Record breaking heat at the SDWS this afternoon. I was going to do my Dub Nation Summer League Summary, plus some comments on Oklahoma city’s G League afiiliate Thunder, but it’s just too damn hot.
My little seventy pound diva lab Paulita wants to go hike in this shit. I have at this point figured Pauli was either a Marine or Navy Seal in her previous life.
I looked at her and said…. “Mike doesn’t hike in 111 degree heat. That won’t be happening.” She now’s sulking on the couch looking extremely pissed at me. Que sera.
So instead…I’m going to play my favorite Carrie Underwood video and and maybe write my Dub Nation Oklahoma piece tonight instead of watching the MLB All-Star Game. I love the Home Run Derby, but hate the game.
How about that Juan Soto?
….
Just hit a 112 degrees at the DCWS. That could be a record. If you’re a Trump Christian Evangelical you might want to steer clear of these provoctive, swomewaht sketchy music videos on my blog today. Given we all know the depth of your religious leanings …these videos might be too much for you.
I never taken much time writng how the Thunder group with he aid of David Stern basically stole Seattle’s NBA team.
And I don’t plan on starting now.
In a capitalistic society you have predatory occurences like this from time to time.
Shit happens.
If OKC can’t put a $400 million dollar or so arena deal together…my guess is the Thunder end up in Las Vegas.
I don’t want to one single Donald Trump dumbass in Oklahoma bitch about the new arena.
Either build it and show the country is a major league city or basicallly shut the fuck up. I would think you could build it on the land immdiatelty east of the currently arena.
In the end… the reaping and sowing pretty much always even out.
I’ve got to go get my Dub Nation Oklahoma summer league report up.
I would hope the press conference by OKC mayor David Holt today wasn’t a surprise to anyone. I was incessantly writing about this on my blog last season in relation to the Thunder moving to either Seattle or Las Vegas.
Several years back, I sat next to David Holt on a flight from Denver to Oklahoma City. I actually liked him and was impressed.
Fast forward to today.
This is Big Boy time for Oklahoma City the way I look at it. OKC just recently ranked as the 20th ranked city population-wise in the U.S. with Seatlle at No. 19 and Denver at No. 18.
I think it’s very simple answer.
Yes…would be my answer.
Oklahoma City has come a long way the past fourteen years along with Norman. I would even say these are the only two ‘purple’ cities in the entire state of Oklahoma. I would probably incude Tulsa as well given what the Kasier Foundation has done there as well.
The other seventy-four counties….not as much.
MAPS has been a huge success. The city has redone itself and branded itself as reasonble place to live if you ignore the Donald Trump nonsense.
Despite the turmoil of the oil and gas business the city area has grown. The economy has grown jobs. Real estate values have increased. The GDP has diversified and has endured.
Oklahoma City isn’t a bad place to live next to especially if you live in Deer Creek.
The basketball team is the start engine for the city area and a great overall brand of what Oklahoma City hopes to continue to become thirty years from now.
So despite the fact I’m wearing my Dub Nation ball cap and my 2022 Klay Thompson NBA Championship T-Shirt….I would vote yes if the city wants to contiue to move forward.
It’s hard to draw many meaningful conclusions from last night in Utah because the team the Thunder played against would have probably finished as the No. 8 seed in the Big 12 last season.
Utah was brutal on both ends of the floor. Jared Butler wouldn’t even make this Thunder team when it comes down to the final cuts. I will say this though…I think Chet will be a good player and be the primary benfactor from Josh Giddey finding him in space and transition all over the floor as their games eventually meld.
Those two in transition will be special.
The Thunder will need a physical center on defense though so as Chet doesn’t get beaten to death in an 82 game schedule. I was surprised Presti didn’t pick the kid from Memphis.
I love the Williams boys…. J Will and J Dub. I think Presti really did well on those two picks.
I will predict at some point…J Will becomes the TSN (Toughness, Smarts, Nasty) equivalent on this Thunder team as Nick Collison was during his playing days in OKC.
I love this kid. He understands the game on both ends of the floor. I wonder if his father was a coach?
I usually don’t watch Summer League games…but these three have my attention. I would think think Philly will be a better barometer tonight.
