Basketball from a fans perspective
NBA Summer League
As the calendar approaches Jun and then Jul we began looking toward NBA Summer League play. Rookies plus a number of second year players will gather to work on various aspects of their game. Over the next few weeks we witness an NBA Champion being crowned, the NBA Draft and Summer League basketball. Action begins in Orlando July 1-6 followed by action in Utah July 3-6. Play will conclude with 24 teams competing in Las Vegas Jul 7-17.
Is it possible?
99 NBA fans out of 100 probably think free-agent Chris Paul will sign an extension with the Clippers. The point guard becomes a free-agent July 1 and at 32 might be looking at one more max contract before retirement. The Clippers can afford to pay far more than the Spurs should the Texas team consider going after Paul. According to ESPN the Clippers could sign Paul to a $205 million 5-year contract versus the $152 million the Spurs could waive in front of his face. Both teams (Clippers & Spurs) are old by NBA standards; the question becomes which team has the best playoff advantage? It should be interesting to see how this story plays out over the next several weeks and months.
In state rivalry
There is no clear explanation why Kansas State and Kansas refuse to play Wichita State. To a degree I can understand the refusal by Kansas they gain little in winning folks will say they should have won, losing the game shame on you for losing to a Valley (now AAC) team. Kansas basketball is the crème de la crème of college basketball and they have no need to play Wichita State unless it’s in the NCAA as occurred several years back.
As for Kansas State that’s a different story, sorry alum and fans of the program the Wildcats profile is not as extensive or as impressive as in-state rival Kansas Jayhawks. This play schedule might change at least for Kansas State, according to the Kansas City Star Bruce Weber is now considering scheduling Wichita State. He further indicated he believed K-State needed a presence in the City of Wichita. The newspaper pointed out the two schools haven’t met since 2003.
The NBA on television
The National Football League traces its explosion in popularity to television. Although television has been key to the growth of the NBA it may have began on a slower pace as the NBA moved back and forth between a number of broadcast networks. The 1953-54 season saw the Dumont Network (now defunct) telecast a 13 game Saturday afternoon package. Due to the limited number of stations in 1954-55 the NBA moved to the NBC Network games would be telecast through the 1962 season.
In 1965 ABC acquired the games and would hold them through 1973. 1973 would see the CBS Network acquired broadcast rights and would retain them until 1990. In 1990 NBC would enter the picture once again with broadcast rights through 2002. In the early ‘80’s the NBA began expanding viewer ship by expanding to cable television partners. First it was The USA Network covering 1981 through 1984, TBS from 1984 through 2002 and TNT from 1988 through the present time. ESPN began broadcasting game in 1983-1984 and then from 2002 until now.
NBA TV came on the air in 1999 and began selected telecasting games a number of years later. The present broadcast partners are ESPN/ABC, TNT and NBA TV. Between 1962-1965 no NBA television contract existed, at the time J. Walter Kennedy took over as NBA Commissioner securing another network broadcast contract was a chief goal. Expansion would occur while Kennedy was in charge but television, the all-seeing eye was his chief goal.
