Something’s rumbling…

As most of you know, I wrote that whole Thunder tattoo continuum thing a couple months ago. Either Sam Presti read that and it made perfect sense to him

or it was just by coincidence, but Oklahoma City literally has THREE tattoos on the entire team now (that we can see). Byron Mullens has two (one on each forearm) and Thabo Sefolosha has one on his left shoulder. That’s it. Have we seen a team this tattooless since Hickory High? This is absolutely unprecedented in this age and I don’t think people are making a big enough deal about it.

I hate this. If I’m going to move on from this whole Traber thing I’m either going to have to quit listening to the radio entirely or hope he shuts up. And I think we all know one of those things is definitely not happening. Now Trabes has put aside his war against Nick Collison and instead fired one up against Bill Simmons for his tweet.

Like I said, I agree with Traber in a sense that Simmons has gone over the top about this Seattle/OKC crap, but this is just going to end badly, even if some random act of God it picks up any steam. All that will happen is that Oklahoma City sports chatter will get humiliated once again on the national stage and Traber will have to field calls for another week about it. One thing that makes me want to headbutt my coffee table though is that Traber is acting like people like Simmons and myself aren’t any different than anonymous Internet commenters, except that we use our real names. THEN HOW ARE INTERNET COMMENTERS ANY DIFFERENT THAN YOU, JIM? Your platform is the radio. Bill Simmons’ is a podcast and a column for ESPN.com. What’s the difference? I truly think Traber’s mind exists in a parallel universe where he cannot see such logical things.

Then, to cap it off, he ripped Simmons for not allowing comments on his columns and then rips me for allowing them on mine. Face palm. And he seems to forget that he has a website with a message board with anonymous commenters and also works for a radio station with a message board with anonymous commenters. Please, a little respect, for he is Traber, Lord of the Idiots. Ok, done. Seriously, I’m done now.

Vince Thomas had an interesting piece on NBA.com about small market players and the

supposed desire for the spotlight. I was just talking about that with some friends the other day. Thomas is so right. It is a myth. Sure, maybe one city can pay you more than the other. But in this day with the media’s arm reaching as far as it does, the Internet, social media and Youtube, a player can get all the exposure he wants even if he plays in Slapout, Oklahoma, as long as he’s good. Chris Duhon had a nice season last year. Did you hear people constantly talking about him? And he was in New York! I’m not worried about KD’s national exposure and I really don’t think he cares anyway. All that crap is overrated. Read what Thomas wrote. It’s exactly what I just said, but better.

Is there honestly a better feeling out there than tossing out a loud zinger in a crowded area and it landing perfectly? It’s like you’re the king of the crowd for 30 seconds. People are telling the people beside them what you said, guys around you are nudging you telling you well done and now you’re the spokesman for your section. Everyone looks to you for guidance on the next sarcastic comment. Now I can see why George went back into the theater to bless the audience with his “That’s GOTTA hurt!” line. But equally as bad is throwing out a line and it crashing like the Hindenburg. The reason I bring this up? Because I recently crashed and burned in a public place. And no, I’m not telling you the story.

One thing that makes me extremely nervous about this upcoming basketball season? Overreaction due to exaggerated offseason hype. What if the Thunder gets off to an 8-24 start? Will people be calling for Scott Brooks’ head? I would certainly hope not. Tempering expectation is a difficult thing to do, especially when everybody is telling you how good you are.

I know a lot of people are irritated about Brett Favre unretiring again, but I’m really not. As a new Vikings fan (only because of Adrian Peterson) I don’t care about the whole Packers/Vikings thing. And besides, Favre doesn’t care either. Rivalries are almost entirely fan driven. Players don’t care. Most times, they’re friends with a lot of the guys on the other team that they’re supposed to hate. And in the age of free agency, how can a player say no to a great fit or a great contract just because his old team’s fans don’t like this new team. Plus, with Favre, what’s wrong with him playing? He clearly loves football, loves playing football and as long as someone will pay him to do so, more power to him for keeping on. He could be setting a dangerous Roger Clemens-esque precedent by skipping training camp, but that’s really beside the point.

Over/under: Kevin Durant’s points per game – 29.5. I honestly have no idea. On one hand I could see more, but on the other with James Harden and Russell Westbrook developing, I could maybe see less opportunity and need to score. I’m torn.

How many times have you watched the Hyperizin’ commercial? Be honest. I didn’t count, but I would guess I’m at 10. And that doesn’t count the times I’ve made the entire room shut up when it actually comes on TV. Call me pathetic, but I can’t get enough of seeing Our Guy on national TV. I get a huge smile on my face and mumble along with Velvet Hoop. I guess I am pathetic.

I’d say that autoplaying videos rank in the top 10 things that piss me off. When you go to OKC’s ESPN clubhouse page, that video just starts up. IF I WANTED IT TO PLAY, I’D CLICK THE LITTLE ARROW THINGY. College students who bring their laptops to class are the ultimate victim of the autoplay. You’re positive you have your sound off – absolutely positive – so you’re browsing, making sure to not listen to the professor and then you lazily click over to ESPN.com and BOOM!!! the video starts playing and the sound is echoing through the room as if you hooked your computer up to five mega-stacks of speakers. You scramble to hit mute as fast as you can but you’re hitting everywhere around the button but the actual freaking button and the whole class does the half-turn to see who the idiot is that didn’t mute his sound. And you’re just sitting there trying to act like it wasn’t you. No, this has never happened to me.

Does anybody else sometimes kind of secretly wish that Kevin Durant wore a cooler number than 35? Now I know he wears it to honor a fallen friend, which is awesome, and it’s not like it makes me not want his jersey because I adore him, but still, No. 35 just isn’t quite as cool as No. 23 or No. 33. I don’t think I should have said this out loud.

I wish I understood the UStream/Tiny Chat phenomenon. I get Stephon Marbury, because well, that was like watching one of those top 50 lists on Best Damn Sports Show Period. You see two seconds of it and you better get ready for two straight hours. But I just sat and watched Kevin Durant listen to music and not do ANYTHING for 15 minutes. I don’t get it. Then he answered some questions like, “What kind of car do you drive?” and “How much do you like playing basketball?” in between mouthing the words to some rap song. What am I missing here?