Via Yahoo! Sports:

Okay, I'm happy about this, but if this guy would dance like this every game, then I'd want my NBA referees back.

According to Yahoo Sports and many other reputable sources, the NBA has locked out it's referees, because the referees were unable to accept many cutbacks that the league offered them, due to the current economic situation. It looked like the referees wanted to work it out, as evidenced by the fact that they locked themselves in their hotel rooms for an extra day. but, in the end, they didn't want to cutback on their retirement benefits, which seems to be the main point of contention.

What does this mean?

This means that for the entirety of the pre-season, the NBA will be using D-League, WNBA, and other officials.

What do I say?

Bring it on! I've never been happy about a lockout in my life. That is, until this one came along. In the NBA, there's so many referees that people hate, especially with the semi-recent Tim Donaghy scandal. There's just so many referees today that will give "star treatment" to players like Dwayne Wade, Baron Davis, Corey Maggette, and Kobe Bryant. The aformentioned players like to drive down the lane and pretend that they just got hit by a freight train any time a foreign jersey comes within 5 inches of their skin, and the refs accept that. Also, Thunder fans, don't think that Kevin Durant is except from this rule. He was notorious for this in his rookie season.

Fresh blood is exactly what NBA refereeing needs. The new referees won't have established "relationships" with players, so LeBron James will be treated the same as Kyle Weaver. Imagine how much more challenging it will be for superstars to go off on huge scoring nights when all of the calls don't go their way. Imagine how much harder it will be for teams like the Lakers to roll over teams like the Kings, because the refs will actually be taking the game seriously. Imagine a world where good defense in the post might be rewarded, rather than discouraged. None of this is guaranteed, but the prospect excites me. The true cream would rise to the top.

And, given that there's a lot of WNBA referees that will be needed, this will bring some needed diversity to a field where women have only been promoted once, and the only remaining woman referee from that promotion is a total joke. That referee, and my favourite referee to hate, is Violet Palmer. She always calls way too many ticky-tack fouls and charges. It's almost painful to watch a game where a team has a tendency to drive and she's the ref.

I mean, how often do referees get fired or retire? Almost every week there's a new complaint about how a ref didn't make this call or shouldn't have made that call, but I never see any improvement or people on their way out. The most I've seen is a very short-lived TV show on NBATV where the head of NBA refereeing would break down controversial calls, and the deplorable Peter Vecsey would complain about how they made the wrong call. I don't like Vecsey, but he would be right about half the time, and while it's obvious that the shows intentions were good, it never resonated with fans.

Furthermore, I don't hear complaints about referees from other leagues that I follow. Although Raider fans would disagree with me (Tuck Rule, anyone? Missed Catch in the end zone last week, anyone?), the NFL, MLB, and NHL don't have near the amount of problems the NBA does. The only sport I could compare would probably be the highly judgmental referees of International Soccer, and even then it's rare that a bad yellow or red card would change the entire game. And even when it does, it doesn't make it any less amusing to watch, like the referees of the NBA do.

In the end, I realize that this situation is temporary. It's possible that this might not even last past the entire pre-season, much less go into the regular season or the playoffs.  And even if the situation does continue into the future, who's to guarantee that these refs are any better? Maybe the WNBA and D-League have even worse officials, I don't know. But I do know that if there was ever a situation which would shed the most light on how good or bad NBA referees are doing at the moment, this would be it.

So, get ready NBA fans, because this could be the best season yet.

....Or, the worst season yet.

Okay, I know this is a Thunder Blog, but I think something needs to be said about this....

That's right. Devin Hesters commercial. It's an absurd depiction of his day. Lets just break it down step by step:

Scene 1: First of all, he wakes up to see...Under Armour on his TV. I'm sure it's a great program. Then he sees his wife, and completely ignores her for the rest of the day. Yet, he has time to make a Twitter update about waking up. After this, he checks himself out in the mirror (after sleeping in full under armour), and then immediately changes out of it into a tank top and shorts in order to lift weights. Because I guess you can't lift weights in the same under armour that you sleep in.

