Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

It’s been a great start for Porter Moser’s Sooners in Year 3.

Year 1…. the Sooners should have been included in the Big Dance with the nation’s toughest schedule bar none….but 18-15 wasn’t a good enough record despite the Sooners being ranked No. 38 by the NCAA’s own ranking website.

Last year was tough as the Sooners finished 15-17 and rightfully missed the NCAA Tourney. The only rotation players returning from that team are Milos Uzman, Otega Ohweh, and Sam Goodwin. Porter added two nice college recruits and five transfer guys who all meld in nicely with the Sooners’ various roster needs.

In reality…the only Sooner player who left who’d being seeing floor time with this group of players would have been Jalen Hill. I absolutely loved Jalen Jill and what he stood for as a young man and a player, but he chose to go back home and play his fifth year for Lon Kruger’s son at UNLV. Best of luck for Jalen with his final year of college hoops.

Of the five transfer portal players…. I want to start integrating them here on the blog starting with Javian McCullum who is the best player on the team. Javian is a quick athletic guard who reminds me very much of Hollis Price who played on Kelvin’s Final Four team. The second portal player I’ll mention is John Hughley who’s a 6’9″ big with great hands, quick feet, and a very soft set of passing hands, plus not at all shy shooting the three.

Then’s there’s Jalen Moore the very athletic transfer from Oregon who I would desribe to my buddy Fran Frashela as a Swiss Army knife type. Maybe somewhat like Daryl ‘Choo’ Kennedy from Northwest Classen from the Billy Tubbs era of Sooner hoops.

The other two kids are both guards and I’ll work them in on my pregame next week when the Sooners hook up to play the iconic North Carolina Tar Heels in a highly anticpated Big 12-ACC matchup.

OU is 9-0 entering this game versus Green Bay, ranked No. 11 in the Coach’s Poll, and 4-0 versus Quad 1 competition.

This will be my first venture into a basketball arena since the cancer issue. The walker isn’t going with me on this trip. I should be fine. I’m pretty well jacked just being inside of a basketball arena. This is kind of moment for me…so to speak. Yo, Adrian.

If the Thunder beat Denver or just play them tough.. I’ll write something nice about them on Sunday morning.

MJ

Well….that didn’t last long. We had a staff meeting here at okcthunderground.com and have decided to scratch on the idea of going any further with the Dub Nation Oklahoma podcast series in that none of us actually anticipated Draymond Green would completely lose his f–king mind and the Warriors would be out of playoff contention by December 15th.

Some advice to all you youngsters out there aspiring to be an underground internet guru….flow with the changes…be fluid.

My executive producer, T-Cullpepper suggested, ” You know, Mike…..the Thunder aren’t tanking any longer and they just milked the taxpayers in Oklahoma City for an additional billion dollars. Maybe…a big free agent signing could be on the horizon which could make the Thunder a legit contender?”

I replied, ” Did you see them lose last night in Sacramento? Same old Thunder. Same underacheivers. Trust me on this.”

T-Cull said, “The Kings are pretty good. Maybe cut them some slack and see how they play in Denver tomorrow night. But I know this…we can’t go any further with this Draymond nonsense. Some of our best crypto advertisers aren’t on board with Draymond any longer. And we both know Andrew Wiggins is playing below the level of dead shit. Let’s try the Thunder thing.”

So I’ve agreed to see how the Thunder play tomorrow night in Denver before moving forward with the podcast here at okcthunderground.com for the time being.

I’m headed to the OU game tomorrow night to see Porter Moser’s 11-ranked Sooners take on Green Bay Wisconsin in preparation for next week’s game versus nationally ranked North Carolina.

I’ll be wearing my official fake black ESPN pullover and have my fake press credential…so if things go right maybe I can sneak into a seat there on the press row far away from Joe C’s discerning glare.

Let me see how Denver does tomorrow night in Denver…and then we’ll come to terms on the podcast.

Have a wonderful Saturday.

All this traditional Christmas music is driving me crazy. I need a break ten days out.

Aloha, MJ

This is why I went crazy the other night after in reality Draymond slayed his own Warriors with the most blatantly stupid foul I’ve ever witnessed in an NBA game.

