Author: Mike

Dear Russell:

I’ve observed you now for slightly over a decade. You’re the same age as my son. If my son yelled up to a woman in the stands in Utah he was going to fuck her up—then my son and I would be having a talk regardless of what her husband had said to my son.

If my son went out of his way to be consistently rude to a decent person like Berry Tramel then as his father I would probably say a thing or two.

This isn’t a basketball intervention. I could care less whether the Thunder beat Portland and advance. In fact, as a longtime fan of Terry Stotts—I’m hoping they kick your ass. But still, this is more of a life post as in how we should all treat other people we come in touch with on the journey of our lives.

As in how we should apply the Golden Rule to others and treat them with the same respect and courtesy we like to be treated with on a daily basis.

Your Marshawn Lynch routine with Berry Tramel makes you appear to be a punk. And here’s the thing, I don’t think you’re a punk. I think you’re a young man who has some wonderful qualities about him. You’re a world class son. A good husband and caring father. A doting brother. A loyal teammate. A philanthropist. A young man who’s trying to be a leader, but perhaps needs some more depth and polish in that regard…but you’re not a punk.

But if you’re not careful some will soon be perceiving you as someone they wouldn’t want their son to emulate. Would you want Noah to be overtly rude to an older person for no real reason? As a father…I would hope you wouldn’t.

You owe Berry Tramel an apology. If I were Tramel I would have told you to fuck off already. But Berry Tramel is a classier person than I am, plus his job description does not allow that type of interaction with a person he’s trying to get an adult answer from at a press conference.

You know, you can clearly ignore everything I’m writing on here. That’s your choice. But as each year passes in your life and you accrue life wisdom you’ll realize the most important thing all of us do in our lives is how we treat other humans in relation to showing some decency and compassion.

I know what you think of Donald Trump. I think the same thing. He is not a man I would want my grandson to emulate. I want my grandson to be smart, to be tough, to be kind, to be empathetic to others—just like you are for the most part. But most of all I want my grandson to treat people the right way.

So this would be my suggestion…give Berry Tramel a call sometime and ask him out to breakfast. Find out what common ground you two guys have and put the past in the past. I think what you would find is that Berry Tramel would become your biggest fan and you would look like not only the leader of a basketball team, but the leader of a city which could use one from someone your age.

There really isn’t a need for too much writing on here this morning. It was fairly simple as to what happened in Game 2 in Portland. Let’s start with this since Russell Westbrook doesn’t appear to enjoy answering Berry Tramel’s questions, yet has no problem whatsoever answering the fluffballs served up by Little Nick Gallo and his enabler Royce Young.

Damian Lillard +27 Russell Westbrook -27

Russell Westbrook was in a word horrible. There was not one part of his game which would warrant being paid money to acquire. He was brutal beyond brutal. He obviously didn’t watch my suggested video on Alex Ovechkin.

CJ McCullum +23 Paul George -11

Since the two studs for Oklahoma City can’t quite figure it out…I’ll try and help on here. Paul George wasn’t terrible. He went 11-20 on the night and was 9-13 inside the arc. Maybe this previous sentence in itself could be a clue for the clueless Thunder.

Berry Tramel doesn’t need me to defend him. He’s fully capable of taking care of himself and he will in due time.

The Thunder now travel back to Oklahoma City for Game 3. Portland is not a great team. They have cracks. There are fissures in what they’re doing. The question is if Billy Donovan and his ‘two regular season stars’ are smart enough to formulate a winning strategy in the film room with two days to reset and prepare. On a positive note…role players usually shoot better better at home. Glass half full because one is seriously needed for the slow learn Thunder.

One might notice Donovan Mitchell, Rickey Rubio and Joe Engles haven’t won a playoff series excluding the one over the Thunder in Round 1.

This is one of these times when I need to wait at least twelve hours before I write something on my blog in relation to what I just witnessed in Portland in Game 2. I don’t want to rant. Ranting on your blog is not good. Writing things less than positive about Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Billy Donovan doesn’t do anything of a positive consequence. These guys just don’t get it and apparently they don’t seem interested in getting it.

It’s sad is what it is.

Here’s a little Thunder grief karaoke to get thru tonight then maybe by tomorrow night I can get back on here and be an adult. Because the Oklahoma City Thunder is in serious need of an adult take on their situation heading into Game 3 down 0-2 and coming off of two of the most stupid performances I’ve ever witnessed in sports in quite some time. The only things missing were Russell Westbrook trolling Ricky Rubio and Paul George being outsmarted by Joe Engles.

It is what it is. How sad.

OKC getting beat in Game 1 in Portland in no way surprised me. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Thunder lost Game 2 as well. As a team–they still don’t get it and that’s primarily the fault of Russell Westbrook and Paul George…not Billy Donovan.

