Author: Mike

I did this once. We routed the Utah Jazz and pulled the Vegas spread. So…I’m sitting here thinking WTF? Let’s try it again and see if we go 2-0 with this highly scientific format.

As Russell would say…why not?

As far as Christmas goes…don’t hate on the Trump people. It does nothing positive in the end. Maybe give them a book by Thomas Friedman or a collection of essays by William F Buckley or something David Brooks has written recently. But enough with the hate. Because in the end, whether you voted for Caligula or Hillary, you know deep inside yourself our political system was and is a cesspool of corruption long before Donald Trump arrived on the scene.

Love, patience, and doing the right things ultimately win. I know this sounds more like Corinthians than something on a rogue Thunder blog, but I felt like maybe I needed to write this on behalf of humanity.

Merry Christmas

LET’S GO THUNDER!

Wow. Seriously. Wow. This is the same Mike Pence who went into seclusion when the Billy Bush Bus Grab a Handful video came out during the campaign. The same Mike Pence who claimed he contemplated leaving the GOP ticket because of Caligula’s performance with Billy Bush.

I mean…wow. My only question is …in the history of the United States have we ever before had a VP go down on a sitting POTUS and swallow during a cabinet meeting? It would be one thing if it were Betsy DeVoss or Elaine Chou or Nikki Haley or Anne Coulter or Michele Bachman, but this is just sick. Seriously sick. I felt violated watching it. What a pathetic display. I feel dirty.

I’ve given this impeachment thing a great deal of thought, and amazingly I don’t think Caligula being impeached helps the country if Mike Pence ascends to the presidency. If you gave me the choice of picking between 1 Caligula, 2 Ted Cruz, or 3 Mike Pence…. I would have to say I’d probably take Caligula.

Wow. Holy shit.

We used to use this coaching our hockey teams…’Never give a sucker an even break–and kick him when he’s down.’

If ever this mantra was applicable to this Thunder team of dysfunction it was on Wednesday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena as Bad Little Dude, a.k.a. Russell Westbrook, buried the reeling Utah Jazz with a first quarter TKO which ended this game and led to a wire to wire 107-79 rout.

True, the Jazz looked worn out before tip at the end of a six game road trip and were minus two of their best players in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, but when you have a team down this is what good teams do.. namely, they put their foot on a throat and leave nothing to doubt.

Of course, the idiots on the Fox telecast, gave Carmelo the Player of the Game award, but anyone who was paying attention knows this was classic Russell Westbrook in the first period as it ‘appears’ the Thunder might be figuring out the hierarchy of their current roster.

For the second straight game, this was MVP Bad Little Dude. This was the guy who had Oscar Robertson fawning over him like Caligula has Mike Pence drooling on him after the tax reform passage. This was that Bad Little Dude.

This was BLD’s line in the rout of Utah. 25 minutes played, +36, 10-13 shooting the ball, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals.

It was vintage Westbrook. When Russell Westbrook narrows his shot selection and goes mid range he becomes a very scary player.

It’s still hard to tell if this team is in the real process of smartening the fuck up or if they just caught a very susceptible Utah team on a bad night, but it’s Christmas and let’s not be too pessimistic.

This is the template for OKC if they want to aspire to overtake Minnesota for the Northwest Division and live to see the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

Of Course, Paul George and Carmelo shot the ball like shit again going a combined 10-24, but on this night it didn’t matter as Westbrook, George, Adams, Roberson, and Jerami Grant used their defensive length to register 15 steals and get out in transition like the team they should be.

Overall, this is not a good shooting Thunder team. The strength of this team should be Westbrook, transition defense to offense, and being a really good rebounding team. This bullshit where you think you’re going to feature thirty-three year old Carmelo Anthony slowing down the ball is not what this team should be about. Carmelo is a luxury, albeit one Sam Presti probably should have passed on, but we have to remember—at the time of Carmelo’s signing Russell Westbrook wasn’t yet signed to his extension.

When OKC gets down to business it can put this defensive team on the floor…Westbrook, George, Adams, Roberson, and Grant. That’s a steal and a fast break basket waiting to happen for the Thunder.

This Thunder team isn’t going to be the Warriors or the Rockets because they don’t shoot the ball like those two teams. So…moving forward, I’m hoping this is more of what we see from the Thunder. Length, defense, transition…something more akin to Nolan Richardson’s 40 Minutes of Hell Doctrine defensively.

Don’t look, but the Thunder just nudged up into the 6th seed in the West. Don’t laugh, even with all the dysfunction, the Thunder could still at some point climb to the No. 4 seed in the West.

