Month: March 2024

I love Chris. He almost became a neighbor of ours back when the New Orleans team played here two years after Katrina. OMG… that would have been cool.

Instead… we got a sychotic young married couple across the street. Whenever they had a fight…the wife would crank up the John Deere tractor and in her nightgown start mowing the lawn at two in the morning. Swear to God.

I probably made a mistake in telling her I was a graduate of the Bob Jackson School of Law in that she actually followed some of my advice. Que sera.

I love the fact Chris t’ed up the zebra. I could see myelf doing this in a heartbeat if I were NBA Hall of Famer.

I’m sure Chris is frustrated in the way this season has gone for the Warriors. With Steph sitting due to the ankle and Draymond getting a night off for no reason I can asertain….the Dubs finally wore out at Dallas and lost.

The Warriors now stand 34-31 and appeared destined to be either the 9th or 10th seed in the West. I read some bullshit about some recent comments from Draymond on his podcast in regard to comparing Steve Kerr’s handling of Steph in relation to Mark Jackson when he coached the Dubs.

Really…. Draymond…you stupid motherfucker! You’ve sabotaged the last two Warrior seasons and that’s your hot take on your piece of shit podcast.

I watched four NBA games simultaneously last night on NBA Centre Court and am very pround to announce that ‘my’ hometown Denver Nuggets, the hottest team in the NBA since the All-Star break…won at Miami to pass the still developing Oklahoma City Thunder as the No. 1 seed in the West.

Note to Sam Presti and his little leashed puppy dog coach….please keep playing Josh Giddy and Gordon Hayward togther as much as possible down the stretch.

Have a beautiful Thursday.

MJ

We had a great week-end with the grandchildren. It was exhausting, yet awesome. It’s taken me two days to recoup, but I think I’m okay now. Now…I’m ready to get in my March Madness Hoops state of mind. But for this week as the basketball landscape is littered with conference tournaments which don’t interest me…..I’m watching NBA games only in an effort to get in a groove heading into the goal acheiving portion of the NBA season.

What I mean by goal acheiving….that time of the year when winning matters.

So… I’ve watched two games this week already. Last night, I watched the Thunder get handled at home by the Indiana Pacers. Indiana is a nice little team which thrives playing up tempo, but the Thunder in reality aren’t good enough to beat this team without the uber-athletic JDubb Williamswho was missing due to an ankle injury.

That’s it. Plus…it appeared Shai pressed with the absence of JDubb and had one of his worst games of the Thunder games I’ve actually taken the time to watch since they’re my sixth favorite team in the NBA as of this writing.

I’ve listened a bit to the Thunder fanbase lament this loss on the Sports Animal this morning…..and here’s what I would say, “Yes…Gordon Hayward and Josh Giddy are both white guys who are laterally slow defending players and probably should never be on the floor together, but I wouldn’t let this loss keep me awake at night.”

Fact of the matter is…JDubb is a freak and in reality might be the Thunder’s best player.

As far as the second game I’ve watched this week…it was my Golden State Warriors beating the Spurs on the road by a 112-102 count without Steph. Great game to watch with Johnny Kuminga, Klay, Chris Paul, and Brandin P leading the way.

Steph should be back for ABC’s Saturday Game of the Week vs. the Lakers. The Warriors are actually a nice little team to watch right now. Nothing great for certain, but a fun team to watch with all the kids on the roster beginning to carve out their roles.

What a poster of Wemby by Trace in this game! Maybe the play of the year for the Warriors considering all of which has transpired.

Tonight…I think I’ll watch the Warriors without Steph versus the Dallas Mavs.

Have a nice day of spring warmth in Oklahoma.

MJ

This normally might have been a good time for me to cover the underbranded OKC Thunder versus the always tough Miami Heat here on the award winning blog, but we have our grandchildren here at the Deer Creek mini-ranch for a four day week-end.

Truth is…my heart is more with the Heat than the Thunder. I agree with CBS Sports….the OKC Thunder are in a huge way in need of a rebrand and a rethink as to how to rebrand this splendid collection of young players. You can only go so far as being the team representing domestic terrorism and fake Trump Christianity. Clearly….CBS Sports and myself are on the same page on this this one.

Anal Sam Presti needs to loosen things up a bit and at the least hire a media relations person more in tune with the reality of the age in which we live.

First thing he should do is break his affilliation with the extremely subservient Daily Thunder and point his team’s followers towards the NY Timesish okcthunderground.com. At the least….the reading level of his fanbase might climb a few notches. Just a first step thought.

It is what it is though.

What a four day week-end so far…Robert (4) and Aubrey (3) went on trail hike with me this morning along Deer Creek in the mist looking for mountain lion tracks. My wife told us not to go, but we blew that thought off and pretended we couldn’t hear her. She reluctantly joined us from behind.

For all you you young guys outh there who want to stay married 42 years like El Prez has done….hear this… there are times you must fake not hearing your wife and do exactly what you had in a mind from the beginning.

‘Couldn’t hear you, honey. My hearing isn’t what it used to be. Sorry, hun.”

Anyway… we saw a track which ‘could’ have been that of a mountain lion. We’re going back out at dusk for another hike and then doing a bond fire along the creek on one of my various creek fire pits.

