You know, I was born in San Diego. My father was an officer on a mine sweeper and I very well could have been a Navy brat. But my father got accepted at Oklahoma City University’s Law School. The rest is history
So here I am a lifetime later.
So as a Californian—this is for all of us living in Oklahoma including Russell Westbrook and Paul George and others.
A song seems right two days before the Fourth of July.
There’s still the Carmelo Anthony and Brian Davis matters to clean up, but otherwise Sam Presti has re-installed his mojo swagger as one of the better GM’s in the NBA.
Think about what has happened since Kevin Durant proclaimed Draymond Green as his basketball soulmate on the Player’s Tribune on July 4th, 2016.
Here’s what Sam Presti has done: he’s basically re-done the OKC Thunder on the fly without any first round draft picks other than the one used to draft Terrance Ferguson.
He got one of the NBA’s top five players in Russell Westbrook to ignore his LA roots and resign long-term in redneck Oklahoma.
Here’s the most amazing thing he did though. He traded Serge Ibaka for Victor Oladipo, Domas Sabonis, and Ersan Ilysova. Now think about what Presti did yesterday.
What he did was parlay Oladipo and Sabonis into a long-term commitment from another LA kid named Paul George.
What some won’t remember is that Presti converted Ilyasova into Jerami Grant. My take is that Presti traded Serge Ibaka for what are now OKC’s second and fourth best players on this season’s roster.
Pretty smart for a franchise located in a state with an educational system located near the bottom of the barrel and a state government more noted for it’s sense of inbred stupidity than achievement.
Who knows…maybe Mick Cornett will be elected governor and the state will move into the current century.
Sam Presti’s legacy is intact. Billy Donovan’s…we’ll see.
This may surprise some, but I think two of the most important players on this team will need to be Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson. These two dudes need to make the step up to big boy ball this season. If they do…. this Thunder team could you know maybe win the Northwest Division.
That’s my goal as a fan right now. Don’t talk shit to me about the Golden State Warriors. Beat Utah. Win the Northwest…and get Brain Davis away from Michael Cage so I never have to hear that shit again.
It was a good week to be a Thunder fan and Oklahoman.
What a twenty-four hours for Sam Presti! He signs Paul George to a four year deal for a $137 million, then signs Jerami Grant to a three year deal for $27 million.
If only Carmelo wasn’t there with that just under $30 million of payroll attached.
For those not keeping track…OKC now has a projected payroll of $156 million dollars with around another $130 million in luxury tax attached. This sets an NBA record for tax implications.
OKC is very close to becoming a $300 million dollar team which can’t get out of the first round.
But Presti had to do both of these things.
Now he has to somehow figure out what to do with the elephant in the room.
The elephant being Carmelo’s thirty million dollars and piece of shit attitude.
Note to Carmelo….you’re not at this point in your career as effective as Eric Gordon or Andre Iguodala. Come off the bench and play around 24-26 minutes a game and fucking thank the basketball gods they have been this kind to you for an opportunity like this.
You can’t knock OKC ownership for not spending money to field a team.
Maybe Presti can somehow get rid of Carmelo and bundle him somehow to the Lakers to join LeBron. Maybe Carmelo’s agent can pull this off with Magic Johnson.
You take Carmelo off that Thunder roster and you have a fairly nice ball club.
Westbrook, George, Adams, Grant, Roberson, Felton, Abrines, Ferguson, and Patterson. That’s not a bad team. They’re not going to beat Golden State, but who is. If fucking Carmelo would just come off the bench and add offense he could actually help. Sixteen points a game off the bench would not be a bad thing if you can limit his defensive liability.
So far, Presti has done what I wanted him to do. Now only two thungs left on his to do list. Align Carmelo with reality and replace Brian Davis on the play by play broadcast. You don’t have to fire him. Let him be the sideline reporter and and let Leslie McCasland do the post game show.
I feel like Presti is following my template so far.
I’ll talk to Carmelo for him if he wants me to.
So Royce Young and Adrian Woj had it right it when they cited the chances of Paul staying with the Thunder at 85% with a new four year deal at a $137 million dollars. I guess in the world we live in a $137 million dollars tops the Pacific Ocean and having a bunch of David Duke wannabees in your fanbase.
I’m glad this is over. Another Fourth of July will not be ruined as was the case in 2016.
I have no idea where Sam Presti goes with this team considering the presence of Carmelo Anthony, but for the moment a disaster was averted. That disaster would have been sending Oladipo and Sabonis to the Pacers for a one year rental of Paul George.
From a basketball standpoint this really doesn’t change much except now on paper OKC could still possibly be a team in the West with a chance to win the Northwest Division instead of being a team viewed as one fighting for an 8th seed in the West.
Obviously, they need to get rid of Carmelo Anthony’s huge salary and resign Jerami Grant.
But again, this was big for OKC in that if Paul George had left–the Thunder organization would have looked like fools for the second time in a three year period.
Instead, on paper, the Thunder emerge as a franchise with Westbrook, Paul George, and Steven Adams heading into the future.
That’s obviously not enough to unseat the Golden State Warriors, but it is a viable core to give pro basketball the look of a franchise which will not crumble and go away.
Now the Thunder have to figure out what to do with Carmelo’s absurd salary this season and figure out a way to keep Jerami Grant.
Plus…Billy Donovan needs to figure out his basketball team and pray Andre Roberson can play defense like he did before the injury in Detroit.
From an overall overview this in a sense ends the Durant Era in Oklahoma City. There won’t be another bummer on the Fourth of July. A top twenty black free agent for the first time in the history of the franchise besides Russell Westbrook decided Oklahoma City was an okay place to play pro basketball.
I would think this is a big deal for Russell Westbrook. If Paul George had left two years after Durant left for sure thing rings in Golden State the comments about Westbrook’s style of play would have been obvious.
