This guy is really tall

A few months back I shared a story with you on high school player Mamadou Ndiaye. This 7-5 giant will enter his junior year of high school in the fall. Cameron Smith's article for Yahoo indicates "Ndiaye is easily the tallest high school basketball player in California." I think we can state Ndiaye is probably the tallest high school player in the nation. He plays for Huntington Beach Brethren Christian School in Southern California. Video indicates Ndiaye moves rather easily on the court, for someone still learning the game he didn't appear mechanical. Two keys, at 7-5 he towers above 99% of his competition and he lacks an overall offensive game. Ndiaye a native of Senegal is in the U.S. on a student visa, surely a university somewhere in the U.S. will award him a basketball scholarship. The NBA might be in his future dependent on how well his game continues to progress. He's tall and you know what they, "you can't teach tall."

I guess everyone's not on board

It's been no secret the desire of many in Seattle to have an NBA team again. After much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" over the years looks as though an NBA arena might be built again in Seattle. First it was Investor Chris Hansen and city and county government, later Steve Balmer of Microsoft came in with this group. The only negative to date appears to be several industrial and labor groups at the Port of Seattle. These groups have expressed concerns about traffic flow, the area tentatively planned for the arena is near Safeco Field home of the Mariners and CenturyLink Field home of the Seahawks. Lately I'm reading of an effort to revamp Key Arena and I wondered why, a condition of the NBA returning to Seattle was a new arena.

Did you know

The collegiate game played on an aircraft carrier last year will now become an annual event, there are three games scheduled this season. Florida will play Georgetown on November 9th off the coast of Jacksonville Florida. Marquette will play Ohio State at Charleston South Carolina and Syracuse and San Diego State will play on the USS Midway. The latter two games have not been scheduled nor any television commitment. I'm less favorable this time around, it was unique last year maybe to become an annual event. If there are three games played it loses some of it's appeal, it becomes an ordinary game like any other.

"Expect the unexpected"

I unsure who to give credit for the above quote. It might fit Michael Jordan and his Bobcats, searching for a head coach among the names mentioned were Jerry Sloan long-time former Jazz coach. Also prominently mentioned was assistant coach Brian Shaw long time Phil Jackson disciple and Quin Snyder a Laker assistant and former Mizzou coach. Who does Jordan chose, Mike Dunlap who serves as an assistant coach at St. John's. Before you accuse me of hatin' on Dunlap I think we are surprised at this selection. The guy has credentials, he's been a coach over 30 years however never at the Division I or NBA level. An ESPN story indicated he was "a two time Division II national champion and Coach of the Year." One other note, Dunlap has some NBA experience he served as an assistant coach for the Nuggets from 2006-08. I think we all might wish him the best on what may be the worst job in the NBA.

In case you didn't know

My home town Kansas City (MO) is no longer represented in the NBA by a team. The city still maintains an NBA presence however. Bet you didn't know 19 of the 30 NBA arenas were designed by Kansas City based architectural firms? These firms have been the architect of choice for many of the nation's football stadiums (NFL & college), collegiate basketball arenas and major league baseball stadiums. Three of these firms, 360 Architecture, Ellerbe Becket and Populous banded together and designed the Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City Missouri. Other divisions of these firms have designed commercial buildings, bridges and other public and private projects.

Populous Architects

Toyota Center-Houston
Bradley Center-Milwaukee
United Center-Chicago
Pepsi Center-Denver
Philips Arena-Atlanta
Prudential Center-Newark (former home of the Nets)
Amway Center-Orlando

Ellerbe Becket Architects

AT&T Center-San Antonio
Barclays Center-Brooklyn (opening Sept 2012)
Conseco Fieldhouse-Indianapolis
FedExForum-Memphis
Quicken Loans Arena-Cleveland
Rose Garden-Portland
TD Garden-Boston
US Airway Center-Phoenix
Verizon Center-Washington D.C.
Wells Fargo Center-Philadelphia

HNTB Corporation

Oracle Arena-Oakland

360 Architecture

American Airlines Arena-Miami

Will the haters go away?

My wife's cousin wrote this on a social commentary site. "Hopefully the haters will get off LeBron's back since he's now won a championship." Danny's statement is only half correct, many will relent their criticism of LeBron but I'm sure there will be no love extended from Cleveland and Ohio.  I have been wrongly characterized as a hater because I'm not excited in the Heat winning. Nobody, no way no how can change the events of last week, the Miami Heat are NBA champions.  Funny, I don't remember Danny (or my neighbors son-in-law) being particularly thrilled when the Lakers won two years ago. Believe it or not they kinda avoided me for at least two weeks after the Lakers won.