Basketball from a fans perspective
It’s true
Bigfoot,
UFO’s, the Loch Nest Monster and the curse of the Sixers exist. You say you’ve heard or read of them except
for a Sixers curse. The condensed
version the Philadelphia 76ers top pick is drafted and almost immediately is
injured in some form or another. Check
this out Nerlens Noel (since traded to the Mavs) was the 6th pick in
the first round of the 2013 draft by the Pelicans and his rights were traded to
the Sixers….bam, injury he sits out a year.
In
2014 it was Joel Embiid the 3rd pick in the first round,…. bam,
bam he plays in 31 games in 2016 his first extended NBA play since being
drafted. 2016 Ben Simmons was made the number one pick by those Sixers and then
bam….bam and bam he’s injured forced to sit out last season. Last June with a choice of either Lonzo Ball
or Markelle Fultz the Sixers chose Fultz.
I just saw a crawl on NBA TV, he’s out for the next three weeks as his
injured shoulder is being evaluated.
Seriously I don’t believe in Big Foot or the Loch Nest Monster however
more and more I’m becoming convinced there is such a thing as a Sixers curse.
The NBA draft
I think I’ve made my position known,
high school players should be allowed in the NBA draft once
again. The one and done rule is not
going to be changed in the next few years however until its changed it’s the “law
of the land.” Apart from Thon Maker in 2016 the last high school player to
enter the NBA was in 2005. I looked at
the NBA draft through the eyes of NBADraft.net,
in 2018 the site indicates Mizzou’s Michael Porter Jr. will be the top
choice. I also checked the 2019 mock,
number 26 Jeremiah Tilmon and number 30 Jontay Porter.
Naturally my preference would be
all three remain at Mizzou however I’m a realist all three could be history by
June of 2018. As a Mizzou fan my hope is
at least two of the three returns for their sophomore year. Naturally I will be disappointed whatever the
case might be, I’m a prime believer in higher education however I don’t believe
classroom space should be reserved for athletes whose only desire is to play in
the NBA. Those words might be considered
strong in some circles but that’s my belief.
Big guards
Former Knicks president Phil
Jackson has always had a liking for big guards.
With the Bulls it was MJ and Ron Harper, Harper would later play for
Jackson with the Lakers. The Lakers had
a big guard named Kobe Bryant by the time Jackson arrived. Fast forward to the 2017 draft, the Knicks
would make Frank Ntilikina (ni-LEE-kin-e) the 8th pick in the first
round. The 6-5 guard has a 7-foot
wingspan which Phil probably believe could successfully translate well to the
triangle offense.
Two issues would occur impacting
this thought, Phil Jackson agreed to leave the Knicks meaning the triangle
would be history. Item 2 was a series of
injuries which delayed his progress once he arrived on our shores. Ntilikina was born in Belgium but grew up in
France, his parents emigrated from the African nation of Rwanda. Another rookie to spot check during the
season unless you are a Knicks fan.
A buyer…….located finally
We figured eventually Nets owner
Mikhail Prokhorov would locate a buyer for his team, this proposed sale is in
the preliminary stage and the NBA is yet to approve it. The initial information is this, Joseph Tsai
co-founder of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba will purchase 49 percent of
the Nets. This sale will include an
option to purchase controlling interest of the team in an unspecified
time-frame. Barclays Center is also part of the package, the sale price was not
announced but is likely to be based on the $2.3 billion dollars valuation of
the Nets.
Have I told you how________?
How much I hate the term
“Mid-Major”, I hear it applied every college basketball season and the hair on
the back of my neck tingles. The ESPN
headline read; “How Wichita State stopped being a mid-major.” The term is not valid in my view as an
example Southern Methodist University has a student enrollment of nearly 12,000
students but so does Notre Dame. The
difference SMU plays in the American Athletic Conference while Notre Dame plays
in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The
ACC along with several others is considered “major” while the AAC is considered
“mid-major.” As you can see it has
nothing to do with a school’s enrollment.
