Monday Bolts – 9.2.13

Darnell Mayberry: “Many already think Liggins has played his last game in a Thunder uniform. The franchise’s standards might simply be too high to have Liggins stick around. Failing to part ways with Liggins after such an appalling alleged incident would fly in the face of one of the organization’s leading tenets — bringing to town not just quality players but also quality people. By hanging onto Liggins the Thunder also runs the risk of sending mixed messages to the remaining players, five of them who this season will have been in the league three years or less. And so we wait, with no real precedent available to forecast what will come of this unfortunate alleged situation.”

Bill Simmons writing brilliantly about Tracy McGrady: Heading into that summer, McGrady’s name suddenly started landing in the same sentence with fellow free agents Tim Duncan and Grant Hill. How much was a budding All-Star worth who had just passed the legal drinking age? Even though the Raptors were building something special, McGrady bolted for seemingly greener pastures in Orlando. If 2013’s contract rules existed that summer, T-Mac would have been forced to spend an extra two years in Toronto … and probably would have made the Finals in 2001 or 2002. We would have regarded him as the Evolutionary Pippen, the 6-foot-8 freak athlete who could do everything that Scottie did … only the dude could get buckets, too. We would have discussed T-Mac and Vince like we discuss Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant now. We would have argued about ‘Shaq and Kobe or Vince and T-Mac?'”

USA Today projects the Thunder at 58-24.

Mayor Mick Cornett speaking at a mayor’s luncheon thing: “In a sense, it has put us on the map,” Cornett said. “It has validated a level of major-league status. And because we don’t have Division I athletics, we lacked an identity in the world of sports.”

A little pre preseason primer from the ThundergUrls.

Check out Daniel Orton’s custom Tahoe nicknamed “War Machine.”

Ethan Sherwood Strauss for TrueHoop: “This summer has allowed for more reading, traveling and other cool things that aren’t basketball. The absence of basketball has also allowed for some reflection on why I don’t like the absence of basketball. This stuff matters. If you love the NBA, don’t let anyone tell you differently. It can be more than just a business and it can be more than just a game. Yes, caring about sports is silly, but the silliest memories often stick with us.”