Basketball from a fans perspective
Philly basketball
Basketball in The City of Brotherly Love has a tradition dating back to the early portion of the 20th Century. The college basketball scene predates the Philadelphia NBA experience. I could state with a degree of comfort its likely half the teams in the NBA have a player born in the metro area or attended an area college or university. One of the cathedrals of college basketball is the Palestra built in 1927 its still in use today and serves as home to the Penn Quakers. The University of Pennsylvania is not the only school in the metro there is LaSalle, St. Joseph’s, Temple, Villanova and Drexel all Division I programs.
A number of Division II programs are less than a few hours drive from downtown Philadelphia. How about NBA players from Philadelphia, we could begin the count with Wilt Chamberlain and end with Kobe Bryant. The majority of players who might be included retired long ago and the names might not be familiar to you. Let’s just say a large number of players have come from Philly metro schools. A discussion of urban areas producing talent Philadelphia has got to rank with the likes of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.
Surgery might be necessary
Upfront I will admit I’m not a Russell Westbrook fan, now that’s out of the way if you wish to continue reading please proceed. I believe he is one talented basketball player there are portions of his game that have continued to concern me. As this is written Thunder guard Russell Westbrook has two triple-doubles in the team’s first three games. If Westbrook continues at this I predict his right arm will become detached sometime around January 15, 2017. Just kidding folks but I do see issues for the Thunder.
If a team limits the number of shots for Westbrook who scores? Although his field goal percentage is suffering as this is written maybe the secondary go to guy becomes shooting guard Victor Oladipo. Oladipo arrives from the Magic in the Serge Ibaka trade the summer is a career 15 point a game scorer. The Sixers, Suns and Lakers are quality teams but they are not the Warriors, Cavs or even Clippers. What do the Thunder do when they face a playoff caliber team?
Dead Zone
Television trivia fans might be familiar with the 1950’s Sci-Fi series the Twilight Zone. For college basketball fans we have the “Dead Zone” that period between Midnight Madness and the start of the collegiate season. It’s dead because little news emanates from the various campuses across the nation. We are in that same zone regarding recruiting so there really is no respectful news in that area too. Be patient about two more weeks teams will begin play even if they are exhibition games tuning up for the regular season.
Speaking of Philly
The Sixers are 0-2 as the Hawks blew the out of Wells Fargo Arena on Friday. Fans remain excited (at least for now); the twin tower experiment has begun. Brett Brown had Embiid and Okafor in the lineup at the same time. The results were a mix bag, 22 points 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots however considering the Sixers lost 104-72 we can conclude the experiment might be a work in progress.
I missed him
In our discussion of athletes with multiple careers Chuck Connors was omitted. Connors stood 6 foot 6 inches tall and played in the NBA, MLB and might have played in the NFL if he’d pursued a career. Most of us know him in the role of movie/television star. In the ‘40’s he played for the Rochester Royals (today’s Kings) and lead them to the 1946 NBL Championship. Playing for the Boston Celtics Connors would be credited with breaking a backboard. He accomplished this feat in November 1946 game. In the early ’50’s Connors would change sports becoming a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers and later Chicago Cubs.
Connors was drafted by the Chicago Bears but never suited up for them. I said earlier triple career, the final one was movie and television star. Connors would be considered a character actor until he was cast in the role of Lucas McCain on the ABC’s The Rifleman. The western ran on the network from 1958 to 1963 Connors played a widower with a young son and was a rancher. After his television series ended he continued acting roles returning to character acting roles. Connors died in 1992 of lung cancer at the age of 71. NBA player, major league baseball player, a possible NFL career he was quite an athlete. The Rifleman series continues to run today it’s available for viewing on the AMC Cable Channel.
