What an amazing thing it will be for attendees of Game 3 tonight in our NBA Finals.
Just the thought of the only living person who could get shelled in a debate by Kamala Harris… must to no end be a thrill to those attending to have the admission process into the venue extended another two hours so as this prestigous person can attempt to clean up the mess he made on Meet the Press yesterday with Kristen Welker.
What a once in a lifetime thrill it must be for those attending the basketball game! To just see in person the village idiot who thought of this War in Iran and closed the Strait of Hormuz. The same village idiot who’s tariffs are now being repaid by his own Treasury Secretary to those unlawfully bilked. The same village who has given us this incredible new look eastern wing of the White House.
And clearly the same village idiot who professes the creation of $1.8 billion dollar federal slush fund to compensate those who stormed our capitol on January 6th and injured 150 law enforcement officers.
Yes…what a thrill it must be those in New York to have Donald Trump in the house tonight in Madison Square Garden.
But not to fret, POTUS 47…you are still loved in Oklahoma by those who’ve never read a book in their lives. They still love you here beyond reproach in seventy-four of Oklahoma’s seventy-seven counties.
POTUS 47… you could always be governor in Oklahoma because the rural MAGAs will love you no matter what…literally. It is truly one of the most amazing occurences I have ever witnessed in my life.
It can’t just be the economy, stupid…because you’ve doubled the price of their fertilzer, increased substantially the cost of their gasoline and diesel. Your Medicaid and Snap food benefit cuts have made their lives tougher and in no way reduced the national deficit because you gave more away to our richest even when they didn’t need it.
What could it be that attracts these people to you in such a fashion that every GOP candidate running for governor in the state of Oklahoma has to suck your you know what?
Could it be you are the dude who created the whole Birther concept?
What else could it be?
From the desk of okcthundergroundground’s CEO, Mikey J.
So much going on right now for me within the world of sports. That incredible Game 3 of our Stanley Cup Finals which I haven’t even put on my blog yet.
Oh, wait. Just your basic three goals in thirty-nine seconds Game 3 comeback from 4-0 down in the third period.
My gritty-grimey Skip Johnson coached OU Sooners baseball team 18 outs away from moving on to the College Baseball World Series for the second time in four years… as they resume Game 2 vs. Kansas today at noon after storm delays last night halted a Sooner 8-1 lead in the bottom of the third with the red-hot Sooners still batting.
Then, of course…tonight’s Game 3 in our NBA Finals with the Spurs one loss away from being check-mated by the New York Knicks in what should be a batshit crazy environment tonight at the Garden.
But…this is a blog named okcthunderground.com and Sam Presti has some serious roster cleanup work to do after Chet’s emotional breakdown versus Wemby in the Western Conference Finals. And remember…the Thunder also have to deal with another dude named Nikola Jokic in the West.
If I’m Sam Presti that nuanced cleanup work very much begins with he and Isaiah Hartenstein’s agent not only bringing Isaiah back for that team option third season, but reworking the deal to extend Isaiah two additional years beyond the ’26-’27 season.
Add to the mix…what should be OKC’s concern about JDub’s hamstring issue becoming similar to what we’ve witnessed from Aaron Gordon’s chronic hamstring issues these past two NBA seasons. There should be some serious thought on the Thunder’s wunderkind GM’s plate right now.
Yeah, so what I’m implying here on the morning of June 8th in the midst of the New York Knicks having a 2-0 lead in the Finals…is this, “Sam Presti you drafted Chet as the 2nd player in his draft class despite the very obvious concerns about that body of his, let alone his psyche. This is your situation.”
I would suggest the nuanced roster restructure begin with the announcement of a new deal for Isaiah Hartenstein.
And you know what…at the end of the day, “It’s a business.”
Minus, perhaps our own Kendrick Perkins, who flopped from his intial prediction on these NBA Finals earlier in the season on air…I know of no other human being outside of New York who picked the Knicks to win these Finals, let alone possibly sweep the series.
Thank God for Brian Windhorst at ESPN for outing Perk on his pick flopping and having the integrity to keep Kendrick honest while covering these Finals.
