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Maybe the greatest basketball player who has ever lived. He’s always been No. 2 on my Pantheon List of the Greatest Basketball Players Ever. But the truth of the matter is Bill Rusell off the court was a more impactful role model than Michael Jordan ever thought of being. Not a put down of Michael, just an observation.

Bill Russell came from Louisiana so as as a kid growing up he always understood the hypocrisy of racism in America.

He attended the University of San Fransico where his teams won back to back national championships. Needless to say San Francisco never made another national champ[ionship game again beyond the Bill Russell Era.

He was drafted by Red Auerbach and the hated Boston Celtics where his teams won eleven out of thirteen NBA champaionships during Bill Russell’s illustrious career.

He was not a pretty boy scrorer like Kareem, nor anything like Wilt basketball-wise on offense. Bill Russell was a warrrior on the defensive end who started the Celtics’ vaunted transition game with his shot blocking, outlet passes, and finishing ability on the break.

Bill Russell was clearly the most dominant center the game has ever known from a standpoint of making his teams better around him.

In 1966, Bill Russell was made the player/coach of the Boston Celtics. To put this in proper historical perspective, it was not until Frank Robinson in 1975 was the named the first black manager in Major League Baseball or in 1990 when the Oakland Raiders named Art Shell the first NFL head coach that a black man coached in one of America’s premier pro sports leagues.

Think about the above paragraph. Bill Russell by a margin of nine years became the first black man in America to become the head coach in either the NBA, NFL, or MLB. That is greatness and speaks to the respect which Bill Russell garnered among his peers.

Bill Russell even wrote an iconic autibiography titled Second Wind which should be a must for any serious fan/student of the NBA.

However, my favorite Bill Russell book is The Last Pass which details the strained relationship between Bill Russell and Bob Cousy up until the very end of their respective lives. Another must read for serious NBA fans and Americans for that matter on the issue of race in our country.

This past weekend the NBA lost perhaps its most influential player of all-time, while America lost one of its shining beacons.

The world is a pretty simple matter when you follow the lead of someone like Bill Russell.

I pick up my wife later today after the stay in Crested Butte and Denver. I stayred home with Pauli because she has a leg injury which needs to be attended to .

Thank goodness we’ve had a break from the heat these last several days in Oklahoma Basketball is the last thing on my mind.

This was Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s song. It is the background music at the finish of Ethan Hawke and Martin Scorcese’s wonderful six hour long movie about the lives of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard.

Five stars from me. Home run.

You just have to see it yourself…The Last Movie Stars on HBO+.

Something to watch during the refurn from the heat next Monday. Wife was in Denver so Pauli watched it with me this time. We’ll all three watch it again next week when the heat returns.

You.ll cry in a good way.

There’s so much to take in from this movie …I need to watch it twice.

Ethan has always been a favorite of mine because of the ending scene of White Fang. Pauli immediately starting howling at the screen once Ethan was shown in the Newman-Woodward movie. It was uncanny.

I’m not really that much of a Thunder fan anymore what with the never ending tanking, but to me this a no brainer for Oklahoma City.

Build an NBA quality arena if you want to be an NBA city.

I was looking at the numbers for the recent Sacramento Kings new arena and that construction price went over $600 million dollars.

The city’s contribution rate was capped at $255 million dollars with the the team picking up all the extras they kept adding to the final design.

Team still sucks and is still on a sixteen straight season losing streak without making the playoffs. But they have a beautiful arena to lose in with never ending consistency.

Despite a reasonably decent roster, loaded with eight high end first round picks, the Thunder will once suck themselves and are projected by Vegas to win a total of 22.5 games which will again make them one of the worst teams in the NBA record-wise.

The Thunder will again be a G-League team on steroids depending on how many games Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is allowed to play.

I don’t think he makes it to the fifty-five game plateau. They would win too many game in Presti World if that happened. Presti World needs another high first round pick so they add add another physically emaciated white player to the mix who will be five years away from being an NBA player.

So my question to myself is this… who has been Presti’s best white Euro player in Oklahoma City?

