Month: June 2025

Life is more than ironic sometimes. It truly is. I mean…five years ago, Donald Trump tried to have his own Vice-President dangled from a noose…and now, he’s the leader of the Christian right selling his own cell phone brand as POTUS 47. Go figure.

So I’m sitting here on this Monday as it’s about to rain just north of us out here on the mini-ranch at Deer Creek and trying to come to terms with what we just witnessed a week ago.

THAT BEING…the least likely franchise in the NBA just won the NBA championship in a Game 7…and this same group primarily which won’t be in the clutches of the 2nd Apron next season and will be a prohibitive Vegas favorite to repeat next season when all this starts again without Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton.

In the words of my mentor, Dan Jenkins, life its ownself can sometimes be a marvel to witness. This clearly is one of those times.

And the crazier thing is…Clay Bennett and a group of investors back in 1997 had Oklahoma City on the virtual cusp of bringing an NHL franchise to OKC. The OKC group appeared to have won the battle…then at the last minute the group from Columbus, Ohio produced a sweeter bid and in essence stole the franchise away from the Oklahoma City group.

But here’s the thing…as it turns out…. what a lucky break for Oklahoma City because no one appears to really even give a shit about hockey anymore in Oklahoma City after the AAA Edmonton experience later flopped because of a lack of ‘real hockey’ interest. Whereas… Denver lives and breathes ice hockey with the Avalanche and the the ten-time DI national champion University of Denver program

OKC as a market showed no interest whatsover in hockey where there wasn’t constant brawling and the beer wasn’t cheap. When I was a kid…there was an interest as the Boston Bruins AAA affiliate was a cool thing in Oklahoma City. But beyond that… there was never any evidence non-brawling, highly skilled hockey could sustain itself in Oklahoma. And there still isn’t.

The reason being because at the NHL level you don’t brawl all that much because if you go to the penalty box the other team’s highly skilled power play basically puts the puck in the back of the net sometime in the next two minutes of play.

So…in historical retrospect…it’s a very fortunate thing for Clay Bennett and his group that the Columbus Bluejackets are there, and the defending NBA champs…the OKC Thunder are here this Monday morning in Oklahoma.

And…if you’re in Seattle, yeah, you got f–ked. It can happen. You should have built the damn arena. But you didn’t and now you have a hockey team no one outside of Seattle will even care about two years from now. But I do think Adam Silver will bring an NBA team to Seattle one way or another.

I need to get going and go ride the bike hard in preparation for two hikes I want to do while in Crestted Butte. But before I do that…let me congratulate the Florida Panthers on their repeat Stanley Cup championship win over the Edmonton Oilers in six games.

BTW…how many of you in Oklahoma even read an Oklahoma paper or saw a newscast from Game 6. A Canadian city still hasn’t won a Stanley Cup championship since the Montreal Canadians won one in 1993. Trump may have a point about the Canadians. The Canadian cities collective performance since 1993 has been feckless and feeble even when they have the best player in the world.

Congrats…Florida Panthers. I’ll be keeping an eye on your three-peat effort next hockey season when I’m not as pre-occupied with the Thunder.

Love and eternal peace.

MJ

No matter what transpires from this moment forward….this NBA Championship can never be taken away from these young men and what they accomplished this season. They may or may not repeat…odds are they will struggle with that task.

Recent NBA history tells us from Golden State, Denver, and Boston the 2nd level of monetary hell in the luxury tax, plus injuries will at some point befall the Thunder.

This is why on my blog I constantly preached about ‘going through the window’ while it was this wide open in this particular post season. And that is precisely what these young men did, despite their head coach’s foolish decision to tamper with the starting lineup and ending lineups in these Finals. A classic example of overthink. But finally….the rotations followed the almost exact suggestions made on okcthunderground.com, and as we all see now..an NBA championship banner is hanging in Oklahoma City.

