Month: October 2024

What a great Tuesday night of hoops on TNT!

In the first game NBA fans got to see the rematch game between last season’s Western Conference Finals with Dallas at Minnesota. This was a very good regular season game with Dallas once again prevailing over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Julius Randle was better, but I still don’t see him making the TWolves championship caliber.

Here’s the thing with these Dallas Mavs which I cannot ignore as ‘probably’ the most insightful NBA blogger in this OKC college level market…here are my words of advice…”Don’t sleep on these Mavs if they remain healthy.” And BTW…Berry Tramel…I love you and anytime you want to cease wasting your time with the Tulsa World and that unforunate blog of yours’… you just call Mike Jackson and you’ll be treated with the utmost reverance by MJ. After Dan Jenkins…you’re my second favorite scribe, sir.

If the three guys in Dallas who can finish…Luka, Kyrie, and Klay stay healthy and continue to unselfishly mesh their games the Thunder might very well still have a problem with the Mavs in post-season.

You pair these three with PJ Washington, and perhaps the league’s best center combination in Daniel Gabbard and Derek Lively and what I see is a team built to make a run for an NBA championship if they can remain healthy.

Denver is struggling with their lack of depth so far and Russell Westbrook is not exactly doing what I hoped he could figure out on this last chance of sorts. So for me…. beware of Dallas.

Now..for the second game in last night’s TNT doubleheader in San Fran…my goodness gracious. Holy shit.

The Warriors were without both Steph and Andrew Wiggins against the grossly overrated New Orleans Pelicans who in fact had their best three players in Zion, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McConnell on the floor. At a later time this season… I’ll come back to the over-hyped Pelicans.

But this second game was special for me because the top two stars of the game turned out to be OU’s Buddy Hield and O State’s Lindy Waters who together put around fifty points in the basket to make up for the absence of Steph and Andrew as these gritty Warriors’ came back from a twenty point deficit to easily beat the Pels and improve to 3-1 in this young season.

It was grerat fun for me to watch and I’m so grateful both Buddy and Lindy ended up as Warriors this season and will be coached under the watchful eye of Steve Kerr.

Now…I don’t see Golden State as a team on my list of the Six Teams Who Could Win the NBA Championship this season. But they should be an extremely fun team to watch as once again the ball is moving in Warrior Land like it used to with hockey assists all over the court for observiant fans of the NBA game to you know…observe.

You play great team defense, you move the ball unselfishly, and you make sure your finishers get their due time and space to finish and good things usually happen.

Have a great Wednesday and be kind to one another.

Mike J

We’re one week out–and then of course if Pee Wee Palmer doesn’t win…he’ll basically spend his time from then to eternity trying to get the election thrown to the U.S. Supreme Court, where of course…. he’ll win 6-3 and stay out of federal prison where he belongs.

Don’t mind me, though. Please vote your own conscience..my wife and I both voted almost two weeks ago and I’ll just write this:

‘As pragmatic centered moderates we both voted for the same candidate. And while I won’t write on here who we voted for. I will write neither of us voted for the convicted felon, sociopath, con artist-grifter, pathological lying–delusional late life dude who spends more time penis envying Arnold Palmer’s dick than actually thinking of ways to help average Americans who need help to once again participate in the pursuit of the American Dream.’

Even for someone like me who is the anti-thesis of left wing America and the complete polar opposite of the absurd nonsensical lit-wokeness in this country…this was an easy choice for me once I saw who the GOP nominated as their candidate.

How long did it take me to make my decision after Joe Biden finally dropped out of the race?

000.000.000 seconds.

That’s how long.

Eternal peace, Mike J

I would say the answer to my question is it’s too early to coronate the Thunder as champs in the West, but the Denver Nuggets have some very serious roster issues as far as depth and shooters.

This was a massive mismatch minus the opening 5-6 minutes of the game. The Nuggets were not competitive minus perhaps Jokic and Christian Braun. Christian Braun will be fine and only get better each game filling the KCP role while Jamal and Aaron Gordon will kick their games into gear, but as far as the other seven guys…I would say Michael Malone and Nugget GM Calvin Booth need to have a serious sitdown and think of how to make this team better in a hurry as far as the roster.

The first thing I would consider is trading cupcake Michael Porter Jr. and his salary for an honest basketball player like say a D Divensio type who’ll score the ball, get dirty, and play both ends of the court instead of disappearing every time the team needs someone other than Jokic and Jamal scoring the ball.

