Season on the Brink

Back in the day when John Feinstein wrote Season on the Brink–I bought the book in hard copy and loved it. It was quite the rage as a NY Times bestseller. My wife had a friend who was the sister of Bobby Knight’s second wife and just by accident I found out she was getting ready to spend a week in Bloomington with Bob Knight. I politely asked if she would take my book with her and see if Coach Knight would sign it for me.

She came back with my book unsigned and told me Coach Knight wouldn’t sign the book because he now hated John Feinstein. She gave me my book and then gave me another hard cover book which had just been released by the title of Bob Knight: His Own Man by Joan Mellon. It turns out Joan Mellon was an English Lit prof at Temple and she and Coach Knight did this book in response to the book in which Coach Knight gave complete access to John Feinstein to write in the first place. I opened the book and there’s Coach Knight’s signature inside the book with a note which read: ‘Mike, You shouldn’t have wasted your time reading the first book. This is the better book.’ -Bob Knight-

I use this in my lead for today as for the second straight season the Thunder’s season appears to be clearly on the brink. Since February 14th, the Thunder are 5-9 and falling fast. As I look at the standings this morning the Thunder are in the No. 5 seed and on the cusp of falling further if things don’t take a turn for the Thunder in their remaining twelve games of the regular season. San Antonio, Utah and even the inspirational LA Clippers are all still winning and not going away.

So what happened? Was it just the schedule getting tougher and the Thunder coming back to the norm of what they really are with Russell Westbrook as star and college coach Billy Donovan running the ship?

I’m not sure. I don’t have access like John Feinstein did with Bobby Knight back when Knight was an icon with the Hoosiers. From the outside looking in though– it appears Russell Westbrook, not Clay Bennett, is the primary owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise. It appears Westbrook drives the bus and Sam Presti and Clay Bennett go along because they fear they have no other option at this point.

I don’t know what else to write at this point.

What other conclusion could you draw after the dismissal of Brian Davis for the ‘cotton pickin’ mind’ comment or the ascension of Little Nick Gallo as some sort of personal communications guru for Westbrook himself?

I cannot fathom in any alternate universe how Clay Bennett or Sam Presti think this is a good look for an NBA franchise even for one in Oklahoma City.

So how would Bob Knight handle Russell Westbrook is how I tie all this together? Bob Knight actually won one of his national championships with a point guard from Chicago by the name of Isiah Thomas. Oh, they had their moments–but they did win a national championship before Isiah went on to the Detroit Pistons.

But in the year 2019… could a coach like Bob Knight rein in Westbrook the Peacock and keep his point guard’s attention focused on winning a championship?

I don’t know. But I feel certain Billy Donovan can’t handle his peacock of a point guard and this season is clearly on the brink with Carmelo Anthony nowhere in sight.

The Thunder host the Heat tonight in another goodbye game for D Wade on his farewell tour. Of course, Westbrook is suspended due to receiving his 16th technical in the blowout loss to the Warriors after body checking Klay Thompson when a call didn’t go his way. Ironically, that was the only time in the game Westbrook appeared to be close enough to either Thompson or Curry to offer much resistance.

Every game is big for the Thunder at this point unless they want to fall to the No. 8 seed.

The Miami Heat and D Wade in town tonight at the Peake .Maybe Wade could explain to Westbrook if he weren’t suspended what it takes to become a three time NBA champion.