Most high school players cannot play AAU basketball, the schedules generally conflict. That's not always the case and as far as I can determine no rule prohibiting a player from doing both. AAU basketball led to NBA careers for numerous NBA players including Alonzo Mourning, Penny Hardaway and B.J. Armstrong. Present day former AAU players include Laker center Andrew Bynum, Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire and Blazers guard Andre Miller. AAU basketball has suffered several black eyes in the past and attempts have been made to clean up many of it's more unsavory elements. Does the AAU still have issues, probably but maybe no more than it's much larger brother the NCAA.

I've never visited New York City so I have little idea of driving distances between the various boroughs. The latest article I read on the Nets new home in Brooklyn uncovered an unusual fact for me. The writer indicated the "Nets are not in direct competition with the Knicks although the two arenas are located about 6 miles from Madison Square Garden." Any of you distance challenged consider this, road mileage from Sprint Center to Kauffmann Stadium is about 7 miles. The key to constructing an arena so near an existing one must be populace rather than distance. 2010 figures indicate Manhattan's population is 1,629,000 while Brooklyn is 2.6 million.

In my public life I have stumbled over a word or mispronounced a name on more than one occasion. Foreign names have been even more difficult to pronounce however I've always made a valid attempt. The larger the audience the more embarrassed I've been however unlike NBA Commissioner Stern I've never had the world view my misstep. Before a world wide television audience NBA Commissioner Stern presented the MVP trophy to Dirk Nowitzki however he said "Dirk No-whence-ki. Mr. Commissioner the correct pronunciation of Dirk's last name is No-vince-ki.

Kevin Gray was President of the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission, he died of bone cancer on Thursday at 51. His death was far too soon for this passionate proponent of Kansas City sports. My Kevin Gray story reveals some of his passion, several years ago a Kansas City Star article Gray detailed why he thought the NHL was a better fit for Kansas City over the NBA. Naturally yours truly disagreed with him and fired off an email informing him his take was flawed. Over the next several days we exchanged several emails with each of us attempting to validate our view. Finally with his last email he invited me to become a member of the sports commission, what a classy guy. At the time I received the invitation I was working fulltime and knew my schedule wouldn't allow me adequate time, now that I'm retired I just might join.


A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.
Nelson Mandela