I would also think Sam Presti just exhaled in a big way. He won’t be the guy who traded Harden, lost Durant, and then lost Oladipo and Sabonis for nothing.
Instead, he now has a respectable roster heading into the future even with Kevin Durant in California.
A decade of NBA basketball has now gone by in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant has been gone for two seasons and yet the Thunder sustained as an organization.
A good day for basketball in Oklahoma given where this could have gone after Durant’s departure.
All this drama by the Okies in regards to where Paul George plays his basketball next season. All the guarantees by the Royce Youngs and Adrian Wojes as to why Paul George would stay in a God forsaken faux faith based market like Oke City when the Pacific Ocean is calling you home.
Paul George should go home. Go back to the ocean and get away from a place which gave the guy David Duke endorsed a 70% mandate in 2016.
He should take his son and go home.
Paul George…go home.
If I were a black dude his age with that kind of coin and a young son…I’d get the hell out of this place.
Kind of negative…I know, but that’s what I’d do if I were Paul George.
The fishing is good though. Maybe the fishing will be a factor. There’s great fishing in Oklahoma’s seventy-seven counties.
Count the black faces on the other side of the chain linked fence last summer at Will Rogers Airport.
Just saying….if I were Paul George my ass would be back by the Pacific Ocean and by people who don’t vote for guys David Duke endorses.
Just me.
I will not put another video of Donald Trump on my blog. He is not worthy. He is nothing more than a spoiled, petulant brat who should have had his ass kicked maybe back in the 6th grade or so. Maybe he would have turned out a better man.
A complete total loser.
Too bad none of those sixteen gutless GOP pussies didn’t between them have the balls to say as much…and I do include John Kasich in this group.
It is what it is.
This is what America has become.
Unbelievable.
Go home, Caligula. Let your wife and daughter run the country. They’re smarter than you….by an enormous margin.
I need a sing with alcohol somehow weaved into the lyrics.
Who could have possibly thought immigration reform like health care could be this this complicated?
So tomorrow is the NBA draft and we should begin to get a clearer picture of what the NBA might look like next season.
Here’s what it looks like. Golden State will once again be a prohibitive favorite to win the championship. If Houston resigns Chris Paul they will be the favorite to have the second best squad in the league.
Boston is interesting though. They have the pieces to make themselves as good as Houston and maybe possibly better as the team with the best chance to derail Wanda and Tony Durant’s dream of a threepeat for Cupcake.
All this other window dressing by all these motherfuckers at ESPN like say Brian Windhorst and Royce Young is just that…window dressing.
Because as long as Golden State doesn’t lose its mind and they keep Durant, Curry, Klay, Draymond and Andre together they’re a solid favorite to win the O’Brien Trophy.
I lost a lot of respect for Jim Traber yesterday listening to his crybaby bullshit about Greg Popovich. Traber hates Pop primarily for the things Pop has said about Trump and politics in general. I found it very small of Traber to demean perhaps the greatest coach in the era of collective bargaining in all of pro sports just because like me he thinks Donald Trump is a con artist piece of shit douchebag.
But I will write this though…Pop lived a blessed coaching life with one Timmy Duncan, but you know what…Pop himself has said that many, many times and deflected the credit to Timmy.
So…with the probable departure of Kawhi the end of the Spurs era will somewhat end tomorrow night much like the era ended in Oklahoma City on July 4th, 2016.
I’m very disappointed in Jim Traber.
Hopefully..Paul George somehow stays in OKC and Carmelo’s delusional ass is on some other roster of a basketball team which needs an over the hill overpaid player who hasn’t done anything team wise since he was at Syracuse.
Sam Presti has some serious work to be done.
We’ll see.
I had a very peaceful Father’s Day. I am at peace…and apparently that puts me in somewhat select company. I wanted Brooks Koepka to win the U.S. Open and for Patrick Reed to play well. Both things happened today..
NBA basketball and Donald Trump are the furthest things from my mind.
This is the time of the year I listen to country music. My three favorite country singers are probably Blake Shelton, Jake Owen, and Alan Jackson.
So…I’m going to cap off my Father’s Day with a Blake Shelton song and then watch Bourdain on CNN.
You make your own inner peace is what I would say.
I feel like I’ve lost a family member or a very close friend. Other than sports and occasionally some political bullshit–Anthony Bourdain is all I watch on television.
This caught me completely off-guard in that from the outside it would have appeared Anthony Bourdain had the perfect life.
He changed the way I view the world. He opened new vistas and places I will never see in person. He made me believe Waffle House is a pristine venue to eat great food.
We lost a lot with the moving along of Anthony Bourdain. We lost a national treasure.
I will miss him dearly. I may even go to the Waffle House tonight after his special to give him a special toast.
Be at peace…Anthony. Be at peace.
My heart is obviously broken over Anthony Bourdain. But for the moment or at least a day or two my hockey heart will be warmed by Alex Ovechkin and his teammates.
This championship team was not a Super Team. Not even remotely close. In fact, on paper, this team was not as good on paper as last season when they were ousted by Sid Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
But this Washington club will go down in history as a special team.
They trailed in all four series on their journey to the Cup. They won more games on the road than at home in these Stanley Cup Playoffs. And they clinched all four series on the road.
This was a team which jelled at just the right time and never gave an inch. Never gave up and found a way to win with great team skating, beautiful passing, relentless checking, and a deadly power play fueled by Ovechkin and his 18 goals in post season play.
After thirteen seasons of being one of the league’s best players–Alex Ovechkin has finally reached the summit of hockey. His name is now etched on the Stanley Cup.
My heart has been touched by the Washington Caps and their magical journey. This is why we play, coach, or watch sports.
What a lovely Stanley Cup Tournament.