So much history attached to that epic Game 6 loss by the Thunder. The franchise has never been the same, yet the Golden State Warriors minus Kevin are back atop the West with a magnificent rebuild job by GM Bob Myer.
Not the case in Oklahoma City as one might think an All-Star team from the Big 12 vs. the current Thunder without Shai would provide more competitive drama than we see on most nights inside Pay.Com Arena.
Sam Presti and I clearly use different dictionaries as far as when using the noun ‘sustainability’.
The Thunder have not sustained from that historic night when Klay drained eleven threes to in essence end the Kevin Durant Era in Oklahoma City. The Thunder since Durant’s exit have never won a first round series and are now mired in the slog of two year tanking death march.
I wanted to actually ask Josh Giddey a couple of questions last night when I saw him at the OU-Iowa State thriller, but I held back because I know him getting to see two real basketball teams trying to win a game has been a rare occurrence for him in OKC since his arrival from Australia.
I could tell though…just like Steven Adams–he’s a very cool kid. Maybe later …when OU hosts Kansas or at Bedlam…. I’ll run into him again and we’ll chat.
Klay’s return is set tonight versus Cleveland on the NBA Network. The Thunder host Denver….I’ll try and catch ten minutes or so of that undercard developmental game and then get myself situated for Klay’s Return.
This was only a matter of time as far as true freshman Bijuan Cortez. This was his moment to show the college basketball world he is capabale of playing in a Power 5 league like the Big 12.
The long hair, the still true freshman body which hasn’t been sculpted in the weight room, the fact he played his high school ball in sleepy Kingfisher, Oklahoma… weren’t hiding what Porter Moser knew was coming at some point for his basketball team.
That being, the moment in this OU basketball season when Bijuan Cortez would have to start playing meaningful minutes for the Sooners because he has the best vision coupled with the best innate passing ability on the team.
Call it fatedom if you will this happened on the same evening with Thunder nineteen year-old Josh Giddey in the building, but what this was in fact was a coming out party for Bijuan Cortez and how Porter Moser will delegate minutes moving forward at the point guard position between Bijuan and senior Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire moving forward.
In this game it was the freshman from Kingfisher and not the senior from Duke who put the Sooners’ season on a firmer trajectory.
In this game Jordan logged 24 minutes and struggled only scoring 4 points and going a team worse -10. Converserly…Bijuan changed the entire flow and pace of the game in the second half. Bijuan played 16 minutes. His line was 4 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists with a team best +20.
I still see Jordan Goldwire as the starting point guard, but what Bijuan did in this game was what OU didn’t do in the close losses to Utah State and Butler…he finished for the Sooners. He drove the Sooners home in the last ten minutes of this game and Porter Moser went stayed with him because he knew for his team to stay on a course to make it to the Big Dance… Bijuan Cortez may in fact have to be his closer.
So what I would see on the horizon is pretty much minutes wise based on this game would be Jordan getting more minutes overall, but Bijuan being there at the ready to come into the game and play regular rotational minutes.
This was a must win for the Sooners since they travel to Austin to play the Longhorns next. The key for OU in my mind in Big 12 play is to avoid two game losing streaks in the most loaded basketball conference in America. Win the home games, and slug out a couple of road wins if they can.
OU is built to be a tournament team . They shoot well from both the field and the line. They have enough punch from beyond the arc. They play tenacious defense. The bench is coming along. They have an inside-outside big man in Tanner Groves. The last piece is bringiing down the turnovers and finishing in the last six minutes of one or two possession games.
Scoring wise Moj Gibson led the Sooners with 20 points with Tanner Groves adding 16 points.
EJ Harkless and Jalen Hill didn’t have spectacular games stat wise, but make no mistake those two are the two guys who do all the blue collar work which gives this team a chance every game.
Next up… Chris Beard and his Longhorns in Austin on Tuesday night.
In closing, one other thing.. in this Big 12 Conference you have two coaches in Bill Self and Scott Drew who have won national championships. You have Chris Beard at Texas and Bruce Weber when he was at Illinois who have taken a team to the national championship game. And then you have Bob Huggins with two Final Four appearances and Porter Moser who took Loyola of Chicago to a Final Four.
