The NBA has new officials

Annually the NBA adds officials to its roster, the additions are due mainly to retirement although a few are terminated due to poor performance. A number might find that statement difficult to believe but the league office grades officials and a year-end assessment is completed. Those missing the mark are not invited back to officiate the following season. Several new officials have been added this season among the new officials is Lauren Holtkamp and Brenda Pantoja. We can’t consider this a historical event, after all Holtkamp and Pantoja are not the first. The NBA hired its first female officials in 1997, Violet Palmer and Dee Kanter began officiating that year. Palmer remained the only female official until last Friday when Holtkamp began her officiating duties. Last night Brenda Pantoja became the third (fourth historically) to officiate an NBA game as she worked the Hawks-Thunder game. Despite my critical comments at times regarding the NBA they should be applauded. The NBA continues to be the most diverse professional league in the nation. David Stern certainly deserves a degree of credit for the hiring practices of the NBA.

Have you seen it

It appears Blake Griffin can poke fun at Blake Griffin. Have you seen one of his latest Kia commercials? Allow me to set the stage if you haven’t seen the commercial. It begins with Griffin entering his Kia Optima and says “info-tainment system program 1995 junk box.” In a manner similar to those Back to the Future movies he arrives in 2012. Mini-me Blake Griffin is hanging on the basketball rim. Mini-me Griffin says; “who are you?” 2012 Griffin says “I’m you from the future.”  10-year old Griffin "is that your spaceship?”  Future Griffin explains "it’s my Kia Optima," mini-me inquires “is there anything else you can tell me about the future?” 2012 Griffin says; “practice your free throws-----a lot” as he shoots the ball toward the basket and it becomes stuck between the backboard and the goal, funny.   

Did you know pigs can fly? 

Chris Paul is now claiming he preferred the Clippers over the Lakers. He said “they (Clippers) have better parts and winning with the Clippers would be legendary. There’s no doubt that the Clippers had some promising pieces to build around with Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Caron Butler, Eric Bledsoe and Chauncey Billups in the fold, but saying that he’d rather land with a franchise that has never been an NBA title contender over one that has won 16 championships doesn’t make much sense.” Allow me to explore Paul’s statement, have you ever heard of a player desiring to be traded to the Clippers? Have the Clippers turned a corner on player development, only time will answer that question. In past years a number of talented players have left the Clippers once they became free agents. In the past owner Donald Sterling has been notoriously stingy with the dollars, has he turned over a new leaf in an effort to retain players?  He ends the interview by stating he “is still upset about Pau Gasol patting him on the head."  Finally “Stephen Curry Calls Nate Robinson and Chris Paul NBA’s Biggest Trash-Talkers”   (lakersnation, tbl & slamonline.come)

State by State

You’ve heard the argument in the past the ACC says it’s stronger than the Big East. The Big XII says hold on there what about us? The Big 10 also wants to lay claim as well. Rather than conference how about state by state account, this way we do away with conference affiliations? I saw a map of the U.S. indicating the number of schools regardless of conference affiliation in 2012. Leading the way with 4+ schools were; California, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and New York. Texas, Kansas, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana and Michigan each had 3 schools in the field. There were 19 states with a 0, not one school in the state qualified for the field of 64. We could conclude (certainly not scientifically) states with basketball history qualified the most schools, Kentucky and North Carolina would be an example. Somewhat a surprise the State of Illinois failed to qualify any of its Division I schools.