A mens’ national semifinal round for the ages. Literally the best two game set I can ever remember. Tonight.. we get Houston vs. Florida and we will see if Kelvin Sampson can go all Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) and complete his incredible journey back to the pinnacle of his sport.
Kelvin never would have lasted as an NBA head coach. He’s the kind of dude who should be coaching college basketball. The kind of coach who tries to make a difference in the lives of his players.
I am genuinely somewhat conflicted about tonight. I love what I’ve seen from Walter Clayton Jr. this season, but Kelvin is a part of my OU basketball heart. Sorry…Walter–Kelvin and Milos have my heart tonight.
Then yesterday there was UConn’s Paige Hueckers leading the Huskies to a blowout win for Coach Geno Auriemma’s 12th national championship. Paige got plenty of help from Azzi and Sarah Strong, but this was Paige’s championship. Nobody, and I mean nobody, saw this game being the blowout it was.
And then there was Alex Ovechkin passing the Great One with his 895th goal yesterday. If you love the game of ice hockey…you cried. Damn…it seems like I cried every day this past week. MJ needs to tap down on all this crying of happiness.
By the way…one of my favorite foreckecking physical wingers in the league, Tommy Wilson, got the primary assist on No. 895. Nice moment for a role player and a banger.
Anyway—congrats to Alex Ovechkin…and who knows maybe the Washington Caps could make a little run of their own in the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The only downer was the Thunder getting their asses kicked at home by the hot shooting Lakers. I’m going to attend tomorrow night’s game…so I’ll do a two for one on these two Thunder-Laker games later.
I’m already amped about tonight’s game in San Antonio.
I want to be fair. This isn’t just about the six trillion dollar exit from U.S. equity markets this past week.
You people already knew he bankrupted Trump Airline. You already knew he bankrupted Trump University. You already knew he sold a $500 million dollar casino/hotel for $350 million and then witnessed Party B sell the same property to a Party C for $600 million dollars. You already knew he rolled up in upwards of another 8 trillion to our federal debt during his first term.
You knew exactly what he was as a human…and yet. You knew he posessed the maturity of a 7th grader with this nuance of Mr. Pillow…and yet.
You knew or should have known he’s the last human on earth who would or could bring fiscal responsibility to this country…and yet.
YOU KNEW…AND YET.
Unless you’re dumber than a rock….YOU KNEW what he did on Jan. 6th.
YOU 78 MILLION PEOPLE KNEW>
Other than Donald Trump causing self inflicted chaos in this country every single day since the first day of his second inauguration… and other than the fact he did get the border numbers back to what they were under Obama….what has he done which wouldn’t have been corrected eighteen months ago with James Lankford’s immigration bill?
WHAT has this Time Magazine Person of the Year done other than get the Obama numbers back as far as the Southern border?
Well…he’s made every other country in the world hate America. And he’s without any nuance whatsoever failed to explain to even his dumbest followers how any of this is going to in any way make their lives better as American citizens who’ve played by the rules.
And what’s really pitiful is that in the only debate in which he would show up and debate Kamala Harris…is the fact she kicked his ass all over that stage that night as if if he were in fact a senile old man and only one year younger than Joe Biden
And let me clear on here…I was not in anyway enthralled with having had to vote for Kamala Harris. But given the other option….as a husband, as a father, as a son, as a grandfather, and as an American who believes in the Rule of Law–I felt obligeed to vote for Kamala Harris given the option.
So I guess you 78 million don’t have any qualms whatsoever about any of this so far.
I am so happy for Kelvin, LJ Cryer, Milos, and all the Cougars…. basketball words are not adequate.
Kelvin said, “Sometimes you lose, but if you’ve given everything you do not lose. You stay the course with your inner faith, your belief in your own dogged soul, your family, and your real inner core friends.”
MJ would add it doesn’t hurt either if you take on the inner soul of a sled dog/wolf named Buck. It’s nice to have the soul of a dog on your heart on the journey. Trust me on that one.
So we get Kelvin’s Never Quit Cougars and Walter Clayton’s Never Say Die Gators on Championship Monday Night.
The problem is I might have two Shining Moment Champions on the same evening if you follow my drift.
On Friday afternoon after leaving the Red Cup Cafe, I headed over to the OKC Wellness Center and got on the terrain bike to see where my cellualr recovery was after the most recent chemo infusion. The room wasn’t as crowrded as normal as the cold, wet weather had already drifted into western Oklahoma City.
I then shattered my best previuos three mile time by a full minute. I cried. But it was a beautiful, joyous, cleansing cry.
One of my friends nearby asked, “Mike…are you okay?”
