Author: Mike

Winning is a contagious thing. It’s like a drug in team sports and currently the Oklahoma City Thunder are on a roll which in theory could possibly lead the Thunder to the No. 2 seed in the West before this regular season comes to an end.

The Thunder fresh off their Friday night conquest of the Denver Nuggets didn’t succumb to a mental let down on Sunday evening in route to an easy 131-103 rout of these San Antonio Spurs who are in grave danger of not making the playoffs for the first time in the past twenty-three years.

‘On the night, eight Thunder players for the first time in Oklahoma City history scored in double figures. It was a night of stark historical contrasts for the rising Thunder and the sinking Spurs. It was tough for me to watch because I love Pop, but the No. 1 Rule of Coaching very seldom misses the mark–that being…Player makes the coach. As in Tim Duncan playing for Greg Popovich rather than being an assistant coach for the iconic coach is what made the Spurs great.’

LET’S BOLT THIS above for the tweety-bird weaklings over at the Daily Thunder in as they have no grownups over there with enough verve to write a paragraph such as the above or anywhere for that matter.

My three Thunder stars of the game would be in this order 1 Lu Dort, 2 Steven Adams, and 3 Christopher Paul. My son’s name is Chris and I just did that to see if I like calling CP3 by his formal name…. maybe every now and then.

Lu Dort was utterly outstanding and in essence he’s taking the heat off of Sam Presti for ever using a first round draft pick on Terrance Ferguson. The undrafted rookie Dort scored 15 points on the night on a perfect 6-6 shooting night and was literally every where on the floor in the second period when OKC was in the process of owning the game.

Let’s highlight this as well…’On the night Lu Dort was a +36.’

For the second straight game—Steven Adams was 2016 post season Stevo with a 21 point, 14 rebound night, plus he did a Joe Biden-like smell of Pop’s hair going thru the postgame handshake line. In case you never knew…Steve loves Pop’s political takes almost as much as I do. Fortuntely… Elizabeth Warren didn’t see Stevo do this so I think he’ll escape a one game suspension from Adam Silver.

Chris Paul had a ho-hum 12 point, 10 assist night. But the most important stat of the night was Billy Donovan only put 27 minutes on CP3’s legs and 25 minutes on Gallo’s body.

As far as court time—I think it would be wise for Billy D to monitor Stevo’s minutes as well. Nerlens Noel has been fabulous and I actually have no problem whatsoever with Mikey Muscala getting some 8-10 minutes a game given on how he’s been fairly effective for the most part during this Thunder run since early December. Either way…keep Steven’s body fresh for April.

With the win the Thunder improve to 35-22 and for the first time this season are 13 games over .500.

The Thunder take their eight game road winning streak to Chicago on Tuesday night to play the Bulls.

I think this will perhaps be an evening we look back on with some historical reference. This night it became clear to me Bernie Sanders will most likely become the Democrat’s nominee for president.

There are two things which Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have in common: 1 Neither should have ever been the nominee of a major political party for the office of POTUS, and 2 Both have put together passionate populist movements which have rabid base support from polar opposite sides of the political spectrum.

But begrudgingly… I admit passion is a big thing in American politics. And these two people have passionate, rabid bases to a pragmatic fault which will continue to prevent anything of any real consequence getting accomplished in Washington D.C.

My first passionate choice when this all started was Michael Bennet. But he had no chance in hell whatsoever because his education, background, resume, and character clearly made him unelectable from Day 1. He was made to be the next president, but he never had a chance. None.

My fall back position is Michael Bloomberg and in reality he has no chance whatsoever as well. Elizabeth Warren made sure of that last Wednesday evening in Las Vegas.

I would suggest Mike Bloomberg maybe stay in the race as a hedge or insurance candidate in the event a Trump supporter kills Bernie Sanders at one of his rallies. But otherwise—I would protect my very positive legacy and not waste my time arguing with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Stop tweeting with Trump and just try to educate the American electorate with your ads on the most pressing issues of our times.

Instead–I would take your money and help Jeff Canada assist young black males all over the country empower themselves and walk through the door of the American Dream… but without a basketball or football in their hands. See if LeBron and Barack would help you with this noble cause. What a generational legacy that would truly be. Being elected POTUS in these times…not so much.

Even with Crazy Bernie being the Dem’s choice—there’s no way in hell I would ever vote for Donald Trump. He’s a grifter, a fraud, a con artist…but most of all he has a malicious heart. He doesn’t care about anybody but himself.

In the end… can I vote for Bernie Sanders? I don’t want to because in essence to a different level he’s doing the same thing Trump did in 2016. That being… conning his own base with a litany of promises even FDR couldn’t have gotten passed into law…. and he does have the dacha on Lake Champlain like all good party members of the Politburo have in the Russian homeland.

