Author: Mike

I watched the mid-term results last night with intense interest. Not because of Donald Trump, but more curious what would happen across the country in various congressional elections which would determine the balance of power in the House.

Even though my nephews and I stumbled across a Drew Edmondson fundraiser last Tuesday at Fassler’s Hall–I knew he really didn’t have a chance because I thought outside of Oklahoma County he would get killed in Oklahoma’s rural counties which supported Donald Trump in record numbers. I knew Kevin Stitt would win because he was attached at the hip to Trump. I knew this because the very same thing happened to moderate Mick Cornett in this summer’s GOP runoff.

What we’re seeing in America with Trump isn’t really North and South. It’s not really liberals vs. conservatives, but it’s more urban versus rural. It’s one face of America which represents the realistic future demographic of the country as opposed to another face of the country going back to the 1930’s with protectionism, the lack of democratic coalitions which were formed in WWII, the Marshall Plan, and basically the lack of societal diversity.

When Trump supporters wear those stupid ball caps they embarrass themselves. They show they have no idea what America is and how it got here as the greatest diverse democracy in the history of mankind.

The thing which stunned me though was that in the congressional district in which I live…Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district, a Democrat by the name of Kendra Horn stunned GOP incumbent Steve Russell. This is the first time in my voting lifetime a Dem has won this congressional seat. Nate Silver’s website Five Thirty Eight gave Kendra Horn a 7% chance of winning yesterday morning.

Do you believe in miracles?

Holy shit! Who would have thought in this political dumpster fire shithole this could happen? This place which elected Mary Fallin…twice as their governor.

Who could have possibly seen this coming?

I owe both Russell Westbrook and Paul George an apology because I told both of them to get their sons out of this place because of this lack of diverse thought. But I was clearly wrong. You don’t have to move to Toronto or Wash Park in Denver to experience progressive thinking or fairness if you’re not white.

I just finished reading Mick Cornett’s book, The Next American City. It was a great read and one every citizen in or around Oklahoma City should take the time to read. What it made me realize is that in small pockets of urban life across this country amazing things can get done with conservatives and liberals working together to make their communities better. Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics are in fact local.” Circle that quote moving forward.

So here I sit this morning not at all concerned about Donald Trump and his Twitter account. Maybe I don’t have to move to Toronto or Denver. I sit here literally stunned, but in a good way. Who would have known Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district was the mecca of progressive thinking in America.

I had no idea my fellow Oklahomans in this district felt this way. I just assumed they were Trump zombies wearing stupid hats.

This is why our constitution and democracy are still something worth fighting for.

Kendra Horn, thanking you for reminding me of this. Thank you for fighting.

Don’t look now but all the sudden the OKC Thunder finds itself at 5-4 and ‘one’ game in the loss column out of third place in the Western Conference.

The Thunder for the fifth straight game found itself a winner this time with a nice 122-116 home win over Anthony Davis and his Pelicans. Russell Westbrook sprained his ankle with four minutes left in the third period and never returned to the game. Dennis Schroder took over and smoothly guided the team home with their fifth straight win after losing their first four games of the season.

Schroder scored a season high 22 points and Paul George led the Thunder with 23 points. Steven Adams had a nice game and Patrick Patterson injected key three point shooting just when the Thunder needed it on this night. Hamidou Diallo made two rim rocking dunks not long after Westbrook’s ankle injury doing his part to make sure the Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd still had a feel for Wild Thing after the ankle roll. Wild Thing Jr is a player and while Schroder is filling in for the injured real Wild Thing…WTJ will keep Thunder fans hearts singing. He will.

Westbrook’s ankle was x-rayed and came up negative. Who knows how long he will be out?

But two things should work for the Thunder’s favor in case Westbrook misses up to a month. One, they have Dennis Schroder to fill the void and if you look at the Thunder’s November schedule it’s relatively easy with only two games against solid playoff caliber teams…those being Houston this Thursday and at home against the Warriors on Nov. 21st or so.

Real contenders have to deal with injury situations like this. They have to adapt and keep winning games. The Warriors, the Rockets, the Celtics, and the Spurs do this with regularity.

