Basketball from a fans perspective
Ankle breaker
Allen Iverson might have been the master of “breaking ankles.” He certainly wasn’t the first but became one of the most famous. Iverson was maybe 6 feet tall so in his case breaking ankles is understandable. How about a 7-1 power accomplishing the same feat, on Tuesday during the Bucks-Cavs game the reserves had entered the game. Bucks reserve and rookie Thon Maker was being guarded by 6-10 Chris “Birdman” Anderson of the Cavs. The ball was passed to Maker on the left baseline he dribbles the ball takes a jab step. At that point “down went Frazier, down went Frazier.” Sorry wrong sport and wrong time-period, in any event Anderson loses his balance and is lying on his side as Maker hit’s the jump shot. Check it out for yourself, you know what to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826dezcaxxs
Herding kittens
Somehow my other self volunteered to coach 2nd grade co-ed basketball. To date all I’ve ever attempted to coach were 6th and 7th grade boys’ teams. The coordinator of the league said; “We don’t have officials, we are just trying to get them active in sports. They sometimes pick up the basketball and run with it.” I thought “Boy what have I got myself involved in?” Our first practice I came home and my wife asked me “How was it?”
I informed her “I need a drink,” she laughed knowing her husband doesn’t drink. In any event our season starts in January and runs about six weeks I’ll keep you posted on our progress or lack there off. The title of this account, at the time I first made it known I was volunteering to coach a friend called. She said her husband had coached 2nd grade and he compared it to herding kittens.
You didn’t include him
On Tuesday when discussing Big Men I omitted the Pistons Andre Drummond it wasn’t intentional or because I have an issue with him. I haven’t witnessed his play enough to include him with the five standouts however that fails to take into consideration he might soon be. The former UConn center is now in his 4th year but just turned 23 in August. At 6-11 and 279 pounds Drummond certainly has the bulk to be included with the other Big Men. His career scoring numbers are 13.3 points and 12.6 rebounds a game both he’s currently exceeding. Drummond’s been a double-double man the last three years and is currently second in the NBA in rebounds at 12.9 per game.
Team Travel
If you are under a certain age traveling by train sounds as though it occurred in the 19th Century. Those ancient times were not so long ago in fact it was the late ‘40‘s and early to mid ’50‘s teams utilized travel by train. Geography was the chief reason; most NBA teams were concentrated on the Eastern seaboard. Boston, New York, Syracuse and Philadelphia were relativity close destinations. Prior to Amtrak train travel had rather timely schedules and teams could travel easily between destinations especially on the east coast. As the NBA began expanded westward out of necessity teams begin flying to destinations. Rosters and staffs in the late ‘50’s into the early ‘60’s were much smaller then the NBA of today, a head coach no assistants and a 12-man roster.
That’s about all the travel space required thus allowing NBA teams to fly commercial. As the NBA expanded travel distance became greater teams began utilizing charter flights. Flying charter is not universal as an example the Mavs fly in owner Mark Cuban’s Boeing 757, the Pistons once owned their own aircraft a DC-9 but now fly charter. Information I was able to gather indicate Delta Airlines is the principal charter for NBA teams but probably not the only one. The advantage of charters is too numerous to detail in this short space however there is one clear advantage. Charter allows an NBA to depart and arrive at a time they decide rather than waiting on airline scheduling. It’s much easier now days versus the days of train travel or commercial flights.
