Basketball from a fans perspective
Bits n Pieces
Over the years I’ve been able to view a number of sports documentaries. Most have been good a smaller number have been average and several I would place in the excellent category. Showtime Sports delivered one I’d place in the excellent category in Ben Simmons. The Sixers rookie was profiled beginning with high school and leading up to the 2016 NBA Draft. You must have the movie channel Showtime if not go somewhere you have an opportunity to view it. It’s a 1 hour and 30 minute profile on life events for the youngster.
The Laker defense and perhaps fatigue played a role in Steph Curry’s failure to sink a single a 3-point basket in the recent game. Curry had sunk 157 3-point baskets in consecutive games dating back to November of 2014 before his O-10. Curry took out his frustration on the poor Pelicans on Monday evening. He broke the single game record set by Donyell Marshall and placed his name in the record books. Curry splashed 13 3-point baskets in scoring 46 points.
This is different; John Wall broke the Bullets (Wizards) all-time assist record. Wall breaking a record is not unusual it’s just the guy whose record he broke. Generally we think of point guards or maybe a small forward being an assist leader but not in this case. The previous Bullets/Wizards record was held by center Wes Unseld who played for the franchise from 1968-1981 and set the record with 3,822 assists. In a manner of speaking Unseld was small in stature at 6-7 but a solid 245 pounds. Once he snatched a rebound off the board he would whip the ball down court to a streaking guard or forward.
The NBA (still) remains in smaller cities
Portland Oregon has a metro population of 2,389,000 million, San Antonio 2,328,000 and Sacramento slightly smaller at 2,149,000. Metro Salt Lake City is smaller than all with 1,153,000 residents. The point in previous accounts we discussed beginning in the 1950’s the NBA moved from smaller cities and towns to boost its image as a major league sport. Even with the change the NBA still operates in a number of markets much smaller than their NFL and MLB brethren.
New Orleans (1 million plus) and Charlotte (2 million plus) have NFL franchises however they are the exception for the most part the NBA team is the only “major league” sport in several NBA cities. It leads me to this unscientific conclusion, the NBA with smaller rosters and probably smaller staff does not require a large populace to sustain a 25-man baseball or a 60-man NFL team. Just my thoughts doesn’t make it correct.
Harlem’s best
Mohamed Bamba is 6-11 center Rivals 5-star prospect. He places student in the forefront when describing him, Bamba indicates one of the classes he enjoys most is Design and Engineering. Does that fact alone indicate Bamba will remain in college after his freshman year that portion of the story is yet to be determined.
At present he’s prepared to graduate from Westtown School a college preparatory institution in West Chester (PA) about 40 some odd miles from Philadelphia. Bamba has a large contentment of schools offering scholarships including Mizzou. As for the engineering question Ivy League Harvard also has Bamba on their radar. No word on which school is favored at this point we can only say he’s one of Harlem’s (NY) best.
Seems like yesterday
NBA TV reminded us it’s been 25 years since Magic Johnson retired due to testing HIV positive. In 1991 little was known about AIDS and HIV except for the fact it was believed testing positive meant full-blown AIDS and then the patient would soon die. Magic’s “cocktail” of drugs prescribed by his medical team and the Lord’s blessing he’s still here. A number of people were quite critical of Magic at the time stating it was a punishment due to his casual attitude toward sex. Others whispered Magic might be gay up to that time only gay people had been impacted by HIV/AIDS. The disease is still with us however attitudes surely have changed. We take precautions now but we no longer believe it's a death sentence.