There is not an off night in the Big 12.
It’s not just good players in the Big 12…it’s elite coaches as well.
What a great comeback win! The building was electric as Oklahoma came back from a double digit deficit to beat No. 11 Iowa State.
Josh Giddey & Big Game Bob both in the building.
I almost went over to Josh and asked,”Don’t you think basketball is alot more fun when both teams are trying to win instead of tanking shamelessly? But I didn’t because he’s a really nice kid. If it had been Hinkie-Presti I would not have hesitated.
I’ll do a recap later. I’m so proud of these guys and Coach Moser.
They never give an inch.
Helmet stickers for the whole team! Bijuan Cortez gets two helmet stickers!
This is my favorite Boomer Sooner video because it’s in San Diego where I was born by the Naval base.
Shout out to Mike Boynton as well. I think your team got the message after the Kansas game. Gotta play hard for forty-eight minutes. Nice win, Coach Boynton. Bryce Williams get my helmet sticker in the O State win over Texas. Great day of college hoops in Oklahoma.You better have it strapped on when you play a Big 12 conference game no matter who you are or think you are.
Basically the shamelessly tanking Oklahoma City Thunder were not watchable by the latter part of the second period. OKC Jim over at Daily Thunder is already structuring the tank strategy in 2023. I love OKC Jim so I think I’ll feature some of his draft suggestions for the 2022 draft for the Thunder as we move along this season.
Josh Giddey was a -30, Lu Dort was -29. I was done with this game before halftime.
This is on me for thinking the Thunder were ready to be watched for 48 minutes. There will be no rant. Rants occur only when you care.
On television it appeared to be a tomblike atmosphere inside of the House Kevin Durant Built. I cannot fathom the pain those people must feel for having paid to attend that game. I look at those people and just like Nikki Haley does with Donald Trump….say to myself, “Bless their heart. They must not have anything else in their lives going on.”
But the good news is the Thunder lost. Presti’s Tank Master – Coach D was back stalking the sidelines with his arms folded as if he were Red Auerbach or John Wooden.
This is on me for actually planning to watch a Thunder game this season from beginning to end. This is on me and this is why I’m not writing anything about human sex trafficking in the NBA or anything close to it.
On the postive side… I did enjoy watching Anthony Edwards and crew. They’re a fun little team to watch. I don’t think they’re going anywhere per se, but I think they’re a fun team to watch.
So I changed over and watched the Bucks at New Jersey with Jeff van Gundy and Mike Breen on the call. Listening to those two after the Thunder broadcast is like drinking a hundred dollar bottle of wine compared to drinking a glass of horse urine. They don’t talk down to the viewers…they inform and entertain.
I’m glad I did change over because the defending champ Milwaukee Bucks are really good and I fear my Miami pick in the East could succomb to these Bucks again in post season like last season.
Milwaukee didn’t even have Jrue Holiday in this game and yet they easily cruised past the Nets on the road.
Van Gundy made an interesting observation about NBA teams actually playing better on the road versus at home this season. I need to research that some in greater detail.
Giannis went for 30, Bobby Portis, this season’s Sleeper of the Year was magnificent with 25 points and the missed dunk on the video above. The dunk was about the only shot he missed in this game. Bobby Portis is a stud.
This was the 7th straight time Milwaukee has beaten the Nets. Put that in your notebook with the fact the Bucks swept Miami in last year’s first round.
This Kyrie deal with him just playing games in jurisdictions without a vaccine mandate isn’t going to fly. The Nets needs Kyrie all in if they aspire to be a real contender.
Then I watched a half of LeBron beating the Atlanta Hawks. As long as Coach Vogel can keep the ball out of Russell’s hands and in LeBron’s hands there’s a chance the Lakers could actually win a first round series in which they weren’t facing Golden State or Phoenix. To me…the East is actually deeper this season with Denver being decimated by injury.
OU hosts nationally ranked Iowa State at 5:00pm in what is a huge game for both teams.
Then tommorow we as passionate NBA fans get to see the return of Klay Thompson.
