Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

A beautiful week-end for MJ out here at the mini-ranch and beyond. These rare cool early August temps were beyond wonderful. I went fishing twice. I watched Return of the Pink Panther and Sound of Music back to back on Christopher Plummer Night on the Turner Classics Movie station. That was an interesting combination for certain. And on Friday evening, I watched a fluid Margaret Hoover interview of New York’s Mike Lawler on Firing Line.

But most of all…I just enjoyed feeling good and being one in the great outdoors of Oklahoma. Two more nice days of this rare August weather and then it appears we’re back to the dog days.

I half-heartedly have put up these Summer League highlights even though we never saw Nikola play against the two best teams in the tournament…Charlotte and Sacramento.

Obviously though, Nikola gives the Thunder another rotational piece. Mitchell was already a rotational piece minus the NBA Finals…so we already knew what he was capable of doing.

Yikes…the Thunder will be even deeper than last season if that’s imaginable at the NBA level.

Way too early to be doing this with the Western Conference, but if had to go with my Top 4 right now I’d go…1 OKC, 2 Denver, 3 Houston, and 4 maybe San Antonio. No. 5 and No. 6….I need to think about some more. I mean…it’s August 3rd.

But anyway, I wanted to put something on the blog in regards to Nikola because he should be a player we’re all talking about this upcoming NBA season.

Peace and eternal eternity to all.

MJ

I’m in a very good state of mind after a wonderful day of fishing at the farm in Alex, Oklahoma yesterday. The cool front which rolled into Oklahoma was spectacular with it kick starting the fishing as it remained cloudy and cool the entire afternoon in southwest Oklahoma.

I love the solitude of those two-hundred acres. It’s like escaping from the world and shutting out all of the extraneous bullshit around us. The rolling pastures with the trees, the cattle, the two ponds, the mini-canyons and crevices of the land, and just the untouched for the most part majesty of the land is a place I’ve always loved to hide away from the world and just be alone with my thoughts.

It was a good fishing day. I caught around a dozen bluegill the size of my hand and six black bass about a pound each. Then, at the end–I scattered five pounds of floating catfish food on the water and watched the huge channel cat come in and feed. When those forked tails break the water it’s like Jaws. My grandson will freak out when he see this the first time.

I have my sixth Pet Scan later this morning since I’ve been on the cancer journey. Both Dr. Showalter and I expect it to be an A+ along with a PSA count now at 2 versus 1,212 when the Stage 4 journey began.

It’s all beautiful. MJ’s cup runneth over. I have been blessed. Truly.

I love this song. My old buddy, the placekicker at John Marshall High, Rod ‘The Mule’ Carter used to play this in the locker rook to get every one juiced up. That plus Sly and the Family Stone.

Plus, MJ has the best positioned blog to cover the OKC Thunder-Denver Nugget battles next NBA season.

Plus, Margaret Hoover will have a new episode tonight at 8:30pm on PBS. What more could a guy ask for?

Life is good.

MJ

This is the preceeding week’s show from 7/18/25.. Margaret is the host of the once iconic Firing Line which starred William F Buckley as the moderator back when I was a kid. I used to watch these shows with my grandmother Maureen who was as FDR as you can go. I would feign some right wingness on my part and eternal love for Richard Nixon to get her animated as we would watch the shows together.

She loved Hubuert Humprey and I played the Nixon foil to perfection. She almost didn’t feed me lunch one day when things got a little heated.

What she didn’t know… I was a big fan of Buckley’s arch nemisis Gore Vidal because of his historical novels. Those two almost came to blows at one of the party conventions. Those were the days for certain compared to the sewage stupidity flow we are now observing from the White House on a daily basis.

Okay…this is Elissa Slotkin the Democratric senator from Michigan. This is the type of candidate the Dems need to nominate next time around instead of any of the left wing progressives who have driven all the hard working blue collar people over to the MAGA freak show.

Right now…as of today, Donald Trump has a 38% unfavorable rating with smart, successful, pragmatic Independents like myself. This should not be rocket science for Democratic National Party.

Three words…NOMINATE SOMEONE ELECTABLE for people like me and my other Independents.

Josh Schapiro would be fine. So would Gretchen Whitmer. So would Tim Ryan. So would Mark Kelly. So would the governor from Maryland. If you dumbasses who run the DNC can’t beat a senile convicted felon who can’t conduct himself as even remotely presidential in a debate against Kamala Harris then you never-ever should be heard again bitching about the likes of Donald Trump.

DNC …how could anybody lose an election to this motherfucker? He’s a convicted felon who tried to hang his own vice-president and Mitt Romney to boot? A f–king dirt clod should have been able to win this election. This is on you people at the DNC. Grow up.

Great interview! I love Margaret. She should interview David Holt, the self-proclaimed purple mayor of OKC. Seriously. That would be a great interview for Oklahoma City.

Have a great Monday. Stay hydrated like MJ.

MJ

The dog days of summer have set in at the Mini-Ranch. Rain has averted us to the west and east all week. MJ…. without much help from his somewhat lazy anglo wife has kept up with the Mini-Ranch chores just like his dog Jeremy Clarkson does on his ranch. Like most every anglo I’ve known, male or female…the anglos wilt once the temps stay over 96 degress on a sustained basis—even in Oklahoma. Truth hurts.

