Basketball from a fans perspective
He’s gone
Sam Hinkie stepped down as 76ers general manager on Wednesday. The experiment is over----the one that witnessed the 76ers collecting draft picks and still not improving. Nothing wrong with draft choices however the 76ers never improved on the court. Perhaps Hinkie had a plan it just never appeared to materialize and recent hires indicated the clock was ticking.
Is there a problem?
The public should be able to make a decision on the next Knicks coach everyone else is. Phil Jackson says Kurt Rambis has the inside track and Rambis wants the job. Rambis has said nothing (at least we believe) to Carmelo Anthony who wants to be involved in the decision process. Former Knick great Patrick Ewing wants the job too or at least he says so. “Anyone, anyone, anyone knows what this says?” Remember the scene from the movie Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off, you should know me by now.
Well said
Dan Le Batard said it best I believe much better than many of us could have stated. I’m paraphrasing the comments he made when questioned about the defense UNC threw up against Villanova with seconds remaining in the game. “With the proliferation of (sports) networks we must look for the negatives, I going to inform you I find no fault with the defense UNC played.” I’m happy somebody in the sports media finally gets it. We depend on them to provide us access to players and coaches for the inside information, its not to interview them and then formulate an opinion on what it is they said.
Many in the media are guilty of asking the question but then are not satisfied with the answer they receive. Years ago at the time Jason Whitlock was working radio in Kansas City ESPN’s Jay Bilas was a call-in guest. The host asked Bilas a question and clearly didn’t receive the answer he expected. After concluding the interview and Bilas gone he proceeds to trash Bilas over the air waves. This was before the days of Twitter so I sent him an email pointing out this fact. Whitlock’s response; “You must have selected hearing.”
In charge now
I have taken charge of my television once again; I have extracted myself from the pontifical rambling of one Stephen A. Smith. The boycott of ESPN’s First Take has officially begun I’ve had enough of Smith. Now with anyone else I can state he’s not wrong all the time, the scary part for me sometimes he actually makes sense with his “take” on a particular subject. The bombastic and loud excessive tone has worn thin with me now. One of the latest utterances, "Phil took the Knicks job for the money." We don't know that statement to be a fact but the better question I might ask of Smith who doesn't take a job for more money? I’ve often been guilty of back-tracking on what I said I was going to do. I will try and remember this promise, no more Stephen A. Smith in my household. I don’t tweet so a boycott is the only method I have to respond not very effective but it’s all I got.
Hall of Fame
I saw the name John McClendon along with the line; “Election to the Naismith Hall of Fame.” I thought for a minute “That’s got to be incorrect isn’t he already in the Hall?” Yes McClendon was elected in 1978 as a contributor the 2016 enshrinement is for his term as a coach. McClendon lived long enough to see his Hall of Fame honor, we cannot make the same statement for Zelmo Beaty. Beaty was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks in 1962 from Prairie View A&M and played for the Hawks seven years before heading to the ABA and Utah Stars. He returned to the NBA with the Lakers where he retired in 1975. Beaty died in 2013 and the following year he was elected to the Collegiate Hall of Fame. In 2016 the Naismith Hall of Fame will honor Beaty with a dual honor becoming one of a few enshrined in both hall’s.