It is a beautiful, almost euphoric time for Oklahoma City. The stigma of John Steinbeck’s epic novel portraying the Joad family journey’s to California will no longer haunt at least those in Oklahoma County and Cleveland County (Norman). It has been proven in those two counties….you can win NBA and national championships on the biggest stage with the brightest lights. The other 75 counties in this state need to elevate their educational systems, move beyond the 1920’s mindset, and begin pulling their links on he collective Oklahoma chain.

So it is here…on this very nationally acclaimed underground Thunder blog…MJ suggests from this point moving forward… June 23 be named and honored as Clay Bennett Day for what we just witnessed in Oklahoma this past Monday.

And, in closing, MJ offers this rendition of the national anthem for this reason…as we all now know, the Buffalo Bills then and still now even with Josh Allen have never won that elusive first Super Bowl. They’ve never been able to get past Patrick Mahomes and crawl through that championship. Former OU quarterback… Jalen Hurts was able to….but not Josh Allen and the Bills.

OKC in MJ’s mind, is the Buffalo of the NBA…and you know…these guys now have an NBA championship in their back pockets. Pretty f–king amazing when you really consider what it takes to win either a Super Bowl or NBA championship in any city these days.

God bless Mr. Bennett, and God bless these young men. What you just did is historically significant.

MJ

It’s over.

Unless you count the White House visit with Big Orange the end of the season is here.

What a beautiful dream of a season for the Thunder players and Oklahoma City. How they both melded perfectly in unison and realized their potential. It was surreal.

And even if the Thunder happen to repeat…it will never feel this way to the fans ever again.

This was beautiful and something I’ll always treasure in that I was still around to experience watching this incredible group of players bring a championship to the ‘Little Train That Thought It Could’.

I hope to get back on here in a day or two and organize some of my closing thoughts before my family heads off to Crested Butte for the Fourth of July.

Archie Davenport, Bad Little Dude….I can’t get you out of my mind.

Who could have written that ending?

Seriously.

Eternal love.

*MJ official off season sleep music. Try it.

Mike J

On second thought this morning…I rethought the whole Alex Caruso serve and sign thing at Raisen’ Caine today. I just thought all things considered that I didn’t want to get that emotionally involved since the Thunder are really only my second favorite NBA team.

You know, like taking a dog home…when you know you really aren’t going to be able to keep it.

The whole thought of me being trapped inside of that restaurant with so many people just seemed a little overwhelming when I visualized the whole thing playing in my mind.

But I will write this though as we close down this historic and very positive week in purple Oklahoma City…I will take many positive memories with me which I will never forget as both a basketball fan and a human.

This week displayed the Oklahoma City we know the rest of the state could be. Compassionate, pragmatic, politically purple…and the kind of place a young couple could raise a family and not be overtaken by the crazies on both the far left and the far right.

But now a place with an NBA Championship on the resume as well. Denver and OKC now both have one NBA championship. Both the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics are now in varying degrees of roster freefall. Austin Reaves declined the Lakers max extension. What does that say?

The LA Clippers appear headed nowhere despite all of Steve Balmer’s abundance of NIL money. And of course…Portland and Utah are both just searching for any kind of answers to be semi-relevant.

Golden State without Giannis will not be special. If they could land him if he leaves Milwaukee…a different story perhaps. The three teams in the West the Thunder should probably be watching the closest from my view would be the Rockets now with Durant if he can stay healthy, the Dallas Mavs, and the Spurs. The NBA this coming season in Texas and Oklahoma will be something to behold. I mean…a Red River Shootout everytime one of these three teams take on the defending NBA champs from the North.

You Thunder fans…just savor this though for the time being and treasure it forever.

My Three Favorite memories from the Parade were easy: 1 10 year-old point guard Archie Davenport’s reaction to Isaiah, 2 Shai’s father’s very heartfelt comments on his dedication and love for his son, and 3 Shai, of course. It was pretty clear from watching the father and the son how mutual the love and respect each has for the other.

