Gong. Will someone please gong these dumbasses and put an end to this. It’s almost anecdotal Trump’s Muslim ban was dealt a 3-0 setback by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier today given the other fluid daily scandal involving Kellyanne Conway. It’s exhausting to keep an eye on all this. We’re only three weeks in and this presidency already rivals those of Johnson, Grant, Harding, and Nixon for overt corruption. I’d rather be writing about the Thunder’s big win over Lebron tonight, but here I am writing this shit about our country’s three village idiots.
Village Idiot #1 Little Donald
Village Idiot #2 Cocaine Kelly Conway
Village Idiot #3 Sean ‘Truman Capote’ Spicer
Good lord. I knew states like Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama weren’t the brightest bulbs in the box, but until now I had no idea our country as a whole was this fucking stupid. It’s over—we are doomed. Take down that wall…I’m going to Mexico.
I’ve thought about this long and hard since Kevin Durant’s weak exit on the Player’s Tribune on July 4th. I’ve thought within myself how I’d view Durant upon his return to Oklahoma City. My decision is that I’ll just view him as any other visiting player. Which means I won’t boo him, but I won’t cheer him as well. He’ll just be the Golden State player wearing No. 35. My heart won’t tug, but neither will I feel enough emotional angst to compell me to boo or yell angry things into the Chesapeake air.
But I won’t hold it against any of my Thunder fans who feel the need to boo him all night long. It’s their right and even though I won’t be joining them — I in no way will ever judge them negatively for doing so.
Let’s make this clear, Kevin Durant is a supremely talented player who is a once in a generation type player. Only problem is–he’s to date shared the same generation with LeBron James who to date has owned Kevin Durant–not even close. I get that part. I get the part where he and Charlie Bell calibrated his best chances to get past LeBron and finally claim a championship at either the college or professional level. I get it. Durant and his handlers don’t want him to end his career being the Jim Kelly of the NBA.
Under the rules he was a free agent. The word implies freedom. He chose to exercise his freedom. He chose the easiest path to beating LeBron with Steph, Klay, Draymond, and Iggy giving him the pieces he needs to finally win a championship. I get all that, I just don’t respect any of it as a league wide NBA fan. I thought what he did was not only bad for Oklahoma City, but more importantly bad for the league as a whole.
I would have totally respected Durant for leaving OKC to either join the Clippers, the Celtics, or even the Spurs. But he and Charlie Bell didn’t do that–they instead joined a team which won 73 games last season and would have won their second straight NBA championship if Draymond Green hadn’t done one of the dumbest things in NBA Finals history in Game 4.
I know that Durant and his handlers want to spin this in a different way, but that’s just basically not the truth–and again it was his choice. When I listen to Durant speak nowadays it’s like I’m hearing Kellyanne Conway or the toady gargoyle Sean Spicer spinning their nonsensical bullshit. Durant left the team which was one game away from making the NBA Finals to join the team which won three straight against Durant to make the Finals. And to be clear, I was at midcourt near the floor in Game 6…I was there. And what I saw was a generational player just flat out choke going 10-31 and committing two incredibly bad turnovers in the final minutes. It was like watching Dustin Johnson five put in previous U.S Opens. It was what it was.
When Harden comes to town, I still love him. I still wear his T shirts. I’d die for him to ask me to tag along at one of his yacht parties. I’ll always have a place in my heart for Jeff Green. For crying out loud, my son named his lab Perk and I’d hug his namesake and buy him a beer anytime… same with Thabo and his wife. I cried when we traded Serge and I’ll be a fan of his as long as he plays. Even when Russell leaves at some point–he’ll be loved here forever unless of course he joins the Warriors.
