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Joe Biden gave a nice speech, but for me Michelle Obama was the star the first night.

I read her book this winter and I’m almost certain I’m the only white male below the Mason Dixon Line to do so…but I like Michelle.

The parts about her book I enjoyed the most were the chapters about her parents and how hard they worked to give Michelle and her brother Craig a fair shot at the American Dream.

I actually find her story almost as inspirational as that of Barack Obama’s. The difference is he’s a dreamer and she’s a pragmatic realist. Make no mistake about it…Barack Obama was an inspirational president unless you live in Oklahoma, Alabama, or some other SEC outpost.

And yet…Joe Biden and Kendra Horn are both leading in the polls in Oklahoma County as I blog. Maybe there is some hope and change within us.

I think Michelle’s speech basically said ..’We’re better than this. We’re better than being run into the ground by a grifter who no one would have ever heard of if his daddy Fred Trump hadn’t left him $420 million dollars in 1980 dollars. No one would have ever heard of this person otherwise because he’s failed at every thing he’s done from a business and personal standpoint. He’s a punk.’

We should all be courteous and respectful of one another. We should look for the good in others because it is all around us every single day even within the people who voted for Donald Trump.

There is an inherit goodness in the American people which needs to be rekindled.

But most of all the American Dream should be available to 330 million people if they’re willing to take the right path and do the difficult things.

I loved her speech and I have to be the only white guy in Oklahoma who would write this on his Thunder basketball blog.

But this is why I have a blog.

Be better…America. Be better.

This is why I beat Vegas with boring regularity on NBA and NHL games.

Same thing with the Thunder without Dort. Without Dort the Rockets will frolick.

Go Portland!

Michelle Obama’s brilliant DNC speech coming up next. There are times we don’t go high. One of those times is when you’re dealing with a pathological lying grifter. This would be one of those times.

Patrick Beverly NBA champion has a nice ring to it. I don’y know if the word prohibitive is the right word, but it’s close to desbribing what is about to unfold in the bubble.

The Clippers have a nice team with enough star power in Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Marcus Morris to win sixteen games in the bubble.

They also have enough guys like Patrick Beverly to do the dirty work which is needed to win a championship.

Their first half defense was lackluster tonight, but you know what they did besides winning Game 1…they made Luka D take a hit every time he touhed the ball. Just like in hockey they want Donic to be worn out by Game 3.

In actual hockey the Boston Bruins without Tuuka Rask in net roared back against the Carolina Hurricanes to take a commanding 3-1 series lead despite being without some key offensive pieces. The role guys did the heavy lifting in the third period.

Portland vs. Lakers and Thunder vs. Rockets tonight. This could be interesting.

As a sports fan you have to be discerning in picking your spots in the bubble.

Memphis out. A much healthier Portland Trailblazer team now the 8th seed in the West to face the Lakers.

This actually validates the seeding games which just took place. An injury decimated Portland team took the off time to get healthy and now assume the role of hopeful LeBron slayer in the first round in the West.

I’d much rather face No. 7 Dallas or No. 6 Utah than this Portland club. I might even go as far to say I’d rather face No. 5 Houston than this team.

So this is kind of interesting. I’m sad we won’t get to see Ja Morant in the playoffs as he was easily my Rookie of the Year winner. But this makes the Lakers take notice that they could actually be playing the third most dangerous team in the West in the first round.

Ask yourself this… would you rather play the Nuggets or this Portland team with Lillard and McCullum in the first round who now have Collins and Nurkic back to round out the lneup.

This is good for the bubble. The bubble needs all the help it can get to make this a more compelling watch than Shark Week.

Go Portland!

I’m ready. Portland vs. Lakers and OKC vs. Houston are the two series which have my interest in the first round in the West.

Of all the teams in the NBA the coronavirus helped one team the most…the Portland Trailblazers. They got healthy. They regrouped. They have virtually nothng to lose to a Lakers team which is not as good or deep as they were before the play stoppage.

These two series have my interest.

The humidity in Oklahoma is unbearable this week. I’m a Cali boy living in SEC country. David Boren was so completely wrong. OU and O-State are SEC culture fits if ever there were two out there waiting to be invited to play real college football again.

