Tuesday Bolts – 8.18.09
Pro Basketball News has an article on Nick Collison and looky what he talked about: ”Although he plays for the 
Thunder, Collison continues to make his home in Seattle. ‘My wife and I fell in love with the people and the city of Seattle,’ he said. ‘I still have great memories playing in Key Arena … ‘I’m excited about the upcoming season and we’ve got lots of room for improvement. The folks in Oklahoma have been good to us and I want to give them something to cheer about.’”
Darnell Mayberry has a Q&A with Kevin Ollie: ”DM: Is there anything that stood out in their recruiting efforts? Can you give me a behind-the-scenes look at anything they did that sort of stood out? Kevin Ollie: Just how they believe in their players and believe in their vision. I think if you don’t have a vision you don’t have hope and everything is going to perish. But they have a vision and a plan of what they want to do and are going out and executing that vision. And I just really like that. It might not show to the other people, but they have a vision and they believe in themselves and have standards that they’re going to uphold. That’s what I believe in life, that you have to stand on your convictions and sometimes you have to be alone. It might not agree with everybody. But if you have your own convictions and your own dreams of where your organization wants to go and believe in your organization and you believe in what you’re doing I’m all for that. Because after my playing career I might want to go into coaching or in the front office and I could learn how they’re building their program around their convictions and their standards.”
NBA.com surveyed 35 rookies about the upcoming season and their answers aren’t all too surprising, but a few caught my eye. James Harden is exactly where you’d expect. Being recognized, but slightly under-the-radar.
You see, I think this tweet is a far bigger deal than what the weather is like in OKC: “Sometimes the bathrooms @ the park are so nasty u let your kid go in her pants while u hold her cause theres no way shes touching that thing.” 
Scott Howard-Cooper rehashing the Vegas Team USA mini-camp: “Among the prospects who gathered in Vegas as one step to eventually making the next Dream Team (the roster that won gold at the Beijing Games got the summer off), Kevin Durant was the clear star. He’s bound for Turkey, bound for London, bound for another few rotations with USA Basketball. Nobody else put themselves in position for the future the way Durant did. But Love likely put himself among about 25 players who, sometime close to the start of the regular season, will be on a working list for 2010, probably along with, in no particular order, Rudy Gay, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo.”
Could Durant take Michael Redd’s spot on the team?: “Being a good guy, however, can’t necessarily save him from being replaced on the 2010 USA team that will play in the World Championships in Turkey. Since July’s national team auditions in Las Vegas it’s been pretty commonly accepted that Kevin Durant deserves a spot on Team USA sometime in the near future. Because he and Redd have similar roles as scorers, and because Redd is now, in some ways, considered “over the hill” in his career, Durant as a Redd replacement has been the most popular idea for getting the Oklahoma City forward on the roster.”
A nice little article in the Washingston Post about the Goodman League at Barry Farms: “Barry Farms, a neighborhood that had developed a reputation as one of the roughest in the District, is home to a burgeoning streetball scene. Rawls said the Goodman League really took off about four years ago when Wizards star Gilbert Arenas began showing up. Since, NBA players such as Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Jeff Green have followed his lead.”
Look what has happened. Just from Darnell Mayberry’s innocent little line about Mo Cheeks potentially being on staff to replace Scott Brooks if things go sour, now it’s a supposed “rumor” that’s circling the web: ”New Oklahoma City Thunder Maurice Cheeks has been around. He’s already been a head coach with the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers. And the feeling is that he could become head coach in Oklahoma City if the current head coach, Scott Brooks, somehow implodes, according to the Oklahoman. Word is that the Thunder isn’t planning to can Brooks but the front office is feeling good that it has Cheeks in his back pocket. After all, the guy has led three teams to the postseason and has an overall NBA coaching record of 284-286.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
Kevin Durant wished Magic Johnson a happy 50th:
Man! Scotty shouldn’t have to listen those rumors about Mo. With the front-heavy schedule and the very real chance we start slow, he needs to be worrying about how to get these players to be there best, not “do I have a job in OKC if we are 8-22?”