But with Durant…piss on him. Because at the end of the day he’s somewhat of a transparent phony. And that’s the thing here in Oklahoma City with people–we were all led to believe by things he said and did that he was different than the normal professional athlete. We kid ourselves into believing he was either the next Tim Duncan or Dirk or Kobe or even D Wade before his ugly exit from Miami. Or like Peyton Manning in Indianapolis or Ray Bourque in Boston or Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay–it appeared Durant was not only a special player, but a unique person. In every way Durant and his handlers marketed him that way, but in the end, it appears he was in no way different from most pro athletes. But that’s on us to some degree in that no one put a gun to our heads and told us to read something between the lines which obviously wasn’t there. That part is on us.
So when Durant’s here on Saturday I won’t boo a single time, but neither will my heart tug. I’ve moved on, my heart has moved on as well.
As I watched this ‘interview’ last night, I must admit I actually felt sorry for Kellyanne Conway. She either was stoned, or is an incredible idiot, or like her boss Little Donald is a pathological liar. These people make Nixon look like Bambi in comparison. And here’s the thing–none of the people who voted for Little Donald know when he’s lying because they don’t read. They just watch Sean Hannity and accept all that bullshit at face value. Anyway, either stoned off her ass or lying her ass off. Here’s Kellyanne Conway.
Just in the last twenty-four hours we’ve had the Appellate Court in the 9th District hear the merits of the Muslim ban, Elizabeth Warren being told to shut up and sit down in the U.S. Senate chambers, Jeff Sessions of all people getting ready to be confirmed as the Attorney General of the United States, and self acclaimed white national populist Steven Bannon on the cover of Time magazine with an accompanying story of how he’s running the country and Donald Trump is his puppet. While all this is going on our country clearly is two divided countries within one. Two countries which seemingly can’t exist together. I honestly don’t see a change from this on the horizon. Tough to witness and very depressing. Start dreaming again, America—you’re better than this. You have to be.
It’s not that those of us who didn’t vote for Donald Trump are laughing at those of you who did………… well, actually, I can’t lie. Yes, those of us who didn’t vote for Little Donald are actually laughing at those of you who did vote for this clown. But it’s more of a friendly kind of joint suffering laugh. It’s not like we want to pour diesel on you or anything. Just don’t vote again. Allow people who read to have your proxy.
It was an entertaining game on Monday night as the Thunder dropped a hard fought 93-90 decision to the Indiana Pacers. Russell Westbrook was once again spectacular with a line of 27 points, 18 rebounds, and 9 assists in what should have been his 26th triple double of the season. But it’s kind of hard getting those ten assists when those around you aren’t making shots. It’s even harder winning on the road against a playoff caliber team when you don’t have enough players on your team pulling their link on the proverbial chain. I’m not related to Russell Westbrook, but I had to write this in my first paragraph.
But having written all that, OKC did have the ball with seven seconds left and Westbrook did get two good looks on shots which would have tied the game. Good looks which just didn’t go through the net.
But my take from this is OKC led 52-41 at half, but could only score thirty-eight points in the entire second half. For the game, OKC shot 38% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. Westbrook scored eleven points alone in the fourth quarter, which means the rest of the team scored 27 points in 24 minutes of play in the second half.
Just not enough help for Westbrook is my primary take on this game. Victor Oladipo went 4-16 from the field. Sabonis didn’t score a point and quite frankly should be demoted from the starting lineup given his recent play. Cameron Payne was equally horrific scoring two points, but more importantly he made an inexcusable play on the Thunder’s final possession of the first half which in essence was either a four or five point swing in the game. Just horrendous execution on that play by Payne. Simply put, if Payne can’t play at a higher level than this I’m not sure Semaj Christon shouldn’t be playing those 14 minutes or so. Add to the fact, Anthony Morrow played fourteen minutes and didn’t score a point.
So here’s my stat of the night….Sabonis, Payne, and Morrow played a combined 37 minutes and scored a combined 2 points. Unbelievable. I’m not trying to crank on Sam Presti, but Westbrook needs some help. Get the dude some help scoring the ball.