These are two great regular season players to date in their careers. But their respective post season legacies are shrinking with every post season game they play together in Oklahoma City.

It’s brutal watching them play together when the games finally mean something.

If the Thunder exit again in in the first round this post season the pretenders talk will heighten and they’ll start to be pegged as non prime time ‘stars’ who can’t win against good teams when it matters in April, May and June.

Those are the three months reserved for Steph, Klay and Durant—but not for Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

It is what it is.

If I were their coach this is what I would have them watch together at the hotel tonight to help them decide what they want this post season to be in Oklahoma City.

What a beautiful round of golf by Tiger Woods at Augusta National on Sunday afternoon as the former king of golf won his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open.

There he stood on the 15th fairway around 225 yards away from the pin getting ready to hit his second shot on the very birdie-able Par 5 and you knew this was going to be a big swing for Tiger Woods with four holes left and the leaderboard logjammed with himself and four of the game’s more notable current stars.

The red shirt. The black slacks.. and the iconic black ball cap with the Nike swoosh on it were all there in the moment. I’m guessing this new version of Tiger hit a six-iron, but I’m not certain. The ball rose, drew slightly towards the middle of the green and fell around twenty feet to the right of the pin for what indeed did turn out to be a two putt birdie for Tiger and the eventual margin of victory over Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.

Tiger won his 5th Masters and 15th overall major with the dramatic win on Sunday which galvanized not only the world of golf, but the world of humanity as one minus Jim Traber felt a lump in their throats as Tiger hugged his mother, his son, his daughter, and his girlfriend just off of the 18th green.

It was human redemption in its rawest form out there for all to see and take in as if their own lives had been affected by Tiger’s fall from grace a decade ago.

Jack Nicklaus, who was somewhere off bone fishing, sent Tiger a warm note of congratulations as the surrogate father of golf who Tiger has been chasing ever since his college days at Stanford.

As a fan of golf it was special. It was a day you’ll remember and be talking about this coming Easter week-end with your family.

Tiger did the unthinkable. He fell from grace as America’s most adorned athlete and was scorned by the moral guardians in the aftermath. He hit rock bottom, but he never gave up on his game, but more importantly…he never quit on his children.

Patrick Reed as last year’s Master’s champ presented Tiger with his fifth green jacket inside iconic Butler Cabin. It was touching because if you follow golf you know Patrick Reed as a kid was a fan of Tiger and had his own problems before he won the Masters last spring.

It should remind us we all make mistakes, but in the end it’s how we pull ourselves back up which separates our fates at the end of the day.

Good for Tiger Woods.

Very interesting results on the first day of the NBA playoffs as only the Golden State Warriors held home court in the four first round series which got underway on The Masters week-end.

The Spurs not surprisingly to me beat the Denver Nuggets on the road in Game 1. But I in no way saw Orlando and Brooklyn upending Toronto and Philly in their playoff series.

The Warriors are the Warriors. Period. Steph Curry torched the Clippers with his usual arsenal of amazing threes and added a career best fifteen rebounds to boot. Steph Curry would be your clubhouse Finals MVP leader after one game.

Doc Rivers did an interesting thing and put Patrick Beverly on Kevin Durant instead of Steph to ostensibly not allow the taller Durant to beat the Clippers off the dribble. It worked and P-Bev even got Cup Cake ejected for pushing him in the back like a coward near the scorer’s table. But it didn’t matter and it didn’t matter that Cousins fouled out minutes earlier because when you have the Splash Brothers and Draymond Green making shots you probably have enough to still win the NBA championship given the decline in LeBron James this season as he made the transition from NBA icon to Hollywood brand.

I think it would be interesting to take Cup Cake and P-Bev and put them in front of a sold out Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd and see which one the crowd would support if you just turned them loose in an iron cage matchup. One has reach, one has a set of balls. You figure the odds. To be honest that might provide more suspense than the eventual outcome of these NBA playoffs with Durant riding the Splash Brothers’ coattails for a threepeat ring.

As far as the Thunder–who would know what to expect from these guys. On paper one would think the Thunder should beat the Nurkic-less Blazers, but then again one would think a team with Russell Westbrook as their point guard should never lose a series to a team with Rickey Rubio as their point guard.

I watched and blogged on this Thunder team for 82 games this season and I wouldn’t bet a quarter on or against this Thunder team of dysfunction which went even more Little Miss Sunshine this season without Carmelo than they did with Carmelo. What does it say when Carmelo Anthony might have been the most mature player on the Thunder roster last season?

You could take Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil, Bobby Knight and John Wooden in their primes and my guess is even with that assemblage of psychiatric and coaching wisdom you wouldn’t be able to turn Russell Westbrook into a championship point guard in the NBA.

