Basketball from a fans perspective
Surprising and amazing
This post is the 1,000th publication of Words eye view. A friend suggested rather than send out emails how about doing a blog. You have a wealth of basketball knowledge why not? I had no idea about publishing however with help I under took this pursuit in 2011. Words was published Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the summer of 2016 when it became a daily publication.
Beginning near the middle of 2011 116 editions were provided for the reader. Since that time 154 has been the yearly average. As I’ve indicated this has been labor of love writing about the game I latched on as a youngster. I hope you enjoy reading Words and will continue. My hope is to continue writing about “basketball from a fans perspective.”
Dark day in Cleveland
With the exception of the Browns sports in Cleveland are good, the Cavs recent NBA Champions the Indians headed to the World Series for the first time since 1954. From the past the Lakers had drafted forward Don Ford in 1975 and he played for five seasons. Ford was certainly an adequate player but no one had an idea he would turn out to be as valuable as he did. In 1980 Ford was traded to the Cavs along with a 1980 first round draft choice for guard Butch Lee and the 1982 first round pick of the Cavs.
The Cavs finished the season 15-67 which should have qualified the franchise for a high first round pick. As mentioned earlier the Lakers had that pick although they finished the season with a 57-25 record. That number one picked turned out to be James “Big Game” Worthy. No need of going any further with the story other than to inform you he was a key component of Showtime Lakers. Worthy is also a double-double man enshrined in the Naismith and College Basketball Hall of Fame. The Lakers might be indirectly responsible for a portion of the basketball gloom that remained over Cleveland until recently.
No more characters
I have stated over and over sports today lack characters. The characters I speak of are folks who cause you to laugh out loud. Former Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs was one of those characters but there are others. In a 1989 game against Mizzou fans were throwing trash on the court, the officials requested Tubbs make an announcement to the Oklahoma fans. Tubbs said; “Regardless of how terrible the officiating is, do not throw stuff on the court.” Of course that commentary resulted in a second tech and an ejection for Tubbs.
Lawrence Kansas and Columbia Missouri are located less than 200 miles apart about a 3 hour drive. Former Mizzou Coach Norm Stewart hated Kansas so much he refused to spend any money in Kansas. His team would stay overnight in Kansas City and then bus the 50+ miles to the Lawrence campus. One more story from Stewart, he was asked if he had any McDonald’s All Americans on his Mizzou team his response was classic. “We don’t have any McDonald’s All Americans but we eat there.” The late Al McGuire serving as coach at Marquette once said; “The best thing about freshman is they become sophomores.”
Former Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan played for the Bulls during his career. It might be natural he’d comment on Bulls great Michael Jordan. “In my prime I could have handled Michael Jordan. Of course, he would have been only 12 years old.” “We can’t win at home; we can’t win on the road. As general manager I just can’t figure out where else to play.” Pat Williams Orlando General Manager on his team’s 7-27 record in 1992. “The game is too long, the season is too long and the player’s are too long.” Jack Dolph in 1973.