A bright spot was Andre Roberson. He had his second straight double double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Good for Andre. Keep praying for his shot.
Bottom line…OKC competed hard, but just didn’t get enough offense from the rest of the team. This singular component makes it hard to envision the Thunder being anything more than a seventh seed and a first round exit against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Thunder drop to 30-23 with their next game being at home versus Cleveland on Thursday night.
A very enjoyable Super Bowl Sunday as the Thunder beat Portland 105-99 (my recap), the Patriots stunned the Falcons 34-28 in an OT comeback thriller for the ages, and Lady Gaga gave what I thought was the best Super Bowl halftime show I can ever remember. Incredible that the Falcons choked on a 28-3 lead, but I’m not an Atlanta fan so it’s not like I have to live with this for the rest of eternity. They beat my injury decimated Packers—-so fuck them, they choked. I’ve never really gotten all that emotionally involved in the entire Deflategate saga, but it’s always been fairly clear Tom Brady along with Joe Montana will go down as one of the two greatest quarterbacks of all-time. Personally, I feel this nudges Brady in front of Montana, but we’ll just have to see if those who vote on such things agree with me or not.
The halftime show was fantastic. Lady Gaga was incredible. Too bad Trumpster Fire pissed her off and she didn’t perform at the inaugural. Usually, I watch the commercials very closely, but this year I just wanted to escape Trump for this game and enjoy the game without the obvious underlying tension which has our country consumed. But I have to admit, the John Malkovich commercial was my favorite of the ones I paid attention to. I never saw a Clydesdale commercial which I have to admit disappointed me greatly. Maybe a Clydesdale walking over to Trump and Billy Bush with some Tic Tacs in his mouth and kissing both of them would have created some closure for us if for nothing else.
It’s the New England Patriots versus the Atlanta Falcons tomorrow for the Lombardi Trophy. With my Packers eliminated, I have no preference as to who wins the game. I in no way hold it against Brady and Belichick for supporting Trump. Brady’s a helluva of quarterback and Belichick is perhaps the greatest football coach in the modern NFL era. I’m hopeful politics aren’t part of tomorrow’s game in Houston as America could use a day off from despising one another.
Bush 41 and Barbara will be doing the coin toss honors. I actually voted for 41 twice. His grace since leaving office has been one of the few bright spots in national politics the past twenty-four years. He adopted Bill Clinton as his third son and of all things actually wrote Donald Trump a positive letter wishing him well and not holding a grudge because of the things Trump said about both of his sons in the recent presidential campaign.
I never voted for Bush 43, yet he wrote a moving book entitled 41 which genuinely touched me as I read it while my own father was losing his battle to pancreatic cancer. I love promoting good books on my blog and I’d put this book in that category not so much for the political aspect of the story, but more for the father-son relationship as narrated by a loving son. Given the cesspool we’re currently wading through it would make for a nice read.
Pretty amazing, yet no big surprise in that he’s doing everything he told his supporters he was going to attempt to put in place way back when he was assailing the Republicans, the Bushes, the Koch Brothers, and Goldman Sachs. Well, not really Goldman Sachs in as much as six Goldman Sachs people now fill either Trump’s staff or cabinet. It’s a very white, rich cabinet which in no way is a reflection of America or what the demographics say America will be twenty years from now. In no way is a working class guy from the Rust Bucket represented in all of this either, but you just pray things work out for them. I feel as a collective whole we’ve lost sight of the big picture—all of us on what it means to be American and what the American dream should be for future generations.
This is the first Saturday of Trumpdom when we’ve actually not had a massive national protest or calamity of some sort unless you count a federal judge who was appointed by Bush 43 ruling Trump’s nuance Muslim ban as unconstitutional. That pretty well defines a good day under the rule of Trump. Less than half a dozen protests march in the country it’s a relatively peaceful Saturday. So amidst all this calm I’d like to share two lovely videos on what I think it means to be an American whether you live in the red or blue version of America.