Tuesday Bolts – 8.11.09
Jenni Carlson writing about… something. It’s some kind of thing about Twitter and Nick Collison and Seattle and 
Oklahoma City and other stuff: ”Collison is a cerebral dude with a dry sense of humor, and on Twitter, that personality comes through. It is evident. It is real. We don’t always get to see that from professional athletes. Twitter might reveal a side of some athletes that we’d rather not see, but in Collison’s case, I don’t like him less for raving about Seattle’s ambiance and complaining about Oklahoma City’s heat.”
UPDATE: I asked Nick about it and he said, “Thought it was strange. Don’t think tweets about weather should be percieved as “taking shots at OKC” … slow time of year I guess.”
The Hawks are working on signing Joe Smith: “While big men have been flying off the free-agent shelves all summer, the Hawks have had no luck in luring talent outside of the organization. The Hawks have been pursuing veteran power forward Joe Smith since last month but haven’t been able to secure a commitment from the former No. 1 overall pick.”
Shoals wasn’t happy with Mike Baldwin’s article on attendance stuff yesterday: ”If you want to wade through an overly-long, vaguely jingoistic piece on why the Thunder are actually doing well in attendance figures, The Oklahoman is the place to be. The basics: the Thunder are doing great in the numbers like season tickets sold, percentage of seats sold, overall attendance and ticket revenue.”
HoopsWorld looks at six teams on the way down and one of them happens to be a team that is linked to OKC next year: “The Suns are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they have a front office that’s been working very hard to try and build a championship contender. On the other hand, they have an owner who’s looking to aggressively cut costs. It’s almost impossible to do both of those things at the same time, and right now it’s the cost-cutting owner who’s having his way. Even as GM Steve Kerr assured HOOPSWORLD that the team would not be looking to trade Shaquille O’Neal, preferring instead to see how good the team could be with a healthy Amar’e Stoudemire alongside Shaq for an entire season, his boss was busily preparing to shed Shaq’s contract in a move that did little more than cut costs.”
An early FANTASY mock draft: “The hype machine is in full effect on Kevin Durant and he’s going to go anywhere from No. 3 to No. 10 in this year’s drafts, and I am in full support of taking him wherever you deem necessary.”
FoxSports.com has Kevin Durant as the NBA’s sixth best shooter: “Spindly” is probably the best way to describe Durant’s frame before he reaches legal drinking age next month, so it’s fair to say he didn’t overpower anyone on his way to the basket last season. Yet he averaged 25.3 points (sixth in the league) thanks mainly to a silky touch and repertoire of shots that few of his elders can match. With a quick trigger and high release (he’s 6-foot-9 with long arms), Durant can shoot over smaller defenders with ease, while big men are uncomfortable chasing him around the 3-point arc. As he improves his already solid pull-up game and gains strength, the best way to describe Durant may soon be “scoring champ.”
James Johnson breakdanced (or brokedanced?) at the rookie photo shoot and it appears James Harden was involved somehow with it:
NBA.com’s first rookie rankings are out and Harden is No. 4: “One thing is clear after the Thunder’s Summer League stints in Orlando and Las Vegas: Harden will compete for the starting two-guard spot. Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said recently that Harden will have to fight for minutes, but you have to think Harden will be able to steal the minutes from last year’s starters (Kyle Weaver and Thabo Sefolosha).”
Video of Harden at the photo shoot and he also talks a little about being a part of the Thunder:
Hey guys, can someone please post the link to the website where the nba summer league games were televised on. I’m not on my computer so i dont have the link anymore, thanks.
@Brian
Which one? Orlando or Vegas?
I still won’t read anything Jenni Carlson writes.
Part of me would still like to see Joe Smith back here in Thunder blue.
Shoals > Baldwin
It looks like Harden was punking on Johnson, and he got served. Now I think it’s time for Harden to pay his debt off by showing the world what he can do on the breakdance floor.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
In all honesty, I have no clue what Jenni Carlson was trying to write about. It was all over the place. Was she trying to make a statement about Twitter? Or about Collison’s OKC negativity? Or just commenting on how he likes Seattle? I really didn’t get it.
I really hope Jenni Carlson’s article is brought up today on Jim Traber’s show…
Maybe Jim and Jenny are in cahoots together, playing off each others absurd opinions to stir up drama where there is none. Or maybe Jenni has a quota of bad publicity that she hasn’t met yet, so she writes something she knows will get her a good two hours of radio bashing.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
That’s a good guess. Because I sure don’t get it.
I hate to say it, but Carlson’s articles make Berry Tramel look like Frank DeFord. Aimless, full of cliches, and poorly written overall.
I’m pretty convinced the Oklahoman is keeping her on just to have a token female sportswriter.
I updated the bolts with it, but I asked Nick about the Jenni Carlson thing. He said: “thought it was strange.Dont think tweets about weather should be percieved as”taking shots at okc”slow time of year I guess.”
http://twitter.com/nickcollison4/status/3248470009
I think too many people are still too thin-skinned from the move (and Lord knows I have a hair trigger myself, at times). Poor Nick has taken a lot of undeserved crap.
Looks to me like Jenni was getting close to deadline without a lead. I can here her now: “Crap, what can I write about that I won’t have to make any phone calls for?”