I would assume Presti is going to dump Favors’ salary and there’s no way I see either Poku or Bazely playing center. Presti needs to go get him a banger or enforcer to protect Chet.
That’s the way I would see it.
As always… for the smartest, most objective takes on the Thunder follow us here at Dub Nation Oklahoma.com.
Enjoy the game tonight.
My son played in hockey tournaments in both his sophmore and junior seasons near Highland Park. I’m familiar with the area. It’s a lovely place. Steve Kerr didn’t go nearly far enough with his rant though.
BAN the automatic/semi-automatic ASSAULT RIFLES! Ban them as they were banned from 1994 thru 2004 before the 2nd Amendment was completely manipulated by the NRA for more profit.
If you want to have an automatic assault rifle then go serve your country in battle. If you Jimmy Joe Bob Jimmy Jack Bubba Rays want to be Rambo then go serve your country.
This clearly won’t solve the problem by itself given we have become a broken country, but it might be a starting point to regaining some sort of sanity in our country.
Given your deep concern for the sanctity of life it would seem logical to me.
I observed Sam Presti’s draft class and I’m going to reserve serious comment till I see Chet play some summer league games. I watched Chet played ten games this past season for Gonzaga and quite frankly I was not blown away. I’ll be dead before this Presti project ever comes to fruition either way it goes for Chet. So I hope you can understand my point of view on Chet and his frail frame.
I would have taken Jabari, but since we all knew this was probably what Presti was going to do…there’s no point at all in gnashing teeth over it. Besides…I’m a Dub Nation, Oklahoma guy now. I’ve got the championship T-shirt and ball cap and everything. Presti left me no choice. Taking Chet was just so Presti you just have to smile to yourself and be glad it wasn’t Greg Oden.
However…I love the fact Presti took Jaylin Williams with the 34th pick , and in fact, when Jaylen kicked Chet’s ass all over the the floor in the Hogs’ easy win over Chet and Andrew Timme in March Madness…on this very blog I begged Sam Preti to draft Jaylen. I would guess Jaylen is the reason Presti just waived Isiah Roby and Darius Basely just became expendable as well.
Jaylen is a Swiss Army knife who can do everything given the the way the game is played nowadays. Great motor as well. A very tough kid. If the Thunder fans don’t fall in love with this Jaylin…I don’t know what to think about them at this point….other than they’re an extremely dumb fanbase.
Now…Lu Dort. Lu Dort had El Prez (me) at hello. In this current NBA game of sissyified, overpaid, pampered entitled players who litter the NBA landscape…Lu Dort had me at hello as an undrafted player from Arizona State.
If ever a kid deserved the five year deal Sam Presti gave Lu this week …it’s Lu Dort. So…Sam Presti, you got two things right this week. Good for you.
I’m glad to be back on the blog. I was down for five weeks and told by my doctor to stay still and get my back healthy.
You never appreciate your health until you don’t have it for awhile.
I haven’t posted for almost a month. I injured my back in a freak accident and have been instructed to stay still.
What a coincident on the first day I’ve like blogging we witnessed various segments of the Trump group start to begin the process of covering their asses and flipping the GOP flunkies and the Golden Child of Grift.
During my down time, I retired, binge watched The Netflix version of the Lincoln Lawyer, read Jaime Raskin’s book Unthinkable, then read Tony Dungy’s inspirational auto-biography Inner Strength, then watched every game the Tampa Lightning and Colorado Avalanche have played on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
The path to the Stanley Cup has been much more watchable than the NBA Playoffs.
But on Friday night Steph Curry with his iconic 43-point performance did ignite the competitive embers in my NBA soul.
So…tonight, I plan on getting back on track with the Warriors and blogging on Game 5 tomorrow morning.
I missed blogging.
LET’S GO WARRIORS!
Recovery lawyer Jon Cooper is on the cusp of the first threepeat in the collective bargaining era of the NHL.
The secret of coaching at any level? Making players want to play for you.
Tampa calmy regrouped and corrected their mistakes from Game 1, then basically showed Toronto who’s the two-time Stanely Cup defending champion with a somewhat easy 5-3 road win in Game 2.
