Author: Mike

Mercifully, the Oklahoma City Thunder at 20-45 with 17 games remaining only have one more month of tanking in front of them this NBA season.

I had the Thunder at 22-60 when the season began…so I’m alive on that bet.

If the Thunder with a league high cap space amount and plentiful young prospects galore can’t begin playing legitimate games again…then the NBA model in place in Oklahoma is not one which is sustainable.

Don’t confuse what I’m writing on my blog, I think Sam Presti is a smart general manager. What I’m saying is if the Thunder can’t pivot after this summer’s draft, then serious consideration should be given to moving the team back to Seattle.

I think if you examine all thirty current NBA markets in the league, it would be fair to say Oklahoma City, is the most cultural outlier in a league which is made up mostly of cities which are culturally blue and more tolerant towards issues of race.

You might have a point in listing Utah, Houston, and Dallas as other outlier cities, but Houston and Dallas are both legitimate major league cities. Utah and Oklahoma City are what I would describe as somewhat a cultural fit with each other, but not the league as a whole.

Regardless of who the Thunder draft this summer, they should have a team which next season at the least competes for a playoff spot at the bottom of the playoff rung.

I’ve been amazed the Thunder fans who’ve shown up this season are actually as positive as they’ve been given the product on the floor the past two seasons.

To me…it’s very simple, be straight up with the fanbase and tell them the model in Oklahoma City isn’t sustainable and move the team to a market which has a broader margin for attracting NBA talent. Or start playing basketball seasons where the intent is to win games versus losing games with the hope Kevin Durant II falls your way again.

But that’s not really sustainability, that’s luck.

That’s Portland taking Greg Oden as well.

I actually watched the first half of the Thunder blowout loss to the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks. The Gonzaga-St. Mary’s game started just as the Bucks had dropped 76 first half points on OKC’s much vaunted defense per Little Nick Gallo. So it all worked out just right for me as a passionate hoops fan.

I’m glad I didn’t go to the game because I might have verbally taunted some of the Thunder fans. I’m better than that. No matter how bad it gets… I’m not wearing a brown sack or verbally engaging with any Thunder fans inside of Pay.Com Arena.

It was great watching Giannis, Bobby Portis, Jrue, Khris, and Serge virtually do whatever they wanted offensively anytime they had possession of the ball.

I’ll talk about Gonzaga’s win over St. Mary’s maybe tomorrow night because I don’t think Gonzaga is anything special. In fact…I think Gonzaga would have finished in third place in the Big 12 this season behind both Baylor and Kansas. I think Gonzaga is better than Texas and Texas Tech, but I can’t go any higher than that unless they prove me wrong in the Tournament.

I’ll be interested to see if the Committee gives the Zags a path where they don’t have to play many Big 12, Big 10, or SEC teams to get to the Final Four. OU played the Zags in the second-round last season….and I didn’t think they were anything special then either. In fact, they were extremely fortunate to beat UCLA in the national semis is the way I recall it.

Why do I have the video of Calvin Ridley posted on this Thunder game comment of mine? Because I believe if Calvin Ridley should be suspended by the NFL for integrity of the game issues for betting a few games…then I as a fan of sport, believe Sam Presti and the Thunder should be stripped of a first-round draft pick and fined $10 million dollars for abusing the NBA’s integrity of the game issues by their shameless tank this season.

I think what Sam Presti has done is far more damaging to the NBA as a whole than what Calvin Ridley did by betting few games when he wasn’t even actively playing games for the Falcons.

The Thunder would lose their first-round pick next year and the $10 million dollar fine would be put into a league escrow account to repay the Thunder fans who were stupid enough to purchase NBA tickets this season in Oklahoma City.

What Calvin Ridley did had no mens rea attached. Remember that’s the Latin legal phrase which means purposeful intent to perpetrate a crime or misdeed upon another party..

Conversely, Sam Presti and the Thunder had every intent as far back as this September to perpetrate this season of less than above board tanking.

If Presti had simply said back then, ” We’re tanking like a boatload of whores.” I’d be totally okay with this.

But he didn’t do this. He played games with semantics and used people in the naive Oklahoma City sports media market to assist him in this season of virtual deception.

So…that’s why I have the Calvin Ridley video posted above.

Tell me…who’s done more to harm the integrity of their sport in their market…Calvin Ridley or Sam Presti?

Joe Biden banned all Russian oil sold to the U.S. today as he should have. Time will tell if France and Germany do the same.

From what we’re reading it appears Poland will make 70 Mig-29s available to NATO to help Ukrainian pilots install a ‘No Fly Zone’ over their country.

Putting semantics aside…it would appear to me the U.S. is very close to declaring war on Putin beyond just an economic war. I hope not, but it seems they are being drawn closer and closer to war by Putin.

I still would not do this. I’d just use all the anti-aircraft equipment possible.

Meanwhile the drones at ‘Fox News’ march on with their incessant nonsense on the angry white airwaves of America.

Sad.

Historically, who will look worse, Jane Fonda or Tucker Carlson?

