Basketball from a fans perspective
Battle of the Boroughs
This is not a usual occurrence the Nets facing off against the Knicks, since Barclays opened it’s become rather routine. These matches only occur in few cities because most don’t contain more than one pro team. New York also shares this scenario in baseball (Yankees-Mets) and football (Giants-Jets). Los Angeles has the Clippers/Lakers in basketball and Dodgers/Angels baseball. In Chicago you are a Cubs fan or White Sox you don’t root for both teams.
Can we really include the Bay Area in the discussion on cities with multiple sports teams? In San Francisco we have the baseball Giants and football 49ers across the bay in Oakland there are the Oakland Athletics baseball and Golden State (Oakland) Warriors basketball. As for the Nets-Knicks, this match will be renewed in an October pre-season game the Nets facing the Knicks in The Garden on October 8. The Knicks will journey to Barclays Center on October 20 for the re-match.
Don’t fool yourself
I know I deal in negatives at time however not all the time. ESPN.com NBA page ran a piece on the Bucks Thon Maker Summer League play. Naturally there were two or three responses from fans pointing out deficiencies in Maker’s game. Okay its summer play not the real NBA granted but Maker has been outstanding (in my opinion). I look at some of the negatives (37% from the floor) they are easily correctable.
I look for work in a player and Maker definitely has that he is swift up and down the court. In addition he’s not just an offensive presence he blocks shots and clogs the lane too. His positives to date far outweigh any negatives in his game. People get a grip on reality, check back with me in January and we’ll discuss this issue further. I’m not going to decide in the middle of July Maker or any other rookie can’t play. We are selling Maker and others short if we expect there is little if any adjustment is required.
No problem
I realize it’s me and my problem, if you detail something for me I want all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed. The website The Sports Cheat Sheet site said; “10 Greatest Oklahoma City Players of All Time” I clicked on the story. Interesting Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were the only Thunder players mentioned the other 8 were former Sonics. Ray Allen, Gary Payton, Nate McMillian and Shawn Kemp a few of the names mentioned. Nobody should be confused all the aforementioned players and others were pictured in Sonics jerseys.
Basketball aficionados are aware the Sonics a 1967 expansion team moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. I believe you must have played in THAT city I guess that’s why I have problems with retired numbers. The Lakers honor George Mikan, Slater Martin and others but don’t retire the jerseys of these former Lakers for a simple reason. They played for the Minneapolis Lakers and not the Los Angeles version of the team. In my view the Knicks and Celtics don’t have the issue since their home remains the same of their founding.
Bits and Pieces
According to Webster’s a Way Station is “A place where people can stop for rest, supplies, etc during a long journey.” As long as we have the One n Done rule in effect that’s what college has become a Way Station. Despite the definition the journey is not a long one likely eight months or less. I’ve looked ahead to the 2017 draft and the top tier of picks is listed as high school players going into their freshman year of college. Unless they do a “Thon Maker” they are likely to attend college for 1-year and then submit their name as an NBA prospect.
This is interesting; I checked the Sixers depth chart on ESPN’s NBA page. They list Ben Simmons at small forward--no surprise. As for the power forward and center position the names caught me off-guard, Nerlens Noel is the center and Jahlil Okafor is the power forward. If you check the player profiles the positions are reversed with Noel at the power forward and Okafor at center. Reports have continue to circulate the Sixers have Okafor on the trading block.
