Pau like Alperin…was a dude. He was Kobe’s dude as well. Trust me on that one. And though Phil Jackson l;ost his composure there at the end with Pau….the Zenmaster loved him as well.
I miss Kobe so much. His takes on Trump and our country would be immensely interesting to me right now. Kobe is proof you don’t need a college degree or degrees to be a very smart intuned human being. I loved his book, movie, and political takes. We had/have similar tastes in those regards.
I love Nick Collison as well. Unfortunate for Nick he’s on the court on this video what out turns out be the No. 1 Pau Gasol career highlight.
I will be sure and correct that soon and put up my favorite Nick Collison career video as well.
Like Kobe… and even though Nick wasn’t a star, he’s one who’s voice I’ve always admired and listened to about what goes on the court and off of the basketball court.
I hope Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier didn’t do something too bad to get on the wrong side of Donald Trump’s puppet FBI Director. I hope that’s not a tragic story for those guys and the NBA. But my head and heart thinks they’re probably in a very bad spot. It’ll be another depressing story to follow.
Thunder at Indiana tonight. I have no idea who’s healthy for the Thunder tonight. Caruso in concussion protocol…which I expected after seeing the play.
So this means from MJ’s take Chet, Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Ajay, Isaiah Joe, maybe either of the rooks down there at the end of the bench…Alabama and Northwestern. Do your job, guys. No JDub or Caruso on the road. Let’s see what you guys have got. Superman can’t do this alone.
An exciting season opener pairing two teams from the West who most NBA followers have in their top four teams in the entire league. Houston will need to acquire a point guard to replace Fred van Fleet though if they truly aspire to beat OKC, Denver, Minnesota, and perhaps even Golden State in the West.
Reed Sheppard is a player I would put somewhat in the equivalency of maybe an Isaiah Joe type. I don’t want to be overly harsh on him, but for Houston to hold the O’Brien Trophy at the end of the day… the Rockets will need more from a real two-way point guard in the goal acheiving portion of April, May, and June.
Coach Ime Udoka says, ” We’ll handle the point guard sitiation by committee. MJ says, ” I don’t think so.”
Amen Thompson is a virtual star, but his job is shutting the best offensive players in the league down… as he did last night versus Shai until he got in foul trouble.
Kevin Durant is too old and last night in his senility called a timeout which his team didn’t have left and it should have cost his team the game right there and then. But I never boo Kevin… ever. If anything, KD should get a retroactive Nobel Peace Prize for playing alongside Russell Westbrook for eight seasons and not strangling Russell to death for his irresponsible-reckless point guard play. Kevin was prescient in his determination that Russell would never win a championship. You Thunder fans still booing… “Stop it—you look foolish a decade later.”
Jabari Smith… could maybe play some point guard here and there as a change of pace when the matchups might be in their favor. But in reality…Houston will need to pick up a solid veteran two-way point guard sometime this season.
Otherwise…the Rockets are legit and basically loaded. Alperin Segun is a DUDE and a burgeoning star who should be getting more talk from the national basketball people.
Who does he remind me of?
Maybe a more physical version of Pau Gasol. BTW…I think Pau would have played in this version of culturally purple Oklahoma City alongside of Shai and JDub.
I need to think some more on that one. He has size, toughness, smarts, the offensive instincts, and a three point shot improving as we witness the transformation of his game. Isaiah can’t handle this guy on the blocks, and neither can Chet. Maybe in a series it would need to be JDub.
Houston Rockets…four words–GET A POINT GUARD. It doesn’t need to be a star. Just someone solid.
I wrote before the game last night, ” Shai is Superman. That’s what MJ wrote. And lo and behold as Amen Thompson got to his fourth and fifth fouls…we witnessed Shai take control of the game and gently lead his teammates to victory on one of those nights when none of them really pulled their collective links on the chain minus perhaps Ajay Mitchell and at sporadic intervals.
Chet who is now on a max contract.Shai needs more from Chet. Sam Presti needs more from Chet. Chet’s max contract is the one part of the Thunder’s ‘open window’ current payroll construction which makes MJ a little nervous.
The Thunder are at Indiana on Thursday evening. I want see how the rest of the team minus Shai shoots the ball on the road without JDub in the lineup. I’m looking for guys like Lu, Caruso, Wiggins, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay, and maybe JWill and Isaiah Joe to knock down some threes and take the offensive pressure off of Shai.
Chet be a star, buddy. Be a maxlevel star. Play like a max guy both halves. Professional consistency is where your game nees to travel to take it to the next level. You don’t need to be Superman. Shai has that covered. But don’t play like a Rudy Gobert-like slug out there either.
I never watch much of the news anymore. It depresses me too much.
