Basketball from a fans perspective

Skip Bayless is a clown!

There are times I'm really unsure what Skip Bayless is all about.  Is he an entertainer or a member of the media?  I've seen and heard from him less frequently now that he works for FS1, I indicated earlier I don't watch Fox Sports much.  For years on ESPN's First Take I listened to him ramble on and on and on.  

"If Gordon Hayward is gone, maybe for the season, Lebron's path to losing a sixth final gets even easier."  That was the first tweet sent out by Tweedle Dumb in response to Hayward breaking his ankle.  Hayward's basketball career in jeopardy and this is the first response from Bayless, something is seriously wrong with that type of response from this man.  I guess this is his continuing effort along with Stephen A. Smith to continue stirring the "pot of controversy."

"Close the border"

Otto Porter Jr. and Bradley Beal share a connection beyond being Wizard teammates.  Both are rising stars in the NBA, please note I didn't say All-Stars it was rising.  It wasn't college Porter Jr. was at Georgetown and Beal at Florida.  Both are from the Show Me State-Missouri.  Porter born in St. Louis but grew up in Sikeston about 150 miles south of St. Louis.  The St. Louis born Beal attended Chaminade Prep in Creve Coeur in St. Louis County. 

At the time both were in high school Mizzou was listed as a possible destination although I believed it was highly unlikely.  My observation turned out to be correct as both left the state.  It would be too much to expect Cuonzo Martin to "close the border" and recruit as many talented athletes in Missouri as possible.  Nothing is guaranteed athletes are going to be drawn to many of the high-profile programs across the nation.  I don't speak for the coach but I'd certainly like to see a portion of the future talent in the state like Porter Jr. and Beal remain at home. 

Change

The world has changed forever, much as some of us desire we cannot stop change.  We must attempt to adjust to it as best possible.  Think about movies for a moment consider the advances made in the industry just in the last 15 years, in this instance I’m referring to the technology portion.  As for others they desire to return to the nostalgic time period of the 1950’s.  At the time the NBA instituted the age 19 and 1 year after high school they had no idea, this would change the basketball landscape forever.  Kids had been leaving college for the ABA and the NBA for a while that’s not exactly a new thing.    

The one and done rule forced many athletes to play one year of college basketball either at a U.S. college or overseas in one of many pro leagues.  Over the years we’ve had mix results, for every LeBron James or Kobe Bryant we also had Robert Swift and Kwame Brown.  The NBA commissioner indicates he wants to explore change and I’ve long held the belief change is required.  We use the term student-athlete however a few athletes have no desire to place student in front of their name. This is not to say they have no desire to acquire knowledge the athletic allows them to stand apart from other students.  We cannot return to the ‘50’s but maybe the NBA and the colleges could begin addressing this issue and come to an acceptable conclusion for both parties. 

Bits n Pieces

I’m not exactly sure how this works out what do you think?  The Sixers want to place a minute’s restriction on Joel Embiid on the court.  The fewer minutes on the court the less likelihood of injury but that’s the problem.  By now despite his limited time on the court we’ve discovered Embiid is quite competitive, I’ve come to believe if there was any way he could have been on the court sooner than last season he would have been there.  I’m going to check the next few weeks box scores to see if the Sixers stick to the commitment. 

Rick Pitino wants to be paid, his attorney intends to file a lawsuit against Adidas to recover money.  It’s been reported Pitino is/was one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball with an annual salary estimated at $7 million dollars a year.  I’m going to spare you the legalese the party of the first part stuff and simply say he wants his money.  Adidas must believe they were in the right to void this personal services contract, we shall see how the court views this matter eventually. 

I’m watching the Spurs-Wolves and Mark Jones mentioned Pau Gasol and his brother Marc.  I thought for a moment there have been several brother combos are there any other active brothers?  There are Marcus and Markieff Morris, the Plumlee brothers Miles and Mason.  Then we have Brook and Robin Lopez plus Jrue and Justin Holiday, If I missed any brothers it was unintentional.