MJ hears the Rockies calling his name for the 4th of July week. Just think how awesome the state of Oklahoma could be in all 77 counties if we witnessed this kind of love and respect towards one another every day of the year.

Eternal peace, MJ.

Several things before I fall asleep tonight:

1 I’m thrilled OU’s Jermiah Fears was selected as the 7th player in the NBA draft tonight. Jeremiah was a delight to watch this basketball season. An absolute delight. Jeremiah becomes the 10th player in OU’s storied basketball history to be a first round draft pick.

By the time he adjusted to the SEC level of physicality in his lone collegiate season…he was right there with Final Four MVP Walter Clayton Jr. If you think MJ is full of shit on that one…consider Walter Clayton Jr. was somewhere around the 18th player taken tonight.

Seven closing words on Jeremiah…Pick and roll- made for the NBA.

2 I did watch about 90 seconds of Donald Trump’s NATO address today. My policy on here to date in POTUS45/47’s second term has been to ignore Donald Trump given I’m a Stage 4 cancer survivor and I really don’t feel I need to piss off God at this point. But after what I witnessed today…I’ll just say this…from this point forward…I will not directly call Donald Trump out for his whoppers. I’ll just play one of my favorite George Constanza scenes instead.

3 Alex Caruso is doing a special greet and meet at the Raisin’ Cane in NW Oklahoma City tomorrow. Clearly, Jamal Murray is still my favorite current NBA player. Despite what ThunderChick may want to think…MJ is not a bandwagon jumper.

But my soon to be six year-old grandson in Denver, RJII, now has an Alex Caruso jersey, even though to date he’s primarily an ice hockey player, soccer player, and golfer. Interestingly…he plays hockey and golf as a left-hander, yet his dominant foot in soccer is the right foot.

Anyway, my plan is go get my terrain bike done early and see if I can somehow get something signed for RJII without MJ either getting arrested or escorted from the premises of Raisin’ Canes as I’m almost certain this is going to be crazy tomorrow. And MJ has never been very good about melding into craziness in a docile manner.

God bless, and remember what George Constanza always said about lying..”It’s not really a lie… if you believe it.”

MJ

Yesterday in Oklahoma City was simply amazing. When one considers where this city was in the spring of 1995 just after the Murrah Building Bombing tragedy… to observe what we just witnessed yesterday has to be one of the greateast stories in the history of a U.S. city pulling itself up and completely changing the narrative of its own history.

I seriously wonder if Boom Town author Sam Anderson has either done a special podcast or a special piece entitled ‘Boom Town Revisted’ on what we have just witnessed from both the NBA Finals and yesterday’s championship parade.

It was a dual miracle of sorts. In my life as an avid, passionate sports fan…I can only think of one sports miracle which outdid what sleepy little Oke City just pulled off…that being when the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team stunned the Russians at Lake Placcid. I’m not saying OKC beating Indiana was a miracle…what I’m writing is Oklahoma just winning an NBA title goes from highly improbable to almost miracle status in my view.

Whether the Thunder become a dynasty, a mini-dynasty, or a one and down will never matter. Because what this city has pulled off through MAPS and the Clay Bennett/ Sam Presti dual vision will forever change the narrative of Oklahoma City from the outside looking in.

Oklahoma City may not have an NFL, NHL, or MLB team. But from this point forward Oklahoma City becomes a major league city with what should be the most visible NBA team for the next five years or so…maybe longer depending on injuries and some more good luck.

The manner in which the city represented itself yesterday was perfect. There were no cars turned over burning. There was no disrespect shown towards local law enforcement. I didn’t witness humans either physically or verbally assaulting each other. There were no knuckleheads behaving like a group of idiots.

What I witnessed instead…was about about a half a million people showing their love and admiration for this basketball team….and their city. It was refreshing to see this in a contemporary American city. I observed no political nonsense. No hate. Just love for Shai, his guys, and this miracle turnaround city.

