Basketball from a fans perspective
Rivalry Part II
Yesterday I omitted Iowa State in my assessment of Big 12 basketball, it was not intentional just an oversight. Under Fred Hoiberg the school had several glory moments against Kansas; I can even remember winning the post-season tourney. As for the regular season that was a far different story as they experienced far more success in Ames than Lawrence.
We all have opinions even David Thorpe
Thorpe is the Executive Director of Pro Training in Clearwater Florida. He served as a high school assistant coach before going into personal training as a profession. Thorpe was upset with comments attributed to legendary Oscar Robertson regarding Steph Curry. Rather than delve into a “he said he said” commentary allow me a few sentences. Robertson certainly is not correct in every statement he’s made about basketball and the NBA.
In addition to disagreeing with Robertson he made age a part of his disagreement, I wonder if Robertson was attempting to paint an untrue portrait of the man. I will take more stock in the Robertson commentary than a guy who never played the game at the high level of an Oscar Robertson. We seem to constantly have this argument about 21st Century players versus those of the ’50’s and ’60’s.
The further we travel into the century the more a number of us attempt to discount attributes and commentary of the past. By the way I caught the Laker game against the Grizzlies, Kareem was asked about the Robertson comment. Without going into detail he agreed with the view his former teammate held.
There is no doubt athletes of today are faster, better conditioned and in some instances have improved training regiments. There is no reason to discount the comments of Robertson and others because you were too young to have witnessed their play. As for Curry I’ve never witnessed a shot similar to the one he made that beat the Thunder. A 38+ foot 3 pointer with the clock running down and it was all net as they say.
The forgotten man
The names are well-know West, Chamberlain, Magic, Shaq and Kobe. A name lost in all the past Laker glory is Elgin Baylor. He connects the City of Minneapolis with Los Angeles having played his 1958 rookie season in the Twin Cities where he won Rookie of the Year honors. In 1959 Baylor would be the first legitimate star for the Lakers as Jerry West would not arrive until 1960. Blessed with natural leaping ability the 6-5 Baylor played small forward for his 13-year NBA career, number 22’s career numbers 27.4 ppg, 13.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
Baylor is double-honoree having been elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame. There is no statue of Baylor in any location around Staples Center in addition there are no plans for this honor. I question if there is an issue between Baylor and the Lakers, he was hired in 1986 by the Clippers and served in the role of vice-president for 22 years. Connect the dots, Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers he played in both cities and as indicated the first legitimate Laker star in Los Angeles.
Vienna
The capital of Austria has been the birthplace of many famous world renowned citizens over the centuries. A small number of the famous include Sigmund Freud considered the father of psychology, Marie Antoinette who would become Queen of France and Johann Strauss the popular composer famous for his waltzes. We cannot place Jakob Poelti’s name in that company he’s only a basketball player who shares the city of Vienna as his birthplace too.
Poelti is in the middle of his sophomore year at the University of Utah and is scoring at a 17.8 ppg average along with nine rebounds a game. The 7-1 Poelti is a 240 pound center who might be converted to power forward in the NBA. The native of Austria is listed as a lottery pick on several mock draft sites. On NBADraft.net he’s listed number nine and DraftExpress.com has him at seven. Word is he’s made no decision as yet for the NBA however this is one of the names you should stow away in your memory bank for future reference.