Scene 2: After showering, he drives a pimpmobile from the 70s to some random "Under Armour" Combines. I've never heard of these combines, and I'm pretty sure they don't exist. While here, he watches other random athletes do sprints and jumps while comparing notes with Deion Sanders. I guess they both are kind enough to take time out of their days to come from completely separate regions of the United States to watch these guys train. Then, Devin Hester decides it's time to leave the combines before he sees anything else. Nice work, Devin.

Scene 3: Then, he's apparently famous enough to have his own billboard and draw huge crowds at a Sports Authority, yet they don't bother him at all when he's walking in and out, only when he's at the autograph table. As evidenced by him putting a bag full of stuff into his car, it's apparent that he has purchased something from this store. But what? I mean, doesn't he have enough Under Armour gear already? I'm assuming a fan stole some.

Scene 4: He's cool enough to knock hands with some random street hot dog vender, and also cool enough to get outside food past stadium security. Then, he throws a pitch at a nameless ballpark (obviuously Under Armour has no MLB copyrights). After throwing a horribly off pitch, the catcher congratulates him by saying, "Good Work, man." Devin Hester then reciprocates the catchers good work in catching his horribly thrown ball by saying, "you too." Apparently, according to several commenters, this was filmed at an actual Cubs game. This makes it worse. Then, he promptly leaves the ballpark through the locker room without bothering to watch the game. Why?

Scene 5: Because, it's immediately impeding that he does some football drills at Soldier Field. (After pausing to look up at another billboard of himself, of course.) I guess the practice field the Bears have just isn't good enough for Devin Hester. Apparently, he's too good for other players and coaches as well, as he is practicing completely alone. Either that, or he is needlessly taking up 20 yards of the playing field. Then he plays Madden with Patrick Willis (a 49ers Linebacker), Eric Ogbogu (Former NFL Player and Under Armour Brand Spokesman), and some guy named qdakid or gdakid who may or may not exist or be a young guyanese soccer player. Either way, I'm glad they could all come together to Chicago the day before a game day to play Madden, especially Patrick Willis, who is completely unconcerned that the rest of his team is half of the United States away and probably preparing for a matchup.

Scene 6: He is in a game, on a mission to get his. His what? What do the Bears possibly have against the Ravens? They play in different conferences, and I can't recall a memorable matchup between them myself. Not to mention that only two other players are seen on camera. One of them wears number 57, which does not currently exist on the Ravens roster. The other guy's number can't be made out. Obviously, this scene was made in a small studio.

So, apparently, this is the typical day in the life of Devin Hester. Great. It mostly consists of incomplete tasks and wearing Under Armour. I think this whole thing is summed up best by YouTube commenter hotwheeljohnny55:

"....this thing is a blur and not in a good Nike or Adidas kinda way. i get you're trying to tell everyone how "cool and hip" Devin Hester's day can be but move the narrative by telling a visual story and not some thoughtless chronological cut fest. Under Armour, you just don't get it!"

Lets hope that no Thunder players ever make a commercial like this. Well, on the other hand, lets hope that they will, because these commercials are pretty hilarious.

As OU yet again experiences another heart-breaking loss, and the NFL kicks off, it can only mean one thing....

We're only slightly under 2 months away from some NBA Basketballin'!

As the season inches ever closer, and there is absolutely nothing to write about concerning our team, it's time to provide some fall filler. And today, that filler comes in the form of what to expect....from us. During the upcoming season. Don't worry, our traditionally absurdly long Preview will come in October, along with all of the other NBA Blog Previews.

So, what should you expect?

A podcast every week. Ben and I have thought about this, and this year, it would seem much more feasible in our personal lives to do a podcast. Basically, we'll look at any top news stories from last week, answer any questions from our listeners, preview upcoming matchups, and just have some overall craziness. If Ben isn't available, I'll do it myself.

No more written previews. Ben and I always hated doing these, and when it boils right down to it, they're pointless.

Recaps the evening after each and every game. You won't have to wait until the next morning and read our previews over your cinnamon toast crunch this year. No, this year you'll get to eat it with your left over game nachos. Cool, eh? They'll also focus less so on recording what actually happened, and more so on how what happened actually happened.

