Kansas City and the NBA
The Kings left Kansas City after the 1985 season however Kansas City maintains a presence in the NBA of 2013. I’m watching the Bulls-Pacers game; long-time Bulls broadcaster Neil Funk is conducting the play by play. Kansas City was not his first professional employment however Funk once broadcast games for the Kings at a time the franchise was in Kansas City. TNT and ESPN’s Kevin Calabro name is closely associated with the Seattle Sonics. He too once broadcast games for the Kansas City Kings. Ron Boone former guard for the Kansas City Kings has been handling color commentary for the Utah Jazz for years. Sharpshooter Eddie Johnson handles the same chores for Phoenix Suns basketball telecasts. Veteran NBA on TNT broadcaster Kevin Harlan also has connections to the Kings, he then moved to the NFL Kansas City Chiefs and on to the NBA Wolves.
Matt Goukas handles color commentary for Fox Sports Florida and Sun Sports; once upon a time he too played for the Kansas City Kings. The focus is not only broadcasters; there are others with Kansas City connections. I’m glad you asked, how about a few coaches? The Knicks Mike Woodson, Lakers Mike D’Antoni and the Bucks Larry Drew all spent time here playing for the Kings. The Wolves coach Rick Adelman played for a number of NBA teams among them the 1975 Kings. Former Kansas City King Reggie Theus is now coaching Cal State Northridge but was once head coach of the Sacramento Kings. I almost forgot the “colorful fashion” styling’s TNT’s Craig Sager. Sager was the periodic 10:00 p.m. sports anchor for a Kansas City television station.
It’s just one game
The game was only an exhibition; in addition Mizzou was playing Oklahoma City an NAIA school. Mizzou won easily 73-48 however my curiosity drew me to game for several reasons. There was no Phil Pressey, no Laurence Bowers so how would this new look Tiger team respond. One area that should aid them in SEC play they are a really tall team. The team Frank Haith inherited two years ago was height deficient; playing “small-ball” allowed Haith’s first team to compete effectively. Honoring the 1993-1994 undefeated Big 8 championship team the game was held in Hearnes Center. Hearnes was the site of play for the undefeated team. For nostalgia purposes the team even wore retro uniforms of the period.
His coaching reach
SMU’s 73-year old Larry Brown’s reach extends much further than I thought. I was familiar with the fact coaches Danny Manning (Tulsa) and Mark Turgeon (Maryland) played for Brown at Kansas. In addition I was aware current head coach Bill Self served on his staff at that same school. The names mentioned were familiar the “Brown Connection” was an unknown. New to me was former head coach Alvin Gentry once served as an assistant under Brown with the NBA Spurs. Did you realize Kentucky’s John Calipari was a Kansas assistant? We might conclude a degree of success of the NBA Spurs might be attributed to Larry Brown, how you might ask?
General Manager RC Buford was a graduate assistant under Brown at Kansas. *“(Greg) Popovich took off the 1985–1986 season at Pomona-Pitzer (Div III) to become a volunteer assistant at Kansas, where he could study directly under Brown.” At the time Brown was hired as head coach he took Buford and Popovich with him to San Antonio. Milt Newton played for Brown at Kansas; he’s served as vice-president of the NBA Wizards and is now the general manager of the Wolves. A number of former players, coaches and others have been omitted due to space considerations. The intent was to provide you (and me) the quantity of former players, assistant coaches who have gone on to bigger and better things influenced by Larry Brown.
*Wikipedia
You are acquainted with the player but maybe not the school
We know Michal Jordan was a Carolina Tarheel; we identify Kareem Abdul Jabbar with UCLA basketball. We remember Charles Barkley came into the NBA from Auburn or Blake Griffin was an Oklahoma Sooner. Others have distinguished themselves having emerged from smaller schools or those who rarely produce basketball talent. The list below was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. This listing is not intended to be complete it represent a number of the more familiar players:
Julius “Dr. J.” Erving - UMass
Sam Jones - North Carolina Central
Nate “Tiny” Archibald - UTEP
Bob Cousy - Holy Cross
Karl Malone - Louisiana Tech
Joe Dumars - McNeese State
Elgin Baylor - Seattle University
Artis Gilmore - Jacksonville
Dennis Rodman - Southeastern Oklahoma State
Robert Parrish - Centenary College of Louisiana
George “Iceman” Gervin - Eastern Michigan University
Wikipedia
Wait your turn
Dwight Howard aka Superman is really gonna be upset when he becomes aware. 2014 is the 25th Anniversary of the Magic franchise beginning play. The team announced they were going to honor both Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway at this season. Should we imagine the honor might include retirement of Shaq’s jersey number 32 and Penny’s number 1? Howard should just be patient and wait his turn for his jersey to be retired.
I found this a little surprising
Stumbled on to a Celtic fan website and discovered interesting news. This website claimed a number of fans wanted Rajon Rondo gone too. We know the animosity that existed between Rondo and Ray Allen but that’s history with Allen in Miami. Many Laker fans wanted Kwame Brown gone but that was a little different. Brown couldn’t play he was just tall, Rondo has talent even if he’s a knucklehead at times.