It was beautiful.

Simply beautiful.

Job well done MAPS, Oklahoma City, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Maybe Mayor Holt should at some point consider a run for higher office in Oklahoma. God knows…one would think the Oklahoma Dimwit Twins Markwayne Mullin and Ryan Walters should be replaced.

What an amazing turnaround.

Mike J

MJ is at peace. I feel truly blessed I was able to live to see this day. I have never seen people happier in Oklahoma City. It just feels right, Shai and his guys winning this NBA championship in the manner in which they did. My cup runneth over. Truly.

The sun is setting out here at the Deer Creek mini-ranch. I feel as if I own the universe. Imagine that kind of misplaced hubris. But that’s how I feel right now.

I’m slowly sipping on a Zero-Zero ice cold Corona. Life is literally at a crawl for me at this moment. Beyond surreal. This was a surreal day for MJ.

I’m going to play of couple of more songs and dwift away.

Life is hard, but good as well.

I’ve never written this on my blog before, but for some reason I feel philosophical this evening. When Bob passed in August of 2016…he left this earth as the then closest living descendant of Jesse James. No shit. The DNA mantle then passed to my Cousin Mark who tragically passed this past July 14th. So incredibley..I am now the closest living DNA descendant of Jesse James.

Perhaps…this somehow justifies and explains my behavior from time to time as the eclectic mind and sometimes brilliant editor of the award winning okcthunderground.com. With MJ though…I never wanted anything in a conventional manner.

But right now it feels as if the earth has slowed to a standstill for MJ. And as long I’m not in a motor vehicle anywhere near Chet Holmgren in the next 24 hours… I feel like I might whip the cancer thing.

Eternal peace and joy, Oklahoma.

Mike J

Wow.

I mean, Paris had me at hello pretty much this morning. I’ve always known she was good and easily the No. 1 talent of that otherwise dubious Thunder broadcast team. But holy shit…she absolutely knocked it out of the park this morning.

MJ just thinking out loud on his award winning underground blog here, but if MJ were making the decisions in regards to upgrading the Thunder media operations to being on a par with a now NBA championship program…she would be my No. 1 Shining Star moving forward. Not even close.

I don’t want to be cruel or mean spirited towards either Little Nick Gallo or Michael Cage, but now that the Thunder are champs the media part needs to upgrade to championship caliber as well.

I mean, in all candor..Paris was at the minimum equal or better than anyone I witnessed on either ESPN or ABC during the Finals. I hope the Thunder do not lose her.

The thing this morning was picture perfect and from that point on I was nothing but immensely impresssed with entire day from downtown Oklahoma City. It will be something I never forget.

Chet appeared to either be drunk or hungover from my vantage point, but you know what, when I was his age I probably would have partied the last two days straight myself and fallen off the stage.. I’m glad he didn’t break the trophy.

It was probably the best day in the history of the state of Oklahoma today.

Just beautiful. It gives me hope about Oklahoma.

Mike J

It’s the day every NBA basketball fan in Oklahoma City has been waiting for since Hurricane Katrina…NBA Championship Parade Day.

And even though the Thunder are only my second favorite team in the league…I am sure I will cry multiple times today processing what has taken place in Oklahoma City. What I think I’ve witnessed is the greatest and most inspirational season by an individual player in my lifetime. And make no mistake about what I’m claiming because in all candor I didn’t want the Thunder to get past ‘my’ Nuggets in the second round.

There is nothing here inspired by the genre of Little Nick Gallo in this post. As in none. If you want to read effeminate, passive submissive nonsense about the Thunder this is not your blog.

And let me also be clear…LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Durant, and Steph NEVER did what Shai just accomplished. That being, take a team which was commanded to intentionally lose by design for three straight seasons to the pinnacle in what was for the most part an organic process.

