Basketball from a fans perspective
Published Monday through Friday
NBA Summer League
Teams in the Orlando portion of the league began play on Saturday July 1. Four teams were played on Saturday and Sunday saw three more teams in action. Monday evening the Salt Lake portion of Summer League kicked off, games are available on NBA TV and ESPN3.
Social media
This is one of those stories I believe I provide credence by writing about it. False and inaccurate news reports have existed since the Guttenberg printing press. I exaggerate but I hope you get my point; there is often no method to verify the authenticity of an account. The brother of 6-11 Mohamed Bamba highly touted Texas recruit has placed his brother “on blast.” His brother is claiming (via social media) Bamba has accepted financial compensation which would deem Bamba “ineligible to play this fall.”
The brother indicates he reported this information to the NCAA previously. I didn’t fall off the “turnip truck” yesterday, illegal activity as it relates to recruiting have existed for years. At times I’ve been rather critical of the NCAA however it’s the investigative arm of the body we must look toward clarification. I one question for the brother, if you reported this information earlier to the NCAA why is the social media portion necessary? I will provide an NCAA follow up but no further words regarding older brother and his claims.
“What did he say? “
One of the local television stations Sunday night programming is a sports panel. At 10:30 this panel of three sports personalities along with the host discusses a number of sports topics for the most part covering metro interest. The war of words between Kansas and Missouri sports interest has come up once again. During the discussion one of the panel indicated; “Kansas going to the Big 10 in a few years will resolve the issue Kansas and Mizzou will renew their rivalry.” My immediate response sitting alone was “what did he say?” The Big 12 was about to implode (Colorado and Nebraska were gone) Mizzou and Texas A&M had given notice.
A story was circulating Kansas was exploring a move, the Big 10 was mentioned as a possibility. The report also indicated the conference was reluctant since the school’s football program was so poor. A number of Kansas fans don’t appreciate this but the true revenue generator at most large universities is football not basketball. It’s great if a school has a successful basketball program such as Kansas however a conference might be looking for more. Since 2012-13 the football program at Kansas has continued to be sub-par. I realize Kansas fans don’t appreciate hearing negative stories regarding their sports programs but I’m just stating the facts. The panelist was joking about Kansas moving to the Big 10 wasn’t he?
Who’s he?
I checked out several 2018 NBA Mock Draft sites; all but two that I checked have Mizzou’s Michael Porter Jr. as the number one pick. SB Nation and Bleacher Report and there might be place Luka Doncic in the top spot for 2018. This is where our Euro friends have an advantage over those of us in the U.S. Doncic has been playing for Real Madrid since 2015; he’s a 6-7 combo guard from Ljubljana Slovenia.
I decided to see if I could locate video of Doncic in action because I wasn‘t familiar with him either. Googled his name and located him in action on YouTube. Mock draft and the real thing can certainly change by next June but it could prove interesting. According to my research an International player was chosen in 2006 Andre Bargnani from Italy by the Raptors and 2002 Yao Ming from China by the Rockets. There are others we could consider International however they attended college in the U.S. prior to being drafted. .
