When Dave Letterman was still on the air I ran the Top Ten Home Office here in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. I miss Dave. I genuinely do. I’ve been very quiet on the political front on here with the NBA season just about upon us.
I’ve got a little pre-opening night jitters so I thought I might do a Top Ten List to settle in.
So…. FROM THE DAVE LETTERMAN HOME OFFICE IN DEER CREEK, OKLAHOMA
Top Ten Kanye West Casual Presidential Meeting Observations
#10 Probably not smart to go on a drinking binge in a D.C bar with Bret Kavanaugh just before highly intellectual exchange of ideas with Donald Trump.
# 9 You can say or do anything in public if you’ve had sex with a Kardashian.
# 8 Clearly a seamless replacement for Wilbur Ross over at Dept of Commerce.
# 7 Billy Bush would be smart to not get on a bus with this particular rapper.
# 6 Fairly certain this is who Mike Pence gets his top tier escort cell numbers from.
# 5 Could have become governor of Oklahoma eight years ago and actually elevated the office.
# 4 On hindsight would have been prudent not to mix meth, animal tranquilizers, and Bud Lights in that D.C. bar with Justice Kavanaugh.
# 3 Sarah Palin found perfect fit to replace Todd as soul mate.
# 2 Not to be stereotypical, but pretty certain this is what it’s like over at HUD behind closed doors after some gin and tonics with Ben Carson.
# 1 And the No. 1 casual Kanye West presidential meeting observation is…..drum roll, please.
Obvious judicial choice for third Trump Supreme Court nomination in second term.
My first and foremost hope is for this team to simply get better as the season progresses and play basketball the right way.
To peak at the goal achieving portion of the season and play up to their utmost potential.
This doesn’t mean I equate these things with a certain number of wins. It means I’m tired of watching sloppy basketball being played.
Making the NBA Finals is not what I’m talking about. Even making the Western Conference Finals isn’t what I’m talking about. Even beating out the Utah Jazz for the Northwest Division isn’t what I’m talking about.
What I’m talking about is the hope I see a team learn how to move the basketball and continue to move the basketball for 48 minutes regardless of the opponent. It’s the hope all five guys on the floor are dialed in defensively especially on the perimeter. It’s the hope this team becomes a much better free throw shooting team. It’s the hope either Alex Abrines or Terrance Ferguson step up as three point shooters. It’s the hope we see the Russell Westbrook all season long which we saw against the Spurs in the 2016 semis and for the first four games in the conference finals versus the Warriors in 2016. It’s the hope we see the Steven Adams which emerged in those two series. It’s the hope I see Billy Donovan take his team and win a playoff series without Kevin Durant on the roster.
What I really want to see is Russell Westbrook expand his game not just to notch more triple doubles, but to nuance his game as a point guard to make every other Thunder player around him a better basketball player.
I’ve seen enough triple doubles. I want to see nuanced play from Russell Westbrook.
I don’t write any of this with snarkiness attached. There are parts of Russell Westbrook both as a player and a person which I’ve come to love these past ten basketball seasons.
His commitment to his family. His passion for getting better. His toughness. His competitiveness. His life story. His loyalty to Oklahoma City. The fact he calls his mom every day.
But Russell Westbrook is thirty years old now. This is his team along with Paul George. This isn’t Billy Donovan’s team. NBA teams aren’t driven by coaches per se for the most part, they are driven by the stars.
This is Russell Westbrook’s bus with Paul George sitting in the co-pilot seat.
There are thirty teams in the NBA. Off the top of my head I can only name three NBA coaches who drive their team…Pop, Rick Carlisle, and Brad Stevens.
Billy Donovan isn’t driving this Thunder bus. Russell Westbrook primarily is the bus driver.
I want Russell Westbrook to not worry about triple doubles this basketball season. If they come, they come. But more of what I want to see are Paul George, Steven Adams, Patrick Patterson, Dennis Schroeder, Jerami Grant, Alex Abrines, Terrance Ferguson, Nerlen Noels, and Hamidou Diallo flourish as basketball players around Russell Westbrook.
I want to see Russell Westbrook take the best parts of Maurice Cheeks’ game and take his game as a point guard to the next level.
Dr. J and Moses Malone won an NBA championship with Maurice Cheeks in 1983.
The game of basketball has changed a great deal since Mo Cheeks won his ring in ’83.
But one thing hasn’t changed and that is the need for the point guard of a championship team to drive the bus, yet be a seamless extension of his coach.