Kobe had the Buss Mafia Family money. Kevin Durant and Steph had the Lacob Basketball Trust Fund. Hell, in OKC…the basketball ownership group hasn’t even put up the appropriate share for the new arena.

This was not a Dream Team build.

This was Sam Presti making a private pledge that if Shai, Lu, and Kenrich would crawl through the three year shit process of the Shawshank sewage system there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

And, baby…there is light at the end of that tunnel on this Tuesday morning in downtown Oklahoma City.

Yeah, Presti did a get a little lucky with the JDub pick. But with the injury-proness of Chet there was no good fortune there. And, yes, somehow getting the Chicago Bulls to take Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso wasn’t organic..but who really gives a shitt the end of the day. Just win, baby.

Adding Isaiah Hartenstein through free agency was prescient…because if you know basketball every team needs a physical dude setting screens for their Shai, clogging up the lane on defense, rebounding like a doberman, and just basically giving these previously docile Thunder a little bit of snarl and nasty.

So this is Championship Parade Tuesday in Oklahoma City and there will be no talk from MJ about a dynasty or a repeat.

No. This is a day to marvel at what Shai and his group just pulled off in this historic NBA basketball season.

I’m already crying, but in a very good way.

Mike J

Even though the Denver Nuggets are still my favorite NBA team, in a gesture of immense sportsmanship…. I’m going to play the song for the WORLD CHAMPION OKC THUNDER this Monday morning.

I want to write this first about the Indiana Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton though before I touch on my observations about this incredible journey this group of Thunder players just completed. I want to tell the Pacers…thank you. Thank you for giving all of us NBA fans one helluva show these past two weeks.

If Tyrese hadn’t gone down in the first period I’m fairly certain this Game 7 would have ended with a dramatic finish given Tyrese came out smoking hot hitting three threes in a row. But alas, this night was not meant to be for the Pacers. It was meant for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they put the finishing touches on one of the most remarkable turnarounds. in NBA history.

I believe it was 2019 when Dame Lillard’s dagger ended the Russell Westbrook-Paul George era in OKC. Then the Presti deathwalk somewhat began. Paul George to the Clippers. Russell to the Houston Rockets and then you knew it was going to be bad when Jeremy Grant was traded as well. That was when MJ cried.

The funny thing is though..the deathwalk took a one year pause as the Thunder ended up with Chris Paul, the German minimalist Dennis Schroeder, and a young player from the Clippers named Shai. That team was actually so fun to watch the deathwalk master Sam Presti didn’t have the heart to ship off Chris Paul just then and the Thunder made it to the Bubble Playoffs where the Thunder lost to Harden and Westbrook.

No more fun for Thunder Nation the next two years as the Thunder won 22 games and 24 games with the low point being a 71 point road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. I think it was about this time MJ’s flirtations with the Denver Nugget began since in my mind the Thunder had ceased playing legitimate NBA basketball games.

Also keep in mind…I think it would be very weak of me to now jump back on the Thunder bandwagon. And the truth of the matter is…if Giannis ends up with Steph and the Warriors finally get rid of Draymond…the Thunder could in theory fall down to my third favorite NBA team. BTW…if Giannis ends up with Steph, and the Nuggets address their depth issue..those are the two teams in the West I could see being the most formidable challenge to the Thunder in the West next season.

But the Thunder will be overwhelming favorites to repeat.

So here we are circa June, 2025 and the Thunder are world champs and I own a domain named okcthunderground.com. Since the local coverage of the Thunder is so woeful and feeble…MJ thinks he’ll stick around next season and still cover the defending champs on his blog…as a service of sorts to NBA fans in the market who need more than the sychophantic drudgergy created by the Presti machine.

I’ll watch the parade tomorrow and in a sense treasure it thinking back on all of my good memories associated with the Thunder.

This is one hell of a story. Nothing like it in NBA history with the possible exception of the ’77-’78 Portland Trailblazers.

Thunder Nation…enjoy the parade. You earned it. Smell the roses.

Mike J