So you know what I’m doing this OKC-Portland series? I’m rooting for my old small forward off that OU championship team of ’78 to get his Portland Trail Blazers past the Thunder in either six of seven games. I’m pulling for Terry Stotts because it’s sad to say at this point it’s hard for me to root for the Thunder until they can prove to me their ways have changed as far as respecting the game and the way one should compete game in and game out.

In closing…I would ask to both Berry Tramel and Royce Young why they keep asking Russell Westbrook questions and even care why he doesn’t answer your questions.

Why do you care/? What does it matter to you that a pampered, spoiled, petulant overpaid pro athlete isn’t sharing his inner thoughts with you?

It doesn’t matter. Get over it and allow Little Nick Gallo and the Thunder brass to do their thing.

Next question….as in who emerges in the West to play the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

For NBA fans this is an exciting time of the year as the playoffs get started on Saturday even though everyone pretty much assumes it’s the field vs. Golden State. If I had to take either side of this bet…I’d take Golden State unless either Steph Curry or Kevin Durant sustain some type of injury in the first round against Patrick Beverly. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Patrick Beverly took out Steph Curry’s knee right on the sideline in front of Steve Kerr?

Anyway—my awards.

MVP: I’ll go Giannis as my No. 1 and Paul George as my No. 2 just because that one made shot on Wednesday night dropped the Rockets to the No. 4 seed.

Coach of the Year: I’m going Mike Budenholzer from the Bucks as my No. 1 and Terry Stotts from Portland as my No. 2. I love Stotts because of his adaptability and what he gets out of his roster every season. Since Nurkic went down the Trail Blazers are 7-1. Stotts was a money player back in the late 70’s at OU when the Sooners won their first ever Big 8 basketball championship. He also was an assistant coach under Carlisle when Dirk won his only ring. If I owned the Thunder it would be intriguing to consider Terry Stotts as my head coach with Nick Collison alongside him as the assistant head coach. Just a thought there, Clay Bennett.

Rookie of the Year: I’m going Trae Young just slightly over Luka Doncic. In reality—I’d name them Co-Rookies of the Year. I’m very interested to see how both Atlanta and Dallas come out of the draft this summer.

Sixth Man of the Year: Lou Williams of the LA Clippers with Eric Gordon of the Rockets when Houston is healthy and has their rotations aligned as should be. Dennis Schroder fell off the map when his son was born and needs to return if the Thunder are going to win a round or two.

NBA Executive of the Year; Jerry West of the Clippers. I can’t wait to see what unfolds this summer with Mr. West and all that cap space in LA with the Clips. So…where did Magic Johnson go?

NBA Announcer of the Year: I love Jeff van Gundy and Doris Burke…they’re my co-winners.

NBA Sideline Reporter of the Year: Are you kidding? Little Nick Gallo with the Thunder. He’s the only thing in those pressers with Westbrook which kept me even slightly amused with the Thunder after the All-Star break. Who would have known he had time to run the Daily Thunder as well?

Offensive Player of the Year: James Harden at No. 1 with Steph and Kevin tied at No. 2. So how is it Sam Presti has never won anything to date with Kevin, James Harden and Russell Westbrook?

Biggest Positive Surprise: I’ll go the Denver Nuggets for never collapsing and hanging around as the No. 2 seed in the West when nobody saw this coming.

Biggest Negative Surprise: The manner in which LeBron’s Lakers went south and stayed south after the groin injury in mid season. The situation in New Orleans with Anthony Davis would be second on my list.

My Favorite OKC Media Person in Relation to the Thunder: I’m going Jim Traber at No. 1 and Mark Rodgers at No. 2. Here’s a suggestion for Royce Young at Daily Thunder…why don’t you give Jim and Mark Rodgers a Bolt everyday like you do with my hero Nick Gallo? It would give the appearance you aren’t an owned subsidy of the Thunder.

And on that note…those are my regular season NBA awards.

Let’s go field–Beat the Warriors!

Holy shit. Consider this….the Thunder at the No. 6 seed in the West and the fourth place team in the Northwest Division just got the pipe dream bracket in as much as you can get one with the Golden State Warriors in the draw.

But if you look at OKC’s improbable draw considering the season looked over after the home loss to Dallas–this is beyond miraculous for the Thunder.

No Nurkic for the Trail Blazers and as we all know…Enes Kanter can’t really defend all that much.

Houston by losing the game in OKC last night drops all the way to the No. 4 seed and will now hook up in the first round with the Utah Jazz and Rudy Gobert.

Everything came up roses for the Thunder on night No. 82 of the regular season and OKC will now be a Vegas favorite to beat Portland and advance to the second round for the first time since Kevin Durant’s departure to Oakland.

Houston finishes 20-5 after the All-Star break and that one game last night in Oklahoma City changed the whole dynamic of the Western Conference Playoffs.