The Thunder didn’t win that game. No way. It was gift-wrapped to them by the podcaster dude- pretend ganster aka Draymond Green whose podcasting and social media brand has caused him to be more pimp than NBA star role player these past two NBA seasons.

In essence….starting with the punching out of the whiny bitch Jordan Poole, the chest stomping of Domas Sabonis, and the choking of the annoying Rudy Gobert….there has appeared to be something amiss with either Draymond’s basketball smarts or mental stability.

But even me…who loves tough, smart, players…. even I cannot cross this bridge with Draymond after the eggriously stupid play in Phoenix the other night when he again self-inflicted another loss to his team when he displayed his heliocopter neck chop to Jusuf Nurkic with the Dubs leading by five points on the road.

The enabling from Dub Nation can go no further. If I were Adam Silver and Joe Dumars… I would at the minimum sit Draymond until one week before the trade deadline. This would give Draymond, his agent Rich Paul, and his family time to decide which path forward Draymond should pursue.

Draymond Green is not stupid. He’s a smart dude. You have to be smart to do what he’s done with his NBA career being that he was a little known second round pick from Michigan State back in the day.

Draymond wants a career beyond the court as well, perhaps being the next Charles Barkley of sorts. Make absolutely no mistake about this previous sentence of mine. You’ll notice Ron Artest, Dennis Rodman, and Bill Laimbeer never ever sat on the same panel with Ernie Johnson.

Draymond…Chuck pulled this off becuase he became lovable to white people. You might want to pull in the angry Black Panther look. Just a career suggestion.

If I were Draymond and super agent Rich Paul I would heed my words from the above graph, get the professional mental help needed, and pull my shit together ASAP.

As far as this season goes for the Warriors…I would say they might be close to being done if Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Moses Moody, Johnny Kuminga and Gary Payton II don’t figure some things out.

I’m giving Dario Sarcic a pass because I acutally think he’s been decent.

I’m also giving rookie guard Brandon Podziemski a pass because he’s been more than decent so far this season. He was in fact the Warriors’ second best player on the court the other night in Phoenix behind Steph.

• Brandon P or BP hence forward on my blog.

Consider this…in Phoenix the Warriors’ bench scored 80 points and the starters still somehow managed to lose this game.

80 bench points and you find a way to lose. That is truly remarkable.

Steph, Dario, and Brandon cannot do this alone.

Klay I love you, dude. Andrew Wiggins, your team needs you. This would be the time you two guys rev your basketball engines and begin the 2023-24 NBA basketball season.

I’ll be covering the Thunder’s game tonight in Sacramento in as much as this is a game I’ve had circled in red since I saw the Thunder’s schedule.

Have a pleasant day and get some things done before the rains roll into Oklahoma tomorrow.

MJ

I have to tell you…I’m a little overwhelmed on the blog this week. The Sooners hoopsters jumped to No. 12 in the Coaches Poll, Ernie Johnson was honored in the Hall of Fame, Austin Reaves is still on a torrid pace carrying LeBron and Anthony Davis, and the Draymond Green sentencing phase for his most recent eggrious offense will require an editorial of some sort by the executive editor-in-chief of the okcthunderground.com blog sometime tomorrow.

What a week!

Who says I need Trump and his rabble to fill the content voids on an Oklahoma City Thunder blog?

BTW…before I get started on David Holt…he was the Little Marco Rubio Oklahoma Chairman for that epically failed presidential run back in 2016 when we all thought Donald Trump running for Potus was just a joke to attract Twitter hits and troll Hillary Clinton.

Fast forward to now. Oh, wait….add the Big Orange staying out of federal prison to that list as well for reasons for POTUS 45 to seek a second term.

So….the Thunder’s deal to build a new billion dollar arena passed yesterday with the yes votes carrying a resounding a 70% plurality despite this perhaps being the worst major league venue deal for a city in recent contemporary memory.

The 95/5 ration of investment is pathetic, but I’m in no way a martyr of any sort …so I didn’t vote either way yesterday considering my health prospects of this even being germane to me at some point in my life before the year 2030. I have my own issues to be focused on.

The Warriors, Austin Reaves’ Lakers, and the Nuggets will still travel to play here while I’m still living and that will be fine with me out here at the Deer Creek mini-ranch.