I know most NBA fans don’t put a great deal of stock in the Emirates NBA Cup…but, I mean this is pretty much how it looked in December… only the Knicks won by an even easier degree back five months ago.
AT&T must have felt something from that win because they’ve had their add with Jalen, OG, and Karl-Anthony on the air for quite some time…well beyond the NBA Playoffs beginning. Pretty much like last spring when AT&T featured Shai, JDub, and Chet.
So…if anything—it’s fairly clear to me AT&T has a serious picker and ESPN not as much.
Damn…if the AT&T marketing excecs only knew then what they know now…Caruso would have been in that commercial instead of Chet. Just sayin. I’m fairly certain I’m the only caller on the Sports Animal last week who will at least wait until the trade deadline to not trade Chet. In fairness to Chet and the rest of his career…the Eastern Conference away from Wemby might be a safer haven for him.
But back to these Knicks….they’re just basically playing a wonderful, confident level of basketball in winning 13 straight games in a row overall, and 8 in a row on the road in these NBA Playoffs.
I have to admit…I hope the Knicks win. It’s a wonderful story for Karl-Anthony– who has been maligned pretty much most of his NBA career for his defense as an NBA player. Plus…the things he’s said about his late mother who passed from COVID at the age of fifty-eight in 2020 bring a real sense of humanity to these NBA Finals.
Of course…we’ll have to see if on Monday… Perk now claims he was predicting a Knick sweep over Wemby and the still very young Spurs, who again were picked by Vegas back in September to win 43 regular season games this NBA season.
For me…the key words to date for this Knick story are maturity and togetherness.
Game 3 tomorrow night at MSG in New York where these fans who haven’t won a championship since 1973… will to say the least be amped for the occasion.
Those last fifteen minutes of regulation and overtime will become iconic if the Carolina Hurricanes go on to win these Stanley Cup Finals.
Holy…f–king…Batman-shit….that’s why we as hockey fans eat and breathe so as to live for the next Stanley Cup Finals hockey game.
Seth Jarvis will become to Carolina fans what Joe Carter Jr. became to Toronto Blue Jay fans after the Walk-off home run in 1993 to beat Mitch ‘Wild Thing’ Williams.
That’s it. That’s my recap. The video speaks for itself. Greatness should not be marred by unneeded words.
Even though it was stupid to challenge the goal. But the foolish challenge will only add to the lore of the finish.
I’ve got quite a bit working with the blog right now in that I still haven’t written enough about the Vegas Golden Knights’ electric 5-4 road win over the Carolina Hurricanes on the road in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
This was a fabulous 5-4 hockey game in which the Golden Knights came out slow, relinquished a 2-0 early lead, then just basically beat the Hurricanes to death with what I think is the most daunting, sustained, physical forecheck in the NHL.
So…I would say the Carolina Hurrincanes all the sudden find themselves in a hole which could become a canyon later tonight in Game 2 if they can’t handle this forecheck pressure and start connecting on their breakout passes on both their end and in the neutral zone.
Just like in football and basketball…if you turn the puck over and create a 3 on 1 or a 2 on 1 with speed ….your basically more than somewhat…f–ked and the puck ends up in the back of the net.
Just for the feel of a hockey game….that was a much needed F-bomb to acentuate the sheer physicality of what the Vegas Knights do shift in and shift out. I love the way they play hockey…and they do it without going to the penalty box all that much.
You not only have to be a great athlete to play ice hockey…you have to be very tough and smart as well.
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Now…to last night’s Game 1 in San Antonio. Here’s what I think…it was a good game until the 2:16 mark of the fourth period as the Spurs led 95-94.
But then something really bad happened for the Spurs…that being, the Spurs’ two All-Stars–Wemby and De’Aaron Fox were HORRIBLE, as in the exact opposite of being a KIA Clutch Player of the Game in those final two minutes.
The Knicks closed the game on a 11-0 run and that in a nutshell pretty much is what happened. I don’t want to hear excuses about the Spurs being fatgigued from their seven game series with the Thunder. The Spurs are the youngest team in the league…it’s just that the vetrean Fox let them down and the other players showed their youth in a clucth situation.
