Howard is friends with Donald Trump and let it be known recently he’s fairly certain Donald being president will be detrimental to not only our country, but to Trump as well. I couldn’t agree more with Howard. It’s so many things with Trump. The pathological lying, the need to win big, the obsession of Marco Rubio’s penis, the whole birther thing, the whole trophy wife thing, the inauguration crowd size, but more than anything it just seems likes he’s just this very insecure person who doesn’t have a dog and maybe never came to terms with certain things during puberty.
He never should have run for president. He doesn’t have time to be president. This interferes with his golf, shopping for furniture with married women, and sex chatting with bus bud Billy Bush. One month in and he looks miserable to me. He shouldn’t continue doing this just to prove the whole thing from that D.C. correspondents dinner when Obama destroyed him. Enough already, he gave it a month. It’s not working. If he’s not careful he’ll be right there with Kellyanne Conway in a mental ward by Month 2.
Yeah, I admit it…I love this. This whole thing says so much about our country and how racism hasn’t really changed all that much.
At some point one has to wonder if this is all premeditated chaos versus ignorant dysfunction. Everyday the world follows Trump into a new rabbit hole and is left trying to figure out what just happened. Nobody knows except maybe Trump, Bannon, and Kushner. Trump is using the GOP and the GOP is using Trump to get Gorsuch confirmed and the GOP tax cuts enacted. Otherwise, it looks like a game of Trump playing the country for a bunch of fools and laughing all the way through it so far. Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing date was announced today to begin on March 20th. It’s almost like reading a John Grisham novel of a Supreme Court nomination by a rogue president. But I doubt Grisham could even make up half of this writing fiction.
This is classic Trump spinning chaos and darting down the nearest rabbit hole.
I hope this turns out well for those who put their trust in Trump. I seriously do because I fear for some of you. Hopefully you’re in a good position.I hope so because this is a guy who thought the bust of the subprime mortgage bubble was a good thing… for him at least.
Never give a sucker a break and kick him when he’s down. Always remember–that’s Trump’s mantra. I hope that’s not the average Trump supporter when all this is over. You might want to pick up a copy of The Big Short, just saying.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this, without Russell Westbrook this Thunder squad would be abysmal at best and playing for lottery position. I don’t write this trying to be snarky, but rather to be honest. Clearly, this is the season of Westbrook in Oklahoma City, but without Westbrook this would have been a season of monumental bleakness in the reddest of red states.
The Thunder beat the NY Knicks by a 116-105 margin on Wednesday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. OKC improves to 32-25 on the season heading into the All-Star break. OKC doesn’t play another game for nine days and maybe during those nine days Sam Presti can do something as per his GM job description to give Westbrook some help. But know this, without Westbrook this assemblage of Sam Presti talent would have a record of something like 7-50. No hyperbole–none. At times when Westbrook leaves the floor, I turn my eyes away. I can’t watch.
On Wednesday night, Westbrook was once again brilliant as he notched his 27th triple double of the season in his personal quest of chasing Oscar Robertson. Westbrook’s line was spectacular—38 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 assists. It was an efficient line as well as Westbrook was 13-22 from the line and 3-5 from behind the arc. Good thing for Sam Presti and Billy Donovan that Westbrook didn’t sulk and demand a trade after Durant’s exit to Oakland on July 4th or else the only thing I’d be writing on this blog is what dumbass thing Donald Trump said on any given day. The fact Westbrook despises Trump as much as I do makes me wish I could sit down with him at some point and talk politics instead of Thunder basketball.
Anyway….. the Thunder were awful early in this game falling behind 13-2 for the most part because no one other than Westbrook could hit the Pacific Ocean with a basketball even if they were standing next to it. But things got better as Joff Lauvergne helped Westbrook a little and then it must have occurred to other Thunder players that for them to score isn’t against the rules or the Presti Doctrine. Visualize Walter Matthau and the Bad News Bears getting base hits and catching the ball all the sudden if you want.
Oladipo finally got going and actually finished the game with 21 points. Steven was okay, but nothing spectacular scoring 12 points and grabbing 8 rebounds….more is needed from Adams. Andre Roberson, who was 2-32 shooting threes in this last stretch of games, made a three point bucket from the top of the key which made me rub my eyes just to make sure this occurrence wasn’t a mirage. Roberson had a decent game with 10 points and 7 rebounds.
Jerami Grant had a nice game with 13 points and Joff Laurvergne had those 7 first half points which reminded Westbrook he wasn’t going to have to play the Knicks 1 on 5 all night long.
