Laugh Out Loud George Karl!: How Should Russell Westbrook be Notified When he is Forfeiting a Game?

What is the latest thinking at one of America’s most sophisticated basketball sites? We’re trying to determine whether Kevin Durant should rap Russell Westbrook up top the head or settle for a hand signal. (And you thought we spend all our time on complicated stuff laugh out loud). Specifically, QFTR is trying to determine what Kevin Durant should do from now on every time Russell Westbrook starts forfeiting a game due to refusing to play point guard in general and due to not getting the ball to him (Durant) enough times. The main alternatives are:

--Durant raps that boy up top the head, not very hard but hard enough to get his attention.

Or::

--Durant signals to Westbrook that he is blowing the game by raising his arm up with his hand open and all five fingers showing. The five fingers symbolize the five players on the court. If Durant signals Westbrook with the open hand, he is reminding the boy wonder that there are five players on the court at any time, not just one. This is to remind Westbrook that regardless of how great a scorer he is there is no way in hell that the Thunder can win key playoff games unless Westbrook respects the point guard concept, makes some plays, and gets the ball to Durant enough times so that Durant can get his share of scores and plays.

So what do you think, folks? When Westbrook starts dreaming of winning the game all by himself should he get the open hand signals or should he get a little rap up top the head? The debate about this continues on at QFTR headquarters!

While I was searching to see if there is a picture on the Internet of Kevin Durant rapping Russell Westbrook up top the head (yes, I actually was looking for one, laugh out loud) I came upon an article suggesting that the solution to the Thunder dilemma is to rely on shooting guard James Harden to make plays and throw the term “point guard” out the window. Laugh out loud! Here I am reminded that the Internet is totally lacking in quality reliability (and technical reliability as well by the way). Yeah right, solve the Thunder point guard problem by throwing the concept of point guard out the window and by having James Harden make a few plays in his spare time when he is taking a break from his 2-guard scoring. Laugh out loud indeed!

Sigh. But every time I see a goofy (or inane or absurd) article I am reminded of how QFTR is so very necessary as a beacon of light and intelligence in a sea of dark and dumbness.

HAND SIGNALS OR RAPS UP TOP THE HEAD???

EDITORIAL NOTE
Oh, and just why is this post a "Laugh Out Loud, George Karl!" type of post? After all, George Karl doesn't seem to be involved in this one.

Well, since Karl as a playoffs coach is ultimately nothing more than a joke, whenever we are joking about SOMETHING we might as well tag the posting using "Laugh Out Loud, George Karl!" (How's that for slightly twisted logic, laugh out loud). But I'm actually half serious. In my mind George Karl will forever be associated with the absurd and the humorous in basketball. His schemes to try to win playoff games are very much like the Wiley Coyote's schemes to catch the Road Runner: humorously doomed to failure every time. The mere mention of Karl's name is a signal that it's laugh time! So I don't think that it is too much of a stretch to associate Karl's humorous inability to succeed in the playoffs with any old basketball joking.

In other words starting with this one the Laugh Out Loud, George Karl! postings will not necessarily have to specifically have Karl in the subject matter.

The Banner is Changed but the Banner That Should Have Stayed Up for the Rest of 2011 is Posted Here

Well I held out as long as I could but I eventually was forced to succumb to the pressure and put the Mavericks’ and Heat’ team flags at the top of The Quest for the Ring (QFTR) banner. There was a lot of debate at QFTR headquarters about how the banner rules should be changed (or would be changed even if they shouldn’t be changed) but in the end the mavericks who were against the Mavericks being on top of the Thunder were forced to back down and the banner rules were not changed.

The banner rules do make a lot of sense (a lot more than Russell Westbrook sometimes does, laugh out loud). Under the rules, from when the Championship teams are determined until sometime in late December, the team flags at the top are the ones of the teams that were actually in the Championship (regardless of who should have been in the Championship if they had played smart). The flags in the second row have to be the ones for the two teams that lost the Conference finals. The flags in the third row are the flags of two of the four teams that lost in the semifinals (round two). For the two team flags in the third row, QFTR still has some leeway. For those, from each Conference we pick the better of the two semifinal losers. We picked the Celtics and the Lakers and passed on the Grizzlies and the Hawks.

The rebels here at QFTR who wanted the teams that were actually better teams (but played dumb and lost) to remain at the top of the banner for the six months plus between early June and late December did not go away empty handed. As a consolation prize, they were promised that the banner they wanted up for the six plus months would be placed in a fast break post. So that banner appears below.

THE BANNER THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN UP FROM JUNE THROUGH DECEMBER 2011 (BUT ALAS, NEITHER RUSSELL WESTBROOK NOR DERRICK ROSE ATTENDED QFTR POINT GUARD SCHOOL)