Maybe not so much for the poor people in Oklahoma City who could use a better system of education, a more diverse economy, relief from not having a home, drug addiction rehab facilities, and more police driving our streets.

I wonder if in hindsight if David Holt was a fiduciary for any of those people who can’t even afford to attend a Thunder game despite the fact for the last three years… the Thunder in attendance have ranked dead last, dead last, and are now ranked near the bottom again despite an exciting young team which is near the top of the Western Conference standings.

If your own nan base can’t fill the upper levels of the arena….then why not give those tickets away to people who could not otherwise attend?

So I laughed when I saw David Holt exclaim he and Oklahoma City just beat the world. What in fact happened was Clay Bennett and his ownership group got a sweet deal.

Just my take.

Peace.

MJ

• Editor’s note: In case you didn’t notice today… Jerome Powell and the Fed declared there will be no other interest rate hikes and the Dow accordingly crested above the 37,000 plateau. And just so you know…Donald Trump had virtually nothing to do with this happening.

It appears Ernie broke the Internet last night with his Hall of Fame speech. So let me do this instead and I’ll be back to post last night’s speech a little later on in the week.

• It’s up. YouTube has got it under control.

I love Ernie Johnson…I can’t lie.

Mike loves Ernie.

Even before I joined the Cancer Stage 4 Survivor’s Club, Ernie Johnson was someone who had my ear the instant he opened his mouth and spoke.

Back in March when Dr. Showalter closed the door and told me what I had and told me I might have two months to live or maybe more depending on me…..one of my first thoughts raced to Ernie Johnson because I knew of his cancer ‘battles’.

BTW….I love Dr. Showalter as well.

I thought to myself…how would Ernie deal with all of this. I asked myself and God to give me the inner faith and strength to be like Ernie Johnson.

That may sound like some contrived bullshit, but it isn’t. That’s how impressed I’ve always been with the manner in which Ernie Johnson has conducted his life.

Ernie Johnson doesn’t know it, but he in fact has been an example of how I wanted to set the goalposts of my own life. To just try and be a better man each morning you pull yourself out of bed and treat others around you with decency and kindness.

Ernie Johnson…you are the GOAT in many ways, my friend. Please don’t ever change because I know it’s not just me who feels this way.

I’m crying right now…I truly am. But in a profoundly good way.

Ernie..thank you for being the person you are beyond the sporting events you cover.

I gotta go work out and then get back to the mini ranch and do some outdoor things with my wife.

Draymond…it appears we may need to have another chat tomorrow. Good lord.

Have a beautiful day.

MJ

This was like a turning point week-end for me in Seminole. I watched Coach Moser’s guys destroy Arkansas to improve to 9-0 in the annual Tulsa Sooner-Razorback Classic. Eric Mussselman…for the second time in three years got tossed which was hilarious.

I spiritually bonded with Hank the Dog and we’re now officially dog soulmates with Pauli. I think all things considered…Pauli understands.

I did the Zoom/podcast with the retired United States Air Force ofiicers along with a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and it was awesome. The next one is scheculed for Dec. 28…the same day as the Alamo Bowl.

Then yesterday as that incredible sunset was looming on the horizon…I did my first two mile walk hike without the walker just using the two ski pole-like poles Dorthy the Serendipitous Physical Therapist gave me in the parking lot of the OKC Health Wellness Center last Thursday.

Then…I find out today … both Billy Bowman and Danny Stutsman are returning for their senior seasons in Norman.

Now…I’m going to go work out and then later this evening explain the epiphany I had on my hike which told me I need to vote Yes on the new Thunder arena even though the the ownership offer is total and complete bullshit.

Don’t ever let anybody ever tell you it’s over and you can’t keep dreaming.

Have a nice Monday evening.

MJ

Yo, Adrian.

I love using ‘slay’ in a post-game headline…just saying in case you haven’t noticed. It feels so dramatic.

It’s time for me to get busy being the pre-eminent Golden State Warrior blogger here in godforsaken Oklahoma. Anthony Slater….I know you have a great gig there at The Athletic being the best Warrior beat writer around. But for this game, for this moment, let me show you a few things…slick.

Thirty turnovers!