Somehow, I don’t think Brooks is too worried about Mo taking his job. From reading the Kevin Ollie interview, I’m guessing Presti is just as meticulous when it comes to recruiting assistant coaches. They were upfront with Ollie in telling him he wasn’t being brought in to be a player-coach. I would imagine he told Mo nicely, but plainly, that this is Brooks’ team.
This became a rumor only because of the time of year. It’s slow, people need to run with a rumor. Now, if it’s March 2010 and we’ve won 15 games, this might be more than a rumor.
Also, I’m thinking about adding “Attend a Goodman League game” to my bucket list.
From Bill Simmons’ Twitter:
sportsguy33
Fun listen: @nickcollison4 working an OKC sports radio moron like a speedbag. I love Collison now.
@Alex
I wonder if Simmons picked up that link from here, because that’s the same one I used and that someone posted in the comments.
And like I said in what I wrote about Traber, this was the problem with his ridiculous opinion: All OKC fans are now getting associated with his opinion. Which sucks. That’s why I wanted to try and distance us as far as we could from him.
As tight lipped as our front office is, I don’t think rumors are anything more than that. I am sure this was already talked about by Brooks and Sam so it is a non issue. With that said, my wife says I am always wrong so…
Kinda unfortunate if the link posted here gave the story more traction, huh?
I don’t really agree that Traber makes us all look bad though. i see this whole thing as kind of like a Rorschach test: if you’re a pissed off Sonics fan eager to feel scorn and superiority for a bunch of imagined moron thunder fans, Traber will confirm what you want to believe. If you have a broader perspective, and if you’ve listened to sports radio guys around the country, you realize that he just fits the archetype (arrogant, ignorant, loudmouth who takes his opinions way too seriously) and doesn’t speak for anybody but himself.
But I know how you feel Royce. It’s always frustrating dealing with people like him in real life, and moreso when they have a pulpit to preach from. I just try to remember the one good thing about Traber: noone with any sense takes his BS seriously. So when he calls you out it just makes him look bad.
Great. Traber is back at it again but now going after Bill Simmons.
Also, he just ranted a little about “websites that let people say whatever they want.” HOLY CRAP!!!!
What about his own friggin website? And the message boards on thesportsanimal.com? And then he ripped Bill Simmons for not allowing comments on his columns. WHAT PLANET IS HE ON?!?!?!?!
He lives on Planet Traber where how he thinks and views life is absolute. lol. I just heard him and his comments on Bill Simmons. You know, he’s kind of a paradox – completely off target and embarrassing with the Nick Collison tweets. But somehow, I’d like it if he did have Bill Simmons on his show and go after him, because I agree that Simmons has been unfair towards the Thunder (not that Traber would do himself, or us, any credit).
@Royce
Forest for the trees, Royce.
Sometimes silence is the best thing you can ever add to your day, whether driving or at work.
@Royce
Traber is tripping on his own righteous indignation. He’ll always be right in his own mind.
@J.G.
I might try that more. I really miss Jack Mildren and Ron Thulan more by the day.
@Terry
I agree about that because I deeply love Bill Simmons, but he’s been extremely unfair. At the same time, Traber will do more harm than good and besides, he’s not even getting things right about Simmons. He’s claiming that he “rips OKC every daggone day” and makes comments about dust and covered wagons. I’ve never read Simmons say such things. He just refuses to call us by name and has completely sided with Seattle. That’s it.
I think Traber must live by the old saying that “there is no such things as bad publicity”.
Maybe it’s time to start referring to Traber as the “mouth in front of the microphone who shall remain nameless”, or perhaps the “the idiot sports talk zombie”….
Just a thought.
@Joe
Haha. I like that.
Anyone else ready for the season to start?
I am completely ready for the season to start. I’m not a big fan of the Sports Animal and so therefore, I don’t listen to it. Going with the “no bad publicity” theme here, I think this is the most I’ve heard the Sports Animal being talked about… ever.
Royce, this may be a complete nerd thing to say, but Peter King has been doing these “Tweet Ups” around towns that hold Preseason Camps. Have you ever though about doing one of those? If so, a little pregame action downtown one evening would be a good venue.. Just a thought.
