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Where do these stories come from, better yet who initiates them? Last week we read a report indicating 39-year old former Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas was “considering a comeback." I wrote it appeared LeBron James reached into the Cavs front office; well I was wrong (along with a bunch of others). Before the ink was dry the agent for Ilgauskas claimed the story was bogus.
The ancient society
The NCAA continues to operate much like it did in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Of course this is 2014 the 21st century and change is in the air. Most of us believe rules and enforcement are a requirement. Left to their own devices most schools might cheat more that usual. At the same time several operations of this organization have been called into question by the media, coaches, players and fans.
One of these is the Ed O’Bannon case which the court ruled in favor of O’Bannon. The case was one of the topics of discussion at the barber shop. I said; “Although the judgement was ruled against the NCAA they planned to appeal to a higher court.“ This was the response from a shop patron; “The NCAA will fight the case all the way to the Supreme Court there is too much money involved.” I thought a moment about his statement and said to myself; “He’s right, there is far too much money involved to simply surrender.”
So much for their take
Last week I wrote a discussion topic on ESPN’s First Take was Bulls point guard Derrick Rose. Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless expressed concern regarding Rose’s return from injury after he sit out a game. Rose indicated he needed rest and his knee was okay. That was enough for Smith and Bayless to head to fantasy land. If you remember one of the points Smith attempted to express on a scale of 1 to 10 he assigned Rose sitting out the game a 10. I believed then and continue to believe that was way over the top even for Smith.
Well here are we’ve arrived at the finalization of Team USA roster. Among the cuts was All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, point guards Stephen Curry and Derrick Rose made the final roster. If Rose was in jeopardy of further injury should we believe Coach K/Coach Thibodeau would have said; “Derrick we need to sit you down.” You cut an All-Star point guard (Lillard) for an “injured” player, I don’t think so. In any game any player is subject to injury but at least for now the coaching staff believes Rose is healthy enough to play in the FIBA World Cup.
Big Blue Nation
Power forward Julius Randle will play for the Lakers his minutes may be limited due to the arrival of Carlos Boozer. Randle might have found playing time even more difficult if he’d remained at Kentucky. Despite losing Randle Kentucky will remain one of deepest most talented college teams next season. The super freshmen Harrison twins return for their sophomore year. Wait there is more, 6-10 Dakari Johnson, 7-0 Willie Cauley-Stein, 6-8 Alex Poythress and 6-9 Marcus Lee all are returning to Lexington. Added to the returning talent mix will certainly be one of the stronger freshman classes in the nation, 6-10 Trey Lyles, 7-0 Anthony Towns and 6-5 shooting guard Devin Booker. The returnees plus newcomers on paper can we state there should be little issue with rebounding and rim protection. Adding freshmen even 5-star prospects to a team could prove to be difficult except this is Kentucky and Coach Cal.
Grow up---please
NBA athletes earn far more during the course of their career than they may have ever dreamed. The same might hold true for team owners they too become spoiled and
self-centered. At the same time owners through the teams’ front-office should be responsible for producing competitive teams. For a variety of reasons producing a winning team has proven elusive for a number of them. We could certainly add former Clippers owner Donald Sterling in this discussion too however he’s history. As for others check out Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and the Wolves Glen Taylor. Four years ago Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was upset when LeBron left for South Beach. The manner of LeBron’s move upset Gilbert, Cavs fans and several NBA fans. Gilbert made a number of derogatory comments regarding LeBron and even wrote an uncomplimentary letter which remained on the teams’ website.
The letter remained in place until LeBron announced he was returning to Cleveland this summer. Gilbert has company, another upset owner is Wolves owner Glen Taylor. We were made aware in early summer Kevin Love wanted out of Minnesota. No requirement to detail Love’s concern, how about Glen? He goes on radio (after the trade I might add) and makes disparaging remarks about Love and his ability to leave. Commentary I find difficult to fully understand based on fact. Hey Glen unlike Cavs fans who got nothing in return for losing LeBron look at what you received. You received 2014 number one pick Andrew Wiggins, 2013 number one pick Anthony Bennett and youthful talent Thaddeus Young, at this point we have no idea how these players will develop. This is the key for me if only one of the players develops into an All-Pro your team will have received far more in return than Cleveland did four years ago, quite crying Glen.
