Basketball from a fans perspective
Identified with the game
In the golden age of baseball there was Mel Allen, Red Barber and Phil Rizzuto and much later Harry Carey. Broadcasters identified by the sport they covered they may have reported other games but the aforementioned were identified with baseball. Although times have changed I still identify with broadcasters who cover basketball exclusively. Even that is not always correct as an example Kevin Harlan began his career broadcasting the games of the Kansas City Kings and later Kansas Jayhawks. Harlan later moved on to become the radio voice of the NFL Chiefs.
In more recent years Harlan became the voice of the T-Wolves and moved on to the NBA on the TNT Network and CBS College Basketball. Marv Albert also broadcast other sports but has long been identified with basketball. From 1976 through 2004 Albert was the voice of the Knicks. Albert covered the NBA for NBC when the network had the broadcast rights; he did this while performing the same role for TNT was he currently works. The Celtics and Lakers had legendary broadcasters for their teams, the late Johnny Most for the Celtics and the late Chick Hearn with the Lakers. These broadcasters and others have reported other sports but are more closely identified with basketball.
The schedule
Clippers at Lakers are one of the opening night games, no Chris Paul but the mixture of new teammates should be quite interesting for Blake Griffin and crew. The new look Lakers begin their quest to return to normalcy. As for Christmas December 25th the Warriors will serve as host for the Cavs while the Lakers also at home will play Karl-Anthony Towns and the T-Wolves. I can hardly wait; opening night is about 60 some days away, 30-45 days later college basketball begins as well. I’m getting hyped already and it’s just the middle of August.
New Uni's
Did you read NBA teams will no longer have home uniforms in 2017-18? The association is changing suppliers from Adidas to Nike and there are several big time changes. The uniforms are being made of a sweat absorbing fabric, weight fit and construction of the uniforms will be different. Science technology is utilized in the design of them in addition each team will have four changes.
Association (classic white)
Icon (team color)
Athletic mindset (whatever that is)
Community (locally inspired).
International basketball
As the season is being finalized the NBA will play games on foreign shores. The first game will find the Thunder facing the Heat in Mexico City that game will be played December 7. A month later on January 11 the Sixers will face the Celtics in London England. The NBA continues its marketing effort of the game to an expanding world-wide market.
Best of the best
The NBA page of CBSSports.com presented the best NBA player from each state in the union. In Missouri I raced ahead to discover they picked Jo Jo White which was no surprise to me. The St. Louis born White played at Kansas and spent the bulk of his 12-year career (1969-1981) playing for the Celtics. How good White you ask, the point guard was was a two-time NBA Champion and was elected to Naismith Hall of Fame. Next door in the State of Kansas CBSSports.com indicates Alvin Adams was the best ever.
I find this interesting he was born in Lawrence (KS) home of the Jayhawks. Adams grew up in Oklahoma played at the University of Oklahoma. He spent his 13-year career as a member of the Suns, Adams holds virtually every Suns scoring record. As for New York State I have a dispute, they chose Michael Jordan born in Brooklyn (NY) although he was raised in North Carolina. The NBA’s all-time scoring leader Kareem Abdul Jabbar was born in the borough of Manhattan, Kareem’s won as many (6) NBA Championships as MJ.
Brothers
I didn’t know but should have; I speak of the basketball Millers. I was aware of both but didn’t realize they were brothers; Sean is 10 years older than Archie. Sean has served as head coach at Arizona since 2009 previously he was head coach at Xavier from 2004 to the 2009 when he was hired by Arizona. Archie’s first head coaching position was at Dayton where he held the position from 2011 until his March 2017 hire by Indiana. The two schools have agreed to a three-year home and home series beginning in 2019.
This is a rare occurrence two brothers serving at the same time at Division I programs. An article I read pointed to the Sutton brothers’ time, Sean coaching at Oklahoma State while brother Scott served at Oral Roberts University. We have the Drew brothers Bryce at Vanderbilt and Scott at Baylor; we also have the Jones brothers James at Yale and Joe at Boston University. There are other brothers I might have omitted however there have been far more than I realize. I thought you might find this information interesting.