Lots of cold rain and wind out here today on the Deer Creek mini-ranch. No trade war out here. Just peace, grace, and thankfulness for this wonderful four day span of championship college basketball. A perfect day for steaming hot coffee and hoops.
The day Trump won back the White House all of our finances were slightly reorganized to allow for a convicted felon to assume the bully pulpit. I mean, if you fake Trump Christians put someone with less character than Bernie Maddow in charge, shit will happen… just sayin’. You didn’t have to be Warren Buffet to see these last two days coming around the bend. You treat and talk to the rest of the world like they’re low class trailer trash shit in Oklahoma and losing somewhere around six trillion in equity leaving the U.S. markets doesn’t seem like a far-fetched scenario.
Nope.
I did watch bits and pieces of the Thunder’s loss at Houston last night with OKC pretty much at full strength. Houston played well and let’s give them credit they might be a factor in the West in games played in Houston. Stick this footnote in your NBA Playoff notebook…Houston is 5-1 versus the Thunder in Houston these past two regular seasons. I wouldn’t freak out or anything if I was a Thunder fan. Just a thought.
Both South Carolina and UConn looked great last night. I think South Carolina has the better, deeper team. But I think Paige Hueckers is the best player in the tournament. As an OU fan…. I saw South Carolina twice this season before the tournament and they impress me just a bit more than UConn because of the quality of their rotation which goes 8-9 deep from my view.
For UConn to win the trophy on Sunday…. I think Paige has to be semi-phenomenal. While South Carolina’s balanced attack just has to be themselves as their team mantra should be to make Paige grind and fight for every inch of space and time for forty minutes. MJ likes South Carolina.
Even though I love Kelvin and Los Uzan… I cannot take the Cougars over Cooper Flagg and his other two Duke freshman NBA stars to be…… I can’t take Houston. Nor can I take my wife’s Auburn Tigers over Walter Clayton Jr. and his Florida Gators.
I rode the terrain bike yesterday after lunch with my friend at the Red Cup Cafe. My chemo ridden cellular dashboard seems back in place. The pace was excellent for forty minutes.
At the Red Cup, I wore my Boston Bruins black hoodie inside. Before I reached our table three people from Boston were already engaging me in a conversation about the greatness of Bobby Orr. Then later… in a heated statement to my friend… I got carried away with the loudness of my statements about me being a pragmatic-nuance Libra, and Trump being nothing more than a trust-fund pimp and the young women at nearby table started clapping. You can’t do that in many places in Oklahoma.
God…I would love to run for the United States Senate against Markwayne Mullin…especially since now I can add courageous Stage 4 cancer survivor to my resume. I mean, shit…I would think half drunk and in coma I could outwit that simpleton.
Anyway…I’m going to go ride the bike and meditate before the games get started this afternoon.
I feel good right now. There is a gentle calm, grace, and silent dignity which has overtaken MJ the week before Easter as I look forward to the Florida beaches with my family while totally at peace with this ending.
Life is good. So is God. Pray for Jerome Powell. Don’t let him hurt innocent people Fed Chair Powell. Stand tall.
It’s been a somewhat tumultuous last nine days or so for MJ. I finished my five month, seven treatment chemo regimen and I feel given where I was two and half years ago when this journey started I have been blessed by the angels of mercy. Very much so.
This will actually be the third Final Four Week-End for me since I was told there was a pretty good chance I was getting ready to pass from this earth after I posted my 1,212 Roy McAvoy-like PSA Count on Dr. Showalter’s cancer leaderboard. Fairways and greens, baby. If you’re gonna go… go big and hit the big boy driver and don’t play like some sort of scared pussy bitch. Groove it Dead Solid perfect just like Kenny Lee when he won Dan Jenkins’ fictional U.S. Open back in the day.
MJ has been blessed and shown mercy… and I’m grateful for the reset. With God’s grace I have been given the opportunity to get to know my two grandchildren… Robert (5) and Aubrey (4) even better.–and for them to know how much I’ve come to love them. What a joy it is to see them grow every day and amaze all of us. Truly amazing.
It is as if Robert Jackson Senior’s soul passed to Little Robert. Robert never stops talking. Never stops moving, is a filthy dirty cheating wrestler, loves playing Mrs. Pac-Man, and he’s already become a pretty solid little left-handed defenseman on the ice at the USA Hockey Youth Program over at the University of Denver.
Aubrey, on the other hand, is a stunning gymnast and a very tough soccer player like her mother. Is this awesome for MJ or what?
I do now have a big stuffed dog named Buck…named after the same Buck… Jack London wrote about in Call of the Wild. My Buck sleeps next to me just like Pauli did. Maybe at some point here in the not too distant future I can take the next emotional step and have a real dog again.