@Dooney
Do explain. I’m not entirely sure what a “Tweet Up” is.
I was intrigued when a fellow blogger had mentioned about sonic fans on this website when we were first getting a team. I have only been following this website for a few months and I think it would be a pretty cool piece if you covered the development of this website by both a growth(our footprint you coud say) and content perspective.
@Derrick
How exactly do you mean? I think that’s certainly a good idea, but I’m not sure if I understand entirely.
I definitely know I’ve come a long way. I’m by no means good at it now, but I think I’m much better at this blog thing than I was a year ago.
@Derrick
Take a quick look at the About Us page here on the blog. I used to love following both Royce and Joe though they come at basketball from completely different perspectives. It really sucks that Joe’s breakdown of Russell, Shaun, Scotty and Mo Cheeks kind if got drowned out by the whole Traber rant.
@MartzMimic
Total truth. It was an excellent breakdown and tis a shame that it got passed over.
It didn’t get passed over by me. It was a great piece.
Ron Thulan had his own show on Jock but Jock is now a Hispanic station so now I’m very sad.
I guess that I was just wondering how you thought the website has been progressing. I don’t have any numbers but it seems the website has been growing and more users are commenting, and I like to say our but “your” blogging has certainly caught more attention in light of interviews, sonicsgate, sportsanimal etc. Also maybe throw in a couple of goals you have for the website that “we” could work towards.
@MartzMimic
Agreed…
I even forgot to comment on it…
Great post Joe…very well thought out and solid.
@Derrick
Oh yeah, it’s certainly come a very long way. Back when I was first starting at that blogspot, I’d be lucky to have 200 people view the site in a day. And that thrilled me. But now just last month – a month was relatively nothing happened – we got almost 120,000 hits.
It’s becoming exactly what I could have dreamed of. A real, legitimate voice for Thunder basketball and Oklahoma sports and one of the best places for Thunder fans to congregate and talk about their favorite team. That’s all I could hope for and it’s pretty much exactly that.
@Alex
I really wish that Simmons hadn’t advertised the Traver/Collison conversation to the world.
It’s sad that he’s a representative voice. I don’t want people outside of Oklahoma hearing that nonsense.
I have been a long time reader (from before the two old blogs merged and created dailythunder) and remember when these comments were all people ripping on oklahoma. It’s great to see how long it has come and i enjoy it daily!
Just as the columnist who shall not be named was starting to slip up and refer to refer to OKC, Traber goes and gives him more material. He truly is lord of the idiots.
@Doug
Amen.
I mean, what good could come of this? Traber gets humiliated on a national stage? Make people think even less of us? Sheesh. Brilliant.
And truthfully, of all the national media, Simmons has been one of the Thunder’s biggest fans. I grant that his long time use of the “Zombie-Sonics” phrase could be offensive to Oklahoma fans, but the dude loves the Thunder! He loves Durant; he loves Presti. He’s constantly praising the Thunder (just not by name). I wonder if Traber realizes this?
He posted this in his Draft-Day Diary right before Harden was selected: “4:51: I have to come clean: If the Zombie Sonics take Rubio or Curry, they will be employing my favorite college player of the decade (Kevin Durant); my favorite international player of the decade (Rubio) OR my favorite college player of the past two years (Curry); two other college guys I loved (Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook); and if that’s not enough, they have my favorite young coach (Scottie Brooks) and my favorite GM who didn’t go to MIT (Sam Presti). At some point, all these things will override “They have scummy owners who hijacked the team from Seattle.” I don’t trust myself to handle this well. I am an only child. I’m selfish. I care about me only. And if I’m watching 75 Zombie Sonics games next season, at some point, I’m going to want to go to one.”
Truthfully, I’ve been a Simmons fan for years and would read his mail bags all the way through (a marathon!) but I was hurt by how he took sides on something that wasn’t cut and dry. Saying this, it’s been a year and eventually my skin thickened and I stopped caring. Why not give Seattle somebody to root for on a national scale? It’s not like he’s going to take our team away. And like Danny said, he loves our team! I mean, what basketball fan can keep from watching us? They’re tons of fun to watch, and they’re ours. Let Seattle be comforted by the national media and please, PLEASE, don’t let Traber reach national airwaves!
