Monday Bolts – 8.24.09
Jeremy from Roundball Mining Company expected more closet Thunder fans for the second favorite team thing: “To 
my surprise there were a lot of Warriors supporters. I expected quite a few to select the Oklahoma City Thunder, but no one did.”
While bloggers maybe don’t love the Thunder, OKC tied for fifth in a SportsNation poll vote. The Raptors somehow pulled down almost 20 percent of 20,000 votes. But we all know that everybody actually just voted for their first favorite team in that poll to make it look better.
This was on TrueHoop Friday – Basketball Reference says Desmond Mason was not good last year: “In other words, if there’s a statistical category out there (at least in terms of the box score), odds are that it showed Desmond Mason to be a really bad player last season. Not just mediocre, not just below-average, but legitimately terrible. All of which begs the question, on what planet does Desmond Mason deserve a multi-year contract “in the neighborhood of” $5+ million per? To be honest, he’s lucky anybody is still interested in him at all after his last four seasons. Because four years of purely awful basketball is not an aberration. It’s a trend. And it’s only getting worse.”
Both Teams Played Hard is ranking the logos: “Moreover, even for a nonplural, the name Thunder is just weak. Dogs and 12-year-old girls are the only things scared of thunder. Lighting is a little scary, sure. It can kill you. But loud noises are not intimidating. There are certainly thousands of other nouns that Oklahoma City could have chosen that would have been better, but, for my money, the Oklahoma City Outlaws would have been the ideal choice.” And how much less intimidating is Thunder than “Lakers,” “Pistons” or “Spurs”? Oh crap, did you see the pistons in that engine?!?! RUNNNNNN!!!!!!
Ben from Blazers Edge looks at my secret love for Portland: “In that light, it’s particularly interesting to read Young’s words because they really throw an added dimension of weirdness on this whole “Oklahoma City” scenario. My first thought is “Cool!.” My second thought is “He’s probably going to get killed by his commenters for admitting that.” My third thought is existentially questioning whether fans of expansion/moved franchises can care as much about their teams as fans of more established franchises. My final thought is that he should probably just give up on the “Thunder” and become a full-time Blazers fan. His life would be better.”
Ground will be broke on the new training facility Thursday: ”A year from now, Oklahoma City’s NBA team will feature what team chairman Clay Bennett has promised — a training facility that will rival any in the league. When fans hear terms such as “finest facilities,” some probably envision Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban providing his players with personal laptops, flat screen TVs and a plush locker room. The Thunder’s new facility will provide perks for players, but a training facility’s primary role is to provide practice courts and weight training equipment to assist players during a grueling 82-game season.”
See, this is why it’s good to have a team with no tattoos because they can’t take pictures of them: ”Take a good look at the bottom right-hand corner of that picture. No, not the 7-Up bottle, that’s a good thing. Kid doesn’t need any caffeine. No, what’s curious, and what drew multiple comments on the TwitPic page and his Twitter account are what appear to be two plastic bags of something on the table. Ruh-roh.”
Steve Aschburner writes about the NBA’s big cut-back: ”The Memphis Grizzlies got the headlines this offseason when they shuttered their amateur scouting staff, dumping all five full-timers who evaluated college and European draft prospects. But a number of other teams have nipped and tucked on the basketball side as well, playing hardball on salaries, not renewing an extra assistant coach here or there, keeping training camp at home rather than heading 100 miles away to a leafy college campus, and reevaluating the costs of preparing for each game.”
Test
@ Jax
Thanks. Problem solved.
@Royce
If he continues to knock the blog, just call in and say,
“I’ve heard what you said…. You know nothing of my work.”
(OK, who’s gonna get the reference?)
Tramel is the best there is on the Sports Animal.
@Colin
Marshal McLuhan via “Annie Hall”
Listening to him is really sad. He can’t even put his thoughts to radio. What do we have him here for? Royce, I think it’s awesome that you have people calling in and sticking up for you when Traber is trashing you (“just murdering you” in Traber talk). Traber probably doesn’t have people that will do that for him.
I wonder how many emails that softy guy from Seattle got?
Yes, beware of e-mails Roycey!
I don’t know, but if I were to guess how many Traber fans also had technology skills, I’d put the over/under at 1.
Amount of emails I’ve received so far: ONE.
@Royce
Beware the Traber Army.