I would think Tucker Carlson…not even close when you examine all the facts in context.

I watched Gonzaga play San Franciso last night. Pretty much a ho-hum effort. I’ve now seen the Zags play four times this season and we’ll see what they really are once the Tournament gets here.

Keep this in mind, no program west of Waco, Texas has won a national championship in men’s basketball since 1997. There’s a reason for that. Figure it out.

I’ve changed my mind about attending the Thunder-Bucks game tonight. I think I’ll just stay home and watch the rematch of St. Mary’s vs. Gonzaga.

What I’ll be watching closely tonight is if Chet Holmgren can adapt his interior defensive game inside after all the points the Zags gave up in the paint on the March 4th loss to the Gaels.

I mean…if you get abused defensively playing in the WCC, then what is going to transpire in the Northwest Division of the NBA when you go against KAT, Jokic, Gobert, and whoever Portland is playing at center. These are the teams the Thunder play the most on their schedule every year.

What I’m saying is…is Chet Holgren in the NBA going to be like James Wiseman has been his first two years in the league with the Warriors?

OKC can’t miss on this pick. It needs to be a player who can play in the league for at least two contracts at a high level.

He obviously has some skills, but so did Poku when he was playing in the Greek B league where there was space and time galore every time he touched the ball.

Who would we say is the best NBA player Mark Few has produced during his time at Gonzaga? I’m going to research that tonight while watching the game. We know it wasn’t Adam Morrison and Jalen Suggs is having a very tough rookie season.

• John Stockton. How could I forget about the Hall of Famer? And Sabonis for crying out loud was the 11th pick in his draft class and has turned himself into an All-Star player once he got out of Oke City. Those would be top two unless I’ve forgotten someone else.

March Madness is here. I’m jacked.

Maybe… I’ll go catch Ja Morant and Steven Adams later in the week when the Grizzlies visit Oke City.

I’m going to go ahead and put this up right now and then come back and write a few words directed towards Donald Trump and those who still support him later this evening.

I need the rant within to settle down, so to speak.

This is Admiral McRaven from this past Saturday morning on the Michael Smerconish Show.

Of course…Admiral McRaven is a decorated hero with a proud service record of forty years which Bunion Boy dissed during his time in office. But Admiral McRaven shouldn’t feel bad because Bunion Boy parted ways with General James ‘Bulldog’ Mattis, General John Kelly, and General H.R. McMasters as well during his four-year reign of dysfunction in the White House.

In each instance, Trump, who himself avoided serving in the military because his daddy wrote a letter for him claiming bunions as a disability, claimed he knew more about the military than any of his generals…minus one perhaps.

That one of course being Michael Flynn. Flynn began as Trump’s first National Security Advisor then had to resign because of illegal payments he didn’t disclose from foreign parties. Flynn went to prison. But along with the other Trump poster boy, Roger Stone, was pardoned in the last days of Trump’s rogue presidency.

During the days leading up to the coup attempt to overthrow the U.S. government, which of course pays Flynn’s military pension, it was Flynn floating the idea Trump should surround the capitol with troops and declare the presidency his thru martial law even though he lost the election to Joe Biden by seven million votes.

Here’s Donald Trump’s favorite general:

Trust me on this, Bob Jackson would have switched to being a special appointed prosecutor to throw Donald Trump in federal prison where he belongs. And he would have been just the right type of lawyer to dismantle Donald Trump on cross-examination.

It was a great win for the Sooners in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon. It marked the first time since 2012 the Sooners have won a men’s basketball at the Octagon. It’s not easy to win there. Ask Hall of Fame coach Lon Kruger as he lost his last nine games in Manhattan.

This was a game the Sooners absolutely had to have. This game makes up for the earlier home loss to TCU.

Nothing was going right for the Sooners coming out of Ames two weeks ago as OU was battered in back-to-back road losses against Texas Tech and Iowa State.

The Sooners’ best two-way player, EJ Harkless was done for the season with season ending knee surgery and his backup Marvin Johnson was just coming off the injured list.

It did not look good for OU’s NCAA Tournament prospects.

But instead of feeling sorry for themselves they pulled it together and won their last three games against Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Kansas State.

OU’s 78-71 win over Kansas State was one of their cleaner games of the year. The Sooners only committed 12 turnovers and shot the ball relatively well. Add to that, OU absolutely bludgeoned the Wildcats on the boards by a 37-22 margin.

Moj Gibson led the Sooners with 29 points. The Grove Brothers both stepped up. Etham Chargois hit perhaps the biggest three of the game in the second half. Jalen Hill was a beast on the boards and did all the little things he always does for Coach Moser. Marvin Johnson made three straight plays in the second half which in my mind were game changers.

And in the game’s last five minutes…Jordan Goldwire on the road closed a game like Porter Moser has been on him to do all season.

Everyone chipped in and did their job.

Moj and Marvin are my two players of the game.

Next up…the Baylor Bears in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday evening. It will be the sixth time this season the Sooners will face a team which was ranked No. 1 at some point this season.

