Basketball from a fans perspective
Did you know........
The Kings might have never arrived in Kansas City had history played out differently. Allow a brief explanation; the American Basketball Association began play in the fall of 1967. Kansas City had been awarded one of the 11 franchises in the new league. The unnamed team never played here moving to Denver where they were named the Larks and later Nuggets.
In 1976 the NBA merged and added four ABA teams the Spurs, Nets, Pacers and Nuggets to it‘s number. In 1972 the Kings moved from Cincinnati (OH) to Kansas City but that’s not how the story ends. A number of ABA franchises were dissolved and the players dispersed throughout the NBA, Kansas City could have easily been in the number of franchisees that disappeared.
The Ivy League
Oftentimes we discuss the lack of academic progress of student-athletes. We might question that for a number of conferences except one------The Ivy League. The Ivy League awards no athletic scholarships despite this fact there have been a number of NBA players from the conference. Currently Jeremy Lin of the Nets represents the only current Ivy League player, Lin graduated from Harvard University. The name Bill Bradley might be familiar to many from his terms as U.S. Senator from New Jersey, much earlier Bradley played forward for the Knicks and was an NBA Champion.
Dollar Bill as he was nicknamed is enshrined in the Naismith and College Basketball Hall of Fame. Although Bradley is the only Ivy League HOF player there are several others with successful NBA carriers. Chris Dudley (Yale) had a 16-year career with a several NBA teams. Jim McMillan (Columbia) most productive years were spent as a member of the Lakers; he was an NBA Champion with the ‘72 Lakers. Rudy LaRusso (Dartmouth) was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers and was partnered with Elgin Baylor for several years once the team moved to Los Angeles. These are but a few of the academics who managed NBA careers.
“Young” Wolves pups
We believed last years Wolves were good, they would be improved under new Coach Tom Thibodeau. Not satisfied with last year Coach Thibs fingerprints are all over the off-season moves made by the Wolves. The Bulls drafted Creighton center Justin Patton however his rights were later traded to the Wolves. The 7-foot Patton will play in a crowded Wolves
front-court. As for the point guard it appeared Coach Thibs was not a fan of Ricky Rubio hence the point guard was traded after the season to the Jazz. As for the balance of moves through the end of August Taj Gibson was brought on board to play the power forward position.
Jeff Teague and Jimmy Butler were added at the point and shooting guard positions. The Wolves also picked up 59-year old Jamal Crawford who will play a reserve role. Youngsters Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns remain at small forward and center respectively. Can the “new” Wolves blend successfully with the holdovers? The Wolves will be vastly improved in 2017-18 and they move ahead of the Clippers in the Western Conference playoff picture. NOTE: I was joking about Crawford he’s 37-years old but remains an expert marksman.
“The shoe is on the other foot”
This isn’t that complicated at least for me, I have stated for quite awhile I’m no LeBron fan. I believe he’s the best basketball player in the world but I don’t root for him or against him. I have two acquaintances one in particular loves to give me the blues about Kobe Bryant. Whatever Kobe did was 10 times worst because Kobe did it.
“He ran Shaq out of town” or “He shoots too much” or “He’s not a good teammate.” A strange occurrence with the Kyrie Irving news particularly he doesn’t want to play in LeBron’s shadow. I waited for one or both to make a statement, with no response I sent them a nice email asking for their thoughts. That was three days ago and still no response, I’m beginning to believe they are not going to answer me what do you think?
