Basketball from a fans
perspective
How bout this
SEC
rivals South Carolina are both located in Columbia. No not the same state, Columbia Missouri home
of the Tigers and Columbia South Carolina home to the Gamecocks. I’m unsure if this exists anyplace else in
the nation. As for the main topic Mizzou
played Wagner College from the Northeast Conference last night.
Still no
Michael Porter Jr. who remains sidelined with the hip injury. No Michael Porter Jr. no matter as they beat
up the Wagner Seahawks 99-55. If there
is one negative it might be the point guard although Kassius Robertson led the
way with 23 points shooting .700 from the floor, yes that figure is correct.
Robertson is a shooting guard converted by the head coach.
Now we have clarity
The basis
for the verbal attack on rookie Frank Ntilikina by LeBron James is now clear. The first portion of the story LeBron knows Dennis Smith Jr. personally (drafted
by the Mavs) and the real story. LeBron claims
this was a slam at the departed Knicks GM and President Phil Jackson. We know LeBron has an issue with Phil Jackson
from last year, Phil had made a comment last year about LeBron’s “posse” which
LeBron didn’t appreciate. I believe then
and I do now Phil was wrong to refer to those around LeBron as a posse. To further this account, I believe LeBron is just
as wrong now. He’s mistaken now because Ntilikina
is only a part of the problem its Phil, why didn’t he just say that in the
first place?
No doctor needed
For the
immediate future I’m going to believe in Magic Johnson, I posed the question if
the Lakers needed a “shot doctor” for Lonzo Ball. I reminded you the account of my former
co-worker who once worked as a track coach.
Magic indicates he’s “got no plans to change Lonzo’s shot during the
season.” This is another story I’m going
to avoid discussing in the future. I
know I said that about LaVar Ball too but sometimes you wind up slipping back
into an area you said; “I ain’t going there.”
I’ve
mentioned this previously I’m sometimes unsure if a writer truly believes in
the content of their words or simply an exercise to promote chaos. There are several in the media who operate
with creating chaos and might not truly believe what they write or state over
the airwaves. I want to admit I didn’t
read the article only the headline, simply stated it attempted to point out Kentucky
basketball was overrated under John Calipari.
I’m not
here to defend Calipari only question the purpose of the article. I checked Kentucky’s won loss record under Cal,
they are 249–53 (.825) in
the regular season and 111–27 (.804) in the SEC. His Wildcat teams have won one NCAA
Championship, finished twice as an Elite Eight team, twice in the Final Four,
NCAA Runner up and NIT First Round. His
2011-12 team finished 38-2 and the 2014-15 team was 38-1. I guess it’s up to me to go back and read the
article to understand the objective.
Never again
In the past we
covered the “minor league” days of the NBA, small cities that once represented
the NBA. The NBA located from these
cities years ago however there are other larger metro areas besides Kansas City
that will never again see an NBA team representing their city. One of those cities is Buffalo (NY) the Braves
were an expansion team arriving in Upstate New York in 1970. The Braves came into the NBA the same year
the expansion Blazers and Cavs began play.
Winning solves
everything unfortunately that would not be the case for the Braves, there were
only three plus .500 seasons in the eight years they played in Buffalo. I’ve often stated my belief the NHL and the
NBA are two winter sports you either favor the NHL or NBA and not both. That might have proven to not be correct in
Buffalo the NHL Sabers came into existence the same year as the Braves. Maybe in a larger market the NBA might have
survived however that might be questionable with the cities proximity to
Canadian NHL teams. In any event Buffalo,
like Kansas City and Cincinnati are larger metro areas the NBA abandon and will
never return.