The Womens’ Final Four is tonight and my basketball heart is clearly with Paige Buchers and the UConn Huskies. I love her game. Bring it home, Paige!
On the mens’ side of the bracket…I just feel like Cooper Flagg and Duke have a little too much to handle for Kelvins’ Cougars at the end of the day. On the other side of the bracket there’s Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. and that big boy Mr. Clutch game of his. I love Auburn and Bruce Pearl. My wife is an Auburn Tiger, but right now Walter isat the top of MJ’s One Shining Moment leaderboard heading into Saturday.
Shouldn’t it be Duke vs. Florida on Championship Monday?
That’s the direction MJ is going.
So…that’s it for me today. I’m going to go have lunch with my good friend Dr. Sandy Price at the iconic Red Cup Cafe in OKC and allow him to help me further understand how 78 million Americans decided to vote for Donald Trump a third time.
Hope y’alls in Oklahoma didn’t lose too much in your 401’s this week?
Y’all in Oklahoma….better at some point hope this has a gentle landing spot for you. Just sayin’. I’m praying for you. Donald Trump on the other hand… couldn’t get give a flying f–k what happens to your job or your 401.
Big game tonight in Bricktown as Cade Cunningham, NBA Coach of the Year Bernie Bickerstaff, and the Detroit Piston invade Pay.Com for what we hope is a competitve game.
That was a tough night for me last night. I was just starting to emerge from my most recent chemo infusion and cellular chaos when Russell hit me in the gut with an unneeded infusion of the Bad Little Dude in those waning 13.2 seconds inside of Ball Arena.
We are going to have a fantastic Final Four this week-end. For the first time since 2008 all four regional champions will be playing for that One Shining Moment. All four teams in my view are capable champions.
But my basketball heart is firmly with former Sooner Coach Kelvin Sampson and former Sooner point guard ‘Los’ Uzan.
But right now I need to go ride the terrain bike for the first time in a week and work those 13.2 seconds out of of my basketball system.
But I still clearly love Russell.
Maybe a break song would be nice and then I’ll write why my basketball heart is all Houston Cougar on Saturday in San Antonio.
Minnesota somehow won the best game of this NBA regular season when Shai’s cousin sank two free throws with 0.1 seconds left in the second overtime after being fouled by Russell Westbrook in the right baseline corner..
Final score: Minnesota 140-139. Double Overtime
Incredibly there were eight lead changes in the second overtime.
Nikola Jokic went for an unthinkable 61 points. He played every single minute of the second half and the two overtimes. It had to be the best game of Jokic’s already storied career.
The TNT guys and Candace Parker all agreed with me on this. It was stunning. Denver was without Jamal, Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther. The Wolves were without Naz Reed and DeVonte. This was an instant classic for the ages.
This was a huge home loss for Nuggets as they fight for a No. 3 seed in the West which could conceivably keep them away from the OKC Thunder until the Western Conference Finals.
I don’t see Denver at this point though really needing to be concerned with making the Western Conference Finals. Jamal is always hurt and I still question Michael Porter Jr’s overall toughness and grit. I just don’t see it in the cards. I’m honest on this blog. I don’t lie to you Okies like Trump does every day.That’s not who I am.
And, now…to Russell Westbrook. Bless his heart. MJ loves Russell Westbrook and will not throw him under the bus and run over him.
Nope. This MJ who’s been on his Stage 4 Cancer journey is not the same MJ who back in his days as a rock star on the Daily Thunder blog…this Mike J is a different, more compassionate, more understanding human.
Let me share this thought with you. My two favorite prayers from the Bible are Psalms 23 and the Beatitudes from the Book of Matthew. If you’re a Trump fake Christian–I’m almost certain you know not of what I’m referencing…so just let it go.
You know, when I finish these prayers of thanks to God, I then add, “God…could you help Russell a little with his late game decision making…and help him out a little. He just can’t help himself.”
So…instead of me posting those final tortuous 13.2 seconds on my blog…I’m posting Roy McAvoy’s iconic 12 on the 72nd hole from the movie Tin Cup. The Masters is just around the bend. So why not.
Russell Westbrook, Bad Little Dude….MJ loves you.
Hit the three wood, buddy. Let her rip. Why not?
Now I’m going to sleep and try and pretend those last 13.2 seconds never happened. I would suggest—you do the same, Bad Little Dude.
Thankfully….the end of this NBA regular season will come to an end just about the time we start to wrap up what should be a very competitive Final Four and Championship Monday.
The fact of the matter is the Thunder’s season is kind of boring right now. There’s no real competitive drama because to me there doesn’t appear to a legitimate second best team in the West.
