He’s still got it
Michael Jordan at age 53 remains just as competitive as ever heading his Flight School basketball camp. Clippers guard Chris Paul challenged MJ to a shooting contest; the camp would receive free shoes if MJ missed three baskets. MJ refuses to lose at everything, basketball, poker or golf. Shooting beyond the 3-point line and all around the court MJ sank six consecutive shots. The video ended at that point so we can only guess nobody got any shoes.
What happened to Lenny Cooke?
Do you remember Lenny Cooke? Cooke was one of the numerous NYC basketball legends. How good was he, many questioned who was better him LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony? They were no physical limits for the 6-6 206 pound shooting guard but academic issues became his undoing. The short version of the story college was never an option because he could never gain academic eligibility. He decided in favor the NBA and declared for the 2002 draft a year ahead of his on-court rival James.
All 29 teams passed over Cooke in the draft and from that point it’s been the NBADL and USBL. One year he played for the Celtics Summer League team but that was the closet he came to the NBA. Cooke is now 34 years old an age most NBA players began planning retirement. Attending multiple high schools and academic issues might have played a part in Cooke never playing in the NBA. Boy was he good; Cooke could do almost anything on the basketball court it was the classroom that proved to be his downfall.
Small market versus large
With the move of Kevin Durant to the Warriors many believe a large market team wins competition for talent once again. Skeptics claim small market teams (Thunder, Blazers, Pelicans and Bucks) cannot effectively compete to the lure of New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. They point to the pre-season picks to win the 2016 NBA Championship and the fact none of the teams identified would be considered small market. Well that view is partially correct but not complete correct allow a brief explanation.
The San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose population is estimated to be 8,713,000 folks certainly a large market team. Cleveland home of the NBA Champions has a metro population of a little more than 2,000,000 souls. Oklahoma City one of those pre-season picks to win the championship has an even smaller population than Cleveland 1,400,000 to be exact. A number of cities with no NBA teams (including Kansas City) have larger metro populations than greater Cleveland. The other issue can super stars attract players to their team without being located in a major market. To date I’m unsure if we can answer the question on whether LeBron has been able to lure players to the Cavs.
