Month: August 2020

Robert Gordon Orr born in Parry Sound, Ontario. The greatest most complete hockey player to ever grace the planet. Unlike the frilly Wayne Gretzky…Bobby Orr was physical and could fight with anyone in the league.

Barry Sanders is my favorite football player of all-time. Roberto Clemente is my favorite baseball playuer of all-time. Michael Jordan is my favorite basketball player of all-time.

Bobby Orr is my favorite athlete of all-time.

He changed the game of hockey as an offensive defenseman and was a fierce yet quiet leader.

I play this video at the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year as my homage to Bobby Orr and the glorious game of hockey.

Bobby Orr is why I’m a Boston Bruins fan and why I wear my Bruins cap to work every day in Oklahoma.

To win the Stanley Cup the eventual champion has to win sixteen games and four separate series. Last year’s Cup Final went to a Game 7 in Boston on June 12th.

Today on August 12th… the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs got going with five games played between the Toronto and Edmonton tournament sites.

Both Boston and St. Louis have both struggled since the restart. The defending champion Blues have yet to win a game in either the qualifying tournament or tonight in a 5-2 Game 1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

Boston won its first game since the restart with a 3-2 win in the second overtime over the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s just so tough to get back to the Finals let alone repeat…in a normal year.

Goaltending, power play efficency, and penalty killing are paramount to a team’s chances of hoisting the Cup. Defending champion St. Louis was horrific in all three categories in the Game 1 loss to the young Canucks. The Blues appear to be in a coma of sorts. I’m sure coach Craig Arube will point this out to his team in private.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Sid Crosby did not make the eight team field in the East. Alex Ovechkin has yet to score a point since the reboot. I don’t consider either Boston or St. Louis as overwhelming favorites at this point. The tournament would appear to be wide open for a team say like the young upstart Colorado Avalanche or the tough Philadelphoia Flyers.

Tomorrow four games will be played.

Let the road to the Stanley Cup Championship take us to a magificent two month journey of glorious hockey.

May the hockey gods bless each of us in our own way and remind us why we love to take this journey every year even in August.

Thank god for Shark Week 2020 getting started on Discovery Channel this week. This glorified NBA summer league is doing very little for me as a fan of the game. I’m checking on Dort and Bazely’s progress… not much else.

Again…Dennis Schroder very much did the right thing in being with his wife for the birth of their child.

Matt Pinto and Little Nick Gallo may think this is great drama…as a seasoned blogger who isn’t owned by Sam Presti I have found these eight games beyond tedious.

Wife and I agreed to go to Nassau in the Bahamas maybe in January. We found a Bahamian restaurant in Oklahoma City today. The seafood eating in Nassau is beyond imagination. I can’t wait.

I find sharks to be fascinating. NBA Summer League…not as much. But I bet the fans in Phoenix are getting a little stoked about their future.

Maybe if the Thunder are paired against the Rockets in the first round this never ending season might be interesting for me.

I mean in reality…some of this is glorified G League ball.

Go Lu Dort and Darius Bazely. Keep getting better.

Does it get any better than watching Guy Fieri frolicking with sharks then visting the kitchen of Curly’s?

Curly’s will be our first meal on our trip. Multiple rum drinks for me and fried conch. It’s all about the rum and the conch in Nassau. This is epic food. Bahamians are such great people.

I’m watching the Thunder bubble games, but otherwise this bubble set of eight seeding games isn’t what I would describe as compelling sports viewing.

These games without fans are like watching a sex scene in a movie where everybody has all their clothes on. Who would watch that if they never take their clothes off?

Who cares if the Rockets play the Lakers and neither LeBron and Russell don’t even play. I hope the NBA doesn’t bore every one away from the playoff games with these seeding games.

The ice hockey has been killer and I think it’s a better fit with virtual fans and virtual arena noise.

I watched Fast Times At Ridgemont High instead of the TNT nightcap.You can’t insult your fanbase. You have to nurture your fanbase or then don’t play at all.

I almost forgot what a great movie this truly was/is.

So many classic scenes. So many careers which spawned from this movie.

Plus… the NBA starting times. I’ll be interested to see the NBA ratings versus the PGA Golf Championship tournament as this moves along.

I have no problem with the Thunder at all. They have a nice little ball club. Dennis Schroder very much made the right decision in skipping these games to be a part of his child’s birth.

It’s hard to blog about these seeding games. Although it is nice to see Michael Porter Jr. finally getting healthy and showing what he can do on a basketball court. Good for MPJ.

Both former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama spoke at the funeral of John Lewis.

I’m putting Bill Clinton’s tribute of John Lewis up first. We live in a time in history in which we have a president who has no ability whatsoever to talk to other people in a human manner with any smarts and empathy attached.

We need to be inspired from time to time given where we find ourselves as a nation currently. Something beyond having the human grifter junk bond promise you the lowest marginal effective tax rate.

Something inspirational somewhat in line with the best the human spirit can summon within each of us.

Bill Clinton isn’t what he once was as an orator in his prime…but what he still has as a speaker is enough when he’s talking about the inspirational life of John Lewis.

This was lovely.

You can’t get there where you want to be without moving and believing in the goodness of your mission.

Keep moving.

Vegas had OKC as a 1.5 bubble floor favorite in what was the Thunder’s first seeding game.

It wasn’t that close. At one point the Thunder led by as many as 29 points as they coasted to an eventual 110-94 win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday afternoon.

Andre Roberson played but five minutes and didn’t score a point. He was not a factor in the game for one simple reason….Billy Donovan didn’t need him.

Billy Donovan didn’t need Terrance Ferguson either as he played only three minutes and change.

What Billy Donovan did with those minutes was give them to Lu Dort, Hamidou Diallo, and Darius Bazely… and the three youngsters along with SGA showed why they are the buzz about this Thunder basketball team and the future.

As was the case in the three scrimmages these three played smart, tough, and within their job descriptions.

Dort played suffocating defense on Donovan Mitchell. Bazely provided some pop on offense and an improved defensive game. Diallo contributed nine points and energy.

An interesting thing happened during the five month break in this basketball season. All three of these guys hit the weights, hit the practice floor, and have taken their games to improved levels. The three simply got better during the break and appear to be the Thunder future along with SGA and maybe Chris Paul if he can find some sort of ageless elixir to extend his career.

Six Thunder players scored in double figures. The perimeter defense was good. The three point shooting was fine even though Dennis Schroder has yet to make a three in any of the three scrimmages or in this game.

But in looking at the stat sheet this stood out to me the most…in twenty seven minutes of play Chris Paul was + 27. This is Chris Paul’s basketball team. He is the glue which makes all these guys play within their comfort zones and with apparent ease as well.

Why can’t Chris Paul be the Tom Brady or George Blanda of the Thunder for the next three years? Why can’t the State Farm guy be the Oklahoma City Thunder’s sagacious leader a bit longer?

Amidst a Great Depression, a bungled pandemic response, and a shameful non-presidential response to George Floyd…Chris Paul never flinched. The guy has ice water in his veins and uber high basketball IQ which rubs off on these youngsters of Sam Presti.

Is there some NBA rule which says Chris Paul has to leave Oklahoma City? The city BTW where he played his first two NBA seasons after leaving Wake Forest.

Next up the Denver Nuggets on Monday afternoon inside the bubble.

The national anthem would be nice to help reboot the Thunder season. This is my favorite version by Whitney Houston.

God bless America… the land of the free, brave, and courageous. May we all search for the inner wisdom to make our country whole again. To simply live the Golden Rule with collective honor.

LET’S GO THUNDER!