Paul now becomes Batman, Dennis Schroder now becomes Robin. Hamidou Diallo becomes Wild Thing Jr. Raymond Felton becomes the backup point guard again. This is not complex. Suck it up and find ways to win games and become a better team for it when the real Wild Thing has a healthy left ankle once again.

The Thunder are at Cleveland on Wednesday night to play the already tanking Cavs.

Thunder fans should thank their lucky stars Dan Gilbert isn’t their owner.

See the glass half full—the Thunder become a better team long run with other guys learning how to close games without Russell Westbrook.

The Thunder are 4-4 after eight games, 4-2 if you only count games Russell Westbrook played.

Shooting. I think it’s pretty clear the Thunder aren’t one of the best shooting teams in the league. But just for my own interest I wanted to see some individual numbers after eight games played. Mainly, I wanted see the three point and free throw numbers. Both Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel have yet to attempt a three so on their numbers I went with their two point shot numbers.

1 Alex Abrines 3pt 14-40 .350.00 ft 8-10 .800

2 Patrick Patterson 3pt 10-29 .345 ft 8-10 .800

3 Dennis Schroder 3pt 10-30 .333 ft 25-32 .781

4 Paul George 3pt 23-71 .328 ft 36-36 .783

5 Jerami Grant 3pt 7-25 .280 ft 17-29 .586

6 Terrance Ferguson 3pt 4-19 .211 ft 1-2 .500

7 Hamidou Diallo 3pt 1-5 .200 ft 8-11 .727

8 Russell Westbrook 3pt 2-18 .111 ft 28-44 .636

9 Nerlens Noel 2pt 25-35 .714 ft 10-15 .667

10 Steven Adams 2pt 37-67 .556 ft 20-36 .556

In less than a week the OKC Thunder’s young season has gone from posers back to possible Western Conference contenders with four straight wins in a span of six days. On Friday night in D.C. the soaring Thunder dismantled a Scott Brooks team which quite frankly showed little if any effort on the defensive side of the game.

The Thunder on the second night of a road back to back coasted with a stunningly easy 134-111 win over a now 1-7 Washington Wizards team. In the eleven year history of the Thunder I don’t recall a complete and total team effort as dismal as the one by the Wizards on Friday night. I’m not sure what the buyout is on Scott Brooks contract, but given the booing by the home crowd and complete lack of effort from the Wizards it doesn’t look good for a team which was supposed make the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Thunder were excellent. They put the Wizards away and never allowed them to breathe any hope of a comeback in a win which featured a 79 point first half and a 44 point second quarter.

Shooting wise it was a stellar night for a team which is shooting challenged at times. The Thunder shot 51% from the field, 47% from three, and 81% from the line. The Thunder had 34 assists to 13 turnovers and looked like a team which ‘could’ challenge for a top four seed in the West if Russell Westbrook can maintain the style of basketball he has shown this week.

Russell Westbrook was in a phrase…Maurice Cheeks-like this game and for the entire week following the disastrous ending in the Celtics home loss. The basketball dumb three point chucking was almost completely absent from Westbrook’s game in these last two games. He did chuck one three point attempt against the Wizards in the third period, but was subbed out and never had to return into the game.

Westbrook appears to be back in game shape. The Thunder are 4-2 with Westbrook with the two home losses to Dave Joerger’s surprising Kings and the Celtics.

This is the Westbrook the Thunder need to see. The Westbrook who plays defense, who moves the ball, who gets to the rim, and who makes the team around him better and more confident. I have no idea why Russell Westbrook can’t show this player for the duration of a season. If Westbrook wants to embellish his legacy this is the player he needs to be. Don’t get me wrong, Wild Thing makes my heart sing at times, but Wild Thing also reminds me the Thunder aren’t winning anything until they learn to play and win as a team every night. The right way. And the right way always starts with team effort on defense and moving the basketball.

The rest of the team has followed Westbrook’s lead. This is not complex stuff. When the rest of the team sees Westbrook loaf on defense and take horrible shots what is it which would make them want to buy in on the notion of being a special team.

