Basketball from a fans perspective
“Got a few dollars to spare?“
Actually it’s more like a reported $500 million dollars to be exact. Mikhail Prokhorov majority owner of the Nets is conducting a sale. His 49% of the team is being placed on the market; we guess a portion of this involves Barclays Center too. This is the second time Prokhorov’s indicated his desire to sell and there are two keys.
One being the price for 49% of the time and two who really desires to own an NBA team?
There are a couple of names that come to mind, Chris Hansen however his interest lie in returning the NBA to Seattle. The second name is media mogul Oprah Winfrey; could Oprah decide to purchase the Nets? This shouldn’t be a total surprise you might remember she and partners were in the bidding process at the time the Clippers were on the market.
“Should the Lakers trade for Carmelo Anthony?”
The headline from the fan website jumped off the page at me. Jamas, non, het, nein, hapana I searched the web and that’s NO in a number of different languages. Why not Carmelo you ask? Age, he’s 32 technically not old but a great deal of mileage on those knees. In addition to 15 years of NBA play Anthony’s played in four Olympics, one World Championship and one Americas Championship. Black-hole, you know in outer space everything going into a black-hole disappears never to be seen again.
As talented as Carmelo is he slows down and in some instances inhibits all together the Knicks offense. Talent, due to Carmelo’s huge contract the Lakers would be forced to give up a great deal of their young talent to have Carmelo for two maybe three productive years. Trading a D’Angelo Russell or a Julius Randle could work, trading two or three of these youngsters for Carmelo no way. Despite the negatives regarding Carmelo’s game if this offer had been on the table 5 or 6 years ago I might say yes do the deal-----in 2017 it’s a completely different matter.
A societal issue
Time to time I believe there are social issues which impact basketball, this is one of those. I have no desire to confiscate anyone’s gun; I have a problem with anyone who believes they have a NEED to carry a firearm into a sporting event or a hospital for that matter. Next door to us in Kansas it’s okay to carry weapons practically everyplace, in Missouri its almost the same with certain exceptions. The Regents for the State of Kansas decided to ban concealed weapons in the states largest arenas despite the view of the legislature.
Kansas, Kansas State and Wichita State will ban concealed weapons next season during games. Before a number of gun owners begin boycotting Words eye view note need I remind you of my statement at the top of this piece, I have no desire to take anyone’s gun? I believe with the security in place at these arenas why is there a need for anyone to require protection watching Kansas, Kansas State or Wichita State play? My question for the Kansas Legislature is law enforcement not required at basketball games in your state?
New coaches in new places
At one time serving as head coach of a college team your job was somewhat secure. Don‘t misunderstand since the beginning of the game coaches have been terminated, in the last several years it’s become more prevalent. Although I don‘t believe it occurred this past season I can recall at least two coaches replaced in the middle of the season.
This count is unofficial in October or whenever practice begins 11 new coaches will be in place. The majority (Cuonzo Martin and John Groce) have prior head coaching experience. Others such as Wyking Jones at Cal have served in the assistant capacity but this will be the first as a head coach. It appears pressure by alumni and administration plus students sometime make for an unpredictable mix.