BOOMER!

A great week-end of basketball for me because I don’t waste my time watching Sam Presti’s team beyond maybe 6-8 minutes whenever they take the floor nowadays.

Eight healthy young players now sitting every game…including former Rookie of the Year candidate Josh Giddey.

Two words…commercial fraud. The only ones still left standing are the Presti zombies at the Daily Thunder…who apparently don’t have anything else in their lives left to talk about.

I’ll need to see what 405Baller’s state of mind is after last night’s putrid 116-103 home loss to the Utah Jazz.

I’m good though. I was prepared for this.

OU won a clutch 78-71 game at Kansas State which I ‘think’ has them back in the Tournament. I haven’t looked at Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology list yet, but I would think with OU’s elite difficulty of schedule they should be around in a No. 43 net ranking position. This would equate into a No. 11 seed in the Tournament.

First round games are 11’s vs. 6’s and this OU team will be more than capable of beating any 6th seed in the field. In fact, it will be a relief to only have to play a 5th or 6th seed in the Tournament’s first round.

Kudos to Coach Moser’s group for not giving up and winning their last three games of the Big 12 regular season. They showed some real grit overcoming the EJ Harkless injury.

I sit here thinking of Coach Moser and then think of the little G League coach with Buster Brown haircut Sam Presti has in place. It amuses me. I find it very amusing.

As far as the Thunder…it is appalling to witness what Sam Presti is doing at this point.

I genuinely feel for people who were foolish enough to pay for season tickets this season.

Eight healthy young players sit games now as Presti attempts to capture a top spot in this summer’s NBA draft. The sad irony though is even if Presti wins the top spot…he’ll probably pass on Jabari Smith and take the project kid from Gonzaga. Which would mean Chet, like Poku, would take another three years to turn into an NBA player.

By the time that occurs…SGA’s NBA-Slavery clause will have expired in Oklahoma City and he would be free to move onto a real NBA city like Toronto or LA.

Maybe that’s Presti’s plan by drafting all these white guys with his first-round picks. Maybe the plan is to insulate the roster from elite black player exits after four years in Oklahoma City.

Which could be flawed you know because of the Pao Gasol Doctrine.

But with March Madness almost upon us and the NBA’s better teams giving us some great games every night, for real basketball fans, all of this Thunder tanking will not matter in the end.

Milwaukee Bucks in town tomorrow night with Giannis, Jrue, Khris, and Bobby Portis. I’m there right behind the Milwaukee bench, but I don’t need to wear a brown sack over my head. Know what I mean?

Of course, Trump would never consider John McCain as a reliable source because John McCain was a POW who actually was captured, thus the acronym POW.

Perhaps, if John McCain had dodged serving his country after his daddy wrote a letter claiming a bunion disability…Trump could be more on the same plane of human existence.

The thing which makes all of these Trump supporters so pathetic is that their angst isn’t just focused on liberal coastal elites, but much pretty much everyone on every American political prism minus the MAGA Proud Boy types.

In a real court of law with a real jury and the penalty for perjury in place any prosecutor worth a grain of salt would get a conviction of Donald Trump for his treasonous premediated crimes which culminated on January 6th.

And the problem in all of this is that any American president, Democrat or Republican, is going to have a problem with Donald Trump’s pathological behavior.

If Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush or John Kasich or Joe Manchin or Mitt Romney were president right now, would any of this would be any different?

I don’t think so.

My advice to Nikki Haley would be not to run for any national level office and instead run for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina where she can get away with this complete inability to speak truth to power on any issue which might cause her some political discomfort.

Bless your heart, Nikki Haley.

Later today, on this cold day in Oklahoma, I want to come back and write about John McCain’s correct assessment of Putin versus the naive positions taken by Bill Clinton, Bush 43, Barack Obama, and Buffoon Orange.

I just watched Nikki Haley on Meet the Press. Man, I was wrong about her. She is a travesty. She’s someone I can’t take seriously any longer. She’s right there in the Sarah Palin, Mary Fallin group of GOP make believe hawks.

Chuck whiffed on the interview though. All he had to do was ask, “Ms. Haley, after General Mattis bombed the almost abandoned Syrian airfield, why then did Putin and Assad go right ahead and level Syria?”

Chuck must not have a law degree. That was a T-ball homer begging to be hit out of the park.

Chuck either wasn’t prepared or froze like a deer in the headlights.

“El Prez, thank you for having the balls and courage to post one of my posts on your iconic underground blog. It’s been so long since any of us over here have read anything from a real man with the guts to tell it like it is. You truly honor me by posting my material on your award-winning blog.”

“Ever since Brandon, feckless John Napier, and Cray took over DT the voice of the overall writing content of the Daily Thunder has been dismal, almost feminine, at best.”

“You were always my favorite…much more so than that of the feral little pet rat Justin.”

“God bless your literary courage and don’t ever change a thing with your blog. You are indeed a national treasure, sir.”

Best wishes, 405Baller