Basketball from a fans perspective                                                                                         
5-4-3-2-1
That‘s the countdown on the sale of the Houston Rockets, in mid-July owner Leslie Alexander announced he intended to place a for sale sign on his team.  A number of individuals were mentioned as potential owners a number with celebrity attached to their name.  Although not official yet it’s been announced Tilman Feritta has purchased the team for a reported $2.2 billion dollars.  

Feritta owns Landry Restaurants and the Golden Nugget Casino and Hotels, this sale also includes operation of the Toyota Center.  What I find most interesting if the NBA Board of Governors approve the sale is the swiftness of the sale.  I continue to hear naysayer’s claim “Nobody is watching the NBA.”  As for them all I can say is provide us proof, it’s easy to make incendiary statements give us proof.  The NBA certainly cannot match the NFL or even MLB in numbers of fans however they are there.  

“The truth is out there”
Fans to the Sci-Fi series X-Files are familiar with the title above; it’s associated with the television series.  I ask the question if you “have the truth” and no method to document it or no witnesses how truthful is it.  Twice in the last three weeks Stephen A. Smith’s made statements on First Take regarding separate issues I can find no proof of its accuracy.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not calling Smith a purveyor of inaccuracies I have issues ‘providing the truth” but nothing more than your word.  

I’ll clue you in on the subject; Smith and co-host Max Kellerman were discussing the possible future eligibility of Melo Ball.  Smith claimed “Greg Anthony was not on scholarship one year while playing at UNLV.  He was making enough money to pay for his tuition, room and board. The NCAA couldn’t touch him because Anthony wasn’t on scholarship.”  Smith reasoning is the NCAA can’t touch Melo if he’s not on scholarship (which might be true).  The issue for me I searched the Internet and couldn’t locate any source to authenticate Smith’s statement regarding Anthony.  .  

America a winner
The United States won the FIBA Americup Championship.  The USA team had to overcome a 20-point deficient in order to win its game against Argentina.  Final score was 81-76, too bad nobody witnessed Jeff Van Gundy leading Team USA to victory.  The game was available on ESPNU however the games were not heavily advertised.  

Kobe haters
I long ago conceded Kobe Bryant like all of us is imperfect.  It was evident Kobe was the principle reason Shaq was traded to Miami.  I’m not going to re-hash the history since both are now retired. I want to focus on Kyrie Irving-LeBron James which is current.  For years it seems Kobe haters would constantly want to remind me “Kobe ran Shaq out of town etc…etc…” was the direction of the of the conversation.  

I didn’t argue with them because their statement was correct but the constant reminders of the Kobe-Shaq feud begin to bother me.  Fast forward to the summer of 2017, Kyrie Irving says “He wants to be the man” and wants his own team.  He’s traded to the Celtics and admits he’s not held any conversation with LeBron.  I’ve tried over and over to get a comment from the LeBron fans to no avail…..they don’t want to talk about it.  How come they want to always discuss Kobe with me but refuse to discuss LeBron?