Putting aside the fact the Golden State Warriors committed THIRTY TURNOVERS in an NBA regular season game where nobody really tries all that much on defense…the Warriors gave the ball away THIRTY TIMES. Thirty possessions of the ball in transition mostly. And yet… the Warriors still should have won this game in regulation with relative ease just inside the ten second mark.

So what does that say about the young Thunder?

I guess it means they’re good enough to beat a Warriors’ team of which Chuck Barkley last night referred to as the Titantic.

I know, I know….Royce Young, Little Nick Gallo and Michael Cage all are saying this was a Jordan-Pippenesque display of defense…but the fact of the matter is as of this writing the Golden State Warriors are the dumbest team in the NBA bar none.

If I were Steve Kerr I would have just gotten my second technical about three minutes into the second half and found the bar down there in the bowels of the Pay.Com Arena….and said f–k it to myself.

Draymond our favorite NBA crimefighter. Right there with Superman, Spiderman, and the Green Hornet. Let’s see..he punched Jordan Poole in the face. Then got Jordan exiled to the Washington Wizards. Then got himself a fat, big new contract. Then missed most of training camp with an ankle ‘injury’. Then sat five games for choking Rudy Gobert. Now this horrific late game gaffe which literally cost his team another game and drops the Warriors to 10-12 on the season.

Draymond…if you’re burned out and don’t want to play then do the upright thing and quit taking owner Joe Lacob’s money and spend all your time on your podcast and/or sitting beside Kendrick Perkins in an ESPN studio.

As for the Thunder…they shouldn’t have even been playing this game tonight. They should have easily qualified for at the least the quarterfinal round of the Inaugural NBA Regular Season Tournament.

The Thunder have three dudes bound for NBA stardom and about six or seven mini-dudes who are really nice role players. And then you have Josh Giddy….the odd man out.

What do you think the Thunder could be if you dropped Josh Giddy…somehow picked up a sixth man like Austin Reaves and acquired Jeff Green at the trade deadline?

What I think what you might have is a legit Western Conference contender.

That’s it for me tonight.

We’re heading out tomorrow for Seminole so I can hang out with a Dog Named Hank and then do a podcast of sorts with some retired U.S. Air Force officers on the condition of our country currently.

Merry X-Mas.

MJ

Sooners have opened the season on an 8-0 run with three Quadrant 1 wins and are currently the 19th ranked team in the nation under Coach Porter Moser.

I’d say at this point Otega Oweh, Javian McCullum, and Milos Uzman appear to be the three best players on the team. But this team is deep and has a nice bench as well.

This team looks nothing like the white, slow, non-athletic team from a year ago. Coach Moser has a nice ball club and travels to Tulsa tomorrow to play the always tough Arkansas Razorbacks in a game slated for a 3:00pm tip.

These Tulsa games pitting OU vs. Arkansas have already in my mind more than replaced the Bedlam basketball series…of which OU leads 141-101… all-time. I’m tired of the whining from the cupcakes up North. Enough is enough. The very soft deal with the tiebrekers was the last straw.

If you wanted to play in the game so bad…then show up and PLAY IN THE GAME.

Good lord…third and eight and you were waving the flag with a carry by the third string running back. Weak beyond weak.

Now I need to go workout and get my karaoke game in shape as well since it won’t be long before I’ll be at Howl at the Moon in San Antonio displaying my shaky singing voice.

Have a wonderful Friday and remember it’s Christmas. Be especially kind.

Eternal peace.

MJ

Back in the day, writer Michael Lewis wrote a book titled ‘Losers’ in which he followed the 1996 GOP candidates vying for the nomination to defeat Bill Clinton’s re-election bid.

It’s a great read which never went NY Times Bestseller list because I guess it was too esoteric as far as what really goes in an American political presidential bid to gain a party’s nomination.

Bob Dole went on to win the GOP nomination over the likes of Steve Forbes, Herman Cain, and others…but then went on to be literally obliterated by Bill Clinton despite BC’s hazy memory in regards to incoming blowjobs dotting his past.

So..was there a winner last night? Yeah, there was. His name is Donald Trump and that’s why he hasn’t even bothered to show up for any of the four GOP debates so far this political season.