Either that, or she wanted to publicly profess her love for Nick without spelling it out for him. I can here her now: “OMG! do you think he’ll call, maybe invite me to Seatle?”
*hear her now…and Seattle
I really should type slower
Yeah I’ve never been a big Jenni Carlson fan either, although it did make me happy when she bent Mike Gundy over her knee and gave him a good spanking after his “I’m a man” rant.
@D-Money
Almost as happy as it’ll make me when Mike bends Bobby Stoops over his knee in Norman this year.
Traber just lost his mind on the show. He took off and ran with the Jeni and Collison article. I get this feeling that he really hates her.
Traber said that Collison should join the Storm since he likes Seattle so much.
@Lucho
How do you mean? Like he got upset about it?
@Royce
As Traber tends to do, he turned it into a black/white, with us/against us story, with Collison as the “traitor.”
I guess he’s only allowed to like OKC now, and shouldn’t bother tweeting when he’s in Seattle (unless it’s something negative).
James Johnson’s break dancing was utterly epic.
@KingGondo
You know, I tell people that even though I disagree with Traber a lot I respect what he does and how long he’s done it. But, when he does things like this it makes me regret saying that to people…
I listen to Jim Traber as often as I read Jenni Carlson. Which is never.
@Lefty
Yeah, I don’t really respect him much at all. His opinions on everything besides baseball are ill-informed and he fails to take into account complexity. He screams if you disagree with him. Without someone to bounce ideas off of (like Eschbach or the usual suspect callers) he can’t sustain a cogent thought to save his life. His political and moral views are laughably simple and dogmatic.
So I guess you could say that I’m not a fan.
I tend to find myself disagreeing with Traber aswell, but he does help the day roll along while at work.
@KingGondo
You can start talking about that once you beat Georgia….and Texas
@Royce
KingGondo summed it up, but he is also joking about Jeni being in love with Collison. Quite entertaining.
@KingGondo
I whole-heartily agree about Traber…but good luck with the “OSU-over-OU-in-Norman” thing. JK!
Nobody but you pokes in ’01 or’02 (with Les) and TCU in ’05 (with a WR @ QB) has beaten Bobby Stoops at home, brother! It should be a good one, though…
sorry ’bout the “off thunder” chat…
I wonder if Jenni followed Nick into the 420room?
@D-Money
Hey, I was at OU-Texas Tech last year, and I’m actually convinced that OSU can’t win in Norman if it’s a night game. If they did, it would be a huge accomplishment (barring injury to Bradford).
Pardon me for being an overzealous OSU football fan, we don’t get many chances to be this optimistic.
@KingGondo
Do try to refrain
Jenni is just giving us yet another reason to dislike her, By turning random and pointless tweets into a controversial piece.
The writers for The Oklahoman can turn out some pretty good articles, but about once a week, they publish something like this.
@ Royce
Im talking about the website that i think is called ADTHE.net or something? I coudn’t find it.
Shorter Carlson: “Nick Collison loves Seattle, but that’s okay cause Seattle’s an awesome city. Oklahoma City gets hot sometimes. Also, Nick Collison is funny.”
@Sammy
Ha! Awesome.
@Brian
http://atdhe.net/
I really got a kick out of this line from JC:
Ha ha. What a load of crap. I can tell you as someone who lived there for close to 20 years, the summers aren’t warm, and are only sunny one day out of three. I don’t know how many 4th of July’s were cloudy and rainy, but it was a lot. There are some warm and sunny days, but they sure as heck don’t start in May and end in Septemeber…more like they start in July and end in August.
Here’s Weather Underground for Seattle for the next 5 days: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=seattle&wuSelect=WEATHER
(Just a hint….rain for the next three)
Maybe she should spend more than a weekend or two there before she comments on the weather.
@Royce
I got the same feeling as you did. Is this really all the focus one needs to write for the largest paper in OK? I have an idea, since capitalism has completely failed to produce any competition for the Daily Disappointment, we should be allowed to have a vote over whom is allowed to write for the only paper. I know I know. Socialism sucks and as a libertarian I generally agree, but as desperate times rears its head…
Newest update from Nick via Twitter
“DISCLAIMER(the following is in no way shape or form commentary on Oklahoma City)…….but….. its another beautiful day in Seattle”
^^^^^^^^That just makes me all warm inside :[
Thanks Royce.
maybe Nick likes rain
@KingGondo
Actually the last time you beat OU in Norman was a night game….Ok technically it was an early evening game but still that fade pass to the back left corner of the endzone that everyone thought should have been called incomplete happened after the sun went down lol. Oh well, to tell you the truth I think we’re fortunate to be playing this game in Norman. Last year I was afraid to play you in Stillwater but if we were there this year I’d be terrified at this point. Of course, that would all change if OSU totally dropped the ball and just got blown out at home by Georgia. A close loss would be ok but with no moreno or stafford the cowboys should be the favorites in that game. I am pulling for the boys, even though I’m not a fan…I actually just hate the SEC more, but I won’t exactly shed any tears if you lose. Now beat Texas at home and I’ll upgrade OSU from “kid brother” status to actual opponent. Sorry for the college football discussion on the thunder boards but I love it and get carried away sometimes…..Go Thunder.