Basketball from a fans perspective 

Publication
The collegiate basketball season will be an after thought by the end of next week.  With a lesser amount of basketball news to present comes change.  In order to provide coverage instead of publishing everyday well return to a Monday, Wednesday and Friday format.  It’s yet to be determined the date this change will take place but I’ll provide advance notice.  Thank you for continuing to read Words eye view, my hope is you continue to find it interesting and insightful.  I will continue my quest to locate and report on basketball and basketball related stories.

Terrible
I mentioned an unusual theft of the basketball by reserve guard Laker Marcelo Huertas the other day.  Several of the “talking heads” at ESPN were not impressed by his steal on Heat guard Goran Dragic.  I heard one refer to it “As a high school play.”  That was one of the kinder comments I read or heard, I didn’t write the account as a Laker fan.  At the same time I make no apology for being a fan of the team.  It just so happens Huertas plays for the Lakers I would have appreciated any player on any team performing the same feat.

Coaching fraternity
It was interesting viewing and listening to Dan Patrick interview Coach Cal recently.  Patrick tried to pin him down on the issues of Syracuse basketball and Jim Boeheim.  Cal skillfully dance around the question without responding.  I believe Patrick is a skillful interviewer and may have thought he could solicit a response.  Here’s the deal Dan rarely does one coach register a complaint regarding another coach.  It doesn’t matter whether the coach is a friend or not the key he’s a member of the coaching fraternity.

Ol skool
We seem to have arrived at a different era with NBA basketball.  Athletes are sometimes “rested” during the season something that never ever occurred in the old days.  Let’s see if we can determine why players might need extra rest versus the ol skool days.  The NBA year (not season) might be the most long-running of any major sport.  NBA training camps open in late September and teams begin exhibition play in October which can be up to eight games. The 82 game season starts in late October and runs through mid-April.

Teams qualifying for the playoffs play even longer often into May; the NBA Champion is crowned in mid-June.  As an example the Warriors played well over 100 games if we begin their count from exhibition season through their conquest of the Cavs.  Guess what we haven’t taken into consideration an Olympic year which lengthens play even further for a number of players.  I realize fans pay big bucks to see stars and certainly don’t appreciate it those occasions Greg Popovich or Tyronn Lue chose to rest a star player.  NBA players in the 21st Century play far more games than Wilt or Russell played in their day.

Will the Cavs ever be happy?
It wasn’t quite as disgusting as a similar feat in 2001.  In the 2001 game Blazer Rasheed Wallace upset with teammate Arvydas Sabonis tossed a towel in his face.  This was repeated in a recent game during a timeout Coach Tyronn Lue drew up a play for his team.  As the team walked back on the court Iman Shumpert laid his towel on the coach’s shoulder.  Folks continue to talk about drama with the Lakers, Rockets and other teams how about the Cavs?  David Blatt is fired despite the Cavs in first place in the east with a 30-11, they make a mid-season trade acquiring Channing Frye and they continue to remain unhappy despite their 52-22 record.