Remember…before this season began…Vegas had the Spurs’ winning 43 games in the regular season. There’s still growing pains to be felt for Mitch Johnson’s group.
Every single player on the Knicks were solid and to my train of thought I didn’t observe ONE NY Knick player who in this game shied away from Wembyanama. Not one Knick looked scared taking on Wemby in this game. In fact…I additionally write both Karl-Anthony Townes and backup center Mitchell Robinson went right at Wemby…and somewhat mocked him with disdainful stares on several exchanges during the game.
Mitchell Robinson is playing with a fractured pinky on his shooting hand, in his 14:00 minutes of playing time showed more hubris than Chet did in all seven games combined versus Wemby.
Jalen Brunson was my No. 1 Star. No. 2 was clearly Karl Anthony-Townes. No. 3 was Josh Hart for his massive, gritty, grimey, lunchpail, Die Hard…. 16 rebound game. And then No. 4 for me was probably Landry Shamet coming off the bench and competitng as if his hair was on fire.
Bridges and OG were solid as they always are…but those on my Top Four Stars of Game 1 were the four who I thought set the tone for the Knicks winning this game.
So basically…Game 2 is an absolute must for the youngish Spurs and both Wemby and De’Aaron Fox need to play much better. This won’t be 5 on 4 hoops for the Spurs in this round. Nobody on that Knicks’ team looks scared. In fact…I would think every Knick player is tired of hearing how great the Spurs and Thunder are even though the Knicks easily won the Emirates NBA Cup in December.
I would think coach Mike Brown and his very tight, veteran team are tired of all that noise about them not having a chance in this series.
If the Knicks win Game 2 on Friday night…they clearly have more than a chance of winning the NBA championship.
Enjoy the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals to the fullest.
This was good for me from an emotional standpoint. It greatly helps me through the competitive grief of Chet’s non-engagement in Game 7 on Saturday night at PayCom.
I wasn’t at all expecting OU to pull this off in Atlanta versus the No. 2 nationally ranked Geogia Tech Yellow Jackets. But I’ll tell you this… OU skipper Skip Johnson always puts a team out there which will compete to the end.
In 2022… Skip’s team led by pitcher Cade Horton made it to the national championship final game vs. Ole Miss before losing in a ninth inning heartbreaker. This was unexpected though as OU’s pitching has struggled mightly the back third of the rugged SEC schedule.
But this just reaffirms what happens when you never surrender and play every single out.
On Sauturay in OU’s first elimination game…. working its way back through the loser’s bracket these gritty-grimey, lunchpail Sooners rallied from an 8-2 deficit to force yesterday’s iconic ending.
Same deal yesterday as OU trailed 7-3 entering the 7th inning…but again, these Sooners never surrendered. Just a courageous, valorous performance by the Sooners up and down the roster.
Dayton Tochey finished the job with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th to send the Sooners to the Super Regional opposite old Big 12 foe Kansas in Lawrence for the opportunity to advance to the College World Series in Omaha.
Kansas was the overall No. 15 seed in the overall bracket. So, yeah, if OU brings their game and their pitching staff can get outs…this might me doable for Skip Johnson and his gritty Sooners.
The sun always shines after the intial grief of losing a game when your $50 million max player won’t shoot the ball. Don’t hang your heads too long, Thunder Nation.
After listening to the first hour of Jim Traber’s show yesterday I probably should add more to my intial postgame comments on Chet moving forward.
Never give up though is the mantra in Norman this week.
Stanley Cup Final with Carolina vs. Vegas starts tonight. My cup still runneth over.
No…not a chance even though his max deal right now looks awful based on how he performed in this San Antonio series opposite Wemby and the Spurs.
Besides you never trade something when its value has dipped and isn’t going to garner you much in return. This is where one takes a deep breath and calms oneself and then makes the other tough decisions which need to be made to facilitate keeping Chet and Isaiah and staying under the second apron of the tax.
First thing I would do is make the call to Isaiah Hartenstein’s agent and make it clear the Thunder want him back for the third year of his existing deal.