This is what I hope I see this Thunder basketball season.
I’ll go ahead and do this on Monday so as I don’t fail to do it and forget the season starts tomorrow evening with my Philly Sixers opening in the East versus the Boston Celtics in the otherwise tame Eastern Conference. My viewing of Eastern Conference games is limited to basically the Sixers, the Celts, the Raptors, and the Bucks.
I’m doing these predictions with the assumption Kawhi Leonard finishes the season in Toronto.
The West is a complete and utter beast with LeBron now being with the Lakers and the Spurs now getting to know what life without Timmy and Tony will be like. LeBron should have joined Popovich is what I think. They both hate Trump and share similar views on hoops and politics, but LeBron opted for his Hollywood brand. So we wait to see who will hook up with him in LA.
I’m going ten deep on my preseason list in the West this season with Dallas, Minnesota, Memphis, Phoenix, and Sacramento not making my final top ten list.
So…here’s how I’m going in the West.
1 Golden State
2 Houston Rockets
3 Utah Jazz
4 OKC Thunder
5 LA Lakers
6 New Orleans Pelicans
7 San Antonio Spurs
8 Portland Trail Blazers
9 Denver Nuggets
10 LA Clippers
Golden State is an obvious No. 1 for me. Surely, Steve Kerr can handle DeMarcus Cousins and help him out. Houston did lose Ariza, but their overall offensive game and guard play should be excellent, plus I love Clint Capela. I don’t think D”Antoni will allow Carmelo to be a negative. I think Gobert is a player who gives OKC absolute fits at the rim, so consequently I have them above the Thunder. I’m very interested to see if Donovan Mitchell emerges into a full blown star and if rookie Grayson Allen gives the Jazz additional pop at the guard position.
I like every thing Sam Presti did this summer, but you know what, I’m not sure if he addressed OKC’s three point shooting woes. Basketball is a game of mathematical analytics. It has been ever since the advent of the three point shot. This is simple math. It’s very difficult to win big in today’s game if you can’t make threes at the least near something like a 36%-38% clip. Additionally, you then can’t have Steven Adams and Andre Roberson plodding along making only 50% of their free throws after missing two point shot attempts. It’s just math. So…unless the Thunder show me they’ve addressed this I can’t really view them as serious contenders. Steven needs to pick it back up at the free throwline.
If you look at the Lakers current roster, I’m not sure who are LeBron’s second and third best players as the season starts. But when you have LeBron and the roster I see right now I still think they’ll be very competitive in the West except probably versus the Warriors and the maybe the Rockets.
I don’t see the Spurs and Pelicans as serious conference finals contenders, but New Orleans did make a run last post season which interested me and they’ve added Julius Randle on the interior. New Orleans does have my attention if they stay healthy.
Portland, Denver, and the Clippers should all be competitive and challenge for the 8th seed.
I love Pop. I genuinely do. But as the landscape of the West has changed, one thing never changes and that is at the end of the day the stars make the coach. Maybe DeMar DeRozan will take his game to another level.
The Thunder season starts tomorrow night in Oakland and in all candor I’m not jacked. I’m more of what you would describe as pleased that Oklahoma City will have an NBA team which should be competitive and fun to watch.
Last week I wrote OKC could maybe win 55-57 regular season games and maybe contend for second place in the West. That could possibly be me being overly optimistic given the fact LeBron now resides in the West and the fact Houston and Utah should be solid. The Spurs with DeRozan will be interesting and different as they enter a new era of Greg Popovich basketball. The Timberwolves with the Jimmy Butler distraction would seem to be in disarray. I wonder where Kawhi Leonard will be the day after the trade deadline. I do.
As far as the Thunder goes they have a nice roster, but I can’t really say it’s a roster which has me thinking this season will be all that much different from the last two seasons as far as playoff basketball success.
Since Durant’s departure to Oakland the Thunder are a combined 3-8 in two playoff series losses to the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz. In neither season did I witness Billy Donovan impose his will as a coach and his team respond with getting better and playing better basketball as April rolled around. What I witnessed was the ball not moving as much as it should, poor three point and free throw shooting, and the same mistakes being made over and over.
So as I sit here fully interested in the baseball playoffs and college football, quite frankly OKC Thunder basketball is third on my sports interest radar on the morning of October 15, 2018.
But I do realize Sam Presti has done his best to keep the Thunder relevant. The question for me is how relevant the Thunder will be as the season rolls into the trade deadline.