This is a star driven league, not a coach driven league. If this were a coach driven league do you think we’d be seeing this bullshit in Minnesota with Jimmy Butler or the suspense in Toronto as to what Kawhi Leonard will do at the end of this season. Other than Pop, Kerr, Stevens, and maybe still Carlisle—head coaches are secondary assets.

This isn’t Billy Donovan’s team, it’s Russell Westbrook’s team and you would think he’s tired of being viewed as a player whose game doesn’t translate to the post season when team locks down and play 48 minutes of defense.

The rest of the team is coming around. Minus Harden and Nick Collison coming off the bench in 2012 this could possibly be the best bench in the Thunder era. Schroder and Abrines are a nice bench backcourt. Nerlen Noels could actually play with the starters and I don’t think the Thunder would look much different when Westbrook is playing the right way. Hamidou Diallo is a nice player and I think Pat Patterson is a smart enough vet who will meld his game as per what the team needs off the bench on a given night.

Jerami Grant has found his game playing with the starters. I smiled when they showed his father Harvey sitting at the game Friday night. Hard to believe he was as skinny as Jerami back in ’88 when the Sooners made their magical run to the national championship game. Harvey Grant was a warrior and a member of my favorite college basketball team of all-time…those full court pressing, running Billy Tubbs ’88 Sooners. Whoo! Harvey was the inbounds pressure guy on the press and Mookie Blaylock and Dave Sieger were the scramblers. Seeing Harvey at the game made me happy. Jerami is going to be an excellent player if he just seamlessly calibrates when and when not to shoot the three. I have to admit—he’s doing better with his threes and he’s a beast when he goes to the rim.

The Thunder host the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night in what should be a great basketball game.

Harvey ‘The General’ Grant—Harvey Grant, Mookie Blaylock, Stacy King, Dave Sieger, and Ricky Grace were OU’s starting five that season. Harvey, Mookie, and Stacy would all go on to be NBA first round picks. Dave Sieger was an electrical engineer major and I’m not sure what Rickey Grace did after college.

Very, very odd game for the Thunder in Charlotte. And yet when the dust settled and you figured the Thunder could be 2-5…they weren’t.

Consider this, as a team the Thunder shot 8-37 from three point land. More to the point if you exclude Alex Abrines from this stat, the Thunder as a team were 3-27 shooting threes. If you then exclude Dennis Schroder’s 2-6 the Thunder were a ghastly 1-21. Paul George had a horrible shooting game going 4-20 overall and 0-10 from beyond the arc. Russell Westbrook was 0-3 shooting threes and struggled up until the fourth quarter when he finally put his Rickey Vaughn cape on and stormed the mound.

Consider this as well, the Thunder had four assists as a team the first half and 16 assists in the second half when they roared back from a 19 point mid third period deficit to somehow beat the Charlotte Hornets on the road by a 111-107 count.

And in the end, when the Thunder needed their closer to come out and finish the road win…Rickey ‘Wild Thing’ Vaughn came out of Billy Donovan’s bullpen and got his coach a much needed win.

Westbrook scored 13 points in the fourth period on an array of Wild Thing dunks and breakaways, plus a couple of key mid-range jumpers. But this night was in reality the night in which Alex Abrines and Dennis Schroder scored a combined 46 points as the Thunder’s bench unit backcourt. I would assume that sets a Thunder team record for that feat in particular.

Hamidou Diallo came off the bench and did some nice things as well in scoring six points and doing a myriad of Westbrook-like athletic things.

The thing which really impressed me with these three is that as role players on the road they didn’t seem fazed at all by the situation. Usually young role players tighten up on the road and under perform. This was not the case by these three in a game in which the Thunder needed desperately to keep their season headed in the right direction.

For me, the good news is in multiples as the Thunder now sit at 3-4 and are set to play the reeling Washington Wizards tonight on the second night of a road back to back. But beyond even this at least the Thunder are watchable even with their warts and it won’t be a death march of a season. The Warriors will still win the championship, but we have Rickey Vaughn.

