Basketball from a fans perspective

Nicknames
We discussed nicknames recently and the unwritten rule you cannot anoint yourself, it must be provided by another.  As I indicated Heat center Hassan Whiteside has decided to circumvent the rule and provide his own nickname.  He’s following in the footsteps of LeBron “King“ James and Kobe “Black Mamba“ Bryant. Whiteside is deciding between Agent Block and Count Blockula.  They reflect his league leading ability in blocked shots.  The problem both is a little hokey with Count Blockula being the worst choice.  

Bits n Pieces
A name to store away in your memory banks is Ziming Fan; he’s the latest Chinese prospect to emerge on the international horizon.  He turns 18 in April so there is no rush to see him in the NBA he will continue to develop his basketball skills.  Fan has one clear advantage over a number of prospects he’s 7 feet tall and weighs in at 230 pounds.  Liaoning Province in northeastern China is his home and this area boarders North Korea and the Yellow Sea.  Fan along with his World Team will be competing in the Nike Hoops Summit April 9 from Portland Oregon.  ESPN will televise the game 3:00 p.m. Eastern 2:00 p.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Out with the old in with the new might be the norm for much of the coaching fraternity.  The following are new hires, the names might be familiar to a number of us as for others they might be unknown, this should not be considered complete:

UNLV Chris Beard

Western Kentucky Rick Stansberry

Pitt                              Kevin Stallings

UCF                            Johnny Dawkins

Tulane                          Mike Dunleavy Sr.

Stanford                       Jerod Haase

Okla State                    Brad Underwood

TCU                           Jamie Dixon

Rutgers                       Steve Pikieill

University of Pacific        Damon Stoudamire

Santa Clara Herb Sendeck

St. Louis University Travis Ford

James Madison             Louis Rowe

University of Portland     Terry Porter

Vanderbilt                    Bryce Drew
Georgia Tech                 Josh Pastner 

The one n done rule continues to bother me, my belief hasn’t changed it’s just the participants.  I don’t believe there should be an age restriction on entering the NBA.  As long as the one n done rule is in place we’ll have athletes entering the draft who are not ready for the NBA.  This is not a done deal because a number are likely not ready to play at the NBA level.  Consider Chiek Diallo who hardly escaped the bench at Kansas will enter the draft.  He joins Stephen Zimmerman who I mentioned earlier was a 10 point per game 7-foot center at UNLV.

What’s in a name as Shakespeare might have said, a portion of the line from Romeo and Juliet.  In this instance we are discussing the Oklahoma Sooner sharpshooter Buddy Hield.  Buddy isn’t the name on his birth certificate I would guess the Bahamas utilizes the document.  In any event Buddy is his nickname, his given name is Chavano.

I don’t remember who said it but I heard it, we held numerous discussions regarding the guard orientated NBA of today.  Questioned on the change the former player said nothing’s basically changed.  “There is a lack of big men but that doesn’t mean they have gone away.  Everything goes in cycles center play will become prominent again.”

No malice intended
To be fair fans Doc Rivers didn’t say it in malice.  He stated; “I’ll be happy when Kobe Bryant retires.” He went on to state how many times Kobe Bryant had beaten his teams.  Well my response is tinged with malice, “Doc I have believed for quite awhile you are over rated as an NBA coach.  I haven’t always had a problem with you even though you coached the hated Celtics.  My problem began when you arrived in Los Angeles.  You offended me (and others) covering the retired jerseys in Staples Center.  Did it provide some sort of problem for you and your team looking up toward the rafters and seeing all those retired jerseys? The Lakers cannot copy your actions because your team has nothing to display in the rafters of Staples.”