Just saw this today and cried. We lost a great one today in Sidney Poitier. Easliy the most influential black actor during my youth in the sixties and seventies.
A trailblazer for other black actors who followed in his footsteps winning either the Best Actor ot or Best Actor in a Supporting Role back when the Oscar Show was really a thing.
Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Jaime Fox, Mahershala Ali, Louis Gossett, Cuban Gooding Jr. and others followed his trail.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was made in 1967. I was ten years old when this movie was made being the darkest kid at both my elementary school and then at my all-white junior high school before I was introduced to black people at John Marshall High School.
My dad was worried about me making the move to John Marshall. He was worried I wouldn’t be able to assimilate. That’s when I said, ” Have you lost your mind? I’m finally going to be with people more like me.”
This movie and this scene in particular had an everlasting life imprint on me.
Until you’ve been called a nigger or in my case a half nigger you really have no idea what that can do to a young person’s perception of themself.
Sidney Poitier was always an inspiration for me. This scene from above was my favorite Sidney scene of all-time.
Josh Giddey is on a roll in case you haven’t noticed. Even though I’ve pushed the Thunder down to around sixth or seventh on my blog per current local sports relevancy…I have been keeping track of Giddey, Aaron Wiggins, Tre Mann, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl…plus of course Poku.
They’re getting better is what’s happening. Game by game you can start to see the possibilites for this team after this summer’s NBA draft when the Thunder should be able to make a run for a Paulo Banchero caliber of player.
Giddey and Wiggins in particular fascinate me as far as what the Thunder could do with their rebuild this summer.
I hate the tanking…I’ve made that clear. But the Thunder need to at this point finish with a top three lottery pick this summer and see if with all those assets in their assets trove they can turn it into a difference maker like Banchero.
From the beginning of this season I made the comparison that I thought the Thunder are a year behind the Memphis Grizzlies as far as rebuilds go. If this Thunder team were allowed to be coached straight up by a legit NBA head coach in my mind they could be a 34-36 win type of team right now.
If you look at the NBA standings today the Thunder are 13-24 holding onto the 14th slot in the West while the streaking Memphis Grizziles stand alone as the solid No. 4 seed. Hate to say I called it, but I called it.
The West really isn’t all that good beyond Golden State and Phoenix. Age and Russell Westbrook have decimated LeBron this season…so in reality looking ahead to next season with Chris Paul another year older…the Thunder should be a young team with some exciting possibilities if they decide to end the tank and possibly at some point put some money towards hiring a head coach with a track record of some sort beyond running a developmental team.
I hate to be snarky in this regard…but every head coach in the Big 12 has a more impressive resume than what Coach D has done to date. Turn him loose and let’s see if he can coach to win at some point. Maybe that’s what you do next season…we’ll see.
At some point …. Presti is going to have to turn these guys loose and add some rim protection and muscle to the interior. But other than that if you closely follow the NBA…you can start to see the possibilites. in Oklahoma City or Las Vegas.
I have a confession to make…right now I might actually pay for a ticket to see the Thunder play beyond just wanting to see Tyler Herro and Ja Morant vs the Thunder. The reason being…Josh Giddey.
His overall game is becoming something to marvel at from the view he’s only nineteen year of age and in essence became the youngset player in NBA history to record a triple double and then almost did it again on Wednesday night at Minnesota when he had a 14 point, 15 rebound, 6 assist night.
So…at the risk of Hinkie-Presti benching all the starters tonight in search of loss No. 25—I’m going to give the Thunder a serious look tonight as they host the Timberwolves who are currently the 10th seed in the West.
This is one of those games for Hinkie-Presti where he has to decide on exactly how to turn this potential exciting game for his fanbase into a loss instead of a feel good win.
And of course…Anthony Edwards for the Timberwolves was one of the top two rookies in the NBA last season. So—this is a game I’m going to watch with a sense of anticipation.
I would maintain this video above shows why. If you claim to be a major political party and Little Marco Rubio and Lyin’ Ted Cruz are the best you can muster….then you need an act on the debate stage.
The mainstream GOP figured out how boring they are and that if they ever again wanted to give tax cuts to millionaires and appoint federal judges to put a cap on tort reform and keep dark money flowing they need an act.