In fact, the Thunder at 60-12 even hold a full two game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the overall NBA best record which would give them homecourt in the NBA Finals if they make it that far. Which they should.
The Western Conference waters seemingly have parted beautifully for the Thunder as they did in 2012 when Kobe, Timmy Duncan, and Dirk all started showing their collective age and there emerged the Thunder with Kevin, Russell, James Harden, and Nick Collison. So here we are deja vous all over again with one exception.
The 2012 Thunder made it to the 2011 Western Conference Finals where they were beaten by Dirk’s Dallas Mavericks. Whereas this group has only last season’s first series win over a bad injury riddled New Orleans Pelicans team in their brief playoff run.
But this Thunder team is not that Thunder team. Sam Presti filled the gaps of their lack of physicality with the additions of Hartenstein and Caruso. One would also think that he filled some gaps of youthful inexperience with two guys who should help with the Thunder’s overall post season gravitas. You gotta win sixteen games against good teams with their three best players….playing, to win an NBA ring.
With playoff gravitas in mind, I would still have to go 1 Boston, 2 OKC, 3 Cleveland, and maybe, a big maybe 4 Golden State. It’s hard for me to buy into Houston and Memphis just yet. But one of those two could surprise me, most likely Houston.
Denver does not appear to posess enough capable players beyond the sixth spot in their rotation, LeBron appears to be too fragile with another injury possibly looming, and Dallas and Minnesota both hurt their team with bad trades this season. If Minnesota still had KAT instead of Julius Randle they’d be in my No. 4 slot instead of Golden State.
As I wrote earlier, as in 2012, it would appear the Westren Conference waters have parted beautifully for the OKC Thunder. A nice little perfect storm of sorts.
On another vein…I watched Brian’s Song again last night. I cried. I was 13 years old and in the 9th grade when this movie originally aired on television in 1971. I watched it with my father. He cried as well.
I never asked him if he was crying because of his experiences with his friend Joe Carter Sr. in the late 50’s when he and Joe could not sit in an OKC downtown restaurant and be served lunch together. I’m guessing that was on his mind as the movie ended.
Joe Carter Sr….. what a great dude. He taught me how to fish in a serious manner. Everybody loved him. It seemed he had permission from every land owner in Oklahoma to fish their private ponds. He was that type of a guy. He taught me how to wade, to use the floating doughnut, to set up a trotline, to seine live bait, and how to scout a pond or lake for fish. He helped turn a city boy into a serious fisherman.
I wonder what my dad the criminal defense lawyer and Joe Sr. would think about Donald Trump and his group of white rednecks, racists, and the apartheids like Elon Musk’s daddy?
I think like me they would be sad at how far we’ve fallen in America in the last 53 years. That’s what I think.
My four month chemo set was completed today at Integris. It’s been the toughest part so far on my Stage 4 cancer journey. And the very last thing I planned on putting on my blog today was anything Donald Trump related because there’s only so many ways even a nuanced, talented blogger can say…..
” Is this lying pathetic motherfucker even remotely serious?”
It’s pointless at this juncture. It really is. Rome is burning.
After my infusion, I headed over to my OKC Wellness Center and my favorite person over there is a black guy named Brian who usually is there on the bike next to me at pretty much the time of the day I do my forty minute ride and light weight workout.
Brian uses a walker. I have now improved to using one cane only. We both have our own health issues. But neither of us have or plan on feeling sorry for ourselves or qutting.
Brian is about my age. Black. Hard working, a self-employed person just like I was and like MJ…. did pretty well just like I did because of work ethic, perserverance, and the fervent dream of passing the concept of the American Dream on to his son…just as my wife and I did with our son.
Like most marraiges which last beyond 45 years or more, we had some tough moments. Some obstacles. I’m probably not the easiest guy to be married to at times even though my heart is basically good. But as parents we never wavered on our dual obligation as parents. Never. We did our best.
So Brian was on his bike before me today, and after I was about two minutes into my ride…he looks at me and asks, “MJ, what do think about our political situation? Where do you stand with this guy? I need to know.”
I asked, ” You need to know?”
He answered, ” I would like to know.”
“I think all of this is total bullshit. This is a total scam and this guy should have just counted his legal blessings to the fact he should be serving time in a federal prison for what he did before, on, and after January 6th. He has shattered the American Rule of Law. He has eviserated the concept of By the People, Of the People, and For the People. Everything he’s doing will weaken the white middle class, the lower white class, and the poor JD Vance redneck whites like he was before he became a Silicon Valley capital venture savant.”