@Danny
Exactly. That’s what I was saying earlier is that Traber is embellishing the situation. It hasn’t necessarily been a hatefest on OKC, but more of a support of Seattle.
I won’t lie, it’s bothered me. I wrote about it one time (http://www.dailythunder.com/?p=1276). But I’m not entirely sure this is a battle worth fighting anymore.
It’s almost like Traber realized he made some serious enemies with the Collison thing, so he’s trying to unite everyone and get everyone behind him for this cause.
@Royce
Well said.
Last summer it was frustrating to have so much controversy hanging over my new NBA team. And it is frustrating to have the “OKC vs. Seattle” topic constantly relived by people in the national media (Simmons, for one).
But Traber is simply hanging on to old topics and controversies that most of us would rather let die. As the Thunder improve, they will begin to make a name for themselves as a quality and exciting playoff-caliber team, and the old “OKC vs. Seattle” topic will fade away.
Where’s Kev been? Anybody seen him posting lately?
@Joe
I was wondering the same thing. He mentioned vacation, but that was awhile back.
He’s a math teacher. Maybe he’s on a long sabbatical in an RV somewhere with screaming kids and an “on edge” wife…..
I can’t wait for real basketball to start. Not being from OKC, I can only nod and agree secondhand about traber’s idiocy. Makes it hard to comment much. I’m almost looking back with nostalgia at the draft/free agency discussion. You know there’s a dearth of real stories when something like this takes center stage.
I’m going to pretend that the lack of capitalization in traber’s name was intentional as a subtle way to underline his lack of importance. Yeah, I’m sticking with that.
Ok, I doubt anyone will read this late comment, which is probably just as well as I’d be happy for the discussion about traber (keeping that up) to cease. However, I just listened to Nick’s call-in to his show for the first time (audio didn’t work for me before). And this is my reacion (never having heard traber before): Holy Mother of God is that guy a moron. It has to be an act, right? Nobody is that dumb. Even when Nick repeatedly beat down the gigantic flaws in his logic, he kept spouting his asinine and unfounded opinions as fact. Wow. Just wow.
@nick
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. And his logic gets worse and worse when it comes to his war on Simmons and his comments about me and Daily Thunder.
@Royce
Did he make any more comments about you today?
@Joe
I was wondering the same thing about Kev as well.
How am I going to get my Stephen Curry fix next year if he doesn’t keep posting?
Seriously though, I hope all is well with him.
Traber has switched his focus from The War on Nick to The War on Bill Simmons.(I think he knows he’s on the wrong side of this and is ready to get lit up my a dude with a rich vocabulary!)
He referred to Bill as “just like the nameless people who comment on message boards, only Bill uses his REAL name.”
I use my online name, CPT. CNote, because that’s what it says on all my recorded albums. I wish I was the first to come up with this but Elton John, Seal, Prince, Gene Simmons, ect.. all beat me to it.
My name is Chris W. Cody and there is a link to my blog and here’s some other links to me, if you wish to holla at a playa:
chriscody7@yahoo.com
http://www.myspace.com/cptcnote
http://www.myspace.com/asleepaudiencedream
I’m a yardbird, bigfella! Isn’t it good to have something to talk about during the slow times.
ps I really like WWLS and enjoy most of the shows!
@J.G.
Haha…Steph Curry
@Cpt. C-Note
Maybe the worst thing about it is that Traber doesn’t understand how he’s no different than Simmons, or “the nameless people who comment on message boards” only Traber uses his real name. He goes on air, talks, gives out opinions and that’s it.
It’s called the media.
Really. He doesn’t put his neck out on the line more than anybody else. Especially since he’s always ripping on one particular writer….
I go by my regular name, even though it’s a little boring to do so. He acts like every little comment should be backed up by our birth certificate.
@Chas
Haha seriously. The fact he had the gall to say, “OK Royce Young… if that is actually your real name…” just shows his ignorance of the Internet. I think he just assumes we’re all running around on here naked saying cuss words and making up lies.