Russell Westbrook appears to be back in game shape after missing the preseason and the first two regular season games. Wild Thing is back with all his glory. I mean, let’s not coat this like I’m Nick Gallo or Royce Young and on the Thunder payroll per se. Russell Westbrook is Rickey “Wild Thing’ Vaughn. Period. Paul George called him the baddest motherfucker in the league in his post game comments last night…so I can’t imagine there’s anything wrong with me calling Russell….Wild Thing.

I mean, Bob Cousy and John Stockton will never be confused with Russell Westbrook. It is what it is and you have to be who you are. And if you’re Rickey Vaughn coming out of the bullpen with a 100 mph heater then that’s who you are. If you know what I mean?

But every great closer needs his starters and middle relief guys to set the table for him. And on this night in Charlotte both Alex Abrines and Dennis Schroder were superb in setting the table for Russell Westbrook’s first save of the season.

I was stunned listening to Jim Traber and Dean Blevins yesterday discussing Patrick Beverly’s deliberate hit on Russell Westbrook’s knees.

Literally stunned. I assumed they both would know more about the psychology of sports in relation to intimidation. But I was wrong. Traber should know better. He played major league baseball. Plus, he has a nephew who played hockey at a high level. Traber claims to be a Pittsburgh Penguin fan, but he’s not in my league on this one…I coached hockey. I could show him offensive zone faceoff plays which would make his ass dizzy. Blevins is just an OU football media scribe so the fact he was clueless was not a surprise.

In hockey you have your Sid Crosbys, your Alex Ovechins, and your Jonathon Toews. They not only lead their teams in offensive production they make their sport more marketable on television and at the gate.

The same holds true for basketball. You have Steph, you have Durant, you have Westbrook, you have LeBron, you have Harden. You get the point. You cannot allow players like Patrick Beverly to cheap shot in essence the stars who pay the freight for the league.

Are you kidding me? Even if you give Patrick Beverly the benefit of the doubt and say there was no intent to injure—this cannot happen. Sam Presti….Russell Westbrook is the only reason you still have a job in Oklahoma City—please take care of him.

A good enforcer is in a sense so tough he really doesn’t have to fight all that often even in the NHL. The Houston Rockets should take note as well….you can’t have the Rajon Rondos of the NBA world spitting in Chris Paul’s face and expecting your star to fight for himself.

Now…there are some stars in hockey who did fight and were ultimately rewarded for being tough enough to fight. The two which come to mind first are Gordie Howe and the greatest hockey player to ever grace a sheet of ice…Bobby Orr. They both fought and their legacies have grown from their fighting exploits.

Wayne Gretzky never fought. He had an enforcer. I never really respected Gretzky though as a complete player. I’ve always thought Durant was the Gretzky of the NBA. I won’t go any further there because I’m over it with Cupcake.

Crosby, Ovechkin, and Toews have enforcers, although I will say both Crosby and Ovechkin are tough. They can fight if they have to, but why should they?

I’m so disappointed in Jim Traber. I thought he was the one guy in this ‘college market’ who could hang with me and talk all four of the major sports. Maybe it’s just that he’s been so preoccupied trolling Mike Gundy about his hair, his smoothies, and his Twitter followers he’s slipped a little. I should be in Boston or Denver is where I should be. But it is what it is for right now. And even if I were in Boston… I’d still feel let down with finding out all the things Bill Simmons didn’t really know.

The OKC Thunder need an enforcer. I wonder if Perk would come back and take care of Russell. Watch the video of Beverly’s cheap shot on Westbrook. Not one Thunder player got in Beverly’s face. Not one. Such a nice team. Just like their coach…such nice people who never win anything at this level.

Sam Presti needs an enforcer. Some toughness wouldn’t hurt his 2-4 team of nice people.

What we have in Oklahoma City isn’t a contending team, but rather the nicest team in the league. Give them a citizenship ribbon while the Warriors win another ring with Draymond Green.

You’ll remember…Jae Crowder was talking bullshit all series long last post season to Sam Presti’s ‘nice’ Thunder team. This is why you have an enforcer. Plus, it would give Traber something besides Mike Gundy’s smoothies, mullet, and Twitter followers to talk about on air.