But for now, let’s think baby steps. As in overtaking the T Wolves and winning a Northwest Division. That’s the reset, the doable goal, but with an eye to developing a team identity which ‘could’ beat the Warriors or ‘could’ beat the Rockets on a given night. These should be the baby step goals moving forward. It’s up to Billy Donovan as a coach to show us if beating either one of those two teams four times in a two week span is crazy talk Fool’s Gold come April.

The Thunder are now 8-3 in December and 16-15 overall. It ‘appears’ the cloud of dysfunction has lifted a little. Maybe it’s just the feel of Christmas, maybe it was the Whitney Houston song, maybe the Thunder are starting to smarten the fuck up.

Dumb teams are like dogs who play in the street, namely…you don’t see them around very long.

We’ll see.

Utah Jazz in town tonight. The weather has gone from balmy to somewhat Christmasy (word?). I love being able to wear shorts, fish, and hit a golf ball in December, but I do like the cold weather ‘just’ the week heading into Christmas.

I’ve tried helping Billy Donovan motivate these guys on my blog, but to no avail. Even Tramel is doing his best by helping to keep the zebras honest on opponents’ three point baskets. This is the only group to date who haven’t responded to the Al Pacino inspirational speech. I don’t know about these guys. They must smoke weed in the locker room at halftime is all I can surmise at this point. I’ve never seen such a lethargic group in sports coming out of the halftime locker room.

So…I’m going to throw in some Whitney Houston Xmas music on here for some game day relief for our team of dysfunction. Maybe some of these guys will get some inspiration from Whit and actually play hard. Who knows…maybe Carmelo will get a boner and have a little bounce in his step. At this point….I’m trying everything in Dr. El Prez’s arsenal of motivational ploys.

Sigh. We have looked into the mirror and viewed the enemy. The enemy is us. Somehow this pile of human junk bond got himself elected POTUS on our watch. I mean, it’s on us. I knew America had fallen significantly, but I had no idea we had fallen this far. Do your best. Be kind to others. Have empathy for those who need it. Try and live the Golden Rule and be a good Samaritan. Lord knows, we need to be decent to one another in these times of the American/Roman Empire burning in decline.

Maybe the election in Alabama with the idiot knucklehead pedophile Ray Moore was a turning point. I don’t know. I know America is in a state of decay and rot currently. This isn’t what made the country great. This isn’t American Exceptionalism. This is just avarice and greed. Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan would be embarrassed.

The Greatest Generation didn’t win WWII and implement the Marshall Plan for this. Courageous men and women didn’t win the Cold War for this. Brave pioneers didn’t risk everything for the sake of racial equality for this. But here we are.. and hopefully America will weather this storm and find itself again.

The best bang for your basketball buck isn’t in downtown Oklahoma City this basketball season. The basketball storyline in Oklahoma isn’t OKC’s faux claim of having a Super Team which will challenge for an NBA championship.

The best basketball experience in the state this season resides in Norman, Oklahoma with Lon Kruger’s Sooners and his phenomenal freshman point guard Trae Young.

OU improved to 9-1 last night with an easy win over Northwestern State, Louisiana. The Sooners have wins over Wichita State, USC, and Oregon on their nonconference resume so far. The Sooners close out their non-conference schedule this week-end with a game against Northwestern from the Big 10. OU’s lone loss came against Arkansas in the Portland tournament which boasted an elite field of teams.

If you haven’t gone to see Trae Young in person you need to because he leads the nation in scoring and last night tied the NCAA record with 22 assists in a single game. It would not be hyperbole at all to claim Young could very well be a leading candidate for national player of the year honors.

Young played his high school ball at nearby Norman North and was on everyone’s covet list as a high school recruit, but decided to stay ten minutes from home. Originally, I thought Young would at least play two seasons of college ball, but I’m not so sure right now he’s not a one and done.

But it’s not just Young on this Sooner team, Lon Kruger has put together a nice compliment of players around Young who should make the Sooners an entertaining watch once Big 12 play starts after Christmas. The Big 12 is rugged, even TCU with Jaime Dixon is ranked and tough. There are no easy outs in Big 12 hoops.

So while this is a Thunder blog, I’ll be keeping an eye on Trae Young and the Sooners. The Thunder dysfunction is too much. It’s wearing me out. It’s almost worse than the Trump presidency. So, for my mental health I think I’m going to add OU hoops on here this season so as I don’t go completely bat fuck crazy blogging on Sam Presti’s Little Miss Sunshine Experience.

This would be a time I would agree with Russell Westbrook’s father. That being, ‘The ball is your best friend’.

With Steven Adams sitting his second game in a row under concussion protocol, and with both Paul George and Carmelo Anthony in essence playing like a pile of dog shit, Russell Westbrook had no other options left if he wanted to get the Thunder to 15-15 for the season and to 7-3 for the month of December.

