Basketball from a fans perspective

Give credit
I held a discussion with a friend about the NBA, naturally the conversation drifted to the 60 point performance by Kobe in his final game.  I mentioned to him “Who are the haters going to find now to hate.”  My friend said; “It was good Michael Jordan played before the advent of social media. Everything LeBron James and Kobe have done is scrutinized.  If LeBron does X it’s what was he thinking, if he does Y he must be guilty and Z could be something totally different.”

I must add my thoughts to those of my friend; “The growth of sports talk radio and television has created an additional audience of folks to “judge” the actions of LeBron, Kobe and others.”  I wonder how Jason Whitlock and Stephen A.  Smith would feel if we had the ability of critiquing their work on a daily basis.  Would they be spotted at the coffee machine or in the break-room longer than the allotted time?  Would they miss a deadline for a story that was to be written?  The point is they are human beings subject to mistakes the difference is LeBron, Kobe and others “work” is in front of us all for display purposes.  

An explanation
I believe it is time once again for the explanation, what’s the explanation you might ask?  The fact Words eye view is written and published 12 months a year about basketball.  As the basketball season winds down I’ve been asked; “Why don’t you write about football?”  Other than occasionally mentioning another sport Words is written specifically for and about basketball.  If you want to read about another sport you might want to search the web for another blog.  This publication will attempt to cover basketball at its various levels.

Trivia
Maybe somehow you can make this into a trivia question for your friends.  Steve Kerr was a reserve guard on the ‘95-’96 Bulls team which held the All-time win record of 72-10.  Steve Kerr is the coach of the ‘15-’16 Warriors who went 73-9 establishing a new NBA record for wins in a single season.

The NBA draft
I don’t know about you but I’m curious where Thon Maker lands in the draft.  We must wait till June 23rd roughly two months to determine his draft position.  Technically Maker will be the first high school player in the draft in 10 years.  My curiosity is peaked by what I’ve read, one mock site lists him as the number 20 pick in the first round while another has him three picks higher.  One mock places him in the second round as the 10th pick.  Maker’s athleticism plus a 9 foot standing reach and 7 foot wingspan might be too tempting for a team to pass.  An NBA team might draft him realizing the reward might not be immediate it could be two or three years away.

Not only is there more to life than basketball, there is lot more to basketball than basketball
Phil Jackson