A real ongoing award count. You'll be updated on the status of the Thunder Wonder, Blunder, Down Under, and Plunderers every month this season.

And....that's it. You may be asking why I even bothered to post this....well, the answer is that I wanted to make a commitment, because towards the end of last season our coverage got really inconsistent and sloppy. So, if I start slacking off again, you can feel free to come to any home came and tell me how much of a loser I am. But, I can guarantee you, that won't happen this year!

The new Bloguin portal is up.

And....it's AMAZING! If you're reading this, please go here and hype it up. You know we deserve it!

As many of you know, local sports Radio Host Jim Traber has declared WAR on the city of Seattle.

Jim Traber being a baller with his brother, Peter Traber.

For those of you who don't know, here's how it broke down. His recent interview with Nick Collison (in which Jim Traber made a complete fool of himself trying to dog Nick Collison for making playful jabs at Oklahoma City) was played on Seattle Sports Radio by a man named Dave "Softy" Mahler. He has a show from 10 AM to 2 PM every day. Apparently he doesn't get as many listeners as Jim Traber does, and Jim Traber is in a market only 1/3rd the size. A couple of days ago, he told his listeners to email Jim and tell him how bad he is (or something to that extent). Jim got about 50 emails, which, according to him, about 95% of were nasty emails that were full of F-Bombs. Even a woman emailed him and dropped the F-Bomb!

Dave betraying Washington by wearing a Miami sweatshirt.

Jim would not let this stand. So, he decided to give out this guys email address and tell all of his listeners to retaliate. And I'm not kidding when he said, "Now when you email this guy, I want you to stay classy. No cursing or anything. So just stay classy, and email him something like....'How does it feel to live in the city with the highest suicide rate in the US?'" At this point, I literally almost died of laughter. That's "Classy"? I literally almost died of laughter at this point. Later on, someone brought up that that was inappropriate, but Jim Traber completely dismissed the guy. For the rest of the day, Jim was fielding calls left and right from people who called in just to insult him. The first caller tried to convince Jim that he should be talking about Sports and not this war with Seattle. This, of course, got Jim completely flustered. He asked the guy (who was a plastic surgeon) what he did for a living. After finding out what he did, he said, "If I looked at the noses that you make when you do your plastic surgery, and then said whether I liked them or not and told you what to do differently, would you listen?" "Well, I" "Yes or No?" "You see," "Yes or No?!" "Uh...." "Yes or No?! It's a simple question!" And then Jim hung up on the caller. Later on, a caller said, "The Sonics were liberated from Seattle like....your son was liberated from your family." Jims response? "Hey, big man, can I get your home phone number? Or your cell?" At this point, there was silence, and then a bit of radio feedback. "That's what I thought." At another point, this guy named Steve called in and wanted to debate some points, but Jim immediately banned him from his show before he could get a word in edgewise, citing the fact that he's talked with that liberal pig yardbird for years.

So, what should we take from this? Well, what we've always taken from it. Never, ever take Jim Traber seriously as a Sports Journalist. Most of the time, he either talks about the Steelers, how he feels on some moral issue, or his love of chocolate milk. I mean, the Dominant Duo (his show later on in the day with Al Eschbach) is almost entirely devoid of sports, mostly consisting of food taste, crazy ideas from Al, or stories from when Jim played baseball in Japan. He knows next to nothing about the NBA, for instance. One time, he was asked to give a description of Etan Thomas. "Well....he's long and lanky....can grab some rebounds....you know?" If I was asked to give a description of Etan Thomas, it would go something like this: "Well, he's one of those defensive and rebound oriented big men. He's pretty unselfish (you have to be if you play on a team with Gilbert Arenas), but he's getting up there in age, and he's probably not any better than a backup role, as evidenced by the fact that he played for a bunch of horrible to mediocre Wizards teams with lots of big men just like him." Now, I'm not trying to insult the mans intelligence, but he's not hired to talk about Sports. I doubt he spends much time pouring through statistics and giving people the lowdown on what they need to know. Jim Traber is your beer buddy. The guy you philosophize with, and occasionally talk sports to at the bar. The guy you could tell your most personal feelings to. The guy who gets angry at the drop of a hat, which makes you laugh your face off. The guy who uses the same catchphrases over and over again, to the point where you can almost predict, word-for-word, how he will react to any situation. The bottom line is, he's not a serious journalist and he's not the voice of Oklahoma City. But he is Oklahoma City friend, and it will always stay that way.