The new Big Three in OKC is now Westbrook, George, and Adams. That’s a nice core. Solid for regular season basketball. But for playoff basketball where everything is amped up and intensified there’s honestly nothing I feel right now which has me believing the Thunder will still be playing basketball in late May.
The Thunder’s poor three point shooting and the team’s inability to consistently move the basketball are my two primary concerns. Has anything really changed with Scott Brooks being dismissed and Billy Donovan replacing him? The only thing I see as different is that Kevin Durant moved to Oakland and Paul George moved to Oklahoma City.
But has the Thunder anywhere else on their roster really improved all that much since the Game 6 loss to the Warriors in 2016? Unless you think Dennis Schroder replacing Dion Waiters as the 6th man and Nerlen Noels becomimg the backup center are profound game changers as far as playoff basketball success I would say the Thunder are pretty much the same except Andre Roberson won’t be healthy enough to start the season.
There’s talk of Kentucky rookie Hamidou Diallo filling that role. We’ll see. There’s talk that perhaps Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson will come off the bench this season and make at least 38-40% of their three point shots and improve the Thunder’s woeful overall team three point shooting. We’ll see.
With Roberson on the shelf–I’d think the Thunder starting lineup would go something like….Westbrook, George, Adams, Patterson, and Diallo. I’d think the Thunder bench would go Dennis Schroder, Jerami Grant, Nerlen Noels, Alex Abrines, and Terrance Ferguson.
You’ll notice I’m deep into this and I haven’t yet mentioned Carmelo Anthony’s exit from OKC as being an enormous game changer for the Thunder as far as the outlook for the season. That’s simple, because while I do feel Carmelo wasn’t a good match in OKC—I don’t think Carmelo was the reason OKC’s season never took off. I’d put that more on OKC’s bad three point shooting, Russell Westbrook’s stubbornness to nuance his game in the final six minutes, and the fact I can’t really say I’ve seen Billy Donovan grow as an NBA coach.
Do any of us really think Andre Roberson’s injury is what kept the Thunder from being a first round exit versus being a Western Conference finalist? Unless you’re Brian Davis do you really believe this?
To me, it’s more to the point other teams know the Thunder can’t shoot the three and then clog the lane to keep Westbrook and Adams from playing pick and roll. The other coaches are simply saying you’re not going to beat me with Westbrook and Adams at the rim. ‘Show me you can make threes.’
So as this season gets underway we’ll see if Westbrook in his 11th season can nuance his game as did his mentor Maurice Cheeks. We’ll see if Billy Donovan in his fourth season of NBA coaching can get his team to play smart enough to be a legit contender. And we’ll see if guys like Abrines, Patterson, and Terrance Ferguson can make enough threes to change the Thunder from being one of the worst three pointing shooting teams in the league to something bordering league respectability.
But as I wind up here this morning, don’t think I’m being negative. I think the fact Oklahoma City has a nice NBA team and one which should rank in the league’s upper third is a nice thing. So I guess this is what sustainability is starting the second decade of OKC Thunder basketball.
Hamidou Diallo–Kentucky highlights
Hamidou Diallo preseason interview with Thunder team mom Nick Gallo holding mic.
It rained all day yesterday and after walking with Pauli I did nothing but watch the baseball playoffs and Big 12 football. It was a glorious day for a sports junkie. A little wine, tons of coffee, and wall to wall sports as I hid from the world under my wooly Thunder blanket reading Mick Cornett’s book during commercial breaks. It’s the way I want to die when I know it’s my last day on earth. A great hike with the dog, some Mexican food, a book, and sports.
On the baseball front it would seem to me we are headed for a repeat of last year’s epic World Series of the Houston Astros versus LA’s Dodgers. With all due respect to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Boston Red Sox I think that’s where we’re headed. And if I had to pick one team I’d go with the Houston Astros to repeat namely because of Justin Verlander and Mr. October George Springer. If Jose Altuve ever gets going it might not even be interesting. Houston is the team to beat.
As far as Big 12 football goes…I watched all four games this week with OU and Kansas being idle. I’ve come to this conclusion… OU is still the team to beat even with it’s 96th ranked defense. I’ve come to this conclusion simply because I think Kyler Murray is by a wide margin the most impactful player in the conference. Not even close by my count and I still have Murray in my top three Heisman votes simply because right now I think he’s the best player in college football.