I like Houston to beat Utah, but if Clint Capela can’t get it together it could be an interesting series.

What an ending to an otherwise somewhat depressing regular season for the Thunder. But here they stand with the best possible draw and opportunity they could have hoped for given they just finished in fourth place in the Northwest Division only above the Minnesota Timberwolves who were 3-1 against the Thunder this season.

Little Nick Gallo will be beside himself tomorrow writing his feature on Daily Thunder as he’s clearly become the alpha over there. This is his wheelhouse on this one.

Who knows…maybe the Thunder could be a destiny darling after all.

I hope the millennials understand just what happened here. The two OKC stars finally led and did it in an old school way by clubbing ZaZa Pachulia with a hammer chop across his throat and then by administering an elbow into PJ Tucker’s thorax. This just didn’t happen by accident and I hope the youngsters understand this doesn’t show up on a shot chart.

This is who the Thunder have to be if they want to win, survive, and advance in the West.

Here’s why Russell Westbrook finally took matters into his own hands and couldn’t wait any longer for Billy Donovan to protect his star point guard. Can you imagine a coach allowing a goon on another team to do this multiple times to your franchise player and you do nothing. Unbelievable. What in the world was Enes Kanter doing or thinking? Do you know what would happen on a sheet of ice if someone did this to Sid or Ovechkin?

I guess it took seventy-seven games and the prospect of having to play the Warriors in the first round to get the attention of the Thunder.

Just goes to show what we already knew…namely, when these guys come to the arena with a chip on their shoulder they’re a pretty good basketball team.

So.. I guess it’s Houston in the first round unless Denver intentionally loses to Minnesota. It doesn’t matter. The Thunder when they bring their lunch pails can beat this Houston team. Houston has their own post season demons…especially Chris Paul and James Harden.

Explain to me exactly what either of these two guys have done in their post season careers year in and year out. They have as many rings as Westbrook and Paul George…as in zero.

I guess this means OKC will be playing in the first round on Saturday most probably in Houston.

It is what it is. At least they escaped the Golden State death knell in Round 1.

Winner of this series gets the winner of Denver vs. San Antonio.

OKC could very well come out of this four game bracket if Russell Westbrook can not lose his mind and forget what spurred this nice little five game win streak to close the season.

I just hope they play hard….and with some smarts and toughness.

What a comeback from the Thunder to rally back from fifteen points down to defeat the hottest team in the NBA since the All Star break in the Houston Rocket as OKC somehow won this game on a Paul George left baseline three with 1.8 seconds left.

What a fourth quarter from the Thunder as they at one time trailed by fifteen points in the second half.

Sure.. you could obviously say the Harden miss at the line opened the door and the Westbrook perfectly executed assist to Paul George were all huge…but to me the play of the game was when Paul George as the Thunder’s star elbowed Houston’s toughest playing in the head and then told him to fuck off with the young Thunder players awestruck by PG’s machismo. That’s leadership, my friends.

PJ Tucker is a bad dude. He’s prolly the last guy you would want to fight on the Rockets. This wasn’t like Jim Traber chasing some little sissy Japanese pitcher in the Japan Major Leagues. PJ Tucker is a bad dude and Paul George went after him.

Let’s go to the okcthunderground.com illustrator and you can see if for yourself. Also… observe what it did to get the OKC crowd into the game.

For all you youngsters at home this is how you change the flow of a game with your team looking listless and dead in the water. As was the case in the Detroit game when Westbrook decked a burned out ZaZa Pachulia with a club forearm to the head…this was a game changer.

This is Head Games 101 and I love it. Finally…OKC’s two stars have realized this isn’t in Billy Donovan’s arsenal and have been reading my blog and have taken it upon themselves to lead the team in spite of their coach.

The Thunder have now won four straight and a team which looked like it was a dead team walking suddenly has a little bounce to their step. This is what physicality can bring to your football, your hockey, and your basketball team.

Hopefully…Traber touches on this tomorrow on air if he hopes to stay atop my local media poll heading into the playoffs.

sports are talent, preparation and attitude. I’m liking the Thunder attitude right now. I still wish someone would have cloths-lined Karl-Anthony Townes in Minnesota, but you win different ways against different teams.

I hope OKC ends up playing the Rockets in Round 1. They just went 3-1 versus Houston for the season and quite frankly I thought Clint Capela was just awful all night. OKC can handle that …Jokic not as much.

Just stay away from the Warriors in Round 1 and keep hitting people hard and with a bad intent near your basket and maybe the Thunder can catch some lightning in a bottle.

The Thunder end their regular season in Milwaukee tomorrow night with the 6 thru 8 seeds scenarios still in play.

One last thing…Westbrook made a smart play to take the two point basket which led to the foul on Harden and the ultimate game winner. I hope people took notice of this.