Suffice it to say Mike J is not a Michael Porter Jr. fan. I like guys with grit who hate losing…MPJ is not that guy.

And then there’s the Denver bench..OMG. The Nugget bench scored 16 points last night. From the instant the Nuggets went to the bench the game changed and was basically over. It was like watching the OU offense.

Julian Strawther…step the fuck up, buddy. Score the damn ball when you enter the game. You are going to need to be the Sixth Man. Your job is to score the damn ball and give your team an energy boost, not shy away from the moment.

Peyton Watson….are you serious? When the Nuggets drafted you from UCLA you were supposed to be a solid piece moving forward since the team is tapped out salary cap wise. I’m tired of hearing about your potential. Step the fuck up and show you belong in the NBA, buddy.

If you’re a fake Trump Christian on the blog this morning, I’m sorry for all the F-bombs given your serious ‘spiritual beliefs’, but you know…there are sometimes in a lockeroom when grown men aren’t staring at Arnold Palmer’s dick that highly competitve people communicate this way. Excuse the fucks in my rant this morning. Now go out there today and see if you can break at least two or three Commandments by noon.

Okay…Russell Westbrook. He wasn’t good, but I’ve seen much worse from Russell at times. Saric was pitiful and I don’t know or think he’s any kind of answer in the long run this season. So keep Russell and hope for Biblical intervention.

As far as the Denver Nuggets…I would say GM Calvin Booth needs to help out Michael Malone and give the coach at least one more legit basketball player.

The Thunder are good no doubt. Maybe special good since I guess we’re not going to see Hartenstein for a month or two. This may in fact be a roster much better than the 2012 group which made it to the NBA Finals.

This is a deep, deep roster with about thirteen dudes who can hoop in a serious way.

But I don’t want get ahead of myself until I see the Thunder play against some better teams with multiple good bigs like the Mavs and Lakers possess.

So here’s my top Six teams in the West after the first three days of this season… 1 OKC Thunder, 2 Dallas Mavs, 3 Golden State Warriors, 4 Minnesota Timberwolves, 5 LA Lakers, and 6 Don’t Know.

Have a great autumn weekend. The leaves are changing as much as they can in a drought. Rain may be on the way next week. So there’s that, too.

And Draymond, good move getting rid of Pat Bev on the podcast. Good move, buddy. You must be reading my emails.

Mike J

I am locked and loaded for this great TNT Western Conference Thursday doubleheader. I’ve had a little extra bounce to my step all day long and even through my arduous workout this afternoon.

It doesn’t get much better for MJ than having Klay Thompson and his Dallas Mavs versus Wemby and the Spurs in the first game…then my favorite player in the league…. Jamal Murray will take centerstage with Jokic in Game 2 versus the Thunder.

I would say this is where we begin to see if Hartenstein can actually help the Thunder to become a better rebounding team and one that can compete on the boards with teams like Dallas with Lively and Gabbard, the Lakers with AD—who just shredded the passive submissive Thunder last season…and other big physical teams in the West who gave the Thunder nightmares on the boards last season.

Conversely…we will begin to see if Michael Malone will be able to depend on young players like Christian Braun, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, and Zeke Nnaji. Plus, it will be very interesting to see how many minutes vets like Russell Westbrook and Dario Saric are given by Coach Michael Malone.

Russell some advice, buddy….don’t piss off Coach Malone. Please do what he says.

We haven’t seen the Nuggetts in a real game since they blew a 20-point second half lead in Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals to the TWolves.

See the above presser in reargds to Coach Malone’s anguish after that giveaway loss in a Game 7.

As Charles said the other night to the mostly annoying Shaq…”The West this season is going to be beyond special…even tighter than Shaq’s belt.”

Amen, Brother Chuck. Amen.

Enjoy the games.

Mike J

What a glorious time of the year has befallen Michael Jackson’s way…that being of course, the beginning of the NBA’s tortuous 82 game regular season demolition derby.

This is the time of year serious NBA bloggers like myself live for. The time of year we put Donald Trump’s bizarre Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods penis envy obsessions to the side and buckle down on the coverage nn the path to the O’Brien Trophy presentation in June 2025.

