Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

What an interesting night of NBA play. The Thunder allowed Steph to shred them for 24 first period points as he easily scored 49 points in a Warriors blowout of the feeble Thunder in Oakland.

Either Steph or Chris Paul will get my MVP vote, but I haven’t decided yet.

The horrific Thunder have now lost twenty of their last twenty-one games in their quest to somehow land Cade Cunningham unless Sam Presti decides to go with all-white players next season in Trumpland-OKC and surprises everyone by using his lottery pick to go with OU combo guard Austin Reaves. That was sarcasm if you’re wearing your MAGA ball cap on Mother’s Day. I like Austin…but not that much.

If you’re paying attention the Thunder are getting awfully white this basketball season…. Kid Poku, Ty Jerome, Svi, Gabriel Deck, etc.

I have to think about what would be the NBA’s all-white team currently. Obviously…Luka would be my captain.It would seem to me though in Oklahoma City… the home of domestic terrorism and Proud Boys an all white approach could be a way to keep players here beyond their rookie scale contracts and rekindle season ticket sales post Covid.

Think about what I just wrote. Oklahoma City of all places with its past of Timothy McVeigh and the tragedy of 1995 probably has more season ticketholders than not who think January 6th was a good thing for America. Sam Anderson…help me out here. What am I missing?

Four games left for the now 21-47 Thunder. The Warriors conversely look like they’re getting to be respectable even without Klay in the lineup this season. Draymond and Andrew Wiggins have become nice second and third pieces to compliment Steph. I would love to see the Warriors vs. the Lakers in the play-in game.

If I had to vote MVP right now … I would vote Steph MVP because he has simply been incredible.

Meanwhile…Russell notched his 181st career triple double last night as the surging Washington Wizards beat the Pacers 133-132 to solidify their position as the 9th seed for one of the play-in games in the East.

A very nice turn around for Scott Brooks and his Wizards as they’ve been one of the hottest teams in the NBA as of late to have a respectable season after a horrible start.

The Wizards probably won’t turn out to be a fairly tale ending like the Capitals and the Nationals of late, but still a nice turnaround by Russell and Bradley Beal to give the D.C. fans a respectable basketball season.

It’s hard to believe how loud it was in Oklahoma City back in 2016-17. Sam Presti needs to draft a player who can help sell tickets and make downtown OKC a fun place to be again on game day.

The regret of losing the Miracle on Wood game in Boston will historically haunt Coach D and his tanking Thunder. If not for that blip of about two minutes when Darius Bazely and Isiah Roby made mutiple clutch baskets…this Thunder squad would be losers of nineteen games in a row with six games left on the slate.

The Thunder though are friml;y back on track as they’ve lost all four games since the setback win in Boston.

It’s eerily of microsm of sorts as the basketball team and the Daily Thunder blog seem to be in a battle of sorts to prove ultimate inferiorty in their genre of competition.

Six games left…we’re almost there.

There’s ‘our’ Chris Paul above from last season. Of course…he’ll probably be the league MVP this season as the Phoenix Suns at 46-18 along with the Utah Jazz are two of the NBA feel good stories.

In retrospect…I think Shai and Lu are every bit as good at the guard slots as Devin Booker and the rest of the Suns backcourt players. Shai can score the ball and Lu can defend…so I might even say the Thunder had more to offer. So in retrospect…what Sam Presti could have done was use the draft capital of Steven and Dennis to acquire a functional big to go along with Mike Muscala and Isiah Roby and the Thunder would be an interesting basketball team this season.

Presti would have freed himself of Galinari, Steven, and Schoeder’s salaries and not even taken on the salary of the sitting Big Al Horford who’s been getting more quality time with his new baby than most American fathers ever get.

I know it’s hindsight, but my goodness. Chris Paul if he wins the MVP will become the fourth former Thunder player now on another team. I don’t know if this is what Clay and the ownership group envisioned when they took Seattle’s team and moved it to Trump Country USA.

Namely—the Thunder are pretty much like our AAA baseball LA Dodgers. A really good developmental franchise which develops players and then disperses them throughout the NBA to other cities.

Kind of sad when you really think it through. So what if the Thunder somehow land Cade? Will it just be Presti’s job to develope Cade to the point where he can become the fifth former Thunder player to win the MVP?

The Thunder play the Kings tonight. OKC is a collective 1-17 in their last eighteen games. The lone win was the Miracle on Wood in Boston where despite Darius Bazely trying to throw the game in the last ninety seconds with some dubious laydown turnovers…the Thunder held on to win.

Seven games left. I honestly don’t know what to write except Sam Presti has a lot of draft picks to develop players for other cities in the NBA.

Haven’t felt like blogging for a a couple of days. The Thunder’s season is almost over. James Carville says the Dems are too woke. The GOP is about to try and get rid of Liz Cheney because she actually is a conservative. It never ends with these two parties. It’s exhausting.

I thought about writing about some of this, but instead decided to celebrate the fact Ronnie Perkins and Rhamondre Stevenson were both drafted by Bill Belichick and the Patriots…which I think is cool.

Patriots could be fun to follow this upcoming NFL season.

Sometimes even the alpha bloggers have to take a break and recharge the battery. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Be good and be kind to others.

I’m excited to see how Ronnie Perkins does in New England playing for Bill Belichick. New England will be a team to keep an eye on this season as their roster is being tweaked.

Ronnie Perkins was OU’s best defensive player last season and a constant threat behind the line of scrimmage to opposing quarterbacks. His motor never stops and he’s always in the other teaam’s backfield.

Hated to see him declare for the draft, but when a kid needs to go pro he should go to the next level and start making money.