Haha. A guy just said that Traber shouldn’t have to defend himself against a more successful and intelligent man like Simmons. It’s just unfair and he’s against that.
Do what other bloggers do and post the angry e-mail(s)!
@Chas
SOOOO funny.
@J.G.
Actually, it was the Family Guy episode where Peter meets Jesus in a record store…. though it was most likely taken from something that has used the line before it.
@Chas
Had the same thought about the “hiding behind our computers” comment. Do you have to offer to “whip-his-ass” in person to have a legitimate position? I wonder if there might be a youtube video out there of his time on his highschool debate team, possibly charging the lecturn and chasing a smaller kid out of the auditorium?
@Royce
Traber gave out my email in that whole thing… and how many emails have I gotten? ZERO
Id be up for a Roy D. Mercer prank call into the Animal!!
In re your comments on the nickname “Pistons”…my good friend Tim Cavanaugh does a song called “Piston Souvenirs”. You can listen to a sample here:
http://www.picklehead.com/samples/cavanaghsample_piston.mp3
It’s short and silly but worth a listen (though it’s much better live). Tim’s very funny, on Bob and Tom all the time.
(Thought maybe something a little more light-hearted might help out today…)
And I was only kidding when I set the over/under at 1!
Send a link to DAILYTHUNDER in every reply from any hate mail you get Royce.
I’m not a Tramel fan, but this is awesome.
I freaking love Berry Tramel.
Honestly, he’s mocking him live on the air, it’s great! You can tell that Jim isn’t really sure if he is, so he’s just sayin “I KNOW YOU’RE MOCKING ME!”
Hold on to your butts people, I’ve got a major interview coming soon.
Don’t tease me like that Royce, if that is your real name.
Traber (and the dailythunder!) make deadspin:
http://deadspin.com/5344557/angry-radio-host-does-not-think-highly-of-sports-fella
@Colin
I’d agree with you that they took it from the classic Woody Allen film, “Annie Hall.”
Yeah, Tramel’s pretty much proven that to give criticism, you have to be able to be able to receive it to have ANY credibility.
edit* – take out one of those “to be able”‘s, not sure how that ended up in there twice.
Can’t understand why people keep harping on the name ‘Thunder’, but have no issues with ‘Heat’ and ‘Magic’. I guess after a few conference finals appearences that will stop…
@Tapdog72
They don’t take issue because those teams have been around for about 15 years (I think)…. people will forget about Thunder as the nickname eventually… unless the team starts winning championships, in which case it will become a cool nickname.
@Royce
Are you going to be on one of Simmons’ podcasts? I listen to them all the time.
@Colin
Honestly I’ll die if you’re on Simmon’s podcast, that would be TOO MUCH! I don’t know if I’d ever stop laughing at the irony if YOU talked to him before Traber did.
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE…I’m waiting for it Royce!
@okcnba
I’m not going on his podcast.
But… you could say we talked.
I’m loving the comments on that Deadspin website. Too funny!
All this attention is probably a good thing for this blog. Anyone who likes Traber in the first place is not the kind of fan that would enjoy DailyThunder, anyway.
There are people that listen to Traber because he’s the only thing on, and I have a feeling there will be a few hits from guys who say “well, this Royce guy pissed off Traber, he must be doing something right.”
Sort of a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type of thing.
Basically what I’m saying is “keep up the good work.”
The quality of this isn’t great… but it’s hilarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DY2HargZ7g&feature=related
@Dylan
This is a good point.
I am still voting that this blog encourages public displays against Loti at any and all Thunder games. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the guys on ESPN have to ask why someone is holding up a sign of a local radio host falling out of the tail end of a bull? Of course that would require they actually know who Traber is…
@Colin
I love how his own teammates beat him to the mound. Such agility and quickness Traber had in his “prime”.
@Royce
I’m just saying, if you do an interview with Simmons, I’ll personally buy you one of the Traber’s Wednesday specials from the Wedge.
I happened to turn into the Sports Animal today just in time to hear Traber’s rant about Simmons and his reading of “Roycie’s” email. Analysis: Traber is an eight year-old child. Since when is giving out the email addresses of dissenters an acceptable form of retaliation(and why would he even suppose that it was somehow harmful for Royce or Kurtis anyway?) Also he shamelessly suggests chauvinism and homophobia, but never mind that.
I had to cut the experience short due to class however. Can somebody tell me what happened when Trammel came on? I hope it was embarrassing for ole’ Trabes.