Basketball from a fans perspective
I’ve got a secret
This has nothing to do with the television quiz show of the 1950’s. On second thought maybe it’s not much of a secret for many around the Philadelphia metro just the balance of us. Coaching aside notice I didn’t restrict myself by separating Jay Wright from NBA coaches I said the best dressed---period. I’m trying to imagine who might come nearest to Wright and I’m drawing a complete blank.
Now we know what a number of folks know in Philadelphia, no off the rack suits for Wright his suits are custom tailored. Wright’s suits range in price from $300 to $500 which is economical for a custom-made suit. This cannot be confirmed but it’s reported the coach has two closets in his bedroom one for his suits and one for shoes, slacks and shirts. I’ve already noted it but perhaps you should pay as much attention to the sartorial style of Wright as his X’s and O’ philosophy.
Battle of the Big Men
It wasn’t Chamberlain-Russell, Abdul Jabbar-Chamberlain or Olajuwon-Shaq. It didn’t remind us of Shaq-Robinson or any of the Big man battles of the past those which became NBA legends. Those Big Men games of the past often had playoff implications Monday nights game was a regular season game. The Kings Boogie Cousins and the Sixers Joel Embiid faced off against one another. The Kings would be winners 102-100 thanks to the 30 points Cousins scored,
Cousins also forced Embiid to miss a 3-point basket at the end of the game which if successful would have won the game. Nevertheless Embiid had a strong game scoring 25 points in 29 minutes. After the game Cousins commended Embiid’s game saying; ‘I don’t give a lotta people props that kids got a great change to be the best Big Man in the game AFTER I retire.’ Sorry small-ball fans I’m old-fashion and prefer a Big Man game like this
Come back and see me…..
If Russell Westbrook is able to average a triple-double for the season it will be the first registered in the NBA since the days of the Big O. Here’s an interesting fact I checked basketball-reference.com and it indicates Oscar Robertson averaged a triple double not one time, not two times but a grand total of six times during his brilliant NBA career. No wonder the Big O might say ‘Come back and see me when you get close to my record.’ I’m placing words in Robertson’s mouth he never said such a thing I’m simply pointing out the difficulty of accomplishing this feat and the fact we appear to be so enamoured with just accomplishing it one time.
The new home
I was checking construction photos of Little Caesars Arena in Detroit and with most new arenas it looks impressive. As was noted earlier the arena is owned by the NHL Red Wings however Tom Gore Pistons owner announced his team will share the multi-use arena in downtown Detroit. The seating for basketball at Little Caesars will be slightly less then the Palace at Auburn Hills but will hold 21,000 fans. The ‘palaces‘ continue to be built across the NBA landscape, Sacramento opened the Golden 1 arena this season Milwaukee will open an arena for the Bucks in time for the 2018-19 season.
Construction might be moved up but it appears the Warriors will move into the Chase Center for the 2019-20 season. The Target Center in Minneapolis opened in 1990; it’s undergoing renovation in three phases. The last phase will be completed by the summer of 2017. In the same vein of the movie Field of Dreams a group of Seattle investors are saying ‘Build it and they will come‘. An NBA ready arena is planned although nothing official has been accomplished yet. Instead of building an arena in Los Angeles it might be more conducive for Steve Ballmer to move the Clippers to his home town.