If you look at the current standings in the NBA there’s one undefeated team left standing and it’s not the Golden State Warriors. It’s the 7-0 Milwaukee Bucks finally on the cusp of realizing some of their potential.

With Scott Brooks probably going to be fired at some point in this season with the Washington Wizards and Billy Donovan’s tenure in Oklahoma City under intense scrutiny you wonder how it is Mike Budenholzer never became coach in Oklahoma City.

If ever there was a coach who could have been the coach in Oklahoma City you would think it might be Budenholzer considering Clay Bennett and Sam Presti’s ties to the San Antonio Spurs organization.

You just wonder how that never happened. How the Thunder instead went with Scott Brooks, then with a college coach in Billy Donovan who quite frankly was struggling in the SEC at the end of his tenure in Florida with the addition of John Calipari at Kentucky. Or maybe to Donovan’s credit he became disgusted with the seamy, sordid state of the college game.

Ask yourself this question in relation to college coaches in both the NFL and NBA who have made the transition to professional ball. Which one in the last twenty years has won a championship?

Which one?

In football, way back when, Jimmy Johnson left the University of Miami to win several championships with the Dallas Cowboys. Nick Saban failed as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Jim Harbaugh won a Rose Bowl at Stanford and then got the 49’ers to a Super Bowl. Now Harhaugh has the Wolverines one win over Ohio State away from a possible Final Four berth back in the college game. Chip Kelly got the Oregon Ducks to a national championship game, but fizzled with the Philadelphia Eagles.

In basketball, Calipari failed with the New Jersey Nets. Larry Brown won a championship with the Detroit Pistons, but Brown was never what I would call a college coach, just more of a traveling coach. He was always switching jobs. All the time. Rick Pitino didn’t do much in the NBA. Lon Kruger failed with the Atlanta Hawks. Coach K never tried the pros. Fred Hoiberg has basically failed with the Bulls. Brad Stevens has steered his Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals. And Billy Donovan has gone 55-27, 47-35, and 48-44 with the Thunder coaching such players as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka, Victor Oladipo, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony.

Budenholzer started his career as film coordinator for Popovich, then moved up to the assistant coach ranks where he was involved in four of the Spurs five championships. He head coached the Atlanta Hawks four seasons and got the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals his first season. He also served as president of team operations in Atlanta which might explain why he’s never been the coach in Oklahoma City even though it would seem so obvious considering the ties between the Spurs and the Thunder as far as team building templates.

The Hawks and Budenholzer parted ways last season and now he’s the coach in Milawukee who has the Bucks at 7-0 and left standing the last undefeated team two weeks into the season.

You just wonder how it was Mike Budenholzer never became coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder considering Clay Bennett served on the Spurs board.

The Celtics host the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.

I think this was Thunder team mom Nick Gallo asking the questions, so it’s a rather smooth set of interview questions after the biggest win of the season so far. I have no idea if this means the Thunder will play well again in Charlotte or not tomorrow night. I love the look Russ is modeling. It’s stunning. I call it Nordic Bitch Downhill set. No cape? Can you imagine hopping off a lift chair in Vail or Aspen dressed to kill like this. Thankfully, Tramel wasn’t around to ruin the mood with the win and the outfit.

I love tough physical defense. What I don’t like is when Patrick Beverly goes low at the knees of another player. This is the line between hard-nosed and being a dirty player.

I used to defend Patrick Beverly. But I can’t anymore.

Again, there’s a line between being dirty and intent to injure—especially when it involves the knees of another player.

If Beverly did this shit on the ice in the NHL he would have already been beaten half to death. Football players wouldn’t tolerate this bullshit either. Neither would baseball players. He’d be hit with a baseball at his next at bat.

If Adam Silver isn’t going to take care of this then some team needs to hire an enforcer with the express intent of helping Patrick Beverly understand what a dirty play is and isn’t.

The whole night was surreal. It truly was and not just basketball wise.

