This is old news now

We held one of those barber shops conferences prior to last Saturday's Thunder-Mavs game. I opened the proceedings by stating "I was surprised at the poor play of the Mavs." This was the quick response from one of the barbers, "no Tyson Chandler no Jose Barea" little defense. His statement could be confirmed by Chandler being named defensive player of the year in the NBA. By now we know full well the events of Saturday evening, the Mavs became the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs. I guess when you sweep the defending champs (Lakers) you are due to be swept too! I truly wonder the direction of this team, they certainly didn't lose on purpose however they played in a funk all-year. Owner Mark Cuban appeared to be about now, why did he allow Chandler, Barea and Caron Butler to walk away. Even if he'd worked out the veteran presence of Lamar Odom wasn't going to replenish this team after those loses. What's ahead for the team from Big D, home grown talent and free agent Deron Williams is worth signing. Cuban might have gambled on Dwight Howard assuming he would be a free-agent this summer, of course Howard later claimed Orlando would be his home at least through the 2012-13 season. A Dwight Howard would certainly address the defensive issues this team now faces. Based on this past season maybe all Cuban is looking for are short-term goals?

The word from Minnesota

Wolves owner Glen Taylor is searching for a buyer. He's not ready to give up ownership just yet. Reports indicate at 71-years of age he thinks it prudent to search for a minority partner to eventually assume full ownership. I found it interesting he stated "there is no problem with locating a new owner we want an owner willing to keep the team here." I've flip-flopped on the issues of local ownership issue on several occasions. The Kansas City Chiefs have maintained a presence in Kansas City since 1963 without local ownership. The late Lamar Hunt a founder of the American Football League moved the Texans to Kansas City, they were re-named the Chiefs. Since Hunt's death son Clark has given every indication the team will remain in Kansas City. As for our local pro sports history here it's somewhat spotted, the Kansas City A's were never locally owned same as the NHL Scouts.  The NBA Kings were locally owned for a period of time however two years prior to moving the team was sold to outside interests.  As for the baseball Royals, the original owner the late Ewing Kaufmann had Kansas City ties. The present owners live in Arkansas and are only tied here by ownership of the team. What's your point Larry detailing all of Kansas City's sports history? I can understand Taylor's desire for local ownership of the Wolves franchise. There are varying reasons why each of the franchises mentioned left the city but the key for me none had local ownership at the time they left the city..

Wonder if he'll make it

Kyle Weems is one of those players whose managed to fly beneath the radar to a degree, however he was player of the year in the Missouri Valley Conference his junior year. Weems was 4-year starter at Missouri State and managed to grow his game significantly over his time in the Springfield (MO) university. Weems is a 6-7 225 pound small forward with shooting range, he is not a player who is not going to wow you with his athletic skills but is steady. He managed to impress scouts enough at the Portsmouth (VA) tournament indications are he will pop up on some NBA team's summer league roster. Is the NBA in the future for Kyle Weems? It depends, excluding talent a players best shot is location, location, location. We could point out Jeremy Lin as the location example, the Knicks were his third team during his brief NBA start. I'm not forecasting stardom for Weems or Lin for that matter but the team and location certainly aids a players development.

"Some guys play to win others play to play"

That was the statement made by Scott Van Pelt on his ESPN radio program, he and his radio partner were debating the value of Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks. In an attempt to be fair to Anthony is certainly not responsible for all the bad play exhibited by the Knicks . Van Pelt said this about Anthony, "he's not LeBron James nor Kobe Bryant, on the other hand he's not Joe Johnson either." Anthony will never lead a team to the promised land but neither will Joe Johnson who is paid huge sums of money. This is not a hate Carmelo rant many (including me) remain unsold on the guy. He certainly made the Nuggets a better basketball team but only once did they advance past the first round. The Knicks (to date) are no better and maybe in a sense we are being unfair, everyone who witnessed the two play knew Wilt Chamberlain was the superior player over Bill Russell. The two had numerous regular season and post-season playoff battles, the majority of times Russell's Celtics came out the victor. Russell received the greater amount of praise because his Celtic teams won NBA championships. The praise was not bestowed on Russell because he was the better player, Russell admits it and so did Wilt.

Stop stealing my ideas!

I wish Dan Patrick would quite stealing my proposals! Only joking folks, Patrick makes me state "why didn't I think of that?" His latest proposal, do away with the collegiate coaches poll. The conversation with his studio crew involved college football but it might be even more critical for basketball. Collegiate football teams only play once a week, in some conferences they might even have a bye-week. There are not enough hours in the day (or night) to review the progress of 25 teams most of which are probably not in his conference. At the sometime his team might practice 4 days of the week, when he's not at practice he might be reviewing tape of the upcoming opposing team, when does he have time to fill out a ballot? Patrick even hints it might not be the coach filling out the ballot. He suggests "it may be an assistant coach and his vote might be based to a degree on whether the head coach likes the other coach." In basketball the time constraints are even worst, a team might play Monday, then possibly a midweek game and then again on Saturday or Sunday. On top of this a larger number of universities compete in basketball versus football. Two examples, tiny St. Bonaventure in New York State with an enrollment of 2,000 has a division one basketball program. The University of Missouri-Kansas City has no football team but the Kangaroos play at the division one level. Eliminating the coaches poll in both sports makes sense to me---good one Dan Patrick.