If you look at this with complete objectivity the Lightning are still the team to beat in this Stanley Cup race.
Granted, I don’t believe any other team in the era of collective bargaining as ever won a three-peat and the Tampa roster has taken some hits…they’re still the team to beat.
Tampa has the best coach in Jon Cooper. The best goalie in Andrei Vasilevskiy. And the best power play in the game with an array of talented snipers.
Then of course they have a former Conn Smythe winner and future Hall of Famer in defenseman Victor Hedman.
So maybe we should tap the brakes on the celebration in Toronto.
This was a game where Toronto went to the penalty box way too much and paid for it by giving up three power play goals. You’re not going to beat Tampa sending them on the powerplay. That’s not happening.
This still by far should be the most compelling first round matchup, but Coach Keefe is basically going to have regroup his players mentally and see if they can stay out of the penalty box.
Game 3 in Tampa.
Jon Cooper…recovering lawyer and two-time Stanley Cup champion coach. Follow your heart.
Another great game between the Warriors and Memphis. We that love NBA hoops knew this would be special and it has been. It’s the Steven A in me even though unlike Steven A… I love hockey as well.
I’ve pretty much moved on from the Thunder until the draft. I went a lifetime without the Thunder before Katrina. This is not killing me. It might be killing restaurant and bar owners in Bricktown, but this is not a blip on my radar screen. In fact…it was becoming burdensome having to write about a team which hasn’t won a playoff series since 2016. I felt like I was diluting myself.
Sam Presti is an anal retent. No one is going to tell him what to do. So why fret things you literally have no control over whatsoever.
The part in Sam Anderson’s book where Presti is constantly reshuffling the balls in the basketball rack like Captain Quig was hilarious, and yet revealing.
Steve Kerr went a little too far in my view calling this a dirty play. This isn’t the Godfather, there was no Code Red broken here…just a stupid play by Dillion Brooks which will have a consequence. Oh, there will be a payback hit just like in a mens’ B league hockey game.
If you think it was a dirty play, then keep it to yourself and obliterate Ja Morant the first time he touches the ball in Game 3 in Oakland with your fans in the building. Just simply obliterate him.
I feel horrible for Gary Payton. He was turning himself into a nice player. But next guy up and that will be Johnny Kuminga.
Note to Dillion Brooks…dude, if you make a play like that there are consequences. I would very much be keeping my head up would be my advice. I think back to the hit Stevo put on Patrick Beverly after he took out Russell Westbrook’s knee….four years later. Just saying. Best play of Steven’s career, and Andre made a three!!!
A much better night of hockey on ESPN after last night’s array of bad games minus the LA Kings 4-3 win over Edmonton.
Scratch me covering the Avalanche-Nashville series. That was brutal and right there as unwatchable, awful hockey as the Avs rolled at home 7-2.
The triple overtime win by the Pittsburgh Pens over the NY Randers was pretty awesome considering the waved off Ranger goal for basically running the goalie with three minutes left in regulation. I thought it was the right call. That was me at my best in the mens’ B league on that play. When in doubt… run the goalie and see if the zebra makes the call.
But the game I enjoyed most was the Washington Caps comeback 4-2 win on the road versus the highly regarded Florida Panthers.
I think this will be the series I follow along with the Toronto-Tampa series in the first round.
I was happy for Alex Ovechkin. He’s one of my favorites. These past two months have surely been difficult for him. I thought the turnover he created at mid-ice was the most influential play of the first two nights of the tournament.
All the sudden we can’t forget the Washington Caps are still around and breathing as a team which won the Cup in 2018.
The Memphis win over Golden State was great, but for tonight it was Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Caps upsetting the Florida Panthers on the road.
It’s nice to see the NHL back on ESPN where it belongs.
I’d still love to hear Gary Thorne and Bill Clement do a few games though.
I believe Gary Thorne is currently teaching sports journalism at Arizona State. His voice in my mind is the best hockey play by play voice of all-time. And yet Gary Thorne loved being the broadcast voice of the Baltimore Orioles. I just wish he was part of this ESPN hockey package in some manner.