Basketball from a fans perspective
Division I officially now
Sunday night I read the Grand Canyon Antelopes are now a full-fledged Division I basketball program. The school has been a member of the WAC Conference and played a D-1 schedule but still required NCAA certification which has now occurred. The Phoenix (AZ) school is coached by former Suns player “Thunder” Dan Majerle, his team finished last season 22-9. GCU began its program as an NAIA affiliate moved to NCAA Division II until 2013.
What to do
By now you’ve read the Cavs-Celtics trade has developed a difficulty. The Cavs indicate Isaiah Thomas’s hip has not healed to a point of satisfaction. How does this play out, the Cavs could accept the trade if the Celtics were to allow another player or draft choice(s) are added. At the same time the Celtics could emphatically say no, what occurs then? The trade becomes null and void, all players return to the team that traded them. Returning to a team that dealt you could create further problems.
The only instance I could think of occurred a number of years ago. Spurs television analyst Sean Elliott faced this issue while a member of the team. Elliott was “traded” to the Rockets in the 1994 season however the trade was voided when he failed his physical. Elliott returned to the Spurs and played the remainder of his career a member of the Spurs. NOTE: After this was written I read a report indicating the Cavs have requested either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown.
Porter siblings
LaVar Ball has been quite vocal regarding his basketball playing sons. In the middle of the nation far less vocal has been Michael Porter Sr. Sure you’ve aware of sons’ Michael Jr. and Jontay but there are others. There are three sisters and five brothers and the entire family is athletic. Behind Jr. and Jontay is Coban who is entering his sophomore year of high school.
Coban is a 6-3 170 pound guard and Class of 2020 prospect. Although we can make no claim of his basketball talent he too is following in the footsteps of his older brothers. Will Coban follow his brothers to Mizzou, is he even talented enough? With brothers standing 6-9 and 6-10 has Coban completed his growth cycle? Those and other questions will be answered at some future date.
Bits n Pieces
I’m unsure if it’s the growth of social media or something else. Consider this tidbit, at the time Hornets management decided to change the team name to Pelicans all sorts of jokes and condemnation was registered by NBA fans. In 2008 with the franchise move to Oklahoma the Sonic name would remain in Seattle. What do the owners do they name the team Thunder. What could be more generic and basically strange about that name? Calm down OKC folks I’m talking about the team name not your city.
I guess I’ll forget the idea, remember I questioned why we compare a prospect to a known NBA player. I concluded we do this because it gives us an idea what we believe the talent level of the prospect. With that said here we go again, ESPN’s Jeff Goodman compares Marvin Bagley III to Chris Bosh.
Mizzou freshman Blake Harris’s jersey number is 55. I didn’t realize the connection until I saw a video. His father is former NFL veteran Bernardo Harris, Harris played for the Packers and Ravens retiring in 2003. As for Blake he’s a 6-3 point guard and ESPNU 4-star athlete in the Class of 2017.