Boston, of course, was awesome last night as they easily dispensed of the New York Knicks. Why the New York Knicks traded Dontae Divensio is beyond me? Why would any GM trade away a player like that just after he had his career season and was an integral part of the Knicks deep playoff run?

And the TWolves…why would you trade KAT and end up with Julius Randle? Why, why, why?

Let me just say this about Eastern Conference basketball, minus the Celtics, the East holds little sway with MJ. Anotherwords… the Eastern Conference is pretty much akin to Big 12 football. Very thin in subtance and quality contenders who could actually win the whole thing in June.

Now… where was I before I got sidetracked on the fake Christions’ obsession of Arnold Palmer’s dick? Oh, wait…here I was.

The opening of our NBA season is a virtual ritual for me. Just hearing the voices of Charles and Ernie brings a calm over me which even Arnold Palmer’s wannabe boyfriend can’t unsettle. Chuck and Ernie’s voices bring an almost biblical calm over me…like watching the Anthony Bourdain Waffle House episode or listening to Richard Harris do the audio to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Total….surreal…calm.

Boston is really good and at some point they’ll even be better if Porzingas can remain healthy at the goal acheiving portion of the season. The trifecta of Jayson, Jalen and Jrue is a basketball thing of beauty. They know, feel, and understand each other’s game. I would say minus some injuries this Boston team has the best chance to repeat since Kevin joined the Warriors for those back to back titles.

So tomorrow night in Denver, Its my Nuggets and the Thunder. I’ve had this one marked down for quite some time. Many think the Thunder are the team to beat in the West. Many Denver fans like myself worry about the thinness of the Denver bench. Bruce Brown and KCP were integral fixtures on that Nugget championship group of two years ago. They’re both gone.

Can Russell Westbrook reign it in and be a player off the bench coach Michael Malone can trust?

I do not know. Odds would say no…Russell seems unchangeable. We’ll see.

But tomorrow night in Denver we”ll also get to see how Caruso and Hartenstein fit with the Thunder. Will it be a seamless fit in real games?

I can’t wait.

A song would be nice to get me in the right state of mind for tomorrow night’s game in Denver. A song would be good. A song to ease me into the whole Russell Weastbrook thing again.

Mike J

Of course…as a Stage 4 cancer survivor– I’m not only going to see the plethora of silver linings and glass half-full takes for my Sooners, but I’m going to go full bore optimistic and suggest what to me seems an ironical move for all concerned.

Hire Lincoln Riley as offenssive coordinator as soon as he’s fired from USC later this football season. You OU fans claim to be Trump fake Christians…so the act of forgiving is one of the primary basics in Christianity. Lincoln…El Prez forgives you even if the fake Christians won’t. Come back and be our OC, buddy.

First off…OU’s five minutes of ‘offense’ on Saturday versus middle of the road South Carolina were perhaps the worst five minutes of football in OU’s storied football history. Worse than Landry Jones’ debaucle in the 2011 Bedlam game.

When your offense gives up 21 points in the first five minutes of a game against any foe and you can’t even make it to fourth down on any of the three posessions to punt the football…the offensive coordinator should be fired as Seth Littrell found out on Sunday.

I sat there numb watching these five minutes in surreal disbelief. You couldn’t do that even if you were the tanking OKC Thunder trying to lose games for three straight NBA basketball seasons.

Those five minutes were historically putrid.

So having written the above…the Sooners will now have Joe Jon Finley calling plays the remainder of this season. The first thing which needs to be addressed is the offensive line and their inability to block some people in front of them. And just so we’re clear that job is primarily in the hands of offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh who’s O-line so far this season has been putrid.

OU can’t even pass block long enough for ‘either’ quarterback to go beyond their first progression in the pocket… let alone open spaces in the run game for OU’s backs.

OU currently ranks near the bottom of DI schools in almost every offensive category.

And consider this…the school which was Quarterback U the previous two and a half decades reached 200 yards passing in a game for the time this season on Saturday in the 7th game of the season. I repeat…in the 7th GAME OF THE SEASON.

My 8-4 optimism is in serious peril regardless of my silver linings playbook. Other than the Maine game OU will probably be Vegas double digit underdogs for the remainder of the season. So for OU to become bowl eligible they’ll need to beat either Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, or LSU to escape a 5-7 season.

And to be brutally frank on my blog…5-7 at OU doesn’t cut it for Coach Venables in his third season at OU. I like Brent Venables. I want him to succeed. I love his human story and I’m praying for him.