I’ll probably end up doing what I did in 2016 and write in some one I admired at the end of their life and career… someone like John McCain. Someone who realized he made some mistakes along the way, but in the end showed he had a worthy heart.

Or maybe I’ll pick a woman or a famous citizen of note. But I’m fairly certain I’m not voting for Crazy Bernie or Donald Trump.

Actually…Chris Paul and his brother almost rented the house across the street from my family back when he was here the first time with the New Orleans ball club. It would have been extremely cool for me, but it didn’t happen.

Should Chris Paul be in the MVP conversation?

I wouldn’t have him winning the MVP unless OKC does something crazy like climbing into a top three seed in the West, but he’s definitely in my conversation as far as being in the top six or so.

I look at it this way…what would the Thunder be without Chris Paul if they would have traded him for draft picks or let’s even say Tyler Herro from the Miami Heat?

Let’s say they traded him for Herro and a pick with the rest of OKC’s roster intact. I’d say OKC would be about a 28-32 win type of team. I don’t think either Shai or Dennis this season were ready to be the primary point guard of a team in transition.

Vegas has OKC now projected to win 47 games and make the playoffs.

So with Chris Paul staying healthy…. I could easily see the Thunder going say 16-10 in their final twenty-six games and doing no worse than the No. 6 seed. That’s a stark difference from the other scenario.

But I also think this has to be moving forward an education for both Shai and Dennis on how to play the point guard position and how to be a professional on and off the court. It’s a nice thing to have the president of the NBA Player’s Association as your teammate and your mentor.

So how would I cast my ballot this afternoon for the NBA regular season MVP to date? I’d go…. 1 LeBron, 2 Giannis, 3 Luka, 4 Siakam, 5 Jokic, and 6 either Chris Paul or Kemba Walker.

Knock on wood and stay healthy–Chris Paul… because Oklahoma City basketball fans are having a blast this NBA season…. even the little clueless nerdy tweety-birds over at Daily Thunder.

Don’t look now, but with Oklahoma City’s solid 113-101 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night they could possibly be making the argument they have a team which could make some noise this post season.

Once again CP3 was the best player on the floor during Winning Time. Every metric stat even the Daily Thunder tweety bird nerds adhere to would support this claim so it’s okay for me to write this on my blog.

This is very simple. Chris Paul has been the NBA’s Drew Brees this basketball season and a viable MVP contender.

Chris Paul has been glorious. He’s taken a basketball season of predicted gloom and turned it into something memorable to date.

Say what you want about the Durant-Westbrook teams which made it to four conference finals and one NBA Finals—but in reality this is the first time in the Thunder era the team actually looks like they understand the basics of the game.

I don’t want to be on here dissing Billy Donovan or Scott Brooks or Maurice Cheeks, but for the first time since the team moved here from Seattle they don’t look like one of the dumbest teams in the league.

This team does little things. They win on the road. They win close games. They value the ball in the fourth period. They don’t play like a bunch of prima donnas. They pass the ball. They don’t pout. Lu Dort plays like Nick Collison. They find a way to win.

They play like a team

On a night when Gallo, SGA, and Dennis went a combined 20-55 from the field against a Denver team which was the No. 2 seed in the West coming into Chesapeake Energy Arena it didn’t matter because Chris Paul was clutch.

Bolt that Daily Thunder tweety-birds.

Chris Paul picked up the slack and scored 29 points on a 11-17 shooting night. But per the usual this season–most of the scoring came in the second half and the fourth period. Every time the Thunder needed a bucket Chris Paul obliged with a clutch basket to keep the Nuggets at bay.

And then there was Steven Adams. Fresh from a much needed All-Star break…Steven Adams looked like 2016 post season Stevo. He ran the floor, he jumped, and on a night Jokic went for 32 points–Adams off-set the Joker with a 19 point, 13 rebound game of his own. Without Adams the Thunder probably don’t win this game or at least by this comfortable of a margin.

Shai had a bad shooting night, but didn’t pout. Instead.. he almost triple- doubled with a 11-9-9 night.

On the night…seven Thunder players scored in double figures and not one Thunder player had a negative +/- rating on the night.

Darius Bazley was still out with a knee injury and Abdel Nader took his minutes while Diallo was a healthy DNP. In all…Billy Donovan played this like a post season game and used nine players on the night.

It was a big win for the Thunder and it showed what they could possibly do if they meet up with the Nuggets in the first round.

Next up the desperate for wins San Antonio Spurs come to the Peake for a Sunday evening game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder kick-off the remaining twenty-seven games of their schedule tonight in OKC with a much anticipated game with the Denver Nuggets.

