Vacation

No Words eye view will be published on Friday or the following Monday. The next edition will be published on Wednesday June 20. Thanks again for continuing to visit the blog.

Bits n Pieces
A late addition, yesterday I placed the kiss of death on the Oklahoma City Thunder. The kiss is me predicting they would win the NBA Championship. One game does not make a series so I could, no probably will be wrong. That's my pick and I'm sticking with it. 

Celebrity status allows one privileges many of us would never receive or maybe might not even desire. Last week Metta World Peace (aka Ron Artest) as a television weather anchor. Somehow he managed to pop up on a Vancouver television station to report the weather. The station allowed him to stumble threw a very disjointed weather report. The funniest portion might have been him providing temperatures, he said (I paraphrase) "it's cold there, (pointing to a city) only 14." He didn't know or they failed to point out to him Canada utilizes the metric system which the United States never adopted.


I read the name Gene Melchiorre and it didn't register with me, I read his name on a Fox Sports article titled Ten worst No. 1 NBA Draft picks of all-time. Most of the names were pretty familiar, Kwame Brown, Greg Oden and Michael Olowokandi but Melchiorre was an unknown. Melchiorre was the number three player on their list and was drafted by the 1951 Baltimore Bullets. This is not the same Bullets franchise of Earl Monroe and Gus Johnson. This Bullets team played from 1947-1954 and went out of business that year the only NBA to close shop. The second Bullets team was actually the former expansion Chicago Packers who moved to Baltimore in 1963. They played as the Bullets from 1963 to 1973 and eventually moved to Washington D.C. That team became the Capitol Bullets and later the Washington Bullets, this team was renamed the Wizards in 1997. Back to the original story, after reading Melchiorre's bio I was unsure why he was included in the list. Melchiorre although drafted number one by the Bullets never played a single minute in the NBA. The collegiate game has endured two serious point-shaving scandals, the first occurred in 1951 which involved Melchiorre and several other collegiate players. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and although he received a suspended sentence NBA Commissioner Maurice Podoloff banned him and all players involved (31) from the NBA for life. This is not about his guilt what I take issue with why he was included in this list of players----he never played a single minute in the NBA. (Wikipedia)

This story is evidence of the continued growth of the international game. The Pangos All-American Camp in Long Beach (CA) provided us two new names to note. The first is Ben Simmons a 6-8 Australia player who arrived as an unknown but impressed. Simmons holds dual citizenship, his father Dave arrived in Australia to play pro basketball and found a home. Jeremy Russotti Skills Director HoopGains Training said, "probably the highest pro potential guy I've sheen here." Simmons is a Class of 2015 prospect who is headed to the states for college. The second player is Patson Siame who plays at Impact Academy (Las Vegas). The 6-10 prospect is a Class of 2013 commit to Loyola Marymount, Siame's home is Zambia in Central Africa. (MaxPreps.com)

Missouri and Kansas City will be the financial beneficiary of this rather strange arrangement. The City of Kansas City will continue to serve as host for the Big XII basketball tournament through 2016, the original agreement was due to expire in 2014. From a geography standpoint Kansas City (MO) is drive-time distance for the majority of Big XII schools. The Big XII will continue to hold a tournament in a state (MO) with no affiliated school, I make this statement despite the beliefs of a number of metro Kansas fans. For reasons unknown these folks prefer to operate under the premise that all sports fans in Kansas City (MO) are Kansas fans. And adding to this story Mizzou athletic director Mike Alden made a proposal the SEC tournament be held in St. Louis or Kansas City. In extending the length of the contract has the Big XII made a pre-emptive strike to ensure the SEC remain out of Kansas City?

I'm unsure of the odds but they must be astronomical, two high school teammates who both managed successful NBA careers. The two also had such outstanding NBA careers both were enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield (MA). Central High School in Akron Ohio once had two outstanding high school teammates named Gus Johnson and Nate Thurmond. Both went their separate ways with the choice of colleges, Johnson attending a junior college and then the University of Idaho. Thurmond having no desire to play backup to Jerry Lucas chose Bowling Green State University. The two went on to stellar All-Pro NBA careers, so successful in fact both were elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. I'm referring to Gus Johnson a 6-6 230 pound power forward, Johnson's career numbers 16.2 points and 12.7 rebounds a game. The numbers fail to tell the complete story, Johnson set the standard for the power forward's of today. Johnson was inducted in the 2010 Hall of Fame class. Nate "Nate the Great" Thurmond 6-11 225 pound center/forward. As for Thurmond among his numerous contributions he recorded the first quadruple-double in the NBA while a member of the Chicago Bulls. On October 18, 1974 he scored 22 points with 14 rebounds 13 assists and 12 block shots. Thurmond was also inducted into the hall with the Class of 1985.

The initials MSG are the initials for Madison Square Garden and are known world-wide. Their marketing folks coined the phrase "The World's Most Famous Arena." The Nets move to Brooklyn and Barclays Center construction allowed this historic building to slip in the eye of the public.  I said the building not it's teams, both the primary tenants Knicks and Rangers made the playoffs. The building is empty now and construction has begun again transforming the interior portion of the building to the tune of $980 million. The Garden is the second oldest arena behind Oracle Arena in Oakland, the Knicks and Rangers played their first game in this building in 1968. With the Nets inside the city boundaries David Stern spoke of his desire for the Knicks and Nets to establish a rivalry. The teams have been polar opposites of each other, during the Jason Kidd years the Nets were successful the Knicks were pretty pathetic. We can agree the Knicks are not a championship team but at this point they are much better than the Nets.