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