Brian looked at me and smiled before saying, ” I was hoping that was close to what you were going to say. We’re good. I feel better.”
I’m through preaching on here to you Trump fake Christians. It serves no purpose. Rome is burning and you care more about the valuations of your401c3 accounts than the fact our country is ON FIRE.
This was a great day for me on the Staage 4 cancer journey. It was. I now take a Chemo vacation and report back on April 14th for what will be my fifth PetScan since my 1,212 PSA count rocked my world two and a half years ago. It will be clean as have the previous two scans and my guess is my PSA count will be somewhere between 1 and 1.7 based on the trajectories we’ve been experiencing with this drug.
The day after the PetScan my wife and I will be heading to Seaside, Florida to be with our son, our daughter-in-law and our two grandchildren….Robert and Aubrey. Life is good. Don’t ever surrender. If you ever think of surrendering think of MJ, Jalon Moore, Jeremiah Fears, and Sam Godwin. Sometimes we don’t win. But it is the effort which ultimately defines us. But don’t quit.
And visualize Vincent Thomas Lombardi in your mindset refresh.
So I’m happy…even though Rome is burning. I have a new friend I’ve come to respect and like. It was a good day.
2 Timothy, 1:7
God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control.
I’m a little worn out from the barrage of the mens’ NCAA tournament plus attending all three games from the womens’ Norman sub-regional, but I’m feeling happy right now for Coach Jennie Beranczyk and her streaking Sooners.
This was a big deal for the OU women’s program on Monday for a game which had a 3:00pm start time.
The first thing I wanted to observe was what would the Sooner fanbase look like on a Monday game with a 3:00pm start time..
Here’s what I would say on that front…it was by far the best crowd at an OU basketball game for either the OU men or women this season. Sooner Nation loves Coach Jennie and her girls, Coach Porter not quite as much. But of course winning can be a fickle thing. Winning is fun. Always remember that axiom in sports. Losing with character can only lst so long.
It was an electric atmosphere…for all forty minutes of play. MJ would write this….the usual mode of OU teasipper fans were almost non-existent. The students were awesome. The general admission people were raccous. THIS IS WHAT IT SHOULD FEEL LIKE AT A COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAME!
I actually thought this Iowa game would be a competitive test for the Sooners, and they promptly fell behind 10-4 out of the first period gates with Skylar Vann and Reagan Beers both looking shaky to say the least.
But Coach Jennie went to her very deep bench and inserted Liz Scott, O State transfer Lexy Keys, and freshman Zyna Vann, younger sister of Skylar.
And what happened is this…with the super-subs in the game—the Sooners went on a 19-1 barrage against the over-whelmed Hawkeyes. Key in this Sooner run were sophmore Sahara Williams and senior Liz Scott, two of Coach Jennie’s more physical players.
For crying out loud…by the time this game finished OU had a 30 rebound advantage. Not 30 rebounds, but a 64-32 edge on the boards. Unless you tried…it would hard to lose a basketball game with a 30 something edge on the boards.
And after the 19-1 run…it was merely a matter of OU running the Hawkeyes into the ground and getting to the free throwline in the second half.
BTW…Coach Jennie played for the Iowa Hawkeyes in her college player days.
Both Skylar and Reagan played much better in the second half, although Reagan missed way too many easy buskets under the basket. That cannot happen if the Sooners want to take this from a Sweet 16 to an Elite 8 type of season. Both Reagan and Skylar have to come out of the gates ready to go from the opening because the Sooners will not be favored in their next game or any further games this season.
But that aside…I had a tear in my eye after the game. I started attending the women games midway through Jennie’s second season in Norman. I figured with the cancer journey and all—it would be good for me. And the funniest thing happened…I fell in love with her team. I cried last year as well when they beat Texas at home to clinch the Big 12 regular season championship.
Like many in America nowadays—I find myself weary of all the player movment in the mens’ game. The NIL money and the transfer portal very much need to be reeled in on the mens’a side of the game. But I do still love the mens’ NCAA Tournament.
So..as far as the Sooner men and Villanova wannabe head coach Porter Moser–I think what I’ll do is this…I’ll wait a week or so to see if Villanova has decided to pay Joe C the $3.6 million buyout to be their next hoops coach.
But as far as Jalon Moore, Sam Godwin, Jeremiah Fears—kudos to you young men for not surrendering and turning your basketball season into a success after those disastrous last thirty seconds versus LSU. You’ll always hold a special place in Mike’s OU basketball heart.
You guys never surrendered…UConn was a just a little better. And we can live with that at the end of the day. Because guys…that’s what life is–pulling yourself up after life knocks you down. Trust me on that one. MJ knows.