Key to this game was the fact the Knicks are a monumental failure this season considering their talent and it’s becoming apparent Phil Jackson as a GM isn’t all that much.
A bright spot for OKC was the fact they shot 12-23 from beyond the arc which is quite spectacular for these Bad News Bears minus Russell Westbrook.
Combined, Cam Payne and Enes Kanter didn’t contribute a single point for the second straight game. Pretty amazing OKC could win a game with this dynamic in place, but this season is all about Westbrook and how completely fortunate Oklahoma City fans are that they can still watch him play every night.
So now we’re at the All-Star break and this Thunder team is a miraculous 32-25. This sentence alone should be the only argument needed on Russell Westbrook’s behalf on why he should easily be the MVP choice at the break. Your Honor, I ask for a directed verdict, give this young man his trophy and make these other players practice their shooting.
When the Thunder resume play in nine days, they have a stretch of three very winnable home games in a row to start the goal achieving portion of the season. Maybe the Bad News Bears should hang around in Oklahoma City and practice with Billy Donovan. Maybe Sam Presti should do something GM-like and actually acquire a player can actually fucking score the basketball to help Westbrook.
But I’m not holding my breath. I’m just enjoying this Season of Westbrook and hoping maybe sometime we can compare notes on the Trump Doctrine.
How ironic, here’s Michael Flynn on July 18th at the Republican National Convention imploring the almost entirely white crowd to lock up Hillary Clinton. Flynn went on to say ‘if he ever did one-tenth of what Hillary Clinton did he’d be in prison’. His words, not mine. Interesting, if that’s indeed the case Michael Flynn might need to get his ass lawyered up in a hurry. Amazing, Flynn was fired in 2014 for being recklessly subordinate to Barack Obama. And, of course, he and Donald Trump were a perfect match. A fired general with a chip on his shoulder and a rogue birther presidential nominee who wanted to stir the worst in people.
Michael Flynn lasted 24 days. Gong. Even by Watergate standards this is eye popping. TWENTY-FOUR DAYS. Even the worst of the Nixon accomplices made it three and a half years, but Michael Flynn… 24 days. At least he’s got a title for his book.
Of course, more will continue to unravel. Hard to imagine Trump didn’t know about Flynn’s activities with the Russians, and of course, one would expect Paul Manafort’s name to start surfacing again as the Russian trail with the Trump campaign itself starts to unravel under subpoena scrutiny at some point.
In closing, we should all follow Michael Flynn’s legal advice as gold and lock him up for a day. Maybe some humility would serve him well down the road.
It’s simply stunning how little Trump groupies actually comprehend U.S. history. I mean, this wasn’t that complex to see coming around the corner. Unless, you’re just a complete fucking dolt of the Ten Star variety how could any of this be a surprise? If you’re given a photo of Trump literally going down on Putin with Melania looking on will that start to move this in a different direction for you? I’m sorry for the F bombs, but as each day passes in this cesspool called the Trump presidency I can’t control myself.
One cupcake begats another cupcake it goes in some alien basketball universe proverb, okay— so I just made it up, but still. On the same night Michael Flynn resigned not even a month into the piece of shit presidency headed by Donald Trump, Sam Presti’s Thunder stank up the nation’s capitol even more with perhaps the most pathetic display of basketball in the Thunder era in Oklahoma City.
It must have been hard for former fired Thunder coach Scott Brooks not to rip off his shirt and show a huge cupcake painted on his chest, waggle his finger, and mouth the words to Sam Presti — ‘I told you so,’ but he didn’t. Scott Brooks has too much class to do such a thing. And, oh, by the way, Brooks’ Wizards have now won 11 out of their last 12 and are the hottest team in the NBA heading into the All-Star break. Good for Scott Brooks, he’s a nice man and a decent basketball coach.
Just to set the cupcake scoreboard clear before I hit paragraph #4, the other cupcake who now plays in Oakland was getting his ass beat as well as the Denver Nuggets mauled Charlie Bell’s Super Team by the identical 22 point margin the Thunder lost by in D.C. Call it Cupcake Karma, call it a Cupcake boomerang, call it whatever you want, but maybe sagacious Kendrick Perkins knew what he was talking about…cupcake wise.
God this sucks writing this recap. But somebody has to man the Thunder Underground and not just lap dance Sam Presti 24/7 like others do covering this team.
I didn’t really call Russell Westbrook a cupcake, but he did play his worst game of the season tonight. It was awful and it appeared he had nothing left in his gas tank, and with good reason, he’s carried Sam Presti and Billy Donovan all season long after they lost Kevin Durant in free agency. If you wanted a glimpse of what the Thunder might look like without Russell Westbrook’s heroics this season you got it tonight as Westbrook’s uber competitive soul couldn’t get up after the game in Oklahoma City on Saturday night. Call it a cupcake hangover per se, but Westbrook is entitled–his teammates, Donovan, and Sam Presti aren’t.