Texas went to the last play of the game at home with Baylor. West Virginia was dominated at the line of scrimmage by Iowa State in Ames. TCU lost at home to Texas Tech and couldn’t score the football.
And then there was the disgrace which took place in Manhattan with Boone Pickens’s O State Cowboys basically quitting on Mike Gundy and not even being remotely engaged against a 2-4 K State football team with a quarterback who can’t really throw a football. Funny… two meddlesome oil and gas dudes own the Dallas Cowboys and the O State Cowboys and both franchises in a word…suck in circa 2018.
I could care less about O State football. OU and Texas are the key to Big 12 football survival. They’re the two programs with national iconic brands. O State is a wrestling and golf school which somehow landed Barry Sanders when Switzer didn’t offer him a scholarship. But even with Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Hart Lee Dykes, and Mike Gundy they finished third in the then Big 8 in ’88 even with Barry Sanders winning the Heisman and having perhaps the greatest individual season in college football history. Consider this…Nebraska hung 84 points on that O State team coached by Pat Jones. So—really what has changed all that much in thirty seasons of O State football other than the fact O State caught a break in that the University of Texas football program was somewhat lost for a decade after the firing of Mack Brown. Texas is clearly not back all the way yet, but they’re now headed in the right direction.
Mike Gundy isn’t even close to being the best coach at O State. That would be John Smith the iconic wrestling coach. BTW…John Smith’s mother Madeline delievered my son Chris at Mercy Hospital in that same year of 1988. My point, my son is now the exact same age as Russell Westbrook and while Boone Pickens has thrown at least half a billion dollars at the O State football program the program is still basically a footnote to the wrestling and golf programs.
In all candor, after what I witnessed this week I would have O State ranked at No. 9 currently in the Big 12 only just barely ahead of a much improved Kansas Jayhawk team which is still trying for its football coach even though the Jayhawks are clearly a basketball school.
Which brings me back to this thought…O State quit on Mike Gundy yesterday. They just flat out quit on both sides of the ball. The score could have been worse.
So…as I’m sitting here getting ready to hike with Pauli before we get all amped up for the Cleveland Browns hosting the Chargers at noon this is what I would say to my fellow OU football fans…chill and appreciate what we have with the OU offense and a program which knows it has to get much better in a hurry on defense.
Because here’s the thing…when OU was down by 21 points in the 4th quarter against Texas they never quit. They roared back and tied the game. Nobody quit. Some coaching just needs to take place on the defensive side of the ball and some better players need to be recruited.
But if you’re an O State fan this morning I don’t know what to say to you. Your team quit yesterday and would probably lose to Kansas if they played again in two weeks. Kansas is still engaged. O State quit yesterday. And the truth of the matter is both Baylor and Iowa State are headed in the right direction with young energetic players who play their asses off for Matt Ruhle and Matt Campbell.
Jim Traber insists Mike Gundy is absorbed in his own vanity. Traber claims Gundy is pre-occupied with his smoothies, his oiled mullet, and his Twitter followers. I have to admit every time Traber does this on air I laugh my ass off. It’s great stuff. Jenni Carlson, the victim of that infamous rant now seems to be in Mike Gundy’s corner. I put about as much stock in what Jenni writes as I do in an Alex Jones podcast and I think Traber for whatever reason feels the need to troll Mike Gundy. At least Traber is entertaining.
But here’s what I know. O State football really hasn’t evolved all that much since 1988 when my son was brought into this world by John Smith’s mother. The Texas Longhorns just got lost by their own ignorance for a decade while Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, and Texas A&M left the Big 12.
Who did O State really beat? They never schedule anybody that’s any good good in nonconference play. Other than Stanford in 2011—who did they really beat?
Boone…take down that poser 1945 national championship banner in your football stadium down. Army was the 1945 national champions. You bought a wrestling program,…give John Smith the next $625,000 raise and ask him if can coach your football team.
More rain headed to Deer Creek today. Since August 1st it’s been an incredible rain journey in Oklahoma. I love the weather. Living in Oklahoma you become a weather junkie. That’s why I loved the segments in Sam Anderson’s Boom Town book about Gary England and dealing with the Oklahoma weather.