It's a foregone conclusion that he will never become a national radio host, and he will never be syndicated. But, do we really want him to be that guy? We already had one, his name was Doug Gottlieb. Now he's on ESPN doing analysis, and has his own show on ESPN Radio. I was in a basketball camp taught by him once, great guy. But, is his radio show anything compared to Jim Traber's? No! Not at all! There's no way I'd ever turn on Gottlieb over Traber, and no way I'd ever look for Gottlieb or his time slot. Again, his show is fine, and he's a much better analyst than Traber is, but he'll never be as entertaining.

So, in the end, why get angry over anything he says? Royce over at Daily Thunder recently gave detailed reasons as to why he "crossed the line of sanity and good judgement" when insulting Nick Collison. That line? It's meaningless to Jim Traber. I mean, come on! This is the guy who (as you acknowledged) called Dean Blevins a day after his surgery. This is the guy who used to call Gary England while Gary was on the air. This is the guy who goes into a memorized speech every time a child calls his show and declares himself a "morally sound human being." This is the guy who calls up his wife to discuss The Bachelorette and Dating in the Dark....on the air! When I listened to him as an 8 year old on my way to soccer practice, I thought he was certifiably insane! But I think Royce's statement of, "I truly think Traber’s mind exists in a parallel universe where he cannot see such logical things.", sums it up perfectly. Even the people who are seriously arguing with him know that there is no seriously arguing with Jim Traber.

What's my point?

I love Jim Traber.

And you should, too.

This article comes a little late, but I've been meaning to write it for awhile, just been busy. I know this is supposed to be a Thunder blog, but every once and awhile we try to give a shout-out to the other teams in town. One team we will never be giving another shout out to is the Oklahoma City Blazers. If you havn't already heard, the Blazers have closed their doors, perhaps permanently. The word "defunct" has been strictly taboo by management and media so far. In reality, the Blazers, at last in the incarnation we know them as today, are dead. Theres no incentive for Bob Funk to restart a business that was losing him money, no matter how ravenous the support was.

It's this ravenous support that has many fans scratching their heads. Not only were the Blazers in the top 10 of attendance among all minor league hockey teams, but beat all the other teams in thier own league (the CHL) by over 1,000 per game. It was no secret that the Blazers had a special place in the hearts of many of Oklahoma City's lesser known hockey-hungry fans.

So just how did the team with the best support in the league crumble? Some people point out the decision to move to the Ford Center. They moved into a bigger arena, but also took on a bigger lease. While this was tolerable while there was no NBA team to compete with, but when the Thunder arrived, the Blazers struggled to bring in the sponserships. Of course, advertising is a major part of team revenue, and despite the attendance, they couldn't make up for the losses.

There is word that an AHL team is on the way. The Oilers are interested in moving their AAA team to Oklahoma City. This is good in that it is a step up in competition and gives the few hockey passionate and heart-broken hockey fans in OKC something to cheer for. Still, these people were Blazer fans, and the love they showed for the sport may be exclusive to that team. Here's my advice: if Oklahoma City gets any sort of new AAA hockey team, they need to be the Blazers. And I don't mean the capital dome/fancy B crimson and gold Blazers. I mean the 90s yellow and black flaming hockey puck Blazers. It was by far the better look and the city needs to get back in touch with the days it was in love with hockey.

Alas, whether or not a team lands here soon, it was a god ride. The team was succesful, winning titles in 1996 and 2001. They also had succesful players such as Peter Arvanitis (who later became an assistant coach for the club) and Joe Burton (the CHL's all-time leading scorer). And of course, who could forget the man, the legend, the 'stasche himself, Coach Doug Sauter.

The Blazers will be missed, but hopefully one day you will return to the ice...