I went downtown with two of my nephews to celebrate their birthdays at the German beer hall Fassler’s Hall. We figured it would be a racous basketball crowd. It did turn out to be raucous, but not because of the Thunder.

We got there ten minutes before tip and found a wall to wall sea of a fervent Drew Edmonson supporters attending a political fundraiser/speech. The place was packed, but not with basketball fans. This did not daunt me, instead we went into the midst of the crowd and listened to Drew Edmonson talk of why Oklahoma ranks near dead last in everything in which you don’t won’t to rank near dead last in. He spoke of the Step Up Oklahoma program which was basically started by Republicans who were so embarrassed by the eight years of Mary Fallin in Oklahoma that even they couldn’t remain passive in ultra red Oklahoma. Ultra red Oklahoma which by the way is the only state in the Union in which Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton didn’t carry one single county in three different presidential elections. Only Oklahoma of the fifty states can lay claim to that dubious distinction.

It was an interesting speech. A good one actually. Edmondson urged Oklahoma to turn a new leaf. To smarten up and become a better state. Good luck with that. I thought about going up to him and telling him of my plans in Washington Park in Denver, but didn’t have the heart.

So then the speech ends just right at tip and the place pretty much empties. I kid you not. These people had no interest in staying to watch the Thunder in what is usually the best sports bar in downtown OKC to watch an NBA game.

So the three of us just basically sit at the bar for the next two hours drinking beer and delighting in the German cuisine. It was like owning Fassler’s Hall for a night.

Typically, the Thunder come out and loaf thru the first half. They give up 67 points in the first half to a Clippers team which will probably be a team fighting for the 8th seed sometime in early April. Since I’m owning the bar on this night…I’m dropping F bombs all over the place.

Fuck them. Fuck this. Fuck Billy Donovan. And fuck Clay Bennett for allowing Sam Presti to hire Billy Donovan.

My nephews smiled and ignored me. They played the nephew role to perfection and allowed their crazy uncle to rant in public.

So then the most interesting thing happened. That being, the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled their collective heads out of their asses and actually played 24 minutes of basketball the right way.

Imagine that…24 minutes of smart basketball by this group.

Go figure.

I’ll start with this. Russell Westbrook actually looked like Maurice Cheeks for these twenty four minutes. He ran like the wind. He played defense like he did back at UCLA before he became a clothing brand. He hustled. He didn’t chuck stupid three point shots. He showed what he’s capable of when he really wants to bring his lunch pail to the arena.

THIS IS THE RUSSELL WESTBROOK I’VE BEEN WAITING TO SEE!

And here’s the thing…he’s teammates followed his lead. Funny how that works, eh. When the superstar decides to bring his lunch pail the team follows.

Paul George was excellent. Adams was good. Jerami Grant as a starter was the Jerami Grant I expected to see this season even though he did attempt three threes. Patterson and Schroeder were excellent off the bench.

And Terrance Ferguson pretending to be Andre Roberson played 26 minutes and was +34. Are you kidding me? Terrance Ferguson was +34 against an NBA team.

On the night, OKC decided to put it’s sado-self abusing tendencies in a sack and play the right way. The Thunder only attempted 17 threes and made 9 of them. They shot 51% from the field and for the first night this season didn’t embarrass themselves at the free throw line. They ran like the wind. They turned the Clippers over time after time in a third period which gives Thunder Nation some hope their team isn’t the dumbest team in the NBA.

So the Thunder finally win by something like a 128-110 margin and pull themselves all the way up to the 11th seed at 2-4.

Little steps. Little victories. It could be worse. We could be Houston Rockets fans. Enjoy the Carmelo Anthony experiment, Houston. You stupid motherfuckers. Good luck with that. If only the Warriors would sign Carmelo the rest of the league could hope someone other than the Warriors would win the Championship this basketball season.

So here I am…sitting at my Thunder rogue blog keyword and for the first time this season thinking maybe there’s a chance Russell Westbrook has decided he might want to be more like Maurice Cheeks than a millennial fashion brand.

We’ll see how long this lasts.

The Thunder are in Charlotte on Thursday night to play Kemba and the Hornets.

We’ll see.