My wife and I each have a rain gauge out here at our place in Deer Creek which is just a bit east of Edmond near the northern most edge of Oklahoma County. Close enough to Guthrie that Stables in downtown Guthrie is one of my favorite Oklahoma restaurants. She claims my gauge isn’t empirical enough for her. Whatever. I ask what her gauge readings were and she didn’t answer–which of course would lead me to believe she’d had 24.7 ” as did mine. You have to be married for a long time to understand this dynamic. It took me almost thirty five years to understand this dynamic of marriage, but I finally figured it out. There are times you just keep your mouth shut and roll with it. We’re coming up on our 39th year together.
Four deer are already coming in every sunrise and dusk at our nature park setting land. It really is like a nature park. There’s not many pieces of land like this in central Oklahoma. It’s the singular reason we put up with Oklahoma. But I guess every governmental jurisdiction has it’s own unique challenges.
In Oklahoma, it’s very simple, the state government needs to move into the current century and smarten the fuck up on multiple levels of governance. My gut political feel tells me Kevin Stitt will be our next governor and I’m hoping we’ll see more of Mick Cornett in his leadership than that of Mary Fallin and Donald Trump. I found it odd Cornett made it clear he wasn’t a Trump person while Stitt embraced both Trump and Fallin in defeating Cornett for the GOP nomination. Yet, this week in getting Cornett’s endorsement he in a sense torched both of those bridges by basically saying he wouldn’t accept Fallin’s endorsement and that the state appears to have been run by idiots and dimwits the past eight years. I think what Stitt is basically doing is trying to appeal to moderates and Independents like myself. The Dem candidate Drew Edmondson does nothing for me at all. As in nothing. Tough call.
I bought Cornett’s book yesterday…The Next Great American City. It will be interesting to read after reading Sam Anderson’s historical essay on Oklahoma City from a NY Times point of view.
Pauli is going crazy with the deer. She can’t get enough of them. It’s like she wants us to adopt them and bring them in the house with us. She’s looking at me right now with that look, ” Let’s go, Mike. Get off your ass and let’s go play with the deer.” Like a little kid on Christmas morning. So I think we’ll go hike through the wooded trails looking for the deer before it starts raining too hard. She will not walk in the rain. Period. She won’t leave the patio…the diva lab.
I was looking at the internet this morning and two things have happened historically on October 13th which caught my eye. (1) Nero became Emperor of Rome. We’re living that right now in America. No shit. And (2) Bob Dylan won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2016.
I may do something later on comparing Trump with Nero versus Caligula, but not today. I’m in a peaceful mood, why mess it up.
The Thunder season starts next week with the opener at Oakland versus the Warriors. Hopefully, Russell will be good to go. I refuse to watch any NBA preseason action whatsoever because the regular season of 82 games is way too much as it is. But I feel refreshed and ready to get after it here on my modest Thunder blog in which you can read the things Barry Tramel, Royce Young, Nick Gallo, and Erik Horne aren’t really allowed to write on the record because their employers are all pretty much Heritage Foundation GOP types who don’t have any sense of humor per se. Net worth ‘trumps’ everything in that world. Always.
I’m pretty excited about the upcoming season. I think Sam Presti did about as much as he could in the off season minus getting Klay Thompson or Draymond Green to join the Thunder. Those are the two dudes on my wish list if ever Presti is able to pull off a coup of sorts. Remember this, you not only want to make the Thunder legit championship contenders, but you want to seriously weaken the Warriors just like they did to us when Kevie headed for the sure rings in Oakland. Again, you don’t just want to get better, but at some point Golden State needs to be weakened.
I’m excited to see some of the news guys like Schroeder, Noels, TLC, and Diallo. I hope Andre Roberson isn’t rushed back too quickly from that very serious patellar injury as well. Gosh, I hope the down time doesn’t hurt his free throw shooting. Another plus, I never have to look at Kyle Singler suffering again through another Thunder season. And of course, I won’t have to listen to television play by play from Brian Davis. I hope he landed on his feet, but enough is enough.
Obviously, Golden State is a prohibitive favorite to repeat. To me, a really good Thunder season would be to win 55-57 games in the regular season, finish second in the West, and make the Western Conference Finals. I don’t think those should be pipedream goals given the roster. For me, this is the time Billy Donovan needs to show me he can do this. Since Durant’s departure the Thunder have yet to win a playoff series and are a combined 3-8 in post season play.
It’s one thing to go 3-8 if your ownership isn’t spending money, but the Thunder have dipped heavily into the luxury tax and if you’re going to do that as an organization you should be advancing deep into the season at the goal achieving portions of the NBA year.
For me only, Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook have a great deal to prove to me as far as playoff basketball this season.. You know like, either shit or get off the stool.