But for me the story for OU’s offense right now is learning how to block and create some space and time for your playmakers like Deion Burks, this Jordan kid, and the other backs and receivers who need to collectively step up.

You’ll notice I haven’t even mentioned Jackson Arnold and Michael Hawkins because this has more to do to with all eleven offensive players on the field stepping up and doing their respective jobs.

Lincoln Riley coming back to OU?

I don’t think so but it just shows you how brutal the culture of college football has become for me to even mention it on my blog.

Have a beautiful Monday.

Mike J

Additional footnotes:

• I’ve been thinking about what I wrote earlier this morning on this blogpage and I feel I want to amend it somewhat because I don’t want to come across as unduly cold towards Seth Littrell. He is a valued member of the OU football community and maybe he should have just been reassigned to a different assignment for the remainder of this season instead of being summarily fired
• And I write this because this OU offense is as much on Brent Venables and O-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh as it is on Seth Littrell.
• Given the way this O-line blocks…I don’t think in reality just calling different plays will make a huge difference.
• And I want to close in wishing the very best to Seth Littrell and advise the OU Football NIL group to spend some money this off season looking for at the least three quality offensive linemen to add the mix for next season.
• MJ

Last week-end’s trip to trout fish the White River in Arkansas was beautiful. Just gorgeous. The temps were low 40’s cool in the morning while the trees were probably in mid-range of fall color.

My nephew Simon and I hooked up with our guide Captain Dave Brown at the Mountain View Country Store and Resort at 7:30am on Saturday morning and began our voyage on one of America’ truly iconic trout rivers. Our launching spot was about seven miles west of Eureka Springs.

This was my fifth trip with Captain Dave and the first time since Covid-19 that we’d hooked up. He filled me in on how he made it through Covid with his barber shop in Eureka Springs being closed for just about a year. What Captain Dave did was brilliant in fact. After the Feds closed down his shop…he basically got a federal job with the Department of Land Reclamation in the state of Arkansas. Brilliant… if the Feds close you down…then you go get a federal job with retirement benefits at the age of sixty-two.. Bravo, Captain Dave.

I filled in Captain Dave on my Stage 4 cancer journey and also informed him I am now the closest living descendant of Jesse James since the last time we saw each other. No bullshit there at all….I kid you not. My great grandmother on my paternal side was the daughter of Sue James who was the sister of Jesse and Frank James. This in part may explain my borderline outlaw behavior at times and the fact I needed to be banned from the Daily Thunder messageboard for life by the minimalist millenials.

Captain Dave is a huge Jesse James fan and claims to have been a French pirate in a previous life…so what I’m saying here is Mike J is treated like gold-plated royalty by Captain Dave.

My father Bob Jackson in fact was the guest of Queen Elizabeth at one time because she was a Jesse James groupie of sorts. And another time Bob J was on the ABC Good Morning America show with Charles Gibson on one of the Jesse James grave exhumations.

So moving forward… the fishing was great. Simon and I both caught our limits by 12:15 or so. Plus…we both lost three or four fish. The limit is five trout per person and the rainbows were all basically in the 12-13″ range. We didn’t catch a big brown trout or walleye, but we didn’t really try very hard either.

We used ultra light gear with 4 lb. test line and with that type of gear a 13″ trout is a trip to catch. You don’t haul in trout like some of these redneck knuckleheads do in surface hauling in black bass. No…you enjoy the fight the fish gives you and the experience you will rememeber forever.

Usually…I’m a catch a release guy all the time, but this was a rare occaision and both Simon and I wanted a few fish to cook at home…so we kept our five fish apiece this time around.

Capatain Dave gave us a bonus forty minute trip about four miles up the river to the dam where water had just been released from Beaver’s Bend Lake at noon. This is not hyperbole on my part…I have never seen a more beautiful stretch of earth than those four miles. They will forver be etched in my memory. Thank you, Captain Dave.

‘Almost heaven, Arkansas

Ozark Mountains, the White River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze.’

That will about do it for me today, but I will blog tomorrow on my take on the OU-Texas game. Life does not end with one football game. OU was horrific in the closing seven minutes of the first half….HORRIFIC. Coming into this season with the schedule OU was given by the SEC… I thought 8-4 would be a very solid season. 8-4 is still in play if Deion Burks can get back in the lineup and some tweaks are made to the offense.