This should be a great game between two playoff teams and a possible preview of the first round matchup of No. 3 versus No. 6. I’ve had this one circled for awhile as a barometer game of sorts for the Thunder.

I see Denver as the third best team in the West post-season wise despite their current No. 2 seed in the West. They’re deep and the matchup with Jokic always presents a challenge for Steven Adams on the perimeter.

To me, the two feel good stories in the West this season are Oklahoma City and Memphis. OKC has a moderately tough remaining schedule, while the Grizzlies have the toughest remaining schedule in the West.

OKC’s guards—what a story Sam Presti’s three-headed backcourt of Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai G. Alexander have been this season. I wouldn’t call it crazy talk to have them as one of the premier backcourts in the NBA this season.

When you walk the streets of Oklahoma City everyone is thrilled with the Thunder and reasonable of where they stand in the Western Conference foodchain.

But for a team which was possibly going to throw a 28-30 win or so season out there the 33-22 Thunder have been a breath of fresh air.

Westbrook is doing fine in Houston, Paul George is back home in LA, and Jerami Grant is a player in Denver who’s filling a valuable role for the Nuggets.

Everyone should be happy in all four cities.

Wednesday night’s takedown of Michael Bloomberg wasn’t a first for Elizabeth Warren in her never ending fight against what she deems sexist behavior.

She helped take down Al Franken from his U.S. Senate seat from the state of Minnesota.

This past May of 2019 she was one of the primary advocates voicing her concern of then front-runner Joe Biden for inappropriate touching of women.

From late May when Biden’s touching became a concern his lead started dwindling as each month passed. The Hunter Biden deal obviously hurt Biden as well, but it was when Biden became the unabashed leader in the polls her concern became a bigger issue.

Then there was the fight she had with poll leading Bernie Sanders at the end of the debate two debates ago when she claimed Sanders guilty of being sexist in his views towards women. Bernie may be a communist, but I’ve never viewed him as even slightly sexist.

Then of course there was Wednesday night in Vegas with her multiple problems with Mike Bloomberg as he was surging in the polls.

She never once mentioned the multiple women issues he’s donated to over the years. Not once. Nor the education foundations he’s been a a part of to aid African Americans. Google Jeff Canada if you want some of the truth.

So….. is this the Me Too movement which I thought was primarily in place to out Donald Trump as POTUS?

And yet in 2016– Ms. Warren gladly endorsed Hillary Clinton fully aware of Bill Clinton’s past problems as perhaps the most over the top sex offender in presidential history.

How do we align the juxtaposition of Elizabeth Warren’s multiple phobias of men in power?

I don’t know. It’s a little bit creepy.

We’ll see where she goes next week in the next debate in South Carolina. I would assume it will be Joe Biden’s turn to be taken down…again.

“Russia…. if you’re listening please dump the Bloomberg and Biden emails. The other four losers we’re good with.”

Elizabeth Warren saved the world last night in Las Vegas. We sleep knowing the world is safe from off color sexual jokes and feeling comfort her arm is always raised. She hasn’t saved us from the policies of her bud Bernie Sanders which would wreck the U.S. economy as we know it, but she has for the time being saved us from Michael Bloomberg and Al Franken.

Here’s Elizabeth Warren at the 2016 DNC Convention enthusiastically endorsing Team Clinton for the presidency. Evidently, she never heard the part about Bill’s penchant for cigars and ejaculating on dark blue dresses.

Here’s Elizabeth a year later stating the Clintons rigged the DNC process to screw fellow Bolshevik Bernie Sanders out of the Democratic nomination.

One would have thought she would have known this a year earlier, but apparently she was so focused on what Al Franken was doing with his hands this escaped her attention.

We would assume if Joe Biden’s numbers get back up after South Carolina his penchant for holding women will be her next target for saving women from the predators of the Dem presidential race this campaign season.

The former party of Bill Clinton and James Carville pretty much went splat last night in Vegas in a two hour debate which most probably will propel Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders to the party’s nomination in 2020.

It was such an odd evening as the same Donald Trump who has trampled the constitution with warp speed in these days following his impeachment acquittal wasn’t an issue. Trump wasn’t hardly even mentioned in a debate which resembled a one-sided cage fight with Michael Bloomberg not knowing what hit him in the first forty minutes or so.

Who would have ever known the British Labour Party could street fight like this in Las Vegas of all places.?

Putting the cage fight aside…it wasn’t much of a night for discussing gun control, budget deficits, climate change, immigration, job creation, realistic health care proposals, or America’s standing in the world.

It was however a huge night for horse-faced lesbian jokes or the prospect Michael Bloomberg has told such a joke somewhere in his sordid past in which he’s given his money away to help with the very issues mentioned above.

