Basketball from a fans perspective

Big John
Prowling the sidelines at Georgetown now belongs to John Thompson III. III’s dad the legendary John Thompson served as head coach at the school from 1966-1999, his 1984 team won the NCAA Championship. He wasn’t just a coach he also played the game, a 6-10 270 pound center drafted by the Celtics in 1964. He spent two years as Bill Russell’s caddy before heading off to begin a coaching career. Big John had a reputation; he was known to intimidate coaches, opposition players, officials and even criminals. An individual who was reported to have criminal ties befriended two Georgetown players. As word began to spread around campus Big John decided a meeting was required.

It was reported and it cannot be documented an implied threat by the coach caused this individual to end his “friendship” with the players. Word is he was never seen around the Georgetown practice facility again. Since his retirement from coaching Big John has served at times as an analyst for TNT, CBS and NBA TV. Big John is one there is no middle ground, people either hate him or love him with few forming a neutral opinion. John Thompson might not be able to sing but he could hum the line from that old Frank Sinatra tune; “I did it My Way. “ The United States Basketball Writers Association chose Big John as its first recipient of the Dean Smith award.

Bits n Pieces
I have no method of certifying this story however I believe its likely true. Rookies no matter how talented have adjustment issues making that leap from college to the NBA, makes sense to me. The question becomes why a number of folks were loudly proclaiming the “terrible” Summer League play of Laker D’Angelo Russell. Have any idea what LeBron and others shot in their first Summer League series? Check out the players and their field goal percentage.

“LeBron 36.9%
Kevin Durant 33.0%
Derrick Rose 29.4%
Steph Curry 32.5%”

MJ continues to “Just Do it” doesn’t he? The Nike brand has opened a Jordan Brand Store in Chicago and additional stores are planned for New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. Products featured are the Jumpman only Jordan’s signature line. The Jumpman logo rather than the Nike swoosh is displayed prominently throughout the store. Michael Jordan been retired how long yet continues to rack in money from his Air Jordan brand.

Louisville’s Rick Pitino says he has no intention to resign his position as head coach. He says Andre McGee should respond to the questions surrounding the program while he served on Pitino’s staff. Before I published this University of Missouri-Kansas City announced McGee has resigned his position as assistant coach.

Danny Granger is likely done; the Pistons indicate they are likely to release him. He was an NBA All-Star as recently as 2009 but never appeared to recover after a devastating injury. He missed the 2012-13 season with the exception of 5 games; he played 29 games the following season. From there he moved to the Clippers, Heat and finally the Pistons. During his Pacer days he was one of the best, a standout player.

“Who are those guys?”
You might remember in the classic 1969 western movie Butch and the Sundance Kid
are being pursued by a posse. In the words of Butch Cassidy; “Who are those guys?”
We could utter the same sentence as Butch but for slightly different reasons. ESPN conducts an annual evaluation of NBA players prior to the season titled NBArank.

ESPN claims they poll 400 employees to provide the reader this information.
Their conclusions are certainly questionable in several instances and could certainly be challenged. As an example they placed Kobe at 93, Dwayne Wade at 43 and they have Kevin Love (21) ahead of Tim Duncan (23). This poll is one of the reasons I only depend on ESPN to telecast the games rather than provide information of this type which for the most part I find comical. NBArank is only useful for those who choose to believe in it.

The Logo
Remember I wrote of Stephen A. Smith declaration the NBA change its logo? Smith wanted the league to adopt a player to represent a later time period and suggested LeBron James as a replacement. If Smith had researched the issue rather than simply formulate an opinion he’d uncover the information I did. Much to my surprise the NBA has never acknowledged the iconic logo is that of Jerry West. Now everybody and their brother believes the logo to be that of Jerry West. Check for your satisfaction there is a photo of West at the time he played for the Lakers in the exact stance of the logo. What does the man think about this issue you ask, Yahoo Sports managed to corner the former Laker player, general manager and consultant.

They posed the question to West and he said what we all expected “He’d have no problem if the NBA decided in favor of a change.”  Corporations have a variety of reasons for changing their logo and if the NBA decides to change it they will. It’s highly likely no image of an individual would be part of a change. If LeBron (or anyone’s) image is used they would expect financial remuneration. West has received not one cent for the emblem the NBA adopted in 1972, that might be the reason they never acknowledged it was him. Just in case you might wonder about other professional sports we’ll check for Smith. The NFL might have had another logo but the present one has changed very little from a 1960 version I uncovered. We could say the say for MLB, designed in 1968 and implemented in 1969 it too has changed little. Consider this West believes if the logo is changed it should reflect Michael Jordan’s image. The question who’s made more of an impact on the NBA and basketball Michael Jordan or LeBron James?