Being a grandfather is so cool. I can’t believe I’ve made it this far. It all went so fast.

Sam Presti…start thinking about the rebrand, dude. You’ve got three dudes you need to keep this time around.

MJ

I’ve been extremely busy the last week attending the Seminole Caucus and watching three OU basketball games which all went down to the wire. Plus, doing lots of hard labor out here at the ranch in Deer Creek as spring has thrust upon us.

OU’s home basketball seasons are over…so I’m ready to direct my energy towards other matters.

Those being fishing, some hiking, working on my golf swing, March Madness, the Golden State Warriors, the Denver Nuggets, and this pathetic replay of another Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden presidential race.

The OKC Thunder will remain a secondary beat for me even though they’ve clearly had a remarkable season so far.

Why?

Because Sam Presti has shown me he’s so anal in his approach to team building I don’t think he addressed any of his team’s weaknesses at the trade deadline.

He made three moves which to me were at best all lateral and he doesn’t appear to have come to the realization Josh Giddy ins’t one of his eight best basketball players. I know Presti is a smart guy, but I just think when it matters he won’t be able to adjust Giddy’s role when the games actually mean something. We’ll see.

As far as the Seminole Caucus…I was pleasantly surprised. There were 17 partcipants. The voting went this way…. Nikki Haley 7 votes, Donald Trump 6 votes, Joe Biden 2 votes, Bernie Sanders 1 vote, and Vlad Putin 1 vote.

We debated on the Vlad Putin vote, but decided since Donald Trump is remarkably once again the GOP’s candidate then in no way should a ruthless dictator such as Putin not be allowed on the Seminole Caucus vote sheet.

I voted for Nikki Haley.

What will I do now?

No way in hell would I ever vote for for the posterchild of pathological sociopaths….so I’ll have to blaze my own trail.

I’ll probably write in Liz Cheney and Adam Kensinger… would be my guess. What a quaint notion…two politicians who actually voted their conscience and did the right thing.

Experienced. Bright. Articulate. The right age. Nikki Haley never had a chance. As in… she never had a chance. It is what it is.

I’m going to seriously get started on my NBA blogging ‘maybe’ tomorrow morning. There’s so much to blog about.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

MJ

I have a very busy Saturday on slate today. I will be attending a fish-fry cookout, Birthday party….presidential caucus today in Seminole, Oklahoma. Then…later I will be driving to Norman from Seminole to sit behind Coach Porter Moser’s bench to cheer on the Sooners as they upset the No. 1 ranked Houston Cougars.

I’m calling it despite the Sooners’ abysmal play in Ames on Wednesday.

My disgust for the GOP and Donald Trump is obvious, but my disgust for the Dems is growing by the day as I witness their ineptitude. This ineptitude is why in the year 2000 when I left the GOP I became an Independent and not a member of the weak sister Democratic party.

So later today in rural Oklahoma….I will courageously be casting my vote for Ambassador Haley. Call it a profile in courage… if you will.

That’s it for me today. I need to get going and hit the road.

Have a wonderful Saturday as Oklahoma will heat up to a beautiful 79 degrees later today.

I need an energy song. This one never fails me.

Peace.

MJ

Thank you… Basketball Gods.

This has taken me 24 hours to come down from one of my highest moments ever as a fan of basketball at any level. I will admit as a Stage 4 cancer survivor who was told last March he wouldn’t make it to the 2023 NBA Finals… this was special. These young women have been special to me for what they just accomplished.

This was the perfect game for me to be a part of in person at courtside at this juncture in my life. I will admit I have fallen in love with this OU team as each week has passed, and what they stand for in regards to how they play the game and compete to the very end.

I’m almost speechless, as if that were possible.

The love and respect I have for this team is immense. They don’t need to do anything else for me.

On December 22nd… this team lost at home to Southern 79-70 to fall to 6-5 heading into the Christmas break before the start of the Big 12 season. The thought of ‘that’ team becoming ‘this’ team which since ‘that’ game is 15-2 and repeat Big 12 champions is the thing sports dream seasons are all about.

This team had no business winning this Big 12 Championship, and yet here I sit blogging with an incredible feeling of warmth in my heart for what I had the privilege to witness this Big 12 basketball season.

This absurd 71-70 win over No. 3 Texas was a micro of what this season has been about for these Sooners. They trailed basically the entire game and repeatedly fought back from several double digit deficits. They played uphill for forty minutes.

If one looked at the stat sheet or watched the first 39:30 of this game they’d say no way.

But with these young women, they basically said as a team, “Way.”

With 4.5 seconds left and after a wild scramble… my favorite female basketball player in the world, Lexy Keys, splashed a left corner three pointer to catapault the Sooners from 70-68 down to an improbable 71-70 stunner.

OU’s best player, Skylar Vann had a tough night. But here’s the thing about this team, sophmore Payton Verhulst, the player with Jennie and Lexy at the presser, just basically stepped up and carried the team up until midway third period to keep OU somewhat in this game.

It was that type of game. This type of season.

I may or may not go to Kansas City and watch the Sooners. I’m not sure yet.

We’ll see.

Either way, thank you for the beautiful basketball season.

MJ