Author: Mike

Kawhi Leonard arrived in Toronto on Wednesday to allow the Raptor ownership group to make their presentation to the best player in the NBA. Leonard promised the Raptors he would make their presentation the last he would listen to before making his decision.

Kawhi Leonard is twenty-seven years old and unlike Kevin Durant three years ago has nothing left to prove minus perhaps he could join the five title clique in the next eight years or so.

Leonard doesn’t need a super team to win a ring and he’s proved it twice already at the tender age of twenty-seven. If both he and Danny Green return to the Raptors their championship team is basically intact with a young coach in Nick Nurse who looks to have the respect of his players.

Kawhi Leonard doesn’t need the Lakers—they need him.

Leonard doesn’t appear to be a person who would thrive dealing with the daily turmoil and drama of being on a super team in Los Angeles. I could see the Clippers perhaps, but why possibly should he demean his legacy by whoring it up with LeBron.

Kawhi Leonard holds the balance of NBA power in his hands as he decides where his next basketball stop is going to be.

If he stays in Toronto then Adam Silver has a league with parity and compelling narratives which will only make the NBA even more popular than it already is as only the NFL has more fan interest as a league.

Silver now has two superstars in Durant and Irving in New York with the Nets. He has LeBron and Anthony Davis in LA…and if Kawhi stays in Canada the world considering the NBA at truly the world’s premier sports league.

What a great time to be Kawhi Leonard.

I have to tell you I’m not a great soccer fan, but like many I’m excited about the U.S. women’s team and their appearance in the World Cup Final on Sunday.

I know Trump has been entangled in a Twitter war with one of the U.S. players and I’ve done my best to ignore all of that.

But today after hearing Alex Morgan scored the game winner in a 2-1 win over England…I googled Alex Morgan and became transfixed on her nose.

What an exquisite nose. Other than Kate Beckinsale’s nose…I know of no nose like Alex Morgan’s. It stunned me. I couldn’t take my eyes off her nose. She has a cleft on the underside of her nose which if I were on The Bachelor would cause me to pick her without even asking her a question.

I have no idea who the U.S. plays on Sunday, but I will take the time to watch the World Cup Final.

So we’re now at this place where we as adults can evaluate the past three seasons of Kevin Durant in Oakland. The emotion is no longer raw. It is a time for pragmatic thought and words.

If Kevin Durant was my son what I would say is that you did the right thing minus one detail. You should have been open about why you made your decision. A point guard who plays like a fourth grader and a shooting guard who still can’t shoot were why you had to leave. You should have left for the simple reason that the Thunder organization didn’t and still haven’t been able to two do things which need to be done to become a real contender.

Namely:

1 Find a coach who can coach Russell Westbrook. Who is this person? I surely don’t know who that coach is short of Pop perhaps. But I know this, the manner in which Russell Westbrook calibrates risk-reward on the floor is precisely why the Thunder are 4-12 in post season without Kevin Durant making Sam Presti look a great deal better than he is as a GM.

2 No quality shooting guard. Shooting guard implies just that. Have a guard who can shoot. This doesn’t mean you pay Andre Roberson $10 million a year to be the worst shooting guard in the history of the NBA. This means you add a SHOOTING GUARD who can shoot. And to Russell Westbrook’s defense somewhat…Sam Presti still hasn’t done this unless you’re a Little Nick Gallo or Low Energy Royce Young zombie who believes Terrance Ferguson is that dude who can be the next Danny Green or Fred van Fleet.

If Durant were my son and Harvard wanted him to come there…I wouldn’t say don’t go there—they already have too many smart people. I’d want my son to go where he has the opportunity to fulfill his potential to the max and be rewarded for his work ethic and dreams.

To me…Durant going to Oakland was him going to Harvard to see what it’s like to be on a team with a coach whose players listen and a friggin’ shooting guard who can shoot. How ironic for me that Klay Thompson is my favorite player in the NBA and the model for what a shooting guard should be. Meanwhile–Sam Presti still embraces long players who can’t shoot. It’s stunning. It’s like the OKC Chamber of Commerce volunteering to be guinea pigs for sonic booms. Sam Anderson knows. I wonder if Clay Bennett could make a few calls and get Mary Fallin a third term? Who are these people in Oklahoma?

So now Durant is gone to Brooklyn with his Achilles is on the mend. Will he be the same player down the road? We don’t know. But we know this…Kevin Durant has two championship rings and two Finals MVP trophies he wouldn’t have if he’d stayed in Oklahoma City.

The axiom is a simple one. Dumb teams in any sport don’t win championships. Did you see a smart team in Oklahoma City this past season as Paul George had an MVP worthy season?

No we did not and it’s time to make some conclusions about the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The NBA is on the verge of complete parity if only Kawhi Leonard will be smart and not head off to LA to become a Laker with LeBron and Anthony Davis.

Yes, I do write this from the perspective of a Warrior fan since of course Klay is going to sign a max deal and stay a Warrior forever. Klay is my favorite player. I can’t chain myself to the dimwit Thunder any longer. These people are doomed. They cannot make the right decisions. They made Mary Fallin governor….twice. For crying out loud they have Little Nick Gallo as the director of their communications operations. No wonder they haven’t found anything in the draft since James Harden.