Great stuff on the sports horizon, the Cleveland Browns host the Chargers this Sunday, the baseball league championships get going with the four best teams in baseball having all advanced, and the Thunder kick off their 11th season.
My entire blog camp consisted of reading Boom Town and Steven Adams’s book. That’s it. I needed a refresh. I’m good and ready to go.
I love this song. I dream of coming back in the next life as Tom Petty.
This is probably my second favorite Tom Petty song, but only the version with Stevie Nicks doing vocals. This is the thing about being a real rock star when you can call Stevie Nicks to come sing with you and she’s good with it.
It told me what I already knew. That being, America has become too stupid to be governed by reasonable adults. But I already knew that.
I was raised in dysfunction. None of this is new to me.
The Dow dropped 1300 points in two days. Trump assailed the Fed chief he hand picked. A Washington Post reporter was murdered by the Saudis. Hurricane Michael leveled the Florida panhandle. Mueller officials are about to wrap up their investigation.
But what captured the attention of the nation?
Kanye West being granted a personal meeting with Trump was front and center.
Trump isn’t stupid. His brand isn’t much different from that of the Kardashians or a pro wrestler. Trump will be re-elected in 2020 unless the markets tank and that’s pretty much that.
He could literally name Ric Flair Nature Boy as his UN Ambassador and it wouldn’t cause a ripple of concern among his base.
Quite frankly, the smartest thing I saw yesterday was Kevin Stitt refusing the endorsement of Mary Fallin. That was politically smart.
What does it say when Oklahoma looks smart in comparison to the rest of the country if even for just a day?
It’s been a big week for Oklahoma GOP gubernatorial candidate Kevin Stitt. He not only received the endorsement of former GOP mayor of Oklahoma City…Mick Cornett. But he also received the endorsement of two term sitting GOP governor Mary Fallin who is the most unpopular governor in any state currently.
However, Stitt and his campaign while gladly accepting Cornett’s endorsement has refused Fallin’s public support.
This is great stuff—even for Oklahoma.
“We did not seek Fallin’s endorsement, and Kevin Stitt has run a campaign message that he will do things a lot differently,” said Donelle Harden, spokeswoman for the Stitt campaign. “He is focused on changing the structure of state government and cleaning up the mess we are currently in at the Capitol.”
Here’s Mary Fallin endorsing Sarah Palin back in 2008.
My grandmother Maureen used to have a saying, ” Why is it I’m so smart and these other people are so stupid.”
I finished Steven’s book last night. It was awesome and actually exceeded my expectations. I’d give it four and half stars out of five. It was not what I would describe as your average jock biography. It’s a book which I would have enjoyed even if Steven played for a team other than the OKC Thunder.
It especially touched me because a central theme in the book is Steven losing his father Sid to cancer when he was but thirteen years of age and how it affected his life and how he has come to terms with this loss. Don’t think for a second I wasn’t thinking of my father while reading Steven’s truly touching account of his relationship with his father. His story put an enormous lump in my throat several times when he went into his feelings for his father.
The book entails Steven’s determined journey to make it from Roturua, New Zealand to the NBA and how this unique person went about doing it.
If you’re a Thunder fan you’ll love some of Steven’s inside insights into the Thunder organization. You’ll realize assistant coach Mark Bryant has played a pivotal role in Stevens continued progress and development. You’ll learn Steven was shocked and somewhat saddened by the firing of Scott Brooks. You’ll discover he’s glad Reggie Jackson is in Detroit. You’ll learn he loves Nick Collison. You’ll get the impression he thought Kevin going to the Warriors was a bit weak. You’ll learn he holds no malice towards Draymond Green for kicking him in the balls…twice. In fact, you get the feeling Steven would love to recruit Draymond to the Thunder because of Green’s defense and basketball IQ. You’ll learn that every day in practice Steven is working on his Euro step on the baseline and his three point shot. You’ll learn he has a deep respect for Russell Westbrook.
I would think if you’re a Thunder fan this book is an absolute must.
But for me, more than anything, it was a human story which touched me and inspired me at the same time.
I hope I bump into Steven again sometime in the near future again over at that 7-11 and have a chance to tell him how much I enjoyed reading the story of his life to date.
My hope now is that at some point Nick Collison will write a book on his career with the Thunder.
But as I wrote some time ago, with Nick now retired Steven will take his place as my favorite Thunder player and it will be seamless.