Basketball from a fans perspective
Hate him if you wish
If you are one who dislikes Kentucky basketball and especially Coach Cal you can stop reading. For the rest of you the Christmas package was under the tree and it was opened early on Friday to be exact. On Friday Jarred Vanderbilt a 6-8 forward from Houston (TX) made a verbal commitment to attend Kentucky. Vanderbilt is a Rivals 21 prospect in the Class of 2017 and 5 stars while ESPN 100 list him as number 22 on their site and awards him 5 stars too.
George Karl Part Deux
Delete, omit or something along those lines indicating a change. According to ESPN.com NBA page George Karl’s book ‘Furious George: My Forty Years Surviving NBA Divas, Clueless GM’s, and Poor Shot Selection’ has been revised. The portion covering his tenure with the Kings has been removed from the book.
Why this portion was deleted is your best guess, surprising as it might seem I can state Karl might be correct to a point. The players mentioned may indeed have been knuckleheads and a thorn in the side of Karl. He stepped out of bounds indicating their behavior was influenced by having no father in the home. He had nothing to back up his statement excepting his opinion.
He gets a statue
The Lakers will honor former center Shaquille O’Neal with a statue outside Staples Center. O’Neal will join a number of other Staple Centers honorees including Magic, Kareem and others. The unveiling of the Shaquille O’Neal statue will take place prior to the Laker game on March 24, 2017. Some might ask why honor a player who only spent a portion of his career with the Lakers.
Try this on for size; the Lakers won three consecutive NBA championships while Shaq patrolled the paint. He was the most dominant center in the NBA during that time period. Shaq won three consecutive finals MVP honors; he was a seven time All-NBA and the 2000 league MVP. Shaq’s number 34 jersey hangs in my Man-Cave proudly.
His family loves him
I’ve wondered for awhile about Scott Brooks, questioned how good a coach is this guy. Brooks after a moderate NBA career began his coaching career, he served first as an assistant coach on P.J. Carlesimo staff’s. In 2009 Carlesimo was fired and was replaced by Brooks. With Sonics holdover Kevin Durant being joined by Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City the Thunder began to roll. Under Brooks the Thunder winning record began to ascend even winning 60 games in 2012-13 season. After the outstanding season the Thunder began began a downward trend although maintaining a +.500 record.
At the end of the 2015 season the Thunder fired Brooks and was replaced by Billy Donovan. In between time the Wizards made a decision and decided in favor of another coach, Randy Wittman was fired and replaced by Scott Brooks. Under Wittman the Wizards finished 41-41 so far with the new coach in place their won-loss record is less than sterling. Am I allowing enough time for Brooks to implement his program? Teams with losing records (Sixers, Lakers) our desire is for them to play better basketball. A team with a .500 record from the prior year should be playing better than they have to date. Oh well what I know I’m only a fan. Besides the fact Brooks is probably a good guy I’m sure his family loves him.