Then it gets hard for Sam Presti because some brutally tough emotional decisions are in my mind going to have to be made in regards to four very popular veterans on the Thunder roster.
Lu Dort…you know I love you and Kenrich, but this is where Sam Presti has to bid you farewell and make it known how much you have meant to this Thunder organization and fanbase. And if both of you end up in Denver even better for Mike J. Win, win for everyone involved is the way I would see that scenario.
Isaiah Joe…we love you, but we can’t afford you as insurance policy any longer, and besides we need to find you a home where you can be an every night starter. You’ll be loved in OKC forever, kid.
Aaron Wiggins…same deal with you as with Isaiah. Our drafting you out of Maryland was one of the smartest things we did in the rebuild after the tear-down and you deserve to be where you can start and maximize your NBA career.
Now…as a far as Chet goes I’d come to a more pragmatic realization of what Chet can and can’t do with that body of his. What he can’t do is be asked to take on the biggest, most physical centers in the NBA because in essence Chet’s value comes from his skill set which in is line in playing either the three or the four out on the perimeter and giving offside help defensively.
Now…I’m certain that’s not what some of the fanbase will want to do, but if I were Sam Presti that’s how I would tackle this very slight nuanced reconstruct of the Oklahoma City Thunder roster.
But most of all…the No. 1 priority is to get JDub and Ajay Mitchell healthy so as 40 Miuntes of Hell becomes a thing again with Thunder and live ball turnovers are turrned into flurries of points which makes all this much easier on Shai’s body.
Anotherwords, get back to what won you an NBA championship and a 24-1 start this season.
Be who you are as a team, and don’t overreact to what just happened in Game 7.
Moving forward for the Oklahoma Thunder…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something of this nature in sports in Oklahoma before.
Maybe back in 2011 in the Bedlam football game when OU quarterback Landry Jones seemingly had an emotional meltdown in the first half and committed three turnovers in succession which led to 21 giveaway points which decided the game. Maybe. But even then I don’t recall something as detached from reality as what I felt last night watching Chet Holmgren play in Game 7.
It was painful to watch from a human standpoint.
We unfortunately live in a society of social media which very much crosses the line of what I would describe as inappropriate human empathy and behavior at times. Especially in the Age of Trump. That will not occur on this blog.
My heart goes out to Chet right now because he in a sense looks broken right now beyond just having had a two week stretch of very bad basketball.
This is why you cannot just have the Thunder ‘media team’ only handling team information in the manner of which they do.
This is why.
There has to be an adult voice in the room. A firm knowledgeable adult voice in the room who has the life experience to handle certain situations in the appropriate manner.
By the same token…when you’re getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball at this level of play in the public domain of pro sports in America that scrutiny comes with the territory.
So there’s both sides to this.
To understate significantly it will be interesting to see how the Thunder deal with this moving forward.
But in closing… Chet Holmgren–hang in there, buddy. Do not allow this to define you.
A tough loss for the defending champs to the very young upstart San Antonio Spurs. All the credit in the world should go to Coach Mitch Johnson and his team.
This was no fluke. The Spurs just jelled a year ahead of schedule and all told beat the Thunder eight times this season in a combined twelve games.
It was a vintage performance by the Spurs on the road under the brightest lights with the entire basketball world watching. If nothing else it reiterates what I was saying back in August as to how difficult it is to repeat in the NBA given the landscape of collective bargaining and such.
Shai was superb in defeat. He did everything one could ask from a franchise player and literally carried the Thunder on his back for 42:58 of playing time. His line was 35 points on 12-21 from the field with 9 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.
Obviously… without JDub the Thunder defense in no way is the 40 Minutes of Hell monster which creates live ball turnovers and transition points in flurries.. I’m not sure if Reggie Miller of NBC actually understands what JDub means to the Thunder’s defense and pace, but what JDub means to this team is a great deal.
So without live ball turnover transition points it was basically an uphill slog for Shai all series and Game 7 long, and quite frankly it must be written Chet Holmgren and Lu Dort as starters simply did not engage and perform at a standard which gave the team a legitimate chance to win this game.
