What a basketball day for me as I attended my first Thunder game of the season as the LA Lakers were in town for what in essence was a three day road stay for the Lakers and a quasi back to back. Just like NBA Playoff basketball.
But first let me write this…the NCAA Tournament Committee released their television ratings for the mens’ Final Four and the ratings were not surprisingly…stellar. 18.1 million viewers watched the Final Four and Championship Monday which makes 2025 the most watched Final Four since 2017.
What does this tell me? It tells me there is still a market for mens’ college basketball when a quality product is being televised. As many problems as the mens’ college game has doesn’t change the fact basketball fans at the NBA level are tired of the tanking and the load management bullshit. Fans want to see quality, meaningful games with the best players PLAYING.
Okay…to last night at the Incomporable Pay.Com Arena. MJ had a blast. We had seat great seats just left of mid-court behind the Thunder bench, ten rows up.
The atmosphere last night outside the arena before the game and inside the arena was a playoff feel like I used to love when the Thunder first starting making the NBA Playoffs. I love that feel. MJ lives for that feel. That feel of post season relevancy.
Shai gave a nice little speech to the Thunder crowd before tip giving his thanks to the OKC fans for their support. The national anthem was superb by a former Miss Oklahoma. And the best part of all was that while I was pretty close to Michael Cage and Little Nick Gallo…I couldn’t hear one single word of nonsensical horseshit either uttered during or after the game. Plus, I think I found myself a rickshaw driver for the playoffs.
The game itself was great until the refs diminished it with 7:40 left in the fourth period when they gave Luka his second technical of the night. Total bullshit. Again…fans pay to see the best players play…not to see some oversensitive zebra ruin what up to that point was a second round caliber playoff game. There was talking going on all night, and I mean all night. Don’t take the game away from the fans who are paying to see the best players PLAY.
But despite this bitching from me…Shai easily from my view clinched the MVP last night. What a great young man Shai is and how lucky the Thunder fans are to have him as their face of the city.
A drunken brawl between some Laker fans and Thunder fans erupted not long after the ejection just five or six rows behind me. I mean…fists were flying, ‘Fuck yous, and fuck this, and fuck whatevers’ were being yelled at the highest decibels. Finally…some ushers in green jackets got over there and removed all of the human rabble from the arena. I mean… threw ’em out of the arena with about six minutes still left to play.
And amazingly…this ‘new’ MJ never said a word during the brawl. Not one ‘Sit your stupid fucking asses down and shut the fuck ups,’ came out of my lips. So get this…while the human rabble behimd me were rioting…the Thunder cheerleaders starting throwing and shooting Thunder T-shirts into the stands. And as if a message from the Gods of basketball heaven came down to MJ’s soul…a wrapped Thunder T-shirt fluttered into my right hand. Swear to God. The first time ever I’ve ever caught a T-shirt at a Thunder game.
So like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack via Carl Spackler said, “So…you know, I have total consciousness going for me as well. So there’s that.”
What a great Thunder night for Mike J… and on the same day Michael Malone and Nugget GM Calvin Booth were both fired. I’ll blog about the Nugget situation tomorrow.
Have a beautiful Wednesday.
Eternal consciousness, MJ