Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.  Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such, it is news to us that the E-Club Athletic of Hall of Fame (Eastern Michigan) has announced six new members.

The new members are:

Carl “C.J” Johnson, Men’s Track and Field, Class of 1996:  Johnson won the MAC in 400m Hurdles in 1987 and 1988, and the 500m indoor in 1987. 

Jason Jones, Football, Class of 2007.  Jones was a Defensive Lineman who led the MAC in Tackles for Loss on route to a First Team All-MAC in 2007.  He went on to play professionally for Tennessee, Seattle, Detroit and Miami and recorded 31.5 Sacks.

Amanda Kulikowski, Soccer, Class of 2002.  Kulikowski led EMU to their first ever MAC Regular Season Title , Tournament Title and post-season appearance, and was a three-time All-MAC Selection.

Carl E. Thomas, Men’s Basketball, Class of 2000.  Thomas took Eastern Michigan to two MAC Titles and had 1,179 Points and 452 Rebounds.  He would professionally with Sacramento, Cleveland, Golden State and Orlando.

Charles E. Thomas II, Men’s Basketball, Class of 2000.  Like his brother , Carl, Thomas helped take EMU to two MAC Titles.  He finished his career with 710 Points, and would play briefly with Detroit.

LaTonya Watson, Women’s Basketball, Class of 1992.  Watson led the Eagles three times in Assists and had 446 in total.  She was an All-Second Team All-MAC Selection in 1992. 

The ceremony will take place on September 24.

We would like to congratulate the newest members of Eastern Michigan University E-Club Alumni Hall of Fame for earning this prestigious honor.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Oklahoma City Thunder of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NBA. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in two years, and as such, players with significant achievements in 2019-20 are reflected here.

As always, we present our top five immediately, though nothing has changed in this upper-tier.

1. Russell Westbrook

2. Gary Payton

3. Kevin Durant

4. Shawn Kemp

5. Jack Sikma

You can find the entire list here.

There are two new entries, and moderate increases, and again, remember this is indicative of the last two years.

Steven Adams, who is now with New Orleans, inched up one spot to #16.

Chris Paul, who was only with OKC for one year in 2019-20, and was a Second Team All-NBA Selection enters at #43.

Current OKC star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, debuts at #46.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The world of rap lost one of its own, as Biz Markie, passed away at the age of 57.  While it was announced how he died, he had been suffering from Type 2 Diabetes for an extended period of time.

Born Marcel Hall, Markie had a unique sound, as he was not a skilled rapper, nor was he a competent singer.  As such, he used humor, quirkiness, occasional self-deprecation, and his ability to beatbox to create a style all his own.  It resulted in what was one of the great one-hit wonders ever, “Just a Friend” in 1989.  The song catapulted Markie, albeit briefly, to the mainstream, but it would be the only significant hit of his career.

Nevertheless, he paved the way for other comedic rappers, and he was dubbed the “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop”.  He put out five albums over his career.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Biz Markie.

From Ontario, Canada, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a promising rookie season (2018-19) when he played for the Los Angeles Clippers.  The Clippers were going for it all, and dealt the young Canadian in a package to OKC for Paul George, and it allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to show what type of player he could be.

What a steal it turned to be.

Gilgeous-Alexander inflated his PPG from his rookie year in L.A. from 10.8 to 19.0, while his PER also jumped from 13.4 to 17.7.  While he was held to 35 Games due to injury in 2020-21, the Guard clearly emerged as the top player in OKC, again increasing his metrics to a 21.6 PER and a 23.7 PPG.  SGA was also injured for a good amount of 2021-22, but averaged over 24 Points per Game in 56 Games.  The Canadian exploded to the elite level in 2022-23, wth a 31.4 PPG, All-Star and All-NBA Selection, establishing Gilgeous-Alexander as a top ten player in the NBA

Two years ago, SGA went to the next level, finishing second in MVP voting, propelling the Thunder to a deep playoff run, with a sweet 31.0 PPG.  It also netted the star with his second First Team All-NBA Selection.  How do you follow that?  You become the final boss of Basketball.

In 2024-25, Gilgeous-Alexander won the Scoring Title (32.PPG), was a First Team All-NBA player again, and won the prestigious MVP award.  How did he cap that?  By taking the Thunder to their first league title since the relocation from Seattle.

Gilgeous-Alexander is a very special basketball player, and he has no ceiling.