Red Cup was awesome yesterday. I had the Sexy-Mexy coffee, the jalepeno burger, and a small Caesar salad. If you do nothing else…go get a Sexy-Mexy coffee even if you don’t want to eat a vegan meal. Plus…I can assure you the people watching at the Red Cup is usually stellar as well.

Margaret Hoover was exquisite last night on Firing Line. I’ll try and get to that tomorrow. I should have dumped Michael Smerconish for Margaret a year ago.

Once I get my Saturday morning Mini-Ranch chores done before 11:00am….I think I’ll follow Chris Gotterrup at the St. Jude Golf Classic this afternoon. Chris is a former OU golfer and he is absolutely on a heater right now.

The heat isn’t really knocking me down with the chemo as I feared it might. Quite the contrary…I’m getting stronger. It’s not that big of a deal anymore with some common sense applied.

I’m going fishing very early tomorrow morning at the farm outside of Alex. MJ is stoked. Seriously stoked. When you get old…you get stoked when you go fishing.

I’d say MJ is getting very close to saying he’s a Stage 4 cancer survivor. This doesn’t mean anything really changes. It will still be one day at a time and living the holistic life Dr. Showwlater and I have talked about. But I like the direction this is going considering where I was when the cancer journey began.

Don’t ever surrender. Live your faith every day and never-ever give up.

Love, MJ.

Even though I’m not a full vegan, The Red Cup Cafe on Classen and 31st St. is easily in my Top 5 Restaurant List in Oklahoma.

The food is amazing and the coffee is renowned for its excellence in Oklahoma City. Plus, for those of us who aren’t MAGA or wingnut crazies…it’s a nice change of pace. At the Red Cup you won’t feel threatened in a place more suited for Denver or Seattle…it’s an incredible place to enjoy either breakfast or lunch as they close at 3:00pm.

And for those of us who voted for Antifa extremists like Gerald Ford, John Anderson, Bush 41, John McCain, and anyone not named Donald Trump….people like me in Oklahoma are still considered as loyal Americans who still believe in democracy and the Rule of Law for everybody…not just for white billionaires.

You should try it sometime. The conversations are awesome as well. I was stunned Sam Anderson didn’t do a full chapter on the Red Cup in his book Boom Town.

Peace, MJ.

I feel great about the blog moving forward into the ’25-’26 NBA season. As a saavy, experienced NBA blogger who’s favorite team is the Denver Nuggets, and second favorite team is the defending champ OKC Thunder…it’s as if the NBA gods have parted the seas for MJ and ‘all this’ has happened in this manner.

Not to brag, but…in four of the last NBA seasons the team which MJ picked at the XMas break went on to win the NBA championship. Golden State in ’22, Denver in ’23, and OKC in ’25. I’m not saying to totally ignore Vegas and ESPN, but it is what it is.

I’m going to make a few tweaks this season though:

1 I’m replacing Smerconish as an affliate link with Firing Line’s Margaret Hoover. MJ loves Margaret and this should have been done last season. I’ve bored with Michael. He appears to have become Donald Trump’s bitch.

2 I feel as if I need some sort of Buddist statue of Big Perk on the cover.

3 Jeremy Clarkson from Clarkson’s Farm will be an added affiliate link as well. It’s a long, long haul during an NBA season and without the TNT show I worry these white people are going to ruin the NBA. We all need to laugh at ourselves..and others from time to time.

4 And …continue to ban Donald Trump from from my blog content. No more rabbit holes for MJ.

Our big September trip to SanDiago isn’t that far off. Our goal was to go from coast to coast this year and genuinely take in the beauty of our country as we observe the final days of American democracy as our parents and grand parents knew it.

The wife of 45 years and I sat out on the porch this evening as the sun fell behind our dense forest line about an 8-iron away from where we where sitting.

She looked at me and said, “We got old, didn’t we?”

I replied, ” Nah…age is only a state of mind. You have to think young and challenge yourself every day.”

Etrenal love, MJ.

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There wasn’t much drama at this year’s British Open at Royal Portrush as Scottie Sheffler pretty much did as he pleased in winning his first British Open and fourth overall major at the modest age of 29.

The Royal Scroll of Golf now goes like this…There was Jack. Then there was Tiger. And now there is Scottie.

And how uncanny it is that the same number of days, 1,197 to be exact…is the very identical span of days it took between Tiger’s first and fourth majors it has now taken Scottie to turn the same trick.

Even Rory admits it…Scottie is playing at a level so far ahead of the pack this is not even debatable right now.

In tennis….Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are pretty much 1a and 1b defacto No. 1’s in the world. There is no such ambiguity at the top of mens’ golf currently.

In the NBA… I would say Shai and Jokic are 1a and 1b heading into this ’25-’26 NBA season.

But I must say when I listened to Scottie talking about his priorities in life…I felt very much like I was listening to Shai’s moving MVP speech.

God, Faith, Family, then Golf.