It didn’t matter either that like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and other billionaires…. he does enjoy making money and then giving it away to help other people in pursuit of the American Dream or possibly making their lives better.

Forgive me for ever embracing the quaint notion the party of Bill Clinton’s dick was going to be lazer-focused on you know…maybe defeating Donald Trump in the upcoming election.

It was surreal that the same Elizabeth Warren who embraced the Team Clinton ticket in 2016 with all the sport fucking which has occurred in Bill Clinton’s life was suddenly so outraged over an off color joke or two by a New York billionaire.

Color me Al Franken and color Donald Trump as a prohibitive favorite to be re-elected this coming November unless the economy goes big-time south.

Some pundits this morning claim Mike Bloomberg might be able to pull himself off the canvass and redeem himself in the next debate. Good luck with that unless he takes a chain saw with him to the next debate and cuts off both of Elizabeth Warren’s arms so as she can’t be the only person talking for almost two hours.

I’m to assume Ms. Warren didn’t vote for Bush 41 in ’92 or Bob Dole in ’96…. that she in fact most probably voted for sports fuck savant Bill Clinton in both of those elections as well.

But at least when Bubba was playing Cigar Daddy with Monica Lewinsky he wasn’t telling any off color jokes, right.

Hypocrisy much?

But this isn’t a surprise to me and this is precisely why in 2000 when I left the GOP …. I never considered re-registering as a Democrat. I must not be alone in this thought as currently 70% of registered voters aren’t signed on to the Democratic Party as well.

So what does Elizabeth Warren get out of this? Does she get the nod to be Big Brother Bernie’s vice-presidential partner with the hope of ruling Denmark at some point?

Trump isn’t the only one giddy this morning. Steve Bannon is almost home with his master plan for America. Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell, and the Mercer family are popping champagne corks. Fox News must be ecstatic as well. Rick Wilson, George Conway and George Will…not so much

It was a great night for the MAGA people and the British Labour Party.

Mike Bloomberg and lesbian horse jokes…not so much. Al Franken …we feel your pain, buddy.

They all love Bernie Sanders don’t they?

Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the lone living Koch Brother, Rebekah Mercer, and Vlad Putin.

But especially…Steve Bannon. Because this is Bannon’s vision unfolding in front of the world as the status quo institutions in America are being diminished every day in front of our eyes.

Our rabble culture, the courts and the legal system being pushed aside, but most importantly the shift from democracy to a hybrid of government authoritarianism by intimidation.

Trump doesn’t have a doctrine per se other than the Roger Kahn always fight back harder dogma. This is Steve Bannon’s doctrine. His plan. He was the one who connected Cambridge Analytica with Rebekah Mercer even when the Mercers were still funding Ted Cruz at the time.

I mean, I begrudgingly have to give him credit for being one very smart dude.

Think of this…Donald Trump now owns every share of what was once known as the GOP coming into tonight’s debate in Vegas. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party after failing to even censor Donald Trump, let alone impeach him, has a seventy-seven year old Democratic Socialist with a bad heart and virtually no record whatsoever of accomplishment during his time in government as their leading candidate coming out of New Hampshire.

Who could write this other than Steve Bannon?

Tell me with a straight face anyone other than Steve Bannon could have written this script better … let alone hoped for such a scenario to unfold in real time.

So…in Vegas of all places, Steve Bannon has all his chips in the pot tonight betting Bernie Sanders and the other Democratic debaters can end Michael Bloomberg’s rise in the polls as a viable candidate to challenge our Manchurian POTUS.

I hate to admit it…it’s going to be very hard at this point betting against Steve Bannon.

One last thing. Let me add this brief interview Bernie did with the Young Turks. To me…it perfectly illustrates who Bernie Sanders is and isn’t.

Okay… I think most of us were appalled by Wall Street’s complicity in the 2008 economic crisis even though they all paid back their loans with interest. Now—we could have not bailed out Wall Street and let the entire U.S. economy burn to the ground. But you know what happens then….people who need the government most don’t get their Social Security, don’t get their VA benefits, the military goes unfunded, people don’t get their Medicare, don’t get Medicaid assistance, don’t get FEMA disaster aid, prisons go unfunded, don’t get their farm subsidy, don’t get their job in the automobile industry saved, don’t get federal or state unemployment assistance, don’t get educational grants, and or don’t get welfare assistance…. and states don’t get their federal grants which in essence keeps states like Oklahoma< Alabama, and West Virginia afloat. None of that happens if you just let if burn to the ground.

So…what was the plan, Bernie… to keep the American economy afloat? Short of eliminating every facet of the American economy you want to destroy which pays for all the above?