I can’t blame Coach Mark because Coach Mark can’t make shots for Lu Dort or just attempt shots for Chet. I’ve watched a ton of NBA playoff basketball in my life and I’ve never seen an all-star max level player like Chet just simply refuse to offensively engage in a game of this magnitude and only take two shots.
Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford referenced this multiple times during the NBC telecast, but we’ll have to see how the likes of the Thunder’s media team handles what we witnessed from Chet in this series and this Game 7. I’m sure just about now Little Nick Gallo is tucking Chet in under his Thunder blanky.
Shai, of course, is one of the classiest athletes I’ve ever witnessed and in no way pointed a finger at any of his teammates. Add to the fact… Caruso had a tough 3-14 shooting night and that was pretty much in my mind the final deathknell for the Thunder in this Game 7.
Jared McCain had some nice moments in the first half for a guy from Duke with painted fingernails while Cason Wallace had a strong fourth period to actually keep the Thunder in the game in the final two minutes. I would think next season Cason Wallace will be in the starting lineup given Lu Dort only played 15 minutes in this Game 7.
As far as the question which was asked of Shai which he did not honestly answer because again he’s too much of gentleman to ever blame a teammate…I’ll try and help him out.
The question was…”What will the Thunder have to do to get better so as they could conceivably beat the Spurs next season in the playoffs?”
And my response would be they are going to have to probably move Lu Dort in a trade and exercise their third year team option on Isaiah Hartenstein because it is very apparent the Thunder are not going to beat the Spurs with Chet Holmgren as their center.
The nuanced reconstruction of this Thunder team is going to have to streamline what it will take to deal with Wemby and these eight guys alongside him who have only to date scratched the surface of their potential.
And I’m not talking about Thomas Sorber being the guy next season. That’s not what I’m talking about.
So I guess what I’m saying is…Chet moving forward at a max level deal is something I would have to seriously reconsider if I were Sam Presti because nobody is coming out of the West if they can’t deal with Wemby and run with those seven other guys.
Again…I can’t ever remember an all-star max level player just shutting down emotionally as Chet did throughout this series and in Game 7. I feel awkward even writing about it. It was genuinely sad to witness from a human standpoint. I felt sorry for him.
But again, all the credit to Mitch Johnson and his team. In this Game 7 all five Spurs’ starters scored in double figures and seven San Antonio players in all scored in double figures.
My Four Stars of the Game goes like this…1 Wemby, 2 Shai, 3 Julian Champagnie, and 4 Stephon Castle with both Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell getting Honorable Mention okcthunderground.com helmet stickers.
Not to fret though for this MJ…he’s going to cover both the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals to fill the void of the Thunder being eliminated.
Life goes on…que sera.
Sam Presti…you’ve still got some nuanced work to do beyond getting JDub and Ajay healthy. You know what I mean.
The Thunder season is officially over and there will not be a parade in Oklahoma City.
This is a huge one tonight for the Thunder. I would go as far to rank it as one of the five most important games to date in the Thunder Era in Oklahoma City.
I don’t feel as if that’s hyperbole at all. A championship repeat is at stake. A legacy and a firm place in NBA history is at stake for the team, and for Shai this game will further define his legacy in the Pantheon of NBA greats.
This in no way is a Thunder homer blog or a trashy Facebook page or a messageboard. I’m too old for any of that bullshit.
I created this blog because of my genuine passion for basketball and sport in general…and to ‘sometimes’ opine on the geopolitical world which surrounds us.
I take pride in the objectivity and fairness of the overall content. But today, I have to admit…I woke up with a homer feel in my heart for the guys on this Thunder team. Shai and this group of young men have been nothing short of an immense sense of communal pride not only for Oklahoma City, but for the state of Oklahoma as well.
This is clearly a game I want the Thunder to win, and I have to admit, this is the first time this entire basketball season I’ve had what I would describe as that ‘nervous competitive edge’ in my stomach.
Win or lose…I’ll later rank this game where I think it should rank in the top five Thunder most important games to date circa May 30th, 2026.