Would it be Nenad or Alex Abrines? Serge obviously is the Thunder’s greatest foreign player, but of course, he’s black and never looked like he was entering the NBA as a Holocaust survivor.

I’ll go Nenad since I think Sabonis is considered an American kid.

The Thunder ranked 28th in league attendance last season but should provide an entertaining night of Harlem Globetrotter-like basketball where we all know they’re going to lose around sixty of their games by design.

This isn’t real basketball, but if you can build a new arena and keep a fan base of some sort down the road…what harm are the Thunder doing?

No harm at all. They’ll be helping downtown Oklahoma City remain a vibrant part of the state’s economic engine.

I’ll go 24-58 on the Thunder, while the Kings win thirty-two games this season.

I thought it was a pretty good week for democracy in America. The prime time Jan. 6 hearing on Thursday night was compelling. PBS, C-Span, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN all televised the hearings.

Only the Fox freak show opted to pass on the Hearing telecast. I flicked there for a second on the Tucker, Sean, Laura Freak Show and Tucker Carlson was literally talking nonsense about a California transgender lawsuit instead. These people are beyond human redemption.

Bravo to Marc Short yesterday for the public raping of the whiny little Trump-MAGA sychophant bitch named Matt Gaetz.

The only thing missing was Marc Short putting heel of his boot on Gaetz in a standing position and urinate into his mouth from a standing position. That’s the type of thing which will register with Trump Deplorables.

I wouldn’t ignore the Rupert Murdoch Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal as well. That’s one I would circle.

The problem with these Dem coastal elites types is that they’ve never come to terms with what it takes to win when you’re dealing with human filth. It’s not pretty, but if you want to win, this is what you have to do occasionally.

One way or another you want to get to conspiracy sedition and lock these losers up in federal prison for the next twenty years.

Have a nice day.

Juat wanted to make sure all you neo-Nazis, KKK members, anti-Holocaust believers, domestic terorrists and Birthers know you can still for a mere $24.99 get fleeced by the greatest grifter in the history of the United States.

This would make a great stocking stuffer for those Deplorables in your Donald Trump universe who are still clinging to the thought it was Antifa using the Italian satellites to overthrow the 2020 election results.

Have a peaceful delusional week-end.

You’ve earned it.

Although you failed in hanging Mike Pence and fell far short of murdering Nancy Pelosi….it can’t be said enough how much you Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and assorted other members of America’s ruling white trash subversives truly shamed our nation with what was clearly the darkest day of infamy in our nation’s history.

You are truly special.

For one day you made all of us forget Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson, George Wallace, Lester Maddox, David Duke and Tonya Harding. You reminded all of us just how right Hillary Clinton was when she described you as a collective group of subhuman losers.

You reminded the rest of us democracy is a precious commodity which isn’t a birthright, but more of somethng which every American generation should never take for granted.

Freedom isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. Generations of Americans have fought and died for pond scum like you to actually assemble in public and protest. For you to be able to murder those in law enforcment. To destroy and deface our nation’s Capitol. To urinate and defecate in the cathedral of American freedom.

You reminded all of us how far the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bush 41 has fallen.

You are a pathetic, tragic footnote in American history. You truly represent the worst not only in present American sociery, but perhaps the most pathetic group in the history of our Republic.

You weakened our country around the globe. You showed the side of America of which I would guess around 290 million Americans find you losers both disgusting and repugnant.

You are truly a disgrace of historical proportions. Your ignorance and stupidity cannot be an excuse for defending Donald Trump for almost six years.

You must truly suck at the thing in which we Ametricnas used to call ‘being human.’ Being empathetic. Being decent.

You’ve taken the notion of American Exceptionalism and turned it into a six year-long episode of Jerry Springer Live.

But that’s okay. Go home. Donald Trump loves you. The biggest loser ever thinks you’re truly special.

okcthundergound.com Op-Ed

Whew.

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.

Need another song.

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.

Have a nice day.

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.

I think it’s an easy vote.