Russell Westbrook was -36 in 24 minutes of play in this basketball game. It was ugly to watch, but I don’t mean this to be an insult to Westbrook, but more to the point an accolade of how he’s carried this team to a winning mark heading in the All-Star break. I mean this to be an insult to Sam Presti, as in do your fucking job and get someone on your team who can score the ball consistently every night and be Westbrook’s second in command. That’s what I mean because if not it would be stupid of Westbrook to waste his entire pro career playing in Oklahoma City.
I actually like both Adams and Oladipo as players, but it’s becoming apparent neither are quite good enough to be the second best player on a team which wants to be a serious contender. Since there’s no way in hell I’d trade Steven Adams, maybe we’re at a point when some other type of trade needs to be made if one is out there to be made which can help this basketball team.
Granted, the Thunder have now played the Cavs, the Warriors, and the hottest team in the league in succession, but Russell Westbrook needs some help.
I’d like to close with at least one positive paragraph in this recap. I thought Joff Lauvergne had a nice game, his play was the lone bright spot I detected in this basketball game.
Somehow I want to close this Thunder/Presti recap recant with a dueling reference to the smoldering heap of shit dysfunction known as the Trump presidency.
Okay, Trump, in essence, just waived Michael Flynn. Which btw Barack Obama did as well back in 2014 when he canned Flynn’s reckless ass for subordination. Trump says he’s eyeing David Petreous as some sort of reclamation project. Don’t do that Little Donald or Sam Presti, what he did was far worse than what Crooked Hillary did with her emails. Maybe go for a solid two way guard in Milwaukee by the name of Kris Middleton and see what WTF happens when you add another honest two way player to the mix.
Thunder fans booed early, booed often, some even booed after the game, and others even donned cupcake wear of all various sorts. Sam Presti and Clay Bennett could have dressed as cupcake mascots and it wouldn’t have mattered for one simple reason—Oklahoma City has one all-star, Golden State has four.
The final score read 130-114 and at one point in this game the Thunder found themselves trailing by as many as 26 points, but to the Thunder’s credit they fought hard and whittled the deficit down to 12 points at one juncture early in the fourth period.
But this game was basically decided when Russell Westbrook took his first rest of the game with 1:45 remaining in the first period. The score read 22-22. Mark that down. When Westbrook returned at the 8:31 mark of the second period the Thunder found themselves down by 15 points and the game was essentially over. I hate to pick on Cameron Payne, but he was essentially unplayable in this game and there’s just no way he matches up defensively on Shaun Livingston or Ian Clark. Billy Donovan should have immediately removed Payne and gone with something else like maybe a threesome of Oladipo, Grant, or maybe consider using Huestis a bit next time these two teams meet, but again Cameron Payne was virtually unplayable.
As far the Westbrook-Durant thing, both started slowly but got it together as the uneasiness of the whole night wore off. Westbrook was magnificent with 47 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists. He did have 11 turnovers, but given how little support he got from his teammates it’s amazing the Thunder were within 12 points in the fourth period. Other than Oladipo, there wasn’t much offensive support for Westbrook on the night.
Conversely, Durant had more than enough support on the night as the Splash Brothers each tallied 26 points and were a combined 9-19 shooting threes. Compare that with OKC going 6-24 from the field and along with the early run during Westbrook’s first rest those were pretty much the two deciding storylines in this ball game. Durant did have a nice night scoring 34 points on a 12-21 shooting night, but I actually would have picked Steph Curry as the Warrior player of the game as he had a very solid 26 point, 8 rebound, 9 assist night.
OKC just doesn’t have enough three point shooting and overall scoring depth to hang with this Golden State team which features four all-stars in Curry, Durant, Green, and Thompson. It’s a horrible matchup for OKC and made even worse on this night as they got virtually nothing from two of their top six players, with Kanter and Payne not contributing a single point on a night when in reality the Thunder would need something like 30 points combined from these two against this Warriors juggernaut.
As far as the booing of Durant, I expected it and it was about at the level I thought it might be. The shirtless dude named Thor going topless with a huge cupcake adorning his nipples was a bit much for me, but, hey, he’s got a First Amendment just like the rest of us.
I don’t blame people for booing this one game because I as well thought what Durant did in going to the Warriors is one of the most weak dick things I’ve ever seen in sports, but it is what it is. Don’t feel like the lone ranger on this, because every other team in the NBA is going to feel the inequity of this Oakland Super Team once the post season tournament begins.
