th flip-flop.
My prayers are with Lindsey Graham. Life on this plane of existence moves along. None of are perfect. We try, but it’s tough being perfect.
We simply do our best and prayer for forgiveness at the end of the day.
A great question to ponder for historians once the emotions and dust settle.
There’s a part of me which actually liked Lindsey Graham before his toxic flip-flop on what Donald Trump did just before, during, and after January 6th.
If you remove that act of ego and political cowardice… I could make the defense of Lindsey Graham as being a substantial figure in American politics these past twenty-five to thirty years or so.
His life resume is impreesive. At the age of 19 he adopted his then 13 year-old younger sister after both of their parents died within a period of 15-months.
He graduated from law school, and while in the Air Force became a JAG. His Air Force career spanned 33 years as he rose to the rank of colonel. After his retirement from the Air Force…he became a member of the Air Force Reserve.
He never married.
He became the Republican whom succeeded Strom Thurmond in bright-red South Carolina. He was elected to four terms as a United States senator and would have been elected to a fifth term if he had felt inclined after his current term expired.
Lindsey Graham was one of the Three Amigos along with John McCain and Joe Lieberman. Together, they formed what I would describe as a pragmatic threesome of United States senators who didn’t always follow rigid party lines. They were self described maveriks, buts always Americans first.
So far so good with Lindsey Graham as far as I’m concerned..
In 2016…Lindsey Graham ran for the GOP Presidential nomination. Despite being qualified and funny and glib at times…Lindsey Graham never even made it to the first team tier of candidates in that presidential run.
During his brief candidacy, he stated point blank …”Donald Trump was not fit as a human being to hold the office.”
Yet because of his political ego and desire to be in the limelight as a person of genuine influence ‘In the Room’ so to speak… he unfortunately strayed from his intial statements of Donald Trump.
Some have called him the Trump Whisperer…that’s too kind. What he became in fact was Donald Trump’s No. 1 enabler even ahead in line of the likes of Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz, Sean Hannity, Ted Cruz, and even our own Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma.
His flip-flop on January 6th is the single act though which causes me to seriously downgrade Lindsey Graham’s rightful place as a very good United States senator and an American with a great individual story with a substantial place in our history books..
On that flip-flop alone as a historian …I would downgrade Lindsey Graham from a grade of an A to perhaps a C-.
Maybe that’s too harsh. Maybe with time I’ll lessen with the feeling he helped someone who should have been sentenced to a felony conviction for January 6th..to instead a second term as president.
Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, but he also ended Nixon’s career in American politics.
I wonder what John McCain and Joe Lieberman would think of my evaluation of Lindsey Graham’s political legacy?
In closing, this Sunday was to be Lindsey Graham’s 64th appearance on Meet the Press. Only John McCain made more appearances on MTP. Think about that.
But in closing, then ask yoirself…if Lindsey Graham hadn’t become Donald Trump’s chief enabler would any of us even be talking about either one of them on July 12, 2026?
I don’t think so.
Linsdey Graham didn’t do what Gerald Ford did in 1974, and for that lack of courage our country is staggering through a second presidential term six years after January 6th. Because now Donald is not only unfit, but too old to occupy the office.
We can fairly well see what the roster is going to look like with the departures of Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, and Branden Carlson. All of those rosters spots were in the range of No. 11 thru No. 15 when it got down to the Thunder playing the Spurs for the Western Conference championship.
With Isaiah Hartenstein and Lu Dort signing short term extensions it would appear to me No. 1 through No. 10 in the rotation is set.
The biggest question mark for me is the role of Lu Dort compared to the role of Cason Wallace as this season unfolds. Who comes off the bench and who closes games?
I would think Brook Barnhizer and Mara will occupy No. 11 and No. 12 with Kenrich in the veteran Swiss army knife role at No. 13.
In regards to Isaiah Joe… he was a great team player during his stay in Oklahoma City. I also thought he worked hard on his defense this past season to become a much more solid two-way player.
I was actually surpsrised at how little both he and Aaron Wiggins played in the Spurs’ series given that Jared McCain is not a great defensive guard.
Anyway, best of luck to Isaiah Joe with his new team the young and contending Detroit Pistons. I’m hopeful be carves out a solid role as a guard coming off the bench in Detroit. I can’t think of an instance when Isaiah Joe was anything less than a class act while with the Thunder.
What a day of World Cup soccer on Tuesday as defending champ Argentina and Cinderella Switzerland advanced to the Elite 8.
The first game with Argentina storming back from a 2-0 deficit in the final ten minutes is as good as it gets in a soccer match. Just incredible stuff from both teams. Argentina sneaks out of Atlanta alive as a 3-2 winner to continue its quest for another Cup championship.
I thought we were going to have a riot on the field and in the arena after this game, but you have to love the passion from the players and fans. Just incredible to witness the fan bases from both countries in Atlanta giving the USA the genuine feel of what the World Cup is all about.
Minus Donald Trump’s quid pro quo bribe of FIFA Prez Infanti…this World Cup in the U.S. has been a marvelous exhibition to the rest of the world of what America… even with Donald Trump as president is capable of providing to those with the dream and the work ethic to pull off in their own individual journeys.
The Switzerland vs. Columbia game went scoreless at 0-0 and was eventually decided in a shootout won 4-3 by the gritty Swiss team.
How ironic…the day after Team USA’s somewhat gutless defensive performance against Belgium…we witnessed a Swiss team play textbook defense, and in a sense as the game wore on.. played somewhat deliberately to get to the shootout.
I will be amazed if Team USA has the same coach much longer after what we witnessed in the Belgium debacle. When you’re playing at home, plus the largest U.S. television audience ever for a soccer game watching, with your literal soccer life on the line, and simply don’t show much heart…that’s a genuine problem.
Our first qurterfinal game tomorrow pits France vs. Morroco. I love the striker for France, but I love the overall toughness of Morroco as well. I would think this should be a very entertaining game.
Again… I’m never watching an NBA Summer League game again. It’s too pedestrian what what I want to do on my blog for whstever time I have left. But I will note Sam Presti kept Kenrich Williams for another season which is very cool from my view. Very nice, Sam Presti.
That’s it for me tonight from World Cup Soccer Central.