The one thing I truly love about Oklahoma is the completely insane misdirected influence college football has on our daily lives. I’m so glad the Big 12 decided it was time to face the truth and head towards becoming SEC brethren.

The music is to get my mind off the dewpoint in Deer Creek. Lethal dewpoint for sure.

Not to pound my own chest…but I am truly a great post season arena NBA fan. I refuse to wear the T-shirts…but otherwise I’m a difference maker in the arena. If Sam Presti put five hundred like me behind the Thunder bench he wouldn’t need 18,000 and change.

The fans are what make the NBA great. Period.

The seeding games are over for the Thunder. They finish 4-4 and are the fourth seed in the West. OKC will face the Houston Rockets, but both Russell Westbrook and Lu Dort are questionable healthwise to start this series of real games for the first time since March.

This is why it’s hard to be an NBA fan at times. Five months of sitting around doing pretty much nothing and when the lights come on for real without fans two of the more compelling players in this series may be watching.

Yawn.

Robert Gordon Orr born in Parry Sound, Ontario. The greatest most complete hockey player to ever grace the planet. Unlike the frilly Wayne Gretzky…Bobby Orr was physical and could fight with anyone in the league.

Barry Sanders is my favorite football player of all-time. Roberto Clemente is my favorite baseball playuer of all-time. Michael Jordan is my favorite basketball player of all-time.

Bobby Orr is my favorite athlete of all-time.

He changed the game of hockey as an offensive defenseman and was a fierce yet quiet leader.

I play this video at the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year as my homage to Bobby Orr and the glorious game of hockey.

Bobby Orr is why I’m a Boston Bruins fan and why I wear my Bruins cap to work every day in Oklahoma.

To win the Stanley Cup the eventual champion has to win sixteen games and four separate series. Last year’s Cup Final went to a Game 7 in Boston on June 12th.

Today on August 12th… the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs got going with five games played between the Toronto and Edmonton tournament sites.

Both Boston and St. Louis have both struggled since the restart. The defending champion Blues have yet to win a game in either the qualifying tournament or tonight in a 5-2 Game 1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

Boston won its first game since the restart with a 3-2 win in the second overtime over the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s just so tough to get back to the Finals let alone repeat…in a normal year.

Goaltending, power play efficency, and penalty killing are paramount to a team’s chances of hoisting the Cup. Defending champion St. Louis was horrific in all three categories in the Game 1 loss to the young Canucks. The Blues appear to be in a coma of sorts. I’m sure coach Craig Arube will point this out to his team in private.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sid Crosby did not make the eight team field in the East. Alex Ovechkin has yet to score a point since the reboot. I don’t consider either Boston or St. Louis as overwhelming favorites at this point. The tournament would appear to be wide open for a team say like the young upstart Colorado Avalanche or the tough Philadelphoia Flyers.

Tomorrow four games will be played.

Let the road to the Stanley Cup Championship take us to a magificent two month journey of glorious hockey.

May the hockey gods bless each of us in our own way and remind us why we love to take this journey every year even in August.

Thank god for Shark Week 2020 getting started on Discovery Channel this week. This glorified NBA summer league is doing very little for me as a fan of the game. I’m checking on Dort and Bazely’s progress… not much else.

Again…Dennis Schroder very much did the right thing in being with his wife for the birth of their child.

Matt Pinto and Little Nick Gallo may think this is great drama…as a seasoned blogger who isn’t owned by Sam Presti I have found these eight games beyond tedious.

Wife and I agreed to go to Nassau in the Bahamas maybe in January. We found a Bahamian restaurant in Oklahoma City today. The seafood eating in Nassau is beyond imagination. I can’t wait.

I find sharks to be fascinating. NBA Summer League…not as much. But I bet the fans in Phoenix are getting a little stoked about their future.

Maybe if the Thunder are paired against the Rockets in the first round this never ending season might be interesting for me.

I mean in reality…some of this is glorified G League ball.

Go Lu Dort and Darius Bazely. Keep getting better.

Does it get any better than watching Guy Fieri frolicking with sharks then visting the kitchen of Curly’s?

Curly’s will be our first meal on our trip. Multiple rum drinks for me and fried conch. It’s all about the rum and the conch in Nassau. This is epic food. Bahamians are such great people.