Our most orange ever past POTUS must have a smile on his face this Thursday morning. A big, fat Cheshire Cat smile on his face because he knows even if he got smoked in one of these debates his rabble zombies would still be behind him all the way.

I would suggest Michael Lewis get to work on Loser’s II so it will be ready for print by February 1, circa 2024.

As far as my promised Thunder piece which I intended to blog this morning. I planned on writing something really nice about the Thunder because I presumed they’d beat the Houston Rockets last night. But per the norm with Sam Presti’s teams…they choked and shat right down their down their leg and lost to the Houston Rockets. Not that the game mattered as for the Thunder had already been eliminted from the regular season tournament.

So…tonight, I’ll be covering the semi-finals of the NBA Regular Season Tournament semi-finals. I’ve actually enjoyed the tournament and the quarterfinals were great. In Vegas tonight…most in Oklahoma will see a Vegas arena which will be full and a city which should have an NBA team.

I’ll get back to the Thunder after their game against the Warriors on Friday night.

My question to myself is why does OKC need a new billion dollar arena when for the second straight season the Thunder are near the bottom in league attendance? I’m not voting either way on the arena proposal, btw….because I don’t ‘really’ live within the appropriate city borders. Me voting on this issue would not be ethical unless my child was enrolled in in an OKC funded school.

Be kind to others today. Help a person in need of compassion.

MJ

We just had a lovely week-end hanging out at the in-law’s family ranch in Seminole these past few days. Total contentment for me.

I took several moderately long walks for me without the walker. The OMBN-1300 is pretty much done for me as where I am currently in the physical rebuild. Walking in the country is the best…simply the best. Plus…I hung out with a Dog Named Hank quite a bit on Sunday.

I planned on watching all the Power 5 conference championships, but due to the horrific, non-competitive nature of the Big 12, Big 10, and ACC games…I in reality only watched the PAC 10 and SEC games, plus Liberty’s win over a pesky SMU team which OU defeated earlier this season.

O State….oh, boy. Maybe that DB for O State shouldn’t have tackled a wide open Drake Stoops in the endzone is my primary thought. If that is the second best team in the Big 12 as per the second set of tiebreakers submitted indicate…..then I would suggest Commish Yorka check out the portal and see if any entire team rosters would consider the move to the new Big 12 next season.

I don’t mean to be cruel, but that is the worst Big 12 Championship Game I have ever tried to watch. Congrats to Texas for advancing to the Final Four.

One stat says it all….Longhorn playmakers were wide open the entire first half, plus Ollie Gordon was stuffed for 36 yards on the day. It was hard to watch. So….I only watched the first half.

The only drama in this game occurred in the second half during the Dr. Pepper-Big 12 Football Toss contest. You know…where the two aspiring college students try and underhandedly place footballs in a large Dr. Pepper can within a minute or so of time. The two youngsters named Gavin and Jeremy tied at the end of regulation and the contest was supposed to advance to a three tiered playoff tiebreaker.

However…confusion ensued when the young female ABC sportscaster on the field mistakenly applied the tiebreakers and mistakenly awarded Gavin the winner’s check for a hundred thousand dollars. This was later remedied when Dr. Pepper agreed to give both Gavin and Jeremy a hundred thou apiece.

Go figure that in a such a collossal mismatch of a football game which probably shouldn’t have ever taken place….the tiebreakers in the Dr. Pepper-Big 12 Football toss went awry as well.

Breaks of the game…I guess.

Dillon G…hit the portal this morning as I expected him to do. He did his job here in Norman and is a great young man. He bridged the OU program for two seasons and helped get some stability back in place after the pathetic exit by Lincoln Riley.

Go make some money, kid and maybe come back here and be a coach when you’re done playing the game.

As far as the Playoff Selection picks…here’s who to blame. The groups to blame primarily are the ACC and the Big Ten because two years ago when the SEC was trying to put together a 12-team playoff system…it was in fact these two conferences who filbustered and stalled the entire process.

How ironic it is ACC Commish Phillips is primarily the one at fault for unbeaten Florida State not being a member of this year’s playoff.

I need to blog about the Thunder and Warriors tomorrow…so I think I might.

Jackson Arnold, let’s go buddy. Make me proud in the Alamo Bowl.

Be kind.

MJ