So excuse the SNL updates, but I need to try and keep smiling–one way or the other.
I would say probably…yes–given how much better the Denver Nuggets should be if they avoid serious injuries during the season.
But I will add this hastily–there need to be nights when we witness both JDub and Chet play at Superman levels themselves.
Shai is the star. JDub is Robin who on certain nights will play at an MVP level himself. Chet is the extra piece. If he can stay healthy and go thru an entire season without serious injury—he’s the piece which potentially makes the Thunder a possible repeat team, but perhaps even a little more, maybe a mini-dynasty which could do what we’ve just witnessed the Kansas City Chiefs do these last six years or so.
Sam Presti has done his work.
As the Thunder are currently structured this franchise at the least has an open window to an NBA championship for at least six seasons.
Injuries and fate will play a part in this. Those two unpredictables always come into play. A general manager cannot control those two variables.
I have not watched either the the Thunder or Nuggets play a combined ten minutes of pre-season basketball.
MJ detests NBA pre-season games. Pre season games are for evaluation and in some cases conditioning.
This is by far the most amped I’ve been for an NBA season since I started my modest award winning underground NBA blog.
So…in closing—does Shai have to be Superman for the Thunder to repeat?
Yeah…there are and will still be times he needs to be Superman like George Springer was last night, but what I think most NBA bloggers like myself are looking for…is how far JDub and Chet move their games upward this season.
MJ is back from an idyllic week in Greenwood Village, Coloardo. It was perfect as we caught the immense and stunning autumn foilage at peak color. Just stunning the colors were of the maples, ash, gingko, spruce, pistache, oak, and aspen trees. And the burning bushes with their deep red are absolutely stunning. Don’t sleep on the burning bushes.
Plus, we spent a half day at the Denver Botanical Center on Thursday…and then ate at a vegan restaurant by the name of the Next Level Burger. It was right there on the strip at the University of Denver…and it was awesome. Not as good as the Red Cup in OKC, but awesome.
Robert was solid in his hockey game on Saturday and Aubrey did well at her gymnastics event as well. We are blessed as grandparents.
Throw into the mix the Sooners’ complete physical domination of South Carolina on the road and the Denver Broncos remarkable fourth quarter rally from a late 19-0 deficit to beat the NY Giants on the game’s final play by a score of 33-32. And of course… another win for my Packers and it was a great football week-end as well.
What more could an old ‘iconic’ NBA blogger ask for?
Plus…it was nice to see the O State students took my advice and diversed their in-game antics to include not only dancing partially nude, but to include some include jumping human bananas as well.
I like it. I admire their creativity. This is what life is all about..that being, responding to adversity. How were any of these young people to know O State would would self-administer the death penalty to their own football program by allowing Mike Gundy to return this season?
These youngsters in Stillwater did nothing wrong. They and their parents thought or assumed they would be attending a school which played Division I football.
So MJ’s advice to these younsters is the same…partial nudity, the bananas were a nice touch, now maybe some sort of dangerous live animal like a lion, a tiger, or a bear would add to the diversion to what is actually transpiring on the field.
What a nice moment last night for George Springer and the entire country of Canada as GS’s 7th inning dinger propelled the Jays to their first World Series since 1993 when Joe Carter Jr. went yard off of Mitch ‘Wild Thing’ Williams with the most famous walk-off homer of all-time.
I must admit..it was emotional last night for me…thinking back to my father’s close relationship to Joe Sr. who became my fishing mentor as a youngster. I will admit–I teared up a little. I was 36 years of age when Joe Jr. went yard off of Wild Thing. Mitch Williams was never the same as a major league pitcher after allowing that homer.
The Thunder open their defense of the NBA championship tonight with a home opener versus the Houston Rockets minus Fred van Fleet.
Despite OU’s feeble performance in the second half of the Red River Rivalry…life goes on. Yesterday’s NFL games all went the right way for me as Green Bay beat a punchless Bengal team, Baker Mayfield’s amazing Bucs improved to 5-1, and the Denver Broncos leveled their record at 3-3.
I’m not living and dying OU football this SEC season. . It’s up to them. They need to go to South Carolina this week-end and basically block better and tackle better in space. If the Sooners can win this game they’d improve to 6-1, 2-1, and have Ole Miss coming to Norman the next week-end. It’s an amazingly tough gauntlet of seven games. So put the RRR away and my advice would be to not listen to local talk radio. Anotherwords—shut out the outside noise and become a more mentally intuned team.
