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Thunder's secret, Hines Ward, Baylor's rise and Charles Barkley
Published: 3/2/2012 9:29 AM
Last Modified: 3/2/2012 9:29 AM

I’ve got questions and answers. For instance:

1, The Oklahoma City Thunder is the NBA’s winningest team. What’s the secret?

Don’t over-think this. Players win games. Kevin Durant is a player who, when things are going to heck in a handbasket, can still find a way to make the ball go in the hole. Check the most recent game highlights for confirmation.

After Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie lost the Kentucky basketball job, he had a lot of time on his hands to visit practices and watch other teams play games. He said he realized what he already knew -- players win games (and you can expect him to go out and find some as soon as the season ends).

The best players win games regardless of who is sitting on the end of the bench in a coat and tie. On most nights, Durant and Russell Westbrook trump the opposition. And it can’t hurt that James Harden borrowed Zeus’ beard.


2, Is Hines Ward a Hall of Famer?

Because the Pittsburgh Steelers made a decision to part company with Ward, people in the media are debating whether the receiver deserves to someday be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The only reason you should want Ward in the Hall of Fame is if you believe “football players” should be in the Hall of Fame.

Many people in the Hall of Fame got there because they played a position. Ward played football.

Many NFL receivers are divas. Ward is a punisher who took pride in being aggressive and knocking defensive players silly. He’s as physical at receiver as Deion Sanders wasn’t at defensive back.

Stats are used when judging the merits of Hall of Fame candidates. Ward, a former Super Bowl MVP, is one of eight players in NFL history with 1,000 career catches. He also might be the league’s all-time leader in pancake blocks by a player at his position.

Ward is a football player, a former college quarterback with a strong safety’s mindset who just happened to play receiver. If it was up to me, I would put him in the express lane to the Hall of Fame.

3, What’s the least gutsiest thing you saw lately?

Sports Illustrated published a good-and-lengthy piece about the rise of Baylor athletics. The magazine contacted former men’s basketball coach Dave Bliss, who, in an attempt to save his own skin, once tried to portray a deceased player as a drug dealer.

Survival instinct apparently brought out the weasel in Bliss. That happens way too much in the coaching profession.

I’m not here to pop Bliss on the past. I’m popping him for the present. When SI reached Bliss, he declined to talk about the past because it was water under the bridge. And that’s garbage.

When you do something as heinous as Bliss, part of the penance should be that you never duck a question and, when asked, you tell the absolute truth.

If I was in Bliss’ position and I wanted to feel good about myself, I would “man up” and face the music every time it played.

4, What’s the gutsiest thing you heard lately?

Charles Barkley (loved him since forever) busted his pal Michael Jordan’s chops in regard to the state of the Charlotte Bobcats. FYI, Jordan is part owner of the Bobcats and makes personnel decisions for the woeful NBA franchise.

It’s not easy to rip Jordan, who carries a grudge like he used to carry the Chicago Bulls. During a Basketball Hall of Fame acceptance speech, he carved to pieces anyone who ever dealt him any sort of perceived injustice.

But Barkley stepped up to the plate and said Jordan has not done a good job with the Bobcats. Getting specific, Barkley indicated it is a problem that Jordan surrounds himself with “yes men.”

During an interview with an ESPN radio affiliate, Barkley recounted a conversation with Jordan and said, “You are such a powerful personality nobody, especially your flunkies as I call them, the flunkies are never going to disagree with you.”

Barkley’s right. That’s a bad way to do business. Know who would agree with that? A singer from a recently reunited rock band that is coming to the BOK Center on May 1.

David Lee Roth once said this in regard to the making of Van Halen’s “1984” album: “The band was at each other’s throats more than ever, but I say it with a smile. The best accomplishments are not achieved when everybody is sitting down going ‘You’re great! Do you think I’m great, too? You do? Great’.”

On this, Barkley, Roth and I can agree: Just say no to “yes men.”


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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