Before I get to Westbrook, let’s start with the two superstar additions Sam Presti made to this ball club this summer. Paul George went 3-13 from the field and committed three really bad turnovers. It was horrible. Chief Enabler Billy Donovan said otherwise in his post game presser, but it was horrible. It looked as if Paul George and his agent have already packed it in and are in negotiations with Cleveland, Boston, or maybe even Houston. Who knows for sure? But Paul George was a no show.

Carmelo went 2-6 from the field and for the second straight game had me wishing he was still in New York and Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott were still in Oklahoma City.

But of course…it’s okay for players being paid in excess of $20 million to not show up on the first game of a three game home stand. We know it’s okay because Fox broadcast pom leader Michael Cage explained to all of us the first game of a home stand is really still a road game. Really?

Being a Thunder fan this season is almost unbearable. This is like nothing in the Thunder Era in Oklahoma City. I wish Sam Presti would read my blog because when you have a passionate fan like myself wanting to set this team on fire then you might have a problem fan base wise heading down the road.

The games are depressing to watch. The team is not getting better thirty games in. In all candor, I wish Oladipo, Sabonis, Kanter, and McDermott were still here and the team was just working its ass off, playing hard, and giving hope they could get to the second round of the playoffs this season. I would have been okay with that. Like I wrote on here somewhere…my second favorite Thunder team was the first one, the one which went 23-59. I loved that team because they rallied behind Scott Brooks and as a collective group of young guys worked their asses to become a better team every night.

Back to this game. Russell Westbrook was back to being like reigning MVP. He scored 38 points on an efficient 16-28 shooting night. He just played. He had no other real option given the fact the No.2, No. 3, and No. 4 options got paid for doing nothing in Game No. 30 on the schedule. All three of these dudes should donate last night’s paycheck to a charity. Seriously.

I thought Andre Roberson and Alex Abrines did some nice things on the night, otherwise I gave every other Thunder player a C- or worse on the night.

I’m tired of hearing Billy Donovan make excuses for these guys in his pressers. He sounds more like Mike Gundy explaining why he can’t beat OU than an NBA coach whose job it is to motivate his team to be playing to their full potential and getting better.

Motivation is the No. 1 thing a really good coach does in any sport. Let me quote Vincent Thomas Lombardi on the art of motivation in relation to coaching…

“Coaches who draw a play on a board are a dime a dozen in this business, show me a coach who can motivate his players game in and game out and I’ll show you a coach winning seventy per cent of his games.”

On the night, OKC had 13 assists and yet still won over a Denver team which will probably make the playoffs. OKC won this game for one reason…Russell Westbrook.

I have no idea what Sam Presti is thinking currently. I have no idea if he’s concerned. Given what I hear from Billy Donovan and all the Sean Spicer wannabes on the Fox broadcast…maybe he’s good with all this. I have no idea.

But I know this, I’m not a knee jerker type. But this is some ugly, ugly basketball. At times, unwatchable. I know it’s tough to watch these guys, and I know if this continues Sam Presti will have some problems with his fan base at some point. Oklahoma is a tough ass place to live. It’s not a place for the soft of heart. People here expect their teams to have a work ethic and a sense of pride in their craft instead of playing like a group of entitled pussies. We can handle 23-59, we can’t handled the entitled pussies template. And at the end of the day–if Sam Presti can’t figure it out…I’m pretty sure the fans will.

The Utah Jazz visit Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
——————

The year after 23-59. This is what the Thunder fan base is about.

Best day of the NFL season yesterday. The Pats win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh was easily the game of the year. It met the hype and from my perspective the Pats pretty much punched their ticket to another Super Bowl appearance. Putting the call aside on the overturned touchdown, what would make any Steeler fan think they were going to stop Gronk the next time the Patriots touched the ball. He and Brady at are a different level right now, otherwise the Pats could be beaten.

My Packers were eliminated yesterday in Aaron Rodgers return from the broken collarbone. Aaron threw three interceptions and looked rusty. Aaron usually doesn’t throw three picks in a month.

NFC looks wide open to me with the Vikings, the Rams, and the Eagles all looking like teams on the rise. Know what these three have in common? Sam Bradford at one time in recent years was their starting quarterback. Kind of sad for Sam.

I could care less about the national anthem issue. I wish it wasn’t happening, but I somewhat understand it. I find it amusing that white people who voted for Trump are outraged by what some of the players have done, but have no patriotic qualms whatsoever in regards to Caligula and his henchmen colluding with Russians in an American presidential election.

How can any intellectually honest person reconcile embracing both of these positions? It’s absurd and highlights the incredible hypocrisy in our country.

I’m hoping some of these people at some time google Cold War and Russians…you know so maybe they could understand Russia’s role in being the chief adversary of the United States.