But still, I’ll keep the domain and somewhat follow the doomed Thunder even though Sam Anderson and I both know the window is closed. You can’t make the same mistakes over and over and win a championship. NBA championships are very hard to win. Make no mistake of that. Dumb decisions don’t bring home rings.

The whole league hinges on Kawhi this week as he ponders his future. I would say to Kawhi…stay in Toronto. You just won a championship in the loveliest city in the league. The women are beautiful. You have the St. Lawrence River. You have Young Street. You have the Hockey Hall of Fame. You had Joe Carter’s walk off homer. You have the Leafs. You have the Falls of Niagara which you share with Buffalo. Buffalo is a dump—I’ve been there. Toronto is the ticket—stay a Raptor with Serge. You have the adoration of an entire country and you don’t have Donald Trump.

Sure—you could come to LA and win a ring with LeBron, but so what. Why diminish your own legacy doing this when you’ve already won two rings on two non super teams. Why become the latest NBA whore? Why do what Kevin Durant did? Why?

You can visit California whenever. I was born in San Diego. I get it. But stay in Toronto and see if you can beat the Splash Brothers with Klay on the floor.

Kawhi…please stay in Toronto.

I’m happy for Kevin and I’m happy for the Splash Brothers now being a threesome including DeAngelo Russell. I’m happy the Indiana Pacers added Malcolm Brogdon and Sleepy Jeremy Lamb as well.

If you’re a New York Knick fan…what can any of us say other than your owner sucks.

Kawhi still to be determined, but this day belongs to Kevin Durant. He moves on from the three seasons in Oakland where he won two rings and two Finals MVP awards.

I can be a Kevin Durant fan again. I can move on and appreciate the fact I got to see this dude play in my little college market city for eight years and lead the Thunder to an NBA Finals in 2012. I can let all the angst go away.

Kevin Durant can be at peace and so can Thunder fans. It’s over and there will be a day when this soaks in to the knuckleheads who booed Durant.

I’m also happy for Steph Curry because he got on a plane to see Durant and told him to his face man to man…thank you.

Thank you, Kevin for coming with us and allowing us to win two more titles. Thank you and we wish the best for you in Brooklyn.

Durant continues his journey and I hope he gets back to the Finals again at some point as he pursues the all-time scoring record held by Kareem.

We saw something special in Oklahoma City. Generationally special. The ending on July 4th hurt, but time should heal and the next time a former Thunder great has a day in Oklahoma City it should be Kevin Durant if he retires before Russell.

Klay will stay and now I have to tell you the Warriors become my favorite team in the NBA even though I have this blog. The Pacers now fascinate me in the East and become my favorite team on that side.

Isn’t it odd…the Pacers just became the team Sam Presti could never put together in Oklahoma City after the Durant exit. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Jeremy Lamb becomes a key contributor.

I have no idea what Sam Presti is going to do with the Thunder. Maybe he’ll add another long player who can’t shoot.

But most of all with me it’s about Kevin. I can be a fan again. I can appreciate everything he did while in Oklahoma City.

He can be at peace and so can everyone else in the basketball universe.

Such are the advantages for a sitting POTUS seeking re-election. Photo ops which picture the president being presidential.

While the country’s only vice president to serve with the country’s only black president for a sum of eight years was portrayed as a racist by Kamala Harris earlier this week—Donald Trump was showing the world he’s come a long way since his bus tour days with Billy Bush.

Trump and Kim Jong Un met for the third time in the Trump Era and I think most of us now realize Dennis Rodman is no longer needed to run the U.S. nuclear negotiations with the world’s prominent gulag of violence.

When you’re the Prez whether you’re really like Teddy Roosevelt or not you and your people have the power to create the narrative….not Kamala Harris, not Nancy Pelosi, not the far left.

Granted, not much will come of this bromance between Trump and Rocket Man, but in places like West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi it will play big and give further credence as to why Donald Trump should get four more years.

If you think North Korea is giving up their nuclear program then I hope you’re a patient person. But for Trump it doesn’t matter. It gives him a narrative which goes beyond pussy grabbing talks on a bus with a member of the Bush family. The Christian Coalition will be content.

It makes Donald Trump in a word appear….presidential while Joe Biden looks like he has no idea what his own party stands for in the age of Kamala Harris.

It gives Trump something to talk about beyond the economy, job growth, and a GDP around 4%. It gives Trump the opportunity to give Mitch McConnell more years in the White House along with Lindsey Graham.

The Sunday talk shows will now have to decide if Trump in the DMZ or Kamala Harris was the week’s biggest story.

Two words…news cycle. Donald Trump understands the news cycle.

Quite frankly, I didn’t in either debate see a candidate who is going to win the White House, but a winnowing out of candidates will start taking place as contributors start backing the stronger performers in these debates.

I thought Joe Biden was awful…just awful. I like Joe Biden, but maybe those close to him will tell him the truth.

