Won't get fooled again
That's the title to a song isn't it? In this instance I'm referring to the Mizzou Tigers who won't mislead me again. I made the observation "you live by the jump shot and die by the jump shot." Mizzou has lost two of it's last three games, losers to Georgia in OT. Mizzou has failed to develop any front court scoring, as mentioned previously the bulk of the scoring comes from the back court. They managed to slide by Auburn beating them by two points but they followed the victory by losing to Vanderbilt. Mizzou shooting totals, 39% against Georgia, 32% versus Auburn and last night 39% against Vanderbilt. Although I knew it might be tough I expected this team to compete for the SEC Championship, certainly not now. No politicking by me to get them included in anybodies Top 25, I remain forever a fan but with lowered expectations.
Remain in place?
You know the freshman names---those the experts rate highly for the 2014 draft. We can add one additional name to the list Indiana’s Noah Voniech. He’s a 6-10 240 pound power forward and his game is growing. He’s slipped into the Top 10 of two mock draft sites, number eight on draftexpress.com and number ten on nbadraft.net. His freshman scoring numbers are 12.3 points per game and he manages to grab 9.5 rebounds a game. My preference would be for Voniech and every other outstanding freshman remain in school. The prospect of financial reward is the deciding factor. As for graduation the opportunity to return to school is always there. Vince Carter, Shaquille O’Neal and Isiah Thomas and maybe others I’m omitting left school early but returned to finish and receive a diploma.
Time, where did it go?
Host Dan Patrick on his morning radio program reminded us the Celtics Len Bias would have turned 50 last November. If he’d lived he would have long ago retired however Celtic history may have been quite altered in successive years. Bias a small forward had been the teams’ number one pick in the 1986 NBA Draft. Bias would have joined a team of Bird, McHale and Parrish along with new comer Reggie Lewis.
Lewis had arrived on the scene earlier and played limited minutes, by his second year he was up to 18.5 ppg. We could make a similar claim regarding Lewis he too would long be retired if he’d lived. We could play "what if" with both athletes, would Bias have been able to blend his Maryland talent with that of rising star Lewis? Imagine what might have occurred for the Celtics and their fans, there might not have been the valley that existed between championships.
Perhaps the dawn of a second Golden Age
I’m going to give props to Matt Moore of CBS Sports.com; he provided the inspiration for this. He wrote of 13 breakout power forward candidates, i.e. future All-Pros. Moore’s argument all of these players are age 25 and younger. I’m not going to rehash his column you can read it and form your own opinion. His column however provided me basis for a look ahead of the NBA. It’s my belief we are about to enter an NBA Golden Age again. The emergence of Magic-Johnson and the Laker-Celtic rivalry might be the first age. The second Golden Age might be the Jordan Bulls of the late ’80’s and ’90’s. Don’t misunderstand this narrative the NBA was not down, it’s never been down. The naysayer’s continue to inform us “nobody is watching the NBA” yet they offer no proof other than their opinion. My proof is the value of the leagues franchises; every time a team is put up for sale perspective owners began lining up. These owners are people unaccustomed to losing money, there’s only so much money they can write off as losses.
Once the sale is completed the franchise is sold for a record amount of dollars. NBA Global has continued to expand it’s footprint throughout the world. Exhibition games were played this month in China, the Philippines and Brazil as an example. Eventually there will be NBA franchises in Europe and other world markets at the time the travel issue is resolved. As for the nobody is watching, 47 nations south of the Sahara in Africa will be able to view NBA games live this season. If you questioned any 12-year old in Asia or Europe they could identify the name Michael Jordan before that of Peyton Manning. It’s a fact the NBA and its players are known world-wide over the NFL and MLB combined. State side the NBA will return to Seattle, as for St. Louis and Kansas City that’s yet to be determined. Finally we gasped when informed the Nets Barclays Center home was going to cost $1 billion dollars. Guess what there’s another on the way, the Warriors arena planned to open in 2017 comes in at the same figure. You don’t spend that amount of money without hope of receiving a return on your investment.