I was young once, and I have to admit…I did smile when I saw what these kids did at the weekly O State Big 12 blowout loss. Yeah, I mean—it is what it is. If you’re going to attend these games–then I would say keep going topless to deflect attention from the games themselves. Have the women do it as well… that might induce some national interest in the program and a potential sugar daddy donor. Make it kind of like the Rocky Horror Show and conduct an entirely different event taking place in the stands while the game plays itself out.
Drink copious amounts of cold beer, and somehow find something entertaining and fulfilling about this football season. But don’t drink and drive though. Just have a massive area designated for passing out after the game.
There’s no one else left to fire. You’re lucky interim coach Doug Meacham is actually still attending the games. Turn this adversity into something spiritual and positive if you can. Don’t let this define you. Mike Gundy created this bullshit….let it define him.
This song came on today while I was working out. It hit me just right as I was winding down the last fiteen minutes of my very serious cardio/mobility workout. The student stadium organizers at O State might consider using it in one of their routines this week-end versus Cincy. I forgot what a great song this was and still is. Very nice beat.
I’m outta here. Greenwood Village, Colorado bound to see the Fam, Perk, and Tucker… and of course enjoy the natural beauty of the Rockies.
Not much from the Sooners in the second half yesterday as they led 6-3 going into halftime, then basically were dominated in the second half by the Longhorns.
John Mateer played, but did not play well as he was intercepted three times and almost a fourth time on a backwards pass which was ruled a lateral.
OU did not create a single turnover and only sacked Arch Manning twice. OU gave up a punt return touchdown as well in the fourth period as the wheels came off for the previously unbeaten Sooners.
Adding to problems was OU’s poor clock management in the last minute of the first half cost them a field goal which would have increased their lead to 9-3 at the half.
In the third period, Texas scored its only offensive touchdown from scrimmage on a bust from OU’s Kendal Doby who left a Texas receiver wide open in the back of the endzone on a third and long.
Texas definitely won the line of scrimmage defensively and OU averaged a meager 1.9 yards per rushing attempt and sacked John Mateer four times.
Long story short from me.. if OU wants to finsih 9-3 or even 8-4 Bill Bedenbaugh’s offensive line needs to pick it up in a big, sigfificant way next week-end at South Carolina.
OU’s next six games are all tough. There is not a single game on the remaining slate where I would see OU as a favorite minus perhaps the South Carolina game… and that will be a tough, tough road game.
OU’s blocking and tackling were both poor in this game. It was by far OU’s worst game tackling of the season in the entire second half. Way too many yards after the first contact by the Soners.
Hence…I in no way as the editor of content on this blog can play the OU Greatest Physical Hits of All-Time on the blog this week.
We have a butterfly mini-park out here on the Deer Creek mini-ranch—so instead of brooding over the Sonners’ poor perfromance yesterday…I’ve been watching the monarchs today. When I was younger…I in no way could have handled a Sooner loss in this manner, but at sisty-eight years of age and a Stage 4 cancer survivor–you learn to modify the order of importance of things in your life.
Would I trade a half day of watching the monarchs for a Sooner win? Of course I would… probably. But since that hasn’t been offered to MJ–I’ll just work my way through the loss in a calmer manner.
My 2-1-1 Packers were idle after their defensive meltdown in a 40-40 tie to the Dallas Cowboys last week. That Packer defense needs to figure some things out in a hurry given the way the Detroit Lions are now playing. Detroit in fact…is now the hottest team in the NFC…or maybe the entire NFL for that matter.
I don’t watch or write much about NBA pre-season games on my blog. I cover games when they’re real games and not just evaluation tools for the eighty-two NBA regular season marathon. Hence…my NBA coverage is in idle mode for the most part currently.
Although I did watch maybe five minutes of the Thunder’s Monday night game versus the Dallas Mavs. My only observation is Michael Cage is still talking way too much and Paris isn’t getting the air time she deserves.
It was an amazing Week 5. The upstart young Denver Broncos stunned the defending NFL champ Eagles 21-17 on the road after trailing 17-3 entering the fourth period. This may or may not be a wake-up call for the Eagles to get the to ball Saquon Barkley and take advantage of his skills. The Eagles appear to have a bit of a Super Bowl championship hangover.
Same could be said for the Kansas City Chiefs who likewise blew a fourth quarter lead on the road to the likewise upstart young Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 31-28.
And then earlier in the week…the upstart young New England Patriots took care of the heavily thought of Buffalo Bills.
Add to the thought the fact the Baltimore Ravens….. who many predicted to upend the Chiefs i the AFC have been brutal defensively to date.
Hence…my NFL Tier I-Top Six Poll reads this way heading into Week 6:
1 Detroit Lions
2 Philadelphia Eagles
3 Buffalo Bills
4 Kansas City Chiefs
5 Tampa Bay Bucs and their frontrunning MVP QB Baker Mayfield
6 Green Bay Packers
That’s it for MJ as far as the NFL goes heading into Week 6. Hope your favorite team is giving you some hope and thrills so far this season.