Here’s Tom Brady talking about the win over the Steelers. This is the best part of the NFL season…when I start watching every game. I’ll sing the national anthem as well. What others choose to do is their personal decision. Maybe if these white people ever lived one day as black or brown they might have some empathy for it’s like to be a non-white American.

If you’ve ever played sports you knew the Thunder dug themselves a big hole last night when Russell Westbrook lost his mind and allowed that game to go to three completely unnecessary overtimes in Philly. It was obvious, or at least it should be, they would have no legs tonight in New York. They didn’t. It was obvious. And the Knicks without their best player in Kristaps Porzingis toyed with the Thunder on Carmelo’s forgettable return to Madison Square Garden.

The final read 111-96 in favor of the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony was terrible going 5-16, while on the other end of the floor glassy-eyed Michael Beasley looked All-World in going off for thirty points against the gassed Thunder. I know Michael Beasley. He played one season at K-State for Frank Martin. He has a nice offensive skill set, but not this nice.

The Thunder Fox narrative will be that the Thunder won two of three on this eastern road swing. Moral victory. Yeah, I’d certainly have taken two out of three heading east, but again there was no need for the Thunder to have entered this game with the three overtimes tied around their necks liked chained weight. No need.

Here’s the thing though. With still over two minutes left in New York, Paul George nailed a three from the top of the key to bring the Thunder within 101-95. Ballgame on. Thunder get a stop. Russell Westbrook takes the ball accelerates to Mach I speed and blows himself up at midcourt with a completely unforced turnover. Ballgame over.

That sequence in a nutshell is why the Thunder aren’t really going anywhere except maybe beyond New Orleans, Denver, and Portland in the Western Conference standings. I’m still not totally sure about Minnesota, but I’m not sure the Thunder are smart enough as a team to overcome the T Wolves for the Northwest Division championship.

That’s a fairly damning thing I just wrote if you’ve ever played sports or coached sports. That being, wondering if a team is smart enough to overcome themselves. I don’t write shit like this to be snarky. This is an obscure blog. I don’t need to stir the pot like Berry Tramel to create traffic. I don’t give a fuck about traffic or selling adds. This is my basketball diary. I don’t pander to millennials or Boomers. It’s just me, baby.

But here the Thunder sit at 14-15 with this fatted, bloated payroll Sam Presti has put together and I have serious doubts whether the Thunder have enough smarts and heart to aspire beyond possibly challenging the T Wolves in the Northwest.

Somebody must have gotten to Antonio Daniels on the Fox postgame show. All the sudden he’s tame and lost his edge. He looks like Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest after Nurse Rachet had him mentally spayed.

Et tu, Brute. Dude, you can’t be my Thunder soulmate anymore. It might have to be Tramel.

Anyway, the Thunder now enter an incredibly easy stretch of schedule where they play seven of eight at home. Only once in this stretch will they be a Vegas underdog. That being on Christmas evening against the streaking Houston Rockets. I’ll be there sitting low near midcourt per a Christmas present from my loving son. I can’t decide if I should wear my Fear the Beard t-shirt or not. Probably not.

In closing, a positive. I thought Patrick Patterson really looked pretty good tonight versus the Knicks. That’s a good thing because in seeing Carmelo’s old worn ass tonight it’s fairly evident the Thunder will need Patterson to be what we saw tonight moving forward.

Denver Nuggets without Paul Milsap in Oklahoma City on Monday night. If OKC loses this game even the Fox drones have nothing to say in defense of the effort.

I’m so disappointed in Antonio Daniels.

My challenge to the Fox crew. Tell the truth. In the end, you’ll feel better about yourselves. Especially you, Brute.

Thunder assistant coach Maurice Cheeks was honored last night in Philadelphia as one of the four greatest players in 76’er history. A statue of Cheeks was placed outside the Sixers training facility in Camden, New Jersey. Maurice Cheeks joins Billy Cunningham, Hal Greer, and Wilt as one of the greatest in Philadelphia history.

Cheeks is probably my favorite point guard of all-time because of the way he played the game and the quiet dignity he brought to the table. Kind of like a Barry Sanders version of a basketball player.

The Sixers were my team until we got our own team in Oklahoma City. Just a great player and as a Thunder fan it makes me feel good seeing him involved with our team.

I watch Russell and I keep waiting for that 1983 season like Maurice had where that moment gets through to him that you can’t win the championship by yourself. You just can’t. It’s math, Bad Little Dude. Make the other four guys around you better. You have nothing else left to prove individually. Oscar surrendered. You won. This is stupid. I know you father told you growing up ‘the ball is your best friend.’ That might be okay in youth sports, but this isn’t youth sports anymore.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to get on Westbrook’s ass again on here.

If you’ve never seen this clip of Maurice Cheeks helping Natalie Gilbert finish the national anthem—you might enjoy it.

Have a nice day, Mo Cheeks.