As was the case with Shai’s comments…I found Scottie Sheffler’s approach to prioritizing his life in this manner very refreshing in this Dark Gilded Age of America we find ourselves in currently.

Scottie Scheffler, thank you.

A song would be a nice way for MJ to end this lovefest of sorts. A song would be nice given this heat.

MJ

Congrats to three of the teams which showed up at the Summer League Final Four in Vegas this week-end. Eventual champion Charlotte, Sacramento, and Toronto all gave NBA fans all over the world three teams whcih were trying to compete and win the championship.

I could rant on the horrible level of basketball which was presented by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first semi-final game which they played without Topic and Mitchell.

I’ll write this though…Porter Moser, other than Barnhizer and Youngblood, would not have made NIL offers to the other Thunder players occupying court space on Saturday afternoon.

If you don’t want to give a genuine effort to win the championship…then pull back on Topic and Mitchell earlier in the event and lose some games.

Why ruin the event for fans everywhere else?

Congrats to the Charlotte Hornets for giving NBA basketball fans a show….and giving a shit.

MJ

Pretty much a lazy week for me given I was infused with my 11th chemo treatment on Tuesday. This will mark my last full strength treatment in a period of time whicn began on the Monday following Thanksgiving.

Clearly, a tough experience, but I feel I came through it pretty well all things considered.

I don’t want to ever use the words ‘complete remission’ with my Stage 4 cancer, but I will say it’s gone well to this point…and that’s all you can really ask for in this type of situation.

I did get to slip in one little fishing morning in Seminole, but otherwise in this heat index… it’s been a week of rest and calm as I prepare to move to the maintenance stage of my cancer journey.

Being ‘somewhat’ Italian myself, I thoroughly enjoyed watching fellow countryman Jannick Sinner handle Carlos is what I thought was a rather easy manner in four sets. I love watching these two guys play each other and currently they have clearly separated from the pact of the rest of the mens’ tennis field.

I wish my old buddy Glenda was around to talk tennis every now and again, but she may very well have died when MJ was bannished from the Daily Thunder . Que sera.

It’s a good week to be down what with the British Open and the NBA Summer League winding down. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from the Thunder players and Jeremiah Fears as well. I just wish Jeremiah hadn’t been drafted by the dumpster fire Pelicans though. I hope he can still excell there given his obvious potential.

I love the kid Presti picked from Northwestern with the 44th pick. He sends my TSSNP metric off the charts. Smart, tough, skilled, and physical with some nasty when needed. Plus, I think Borger with the 15th pick will fit the Thunder’s obvious need when they can no longer afford Isaiah Hartenstein.

That’s it for me today. I’ll do my roundup on the impending Thunder-Denver Nugget off seasons as MJ is feeling very good abou the NBA aspect for the blog next basketball season in that regard. I mean…is there another NBA blogger around who knows both of these rosters as well as MJ? I don’t think there is.

Love and peace, MJ.

This is just a first draft from me thinking of the Thunder’s time in Oklahoma City to date. I may revise this with more reflection. I put heavy emphasis on what players do in respect to their niche role on the team…and what they did individually to help the team win during the playoffs and against the better twelve or so teams in the regular season in meaningful seeding games.

Anotherwords…what did you as a player do during the goal acheiving portion of the season?

This isn’t just a reflection of me looking at stats as a generic whole. Generally…I don’t judge players by what they do against the bottom eighteen teams in the league during the marathon 82 game regular season.

And I do put a great deal of emphasis on the unique metric I created with my TSSPN metric which I share with ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins at times. BTW…my son’s Perk, the 13 year-old brown lab is still spry as a pup, and like Big Perk doing very well.

So here I go…

1 Shai (won a championship and Finals MVP)

2 KD ( didn’t win a championship in OKC or a Finals MVP here, but a very solid second for sure)

3 Russ

4 Harden

5 J-Dub

6 Nick

7 Lu Dort

8 Caruso

9 Serge

10 Chet (note to Chet…get tougher and show MJ more durability)

11 Paul George

12 Isaiah Hartenstein

Player I most hated to leave off this list? That was easy, and yet very hard for me at the same time. That player being Kenrich Williams. Every championship team needs a Kenrich Williams.

Two players I wanted to put on the list, but couldn’t because they can’t shoot a basketball…Steven Adams and Andre Roberson. Two awesome role players who just couldn’t shoot at the NBA standard. But…still had and are having nice NBA careers.

Chris Paul should probably be some kind of special category as well because if he hadn’t shined as a rookie with the New Orleans group this NBA thing in Oklahoma City may very well have never caught fire as it did. CP3 will eventually be in my Thunder Hall of Fame.

I’ll think about this first draft for a week, but probably stick very close to what I’ve done on July 12th, circa 2025.

Peace and love…here come the mid-July rains.

MJ

• I had Perk at No. 13, but in the end…. I had to go with Isaiah for three reasons: 1 Better hands, better free throw shooter, and 3 was a key missing piece on a team which won their first NBA championship.

• TSSSPN = Toughness, Skill, Smarts, Snarl, Physicality, and Nasty. Pop only had TSN. So there’s that as well. MJ never remains static. Just sayin’. You gotta be fluid.