MJ turned 68 on Friday. It’s been awesome, especially considering 66 didn’t appear all that possible at one point.
Love, joy, and loving-kindness just can’t seem to get enough of me. Kindness begats kindness. I’m in this miraculous bubble of faith, love, and mercy and its beyond wonderful. Surreal…would be an appropriate adjective.
I haven’t put anything political on the blog in quite some time because I finally came to the common sense conclusion this is Oklahoma… half of you can’t, don’t, or won’t read anything objective, while the other half of you thought it was a really good thing to put Donald Trump, Markwayne Mullin, and Oklahoma’s Radical Right Superman Ryan Walters in office at the same time.
No additional thoughts on that one from MJ. He has learned his lesson with you people in those 74 Oklahoma counties mentioned on here frequently. My obvious Antifa radical left views surfaced in the mid-70’s and still persist. Those being… I voted for Ford, John Anderson, Bush 41 and John McCain. I had nothing against Reagan, but he just cut taxes too much to in reality be anything close to a monetary pragmatist or responsible fiduciary.
MJ can only hope at this point he isn’t circled by the FBI as a dangerous Antifa copycat subversive of the Oklahoma state government and beyond.
Editor’s Footnote* below.
The defending champ OKC Thunder get their pre-season started later today with a pre-season game versus the Charlotte Hornets. Minnesota beat the Nuggets last night in their first pre-season game. These games aren’t about winning…they’re about evolving and finding out about those guys 11-15 on the roster.
Have a beautiful Sunday. Take time to smell the roses, enjoy the last days of the hummingbirds, and take notice of the butterflies in Oklahoma. I know the previous sentence will brand MJ as a radical left dude even moreso who voted for John McCain…but que sera—it is what it is.
Peace, MJ.
Fellow left-wing subversive Jeff Bridges asked MJ to block cover pic of this video. Can’t say I blame him. MJ
It’s early October and one shouldn’t make predictions this early, but for me the two best rosters with the two best cores are the OKC Thunder and the Denver Nuggets. Maybe Houston third if Kevin Durant’s body can get him to mid-April healthy. Minnesota should still be a force, but they as a team have to find offensive consistency. IN BOLD TYPE. OFFENSE HAS TO BE MUCH BETTER.
San Antonio and Dallas interest me, but based on their season endings last April … that’s a wait and see for me.
Golden State is another wait and see for me. Too many minutes on the bodies of Steph, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond, plus the unknown of how many times Draymond’s antics will hurt his own team.
If there were an official NBA.com metric for most stupid, bone-headed plays which cause a team to stall…I would guesstimate Draymond has been the runaway leader in that metric ever since he slugged then teammate Jordan Poole several seasons ago. I’m done trying to figure out Draymond’s head. Steph and Jimmy Butler can have that assignment.
The Denver Nuggets are loaded and three of their core members, Nikola, Aaron, and Christian ar coming off career years as far as offensive production. Quite frankly, on my sheet I had both on my lis as playing better than Jamal Murray during the playoffs. They both exceeded expectations, while Jamal struggled at times.
That struggling needs to end this next April if the Nuggets are to deny the Thunder a back to back and in the stead win their second O’Brien Trophy themselves in the past four seasons.
Peyton Watson needs to be more consistent as does Julian Strawther. Don’t forget it was Julian who in reality sparked the Nuggets past the Thunder in Game 6 in Denver.
I’m not at all concerned about Bruce Brown, Cam Johnson, and Jonas V playing well. If you can’t fit your game to Nikola then it probably isn’t happening for you in the NBA. Ask Russell Westbrook’s agent if you doubt MJ on that one.. I love Russell and that’s the only reason I’m not adding another sentence or two to the previous thought.
Bottomline…Jamal needs to be more consistent this season and stay healthy if possible.
Have a beautiful Friday.
More love and less hate. We have to be better than this. We have to.
I absolutely love listening to this young man speak his mind. What an amazing asset he is for Oklahoma City to have as an international ambassador.
He completely changes the narrative of Oklahoma’s image outside of the city, or even the state for that manner.
Smart, mature, and way beyond his chronological years for certain. Wouldn’t it be something if someone like Shai were actually elected to a position of prominence in Oklahoma at some point in state history.
This dude would have my Nobel Peace Prize votye if I had one. To do what this young man has done in Oklahoma goes beyond the basketball court. It goes to the culural transformation of an American city.
Don’t ever change, Shai. Continue to be the man you are and make sure that is the man Ares immulates to become some day.