Bernie Sanders will not beat Donald Trump either for the simple reason America isn’t ready to give up on capitalism just yet. The Democratic party going all that far left will not get them in this White House. Even Bill Clinton and Barack Obama weren’t this far left. They both became centrists of sorts in their re-election campaigns. The left just giving free stuff away doesn’t solve climate change, doesn’t solve the $23 trillion dollar debt or bring our allies back into a bilateral comfort zone.

Just giving stuff away is exactly that…. just giving stuff away.

Quit asking for free things and pursue the quaint notion of the American Dream and maybe give something back as well.

So here’s my eight or so who will continue and in essence hopefully morph a message of sorts which goes beyond just giving things away. At some point—it would be refreshing to hear a Dem candidate talk about not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

How about suggesting that all these recipients of free government shit commit to four years of either military or some other form of national service?

Is that possible in this America?

This is not a seeding list of any sort because we haven’t seen the top eight together on one stage yet.

I’ll go:

Joe Biden

Elizabeth Warren

Kamala Harris

Julian Castro

Pete B

NYC mayor Bill B

Amy Klobachar

Corey Booker

Michael Bennett

Bill Clinton didn’t win re-election in 1996 going to the extreme left. Barack Obama didn’t defeat John McCain or Mitt Romney going this far left. Going this far left will get the Dems where it took George McGovern, Al Gore and Michael Dukakis.

Forty-five per cent of registered voters in America don’t align themselves with either party. I surely don’t. They’re both awful.

My take is the Dems have some serious reflection to sift through if they want to remove reality presidential performer Donald Trump from his White House.

Everyone is talking about the Harris-Biden moment, but for me the two most qualified candidates in this group taking age into account are Michael Bennett and Pete B.

Bennett’s resume includes being a former mayor, a former school superintendent, a former congressman, and a current two term United States senator who understands the entire Mitch McConnell situation.

The Dems need to realize just beating Trump won’t be enough because Mitch McConnell and the Koch Brothers are the ones running the country.

The second debate was much better than the first debate and it makes no sense whatsoever we didn’t get to see Elizabeth Warren debate with this second group.

I heard this tonight and it made me sad. Antonio Daniels—the lone non-delusional member of the Oklahoma City Thunder broadcast group is leaving to join the New Orleans Pelicans broadcast team.

I don’t mean this to be insensitive, but with Jim Traber’s very serious medical condition for which he’s been told to stay calm and not froth at the mouth talking about Russell Westbrook…I fear the Thunder coverage will become even weaker in Oklahoma City and even lean more (if possible) to the delusional homer slant the way the Thunder portray themselves to this college market pretending to be major league.

Daniels made my top ten list of the locals either in print or on the radio who talked the Thunder. He was knowledgeable, tough, fair, and even handed.

Behind his exit the market I fear will become even more childish in the manner in which the Thunder are discussed or written about.

My little underground rogue blog may turn out to be minus Mark Rodgers and Dusty D one of the few outlets of non quid pro quo honest Thunder coverage. Who at this point even knows who long Gates Media which own the Daily Oklahoman will continue to stay in the market? Tramel should come over here and blog with me at so.

Can the faces of a pro franchise look more foolish or more childish in the post game pressers?

Can any of us really expect Michael Cage or Little Nick Gallo or Low Energy Royce Young to fill the void created by the exit of Daniels or Traber being told by his doctors to cool it on the air?

I have no idea who the Thunder will hire to replace Daniels, but I’ll be fair in my comments to that person.

Anyway…thank you, Antonio Daniels for being the only reason I’ve watched the Fox Thunder telecasts these past two seasons. Best of luck in the Big Easy.

I just watched the Donald Trump interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press and I have to be honest I found myself laughing throughout much of it. As much and as often as I’ve been critical of Donald Trump there is the realization that as a rogue grifter real estate closer he is compelling to listen to even when you know the facts are being compromised.

I would completely ignore all polls in relation to this election for the simple reason there has never been a character like this in the White House minus Frank Underwood.

If the economy hangs together and the country avoids recession I would guess Trump will get another term.

To me the Dems need to remember two things …. 1 people vote THEIR pocketbook issues and the Electoral College is what allowed Trump in the White House and could possibly keep him there beyond 2020.

To me…Sleepy Joe Biden is not the guy who could derail Trump. I’m all for the Dems winning Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and maybe even Ohio….but a new face is needed.

I like Michael Bennett, but certainly realize he has no chance in hell. I think Elizabeth Warren is a sharp person, but would she resonate with the Trump voters in these states?

The Dems have to win the Rust Bucket…period. This is precisely where Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016. Hint to the Dems…you’re going to win New York and California regardless of who your nominee turns out to be.

It’s all about winning the Big Ten…. not the coastal elites. They don’t read Breitbart.

The Dem debates begin this week and Ohio congressman Tim Ryan or as his friends call him Youngstown Tim is a candidate I’m interested in watching as to how he performs on the big stage with the nation watching.

If this guy isn’t your Rust Bucket wheelhouse candidate then I don’t know who would be.

Trump is the incumbent. Like it or not the incumbent candidate has numerous advantages to keep the White House.

It will be fascinating to see who steps up for the Dems. I have Elizabeth Warren and Tim Ryan on my short list this week as two I will be watching closely beyond Michael Bennett.