Sam Presti has some work in front of him if he’s not going to lose his last remaining superstar, namely he needs to get Russell Westbrook a dependable guard who can come off the bench, make some threes, not be a complete defensive mismatch, and hold the fort for fifteen minutes every game.
OKC now stands at 31-24. Without Russell Westbrook, I’d guesstimate this Thunder team would have a mark somewhere around 8-47 without him at this point of the season. I’m hoping Sam Presti has some working ideas heading into the trade deadline.
The Thunder play the Wizards on the road Monday night in D.C. in what should be a tough game against a Wizards team which is playing much better under Scott Brooks than they were the first time the two teams met on Nov. 30th.
Actually, I agree with a great deal of this by Cowherd. Why would anyone boo another person who’s brought joy into their life? It’s stupid, immature, and selfish. Truth is, part of me wanted Durant to leave, not just to Golden State. Part of me thinks he needed to leave so he could grow up and become a better man with possibly a coach like Popovich. Part of me realizes how lucky I was to have Durant, Westbrook, and Harden playing twenty minutes away from my front door in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. Having said all that, I did boo the living shit out of Reggie Jackson and not for a second will I ever regret it. Piss on him and every Detroit Piston fan knows what I’m talking about.
We are spoiled fans in OKC. The only losing season came in 2008 when the Thunder went 23-59. Otherwise, it’s been a fairytale, and even this season without Durant we’re seeing something historic with Russell chasing Oscar. But if Cowherd were next to me I’d say this as well especially since Cowherd is a Trump Trekkie. I’d say, if I were a young black man who could play in any city in the U.S.–I’d honestly have some trouble playing in a city as politically regressive as Oklahoma City. At some point the basic hypocrisy in playing in a city which thinks it’s cool that Trump, Bannon, and Sessions are now running our country would honestly bother me. Trust me, I’d be a proud black man…probably like Bill Russell and I’d speak my mind.
So boo if you must, but I won’t be booing with you, instead I’ll be cheering for Russ, Steven, Dipo, Andre, and Co. to elevate their games and beat the team most are picking to win the NBA championship.
Maybe I was a black man in a previous life. Maybe that’s it. This has nothing to do with the game, but it’s always been my favorite movie scene of all-time just ahead of the beach scene in Shawshank Redemption and the Harvard bar scene in Goodwill Hunting. I wish Kevin and Russell could watch this with me and I’m certain we could talk and work all this out. This whole thing seems so silly to spend all this time acting this way towards one another.
An impressive fourth period by Russell Westbrook and Co. propelled the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 118-109 win over LeBron’s Cavaliers on Thursday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Granted, the Cavs were on the second night of a road back to back and third game in four nights, but it was still a very encouraging sign for the Thunder’s development to make the plays as a ‘team’ down the stretch.
Russell Westbrook notched his 26th triple double of the season and in my vision was excellent down the stretch as Oladipo, Adams, and others all made plays which contributed to the win. I thought it was the best game of the season to date in which Westbrook, Adams, and Oladipo all played at close to their optimal level on the same night.
Westbrook’s line was 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists and it was a pleasure to watch him dual with Kyrie Irving through the course of the night.
Adams was superb with 20 points and 13 rebounds as this was the Steven Adams who burst onto the national last year during post season. A very good sign for Adams and the Thunder as I think one of the big deals in Saturday night’s game against the Warriors is for Adams to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the floor. If this happens—I think OKC has a chance to win the game.
Victor Oladipo was excellent as well scoring 23 points coupled with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. There was an easy flow synergy between Westbrook and Oladipo and if the two can continue to make this work on most nights the Thunder are an interesting basketball team with the possibility of playing some high level basketball.
Andre Roberson was very solid again and if this is the Roberson we see cutting without the ball OKC is a much, much better. Sabonis made some rookie mistakes, but he showed some bright spots as well.
Cam Payne played by far his best game of the season and one of his best games as an NBA player scoring 15 points in 13 minutes. This is what OKC needs from Payne on a consistent basis especially with Enes Kanter not available.
Jerami Grant and Joff Lauvergne made solid contributions and will be counted on heavily on Saturday night as Billy Donovan will have to play multiple small ball sets at times in the game. Alex Abrines had a surprisingly impressive dunk, but what the Thunder will need from he and Morrow versus the Warriors are some threes. A team has to make threes to hang with the Warriors.
OKC improves to 31-23 and sets the stage for the much anticipated return of Durant to Oklahoma City.