And the act’s name is Donald Trump and these same Republicans are so joyful of the fact they appointed three Suprme Court Justices and redid the entire federal appellate court they’re willing to humilate themselves and devolve the country into a reality television show.
And currently the Donald Trump act is killing the rest of the potential GOP presidential field heading into 2024.
Tell me who’s second in the GOP currently?
There isn’t one.
Since Trump tried to hang Mike Pence…I wonder who his running mate will be in 2024?
Ivanka? Pencil dick Don Jr? Roger Stone? Mr. Pillow? Tucker Carlson? Joe Manchin? Marjorie Taylor-Green?
This won’t be your grandparents’s GOP ticket that’s for certain.
The end of Trump Insurrection Week: One Year Anniversary special.
Liz Cheney and father shouldn’t feel alone in this because every other previous Republican president from Lincoln thru Teddy Roosevelt thru Bush 43 are with her in spirit as she attempts to protect the Constitution from Donald Trump and his army of dimwits and rabble.
What do we call the Party of Trump? Do we call it the Party of Spoiled Trust Fund Brats who were never told no as a child?
Liz Cheney looks very tired in this video. She was the only Republican who showed up today to honor the Jan. 6th ceremonies to honor the people who prevented the Insurrection from being a successful coup.
So would we today be a Banana Republic if the Trump’s plan had succeeded?
Probably… to a degree. Because what he basically did was attempt to throw the legislative and judicial branches away in the name of proclaiming himself a strong-armed dictator.
The people who still defend this amaze me. It is a complete abdication of civics, of adult responsibility, and a complete ignorance of our Constitution and democracy.
If you believe in Zero Tax just say so and don’t embarrass yourself any longer standing up for this human junk bond. Do you think he or any of his lawyers made one singular phone call to any of those idiots who were arrested after January 6th and offered them pro bono legal representation?
Let me give a hypothetical. Let’s say Trump stayed in office. Then a lawsuit was filed by Joe Biden and it reached the United States Supreme Court like Gore vs. Bush in 2000.
Let’s say Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch actually sided with the plantiff Joe Biden and by a 5-4 decision ruled in favor of the plantiff, thus declaring Joe Biden’s win as legitimate.
What do you think Donald Trump would do?
You think he would peacefully and with calm accept the Court’s 5-4 decision?
If you think that you’re a complete idiot. He would do exactly what he just tried to do with Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.
The Trump rabble would have proceeded to the lawn outside of the Supreme Court, built a gallow, and have started chanting, “Hang John Roberts.”
If you think otherwise–I don’t know what anyone can say to you at this point?
At the end of the day …I firmly believe as a serious student of history even Richard Nixon would be repelled by Donald Trump.
And that’s why as an American…I’m proud and gladful Liz Cheney has the guts to be doing what Mich McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Kevin McCarthy should be doing.
1960 Richard Nixon’s Concession Speech If California and Illinois had flipped…Nixon would have won the election. He lost both of those states by narrow margins and decided against contesting both of those states because he didn’t want to divide the country. I did a paper on this election as well.
McConnell’s speech was great. One for the history books. There’s only one problem…after he gave the speech he didn’t have the political courage to vote to impeach Donald Trump.
To impeach… seventeen GOP votes were needed. Only six Republicans voted to impeach. Even after McConnell’s speech and that of Lindsey Graham …Donald Trump wasn’t even censored by the Senate.
Pretty much the same thing in the House with Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy denounced Trump then pretty much within several weeks became a Trump puppet….again. Feed him some drinks at Mar-A-Largo and turn down the lights and Trump had another Lindsey Graham love affair back on his hands. Maybe those three should consider a threesome.
In a real court of law with a jury pool from which to select a jury from the voir dire process you would think there would have been a conviction depending on the jurisdiction. I don’t think you could get a jury in Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana which would ever convict regardless of the evidence. But in real courtrooms with real judges it would have been a conviction in most jurisdictions.
So when McConnell speaks of Trump’s dereliction of duty I kind of roll my eyes. Pot meet kettle, Mitch McConnell.
