Basketball from a fans perspective
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Another story
There are Laker stories that contain vampire qualities, everytime you believe you have driven "a stake through the heart" of the account it rises once again. Last week it was Byron Scott and his report being fired from the Lakers a year ago. This time its former Commissioner David Stern’s view of THE TRADE. Stern vetoed a trade which sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, him voiding the trade drastically affected life in Lakerland over the last past four years.
On two separate occasions the former NBA leader defended his part in the trade, today I read something unknown from then. Stern claims Laker GM Kupchak “panicked” over aspects of the trade. I’m not going to do a word for word or line for line re-cap of the Stern statement however my question why is he re-hashing this now? These actions took place in 2011 six years ago and I‘ve attempted to forget actions which have impacted the Lakers since then.
Montana
We say Montana and basketball is not you’re first thought. We think first of vacation, visits to Glacier or Yellowstone National Park. Tourism and travel are keys for Big Sky Country Montana certainly not basketball. The most famous former NBA player might be Phil Jackson born in Deer Lodge Montana. Jackson would play at his college ball at South Dakota State before spending the bulk of his NBA career as a member of the Knicks. PJ would later begin his coaching career under the tutelage of Red Holtzman then serving as head coach of the Knicks.
PJ led teams would win 11 NBA Championships, 6 with the Bulls and 5 with the Lakers. Since 2014 PJ has severed as President of the Knicks. Michael Ray Richardson grew up in Denver, from 1974-1978 Richardson played his college basketball at the University of Montana. He was drafted by the Knicks in 1978 but later played for the Warriors and New Jersey Nets. As for the collegiate level n Missoula is the University of Montana a Division I program and the Grizzlies compete in the Big Sky Conference. In the City of Bozeman is Montana State University also a member of the same conference. There is one Division II school in the state and six NAIA schools competing on the basketball court.
Wow
Now and again you come across one of those stories…..“He (she) didn’t really say that did they? “ This one involves former Tar Hell Rashad McCants who was drafted by the Wolves in 2005; I remember his time at Carolina more than his NBA years. He played until 2009 with the Wolves and that last season with the Kings. He continues to play at 32 but its minor league basketball. McCants first made off the court news in 2014 when he announced he’d taken phony classes at Carolina and tutors had written much of his class work.
Although McCants made the claim he never backed up his story to the NCAA which contacted him. He’s made news once again in Bleacher Report with this headline; “Former NBA player Rashad McCants thinks Khole Kardashian Hurt Pro Career.” He claims the NBA blackballed him because of a past relationship with reality star Khole Kardashian. We don’t know the complete story however it’s highly unlikely a reality television personality is the basis for McCants short 4-year NBA career.
Wanna play, I’m not sure
We focus on North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville and Duke. Those basketball programs and other compete every season for an NCAA Championship. A number of schools continue to play basketball but certainly nowhere near the level they once did. San Francisco University of USF is the first school that comes to mind. Bill Russell and company winning back to back NCAA Championships in the ‘50’s placed the program in rarefied air which continued for a number of years.
The school remained competitive until the 1980’s when NCAA violations and a Self-Imposed Death Penalty witnessed the decline of big-time basketball at the school. The Loyola Ramblers won the 1963 NCAA Championship, the Chicago team played competitive basketball until the late ‘60’s. Since that time the program under a succession of coaches has only been a little better than average. There are likely other schools missed in this report these two are the focus however they are are not the only schools to downgrade their programs.