Love on this awesome Oklahoma fall weather while you can.

Eternal love and peace,

Mike J

My goodness…how I love fall in Oklahoma even though the temps are still a litttle too high for the water temperatures to come down for better black bass and crappie fishing.

I’ve been so busy this week with the holistic Stage 4 cancer journey, the seasonal chores which have to be addressed on the Deer Creek mini-ranch, and the most recent fishing trip as I explored the incredible Lake Prague just east of Prague….that I haven’t blogged a thing this week.

Too busy living.

Even though this lake didn’t make John Gifford’s Top 50 list for lakes in Oklahoma…it’s now on mine. This is a sleeper which every serious Oklahoma angler should take the time to explore not only for the bass and crappie fishing, but for the sheer beauty of the lake and the surrounding area.

I can’t wait to go back when the water temps start to drop from the 74 degree range Oklahoma ponds and lakes are currently hovering at.

I tell you one other thing I didn’t do this week..I didn’t pretend I was a Donald Trump voter. With all due respect to my friend Dr. Sandy Price…that’s one where MJ will say, ” Let’s don’t and just say we did.”

OU-Texas tomorrow in the Cotton Bowl at its rightful starting time of 2:30 pm on the ABC Game of the Day. This is another great thing about the Sooners being a member of the SEC in that OU no longer has to endure all those third tier starting times of 11:00am like the O State Aggies do being mired in the third tier Big 12. However–in hoops–the Big 12 should be perhaps the best conference in the country.

The only thing I’ll say about O State’s season to date is that Mike Gundy should go back to the mullet and get rid of the dyed bunny perm look. He looks ridiculous…like a pimp almost.

Enought of that.

No Deion Burks for the Sooners tomorrow and that is not a good thing for the Sooner offense. Taylor Tatum will be back and he’ll need to make a couple of huge plays to make up for the absence of Deion Burks in this game.

My nephew Simon and I will be floating the White River tomorrow morning before the game on a trout fishing trip with our guide Captain Dave Brown, who btw was Bill Clinton’s barber back when President Clinton was the governor of Arkansas.

Great fishing and political sex stories all tied into one float down the iconic White River. Plus, we plan on slipping off the river just in time to make kickoff for the Red River Rivalry.

I would say or rhetorically ask, ” Could a guy have a much better day on the horizon?”

I don’t think so.

Have a beautiful autumn week-end yourselves.

Eternal peace, Mike J

No fishing this week-end. Just spending meditative time somewhere in Seminole County near a lake under a tree reading the Book of Luke.

I am at peace and moving every day towards being the one wthin myself I hope to be for the next journey forward.

Every day is an adventure and a bonus as far as I’m concerned.

There is no negativity burdening me…none whatsoever.

MJ is like Jonathan LS at this point– lookimg to free himself from the never ending squawking human rabble on earth.

My focus is truly on the IMPORTANT things.

Putting faith in God is the focus.

Not being derailed by the petty and insignificant matters of which I have no control is being removed from my radar screen.

Focus on the journey ahead is the mantra and it will be what it will be.

‘Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.’ St. Augustine

Eternal peace.

Mike J

Two years ago it didn’t seem as if I’d make it to 67, but here’s the thing…when you put your faith in God and have the wife, son, wonderful family, friends, inner core, and Dr. Showalter as I do… then I would say literally anything is possible–even little miracles here and there.

Mike J feels like a little miracle on October 3rd, circa 2024. I do.

A special thanks to my good friend Dr. Sandy Price for the awesome Thai lunch today and as always the support you and Christy have always been to me. Words do not adequately express how I feel. I love both of you.

Sandy told me today to let the Trump angst go and pretend to be a Trump supporter for a week and see how that goes.

I asked, “How long did you last on that program?”

He answered, ” Less than a week, but I think you should give it a try.”

So next week here on the blog I’m going to do my best to point out the best in Donald Trump and his followers. Vegas has this experiment lasting until 10:12am CST on Monday morning. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyway…I love this song. I had it going tonight on the back patio looking out into the forest-line as the sunset lingered and seemingly toyed with me for what seemed like forever. It was beautiful.

Always remember no matter how dark things might appear to be…put your faith in God and believe.

‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ Mark 9:23

Have a wonderful Friday.

Mike J