Basketball from a fans perspective
‘Fear the Beard’ or ……….'
I know fans have used the phrase; ‘Fear the Beard’ I have another name for James Harden its Captain Obvious. The captain in this instance is the guy from those Hotels. COM commercials, Harden doesn‘t look anything like him Captain Obvious has a beard too although no where close to Harden‘s. In any event The Beard or Capt Obvious had a game for the ages Saturday night.
In 46 minutes Harden led the way for the Rockets in a 129-122 victory over the Knicks. The 6-5 Harden had 53 points 16 rebounds and 17 assists, he was 14-26 from the floor a sizzling .538 from the floor. The ESPN.com NBA page claims Harden’s points and assist total 95 points the most scored by a single player other than Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in NBA history.
Good interview versus bad
I try to be a man of my word; for the most part I’ve avoided local sports talk radio, ESPN, CBS and Fox Network talk programs. I did stop recently when the substitute hosts Jon “Stugotz” Weiner and Mike Golic Jr. for Mike & Mike indicated they had George Karl on the program to discuss his upcoming book. Since this was my first opportunity to hear the words directly from Karl’s mouth I stopped channel surfing. Karl said he intended to ‘Write a book guys would sit around the bar drinking beer and eating chicken wings. There was no intent to be controversial.’
The co-hosts admitted after Karl hung up they liked him. They spoke of Karl’s honesty and how he’s not going to dodge answering any question. They concluded an interview accomplishes nothing by essentially placing a guest on the hot seat. What do you think is the best type of interview? If you like the party you are intending to interview can you perform the job effectively?
Another account
Writer Bill Simmons wrote a stylish account on the emergence of the new NBA Big Men. He included three players I omitted however I’ll stick up for myself by stating my focus was on centers. As for the three I agree with Simmons they are rising stars to the Big Men Club. Simmons profiled 6-10 (or 6-11) Anthony Davis of the Pelicans, 6-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks and 7-3 Kristaps Porzingis of the Knicks. The three are power forwards for their respective teams. So we can add them to the Big Man team of Boogie Cousins, Hassan Whiteside, Karl-Anthony Towns. Honorable mention goes to Andre Drummond, Rudy Gobert and DeAndre Jordan.
No diggity, no doubt
Debate raged among fans who were the first Euro in the NBA, who was the first Asian in the NBA. No doubt we know the first player from the African continent. His name is Hakeem ‘The Dream‘ Olajuwon, born in Lagos Nigeria he came to the U.S. in 1980 to play for the University of Houston Cougars. Hakeem did not grow up playing basketball it was soccer (football for many), he did not begin playing basketball until he was 17-years old.
Raw might not provide you a clear picture of how little Hakeem knew about the game that would become his life work. Lacking basketball savvy Hakeem had one advantage his soccer training provided him, he developed keen footwork. The “Dream Shake” he developed around the basket was a direct result of his soccer training. His basketball accomplishments especially in the NBA are far too numerous to mention for fear of an oversight on this writers part. He spent 17 years of his sterling NBA career as a member of the Houston Rockets; he’s enshrined in the FIBA and Naismith Hall of Fame.
