The Oklahoma City Thunder: A Young Team on the Rise

A few years back hurricane Katrina barreled through New Orleans leaving buildings crushed and families without homes. The NBA franchise, the New Orleans Hornets, were left without a home court as well, when the stadium suffered major damage and was used as a makeshift shelter for residents after the storm hit. The Hornets moved to Oklahoma for two seasons and were embraced by the locals and had success, but the move was only temporary.

A new beginning:

After the Hornets returned to New Orleans the Oklahoma sports scene took a hit. In 2008, Oklahoma was awarded a franchise of their own when the Seattle Super Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. The team changed its name to the Oklahoma City Thunder and drafted some great young talent that is preparing to take the entire league by storm.

There are four young players that make up the core of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The hope is that this talented group will lead the franchise to a number of rings in the near future as they grow and gain experience on and off the court.

The leaders of the pack:

Kevin Durant is the face of the franchise and one of the best … Read more at FryingPanSports

Around the NFL for 10/24/09

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There are some critical games this weekend that will define the leaders at the half way post of the season.

Vikes @ Steelers

The Steelers are behind the Bengals by virtue of their loss to Cincy a couple of weeks ago. They need to keep winning not only to insure they win the AFC North but because they don’t want to go to either Indy or New England in the playoffs. This will be a real test for them. They have not been dominate on the ground for a couple of years and it won’t do much against one of the best D lines in the league. The Steelers will rely on the arm of Roethlisberger. On D they will have to balance their efforts to both control the running of Peterson and the passing of Favre.

The Vikes will be at a disadvantage against the pass as all pro DB Winfield is out for the game. Look for them to rely more on the run with AP and keep the Steeler O off the field. The O line of the Vikes has not produced up to their billing blocking for the run. AP is averaging only 5.1 which is … Read more at FryingPanSports

Around the NFL for 10/17/09

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There aren’t many decent games this weekend. Most of the games are either the very good against the very bad or 2 bad teams playing each other. Here are a couple I like.

Game of the week NY Giants 5-0 @ New Orleans 4-0

Two undefeated teams meet to decide the early inside track to the top seed in the playoffs. The Giants come in off the closest thing the NFL has to a game week bye beating Oakland easily. The two issues that the Giants have to find an answer to are RB Jacobs who is under performing and the injury to their QB. QB Manning has a foot problem that is not going to get better during the year. It is a problem because there is no quality backup.

The D has played as well as it ever has and is holding the opponent to a 24% 3rd down conversion rate. That is outstanding. They have 14 sacks and is holding the passing game to 4.9 yards per passing attempt.

The Saints have played much better on D than anyone expected them to. They have stuffed the run holding opponents to 3.7 per carry. There is no … Read more at FryingPanSports

What does the Williams' case mean for the NFL's drug policy and the future of the league?

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Six events have put the entire drug policy of NFL and every other sports league’s policy in serious jeopardy.

Event 1—The state courts of Minnesota prohibiting Comm. Goodell from suspending Pat and Kevin Williams (DT, Vikings) for having tested positive for banned substances. When the league first announced the suspensions of several players including both all pro DTs of the Vikes, the Williams took the issue to the Minnesota state courts. The state courts found for the Williams.

Event 2—The NFL took the issue to the Federal court system. The League claimed that since it is a national organization, only the Federal system could decide the issue. A lower federal court used the state decision in part to decide in favor of the players. The league appealed and the Minnesota federal court of Appeals heard the case.

Event 3—The NFLPA joined the fray. When the case was moved to the federal courts, the Union filed suit on behalf of both the Vikings players and three Saints players that were also suspended by the league. The NBA, MLB and the NHL filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the NFL’s position.

Event 4—Last week, that court announced the verdict—no suspensions now … Read more at FryingPanSports