Creed Humprhey was taken in the second round by the Kansas City Chiefs and I would think that’s a great place for his versatile offensive line skills.

Rhamondre should be the next Sooner drafted as the fourth round gets going later today.

Congrats to Tulsa’s Zaven Collons for being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals as the 17th player taken in the draft. Great story.

This will be interesting. Bill Belichick got his quarterback and didn’t have to give up one asset to move up to draft the QB he wanted.

Quite a deal for Mac Jones. He goes from playing for Nick Saban to playing for the guy who drafted Tom Brady in the seventh round back in the day.

How many games did Tom Brady start at Michigan? That would be a great trivia question.

Mac Jones started seventeen games during his career at Alabama and in my view was the best quarterback to draft for a ‘good’ team which just needs to fill the QB slot to be relevant. He processes his first three progressions faster than any other player in this draft class….including Trevor Lawrence. He’s an eyes, brain, and arm QB with enough pocket mobility. He’s no Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray. But then again…Lamar Jackson is winless as a post season QB so far.

For me as a Green Bay fan–a day of reckoning with Aaron Rodgers perhaps… as I still remember his own coach took the ball out of his hands on the Packers last possesion in the NFC Championship Game. They kicked the field goal, didn’t get a stop against the greatest QB of all-time named Tom Brady, and Aaron never touched the ball again.

This after they traded up to draft Jordan Love without talking about it with the second greatest quarterback in this recent era of pro football.

It looks like maybe a replay of Peyton Manning going to Denver to me.

Do the Broncos have enough ‘liquid’ capital to pull this off for a QB with maybe two to three years left in his career? My son…Chris Jackson who lives in Denver and is ‘almost’ as fanatical about the Broncos as he is about the Sooners thinks so.

John Elway has never successfully drafted a QB as GM in Denver. Elway needs a championship QB to go with the rest of his roster and a healthy Von Miller. In watching the first round…both Denver and Green Bay picked cornerbacks with their first round round picks. I’m sure for starters the Packers would want the cornerback from Alabama the Broncos just drafted.

Denver sports fans are still pissed about the Rockies trading Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals. Bronco fans are weary of lackluster QB play. Drew Luck and Teddy Bridgewater to me at least don’t get you past Patrick Mahomes in the AFC West. Not even close.

So, in thinking this thru–I agree with Chris Jackson. Aaron Rodgers needs to become a Denver Bronco because Von Miller and that defense need a QB before their window closes in Denver. In pro sports it always about the ‘championship window’.

Just ask Sam Presti.

Big day for the quarterback parade in the NFL’s first round. Since we have an NBA team which has had to lose games on purpose this season…the NFL Drfat at least has suspense attached to it.

You would figure Trevor Lawrence to Jacksonville…then who knows.

I hope Sam Presti is watching so he can sharpen his draft day skills for what will be the biggest draft day in Thunder history this July. I still can’t believe we traded two first round oucks to trade up for Kid Poku. Sigh.

It will be interesting to see if Bill Bilichick can land Mac Jones to be his next quarterback.

Good luck to the OU and O State kids anticipated to be drafted in this draft.

Wife is in Mobil trying to get a beach week away from other humans in Florida who watch Tucker Carlson and such. Pauli giving me that look that says, ” Mike…before you leave for work please make sure you have me on the NFL Draft Day coverage.”

This diva lab Pauli was literally a gift from God to me. Funny how things work out like that. God always takes care of you.

July 2016…four months before Donald Trump was elected president running as a Republican Birther.

Tim Scott gave the GOP response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union on Wednesday night. I’m not putting either of those speeches on my blog this week.

Instead… I’m putting this very personal speech Senator Scott gave in 2016 on his his own experiences with being a professional black American.

Hope you take the time to watch the video. It’s from C-SPAN, not one of the cheerleading cable networks.

I don’t know about Senator Scott, but I could use a song.

Maybe one more. I hope my John Marshall blackness isn’t too much for the junior senator from South Carolina.

It’s Wednesday National Hockey Night and I’m ready for the national mid-week doubleheader given it’s raining again in Deer Creek. Looks like the NHL is allowing some people inside of the arenas and that’s great because hockey inside of empty buildings isn’t right.

Tampa won the Cup last summer over Dallas in Game 6 with no fans in the bubble as the Cup was won by the Lightning in a pretty good Finals.
This Game 7 above on the road in 2019 was actually the last time the Cup was won with fans in the building.

It broke my heart the Bruins lost at home in Game 7, but that’s life. The St. Louis Blues were a glorious story as they turned their season around in January and became champions.

I hope we get at some point to have Washington play Boston in the East because these two teams genuinely hate one another and Tom Wilson better be ready to fight.

I don’t see a clear cut favorite in either the East or the West.

Just off the top of my head I’d go Washington vs. Tampa in the Eastern Conference Finals with Colorado vs. Vegas in the West.

I actually watch twice as many NHL playoff games than NBA playoff games.

It won’t be long now before the best tournament in team sports gets going with at least some fans in the building.

The Thunder snapped their 14 game losing streak with a miraculous win over a team which did have Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown on the floor last night. Sure…Tatum was a DNP, but the Thunder were a team on the cusp of history last night if they’d lost the game….and besides that, they’re trying to lose games.

I mean…this is a Thunder team trying to LOSE games.

I don’t know what to say about Brad Stevens and his team.

Give the Thunder credit…they made some plays at the end while at the same time almost choking on a ten point lead with a minute left in the game on a sequence of bizarre Darius Bazely turnovers.

I don’t know what to say or write…so I’m going to play FuFu Ryan’s podcast on the game and that will be that.

Thunder host the Pelicans tomorrow night in Oklahoma City.

Be safe and at peace.

Forward.