They’ll probably survive it though looking at how the mid-terms might go later this year….which is incredibly sad for our country moving forward. History has been very unkind to the party of a sitting president in his first term.
The irony is that in Oklahoma a senator like James Lankford who tries to straddle both sides of the Trump fence in a state like rogue red state Oklahoma is being primaried in 2022 by another Trump evangelical. This will be intriguing to witness in Oklahoma. Usually…without fail in Oklahoma this is the death of a GOP candidate. That is a GOP primary I’ll keep track of on here.
Lankford is on Trump’s death list because while he voted to acquit, he did vote yes on certfying the election. Inhoffe did the same, but he was just elected to a another six year term and with him already being in his mid-eighties… I think he’s safe from being primaried.
This was pretty much the case in both the election of Kevin Stitt in the governor’s election and Stephanie Bice in the 5th Congressional District race.
Bice in her quest to unset Kendra Horn basically disavowed her aversion to Trump in 2016 and attached herself to Trump campaign money and television ads embracing Trump. She was originally a Carly Fiorina supporter. But like all of them…when push comes to shove–they wilt.
I changed my mind this morning on how I want to handle Trump’s Insurrection Day Anniversary. I don’t want to look back at Nixon and Al Gore’s concession speeches. What would really be the point since history means nothing to the Trump people. They disdain history as some sort of premeditated plot as if were written by Antifa.
When I saw Amanda recite her beautiful poem last January… I just assumed at that point both parties would grow up and think of that one line, ‘There is light…if you’re brave enough to see it.’
I assumed with the preponderence of evidence which was available… Donald Trump would either be impeached or at the very least given some sort of legal option to resign with the promise he wouldn’t be prosecuted after he left office.
In my wildest dream I couldn’t imagine there weren’t ten to twelve Republican senators who could muster this level of courage.
I was clearly wrong as only six came on board.
The GOP would have been absolved from Trump if only they’d had the courage to get rid of him right there and then.
Instead they waffled. They each calculated their own political survival odds and voted no not only to impeach, but voted no to showing any courage and honor whatsover. The six who voted yes will always be on the right side of history.
The three leaders of the GOP as a whole… Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Kevin McCarthy will forever br branded not only in American history but in world history as well.
They voted no to having the courage to do the obvious right thing for our country moving forward.
This wasn’t Nixon having some operatives breaking into a hotel. This was an attempt to overthrow an election with the singular purpose of overthrowin both the executive and judicial branches of the government.
Since we hear all this talk about there are GOP senators in private who say they want to be rid of Trump. I say bullshit. This group of gutless people should never have been elected to six year terms to hold the offices you still hold.
You simply don’t have the courage to be a United States senator. That’s why a senaotor gets a six year term…to give them an extra year of cover to make the tough votes.
The six who stood up to Donald Trump have the right to call themselves a United States Senator. The others not so much. Especially my two senators in Oklahoma…James Lankford and Jim Inhoffe.
I’ve to date called both of these ‘men’ four times apiece since they’re inability to confront Donald Trump on anything became obvious to me. I’ve requested a lunch date with them to talk about some things. So much for our two Oklahoma Profiles of Courage. I’m sending both of them this Amanda Gorman video today.
Isn’t it somewhat odd that it’s women in our government who stand up up to Trump and not the men. Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Elizabeth Warren, Carly Fiorina, Kamala Harris, and Nikki Haley….just to name several.
Our men in office under the GOP brand are in a several words a collection of very weak little sissy men men. That is the one thing Trump has consistently been right about since he ran for the GOP nomination in 2016…and that’s precisely why he knew he would win the GOP nomination against this collection of very weak little sissy men.
Nobody is asking you very weak little sissy men to vote yes on all the things the Dems have proposed…but just once on this issue show some strength and resolve.
Not one Howard Baker or Barry Goldwater amongst them with the political strength and courage to get his party to do the right thing at a pivotal juncture of history.
Trump knew none of them could be brave enough to fight for the right to see the light. I give Trump credit for being right about that from the start back in 2016.
So here we sit today as two countries within the same borders sitting in the dark.