Basketball from a fans perspective

Small ball…bah humbug

No argument from me the Warriors have certainly made small-ball the style to play however on Christmas day we witnessed a return to the Big Man’s game.  I’m referring to the Sixers-Knicks battle at Madison Square Garden, the Sixers were led by 7-foot Joel Embiid.  Leading the way for the Knicks was 6-11 Enes Kanter and 7-3 Kristaps Porzingis.  Side note it’s easy to see why Kanter is playing and Joakim Noah has found a permanent seat on the bench, the Sixers were winners 105-98.

Joel Embiid 25 points 16 rebounds 3 assists 3 blocked shots

Enes Kanter 31 points 22 rebounds

Kristaps Porzingis 22 points 7 rebounds 5 blocked shots

No one player is a team Embiid was capably assisted by teammates J.J. Redick with 25 points and T.J. McConnell's 15 points.  

Conference play

The Tigers of Mizzou are off until next Wednesday January 3.  They play in that other Columbia the one located in South Carolina as SEC play begins.  There remain unanswered questions as league play begins the chief one is the exceeding high numbers of turnovers even in victory.  Coaching staffs in preparation will see this as a dent in the armor of the Tigers. 

The fix is______, who becomes the reliable steady point guard.  He steps up prepared to run the offense smoothly and limit the number of turnovers.  I hope you noticed I left the space blank because I’m unsure who Coach Martin moves into that spot.  I believe the offense will take care of itself once the point guard issue is resolved…. besides the fact generally the team has shot well from the floor. 

I’m going to check

USA Today contained a photo and story of Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s visit to the Chase Center under construction.  The 18,00-seat arena in San Francisco is scheduled to open in time for the 2019 NBA season.  I read an article recently by a bay area writer and he took the Warriors to task for this move.  Many know the story; the Warriors have moved from arena to arena throughout the bay area with no permanent home since their 1962 move from Philadelphia.  This writer indicated until the team moved to Oakland they basically had no fan base, the residents of east bay are that. 

They have one of the loudest arenas in the NBA containing rabid loyal fans.  This writer claims these are the “good days” two championships in the last three years.  He questions what occurs should the Warriors come back to earth, will those attending games in San Francisco maintain the loyalty of those in the east bay.  There are factors which cannot be fully detailed for years.  All we can say is this writer must represent many fans who are not pleased with the prospect of a new arena especially in San Francisco.     

Were they really the “good ol days”?

I listened briefly to a discussion on sports talk radio last week.  The host was discussing when tuning into a broadcast now you have no idea who the broadcaster might be.  In addition, you might not even be familiar with him or her.  You turned on the CBS telecast on Saturday morning/afternoon it was Verne Lundquist, Brent Musberger or Jim Nantz or some other name you might be familiar with.  I didn’t listen to the balance of the discussion, so I have no idea if they reached the conclusion I’m about to discuss. 

The advent of ESPN and other sports networks has expanded the broadcast field substantially.  The networks cannot rely on 5 or 6 broadcasters based on coverage.  During the basketball season there are games played every day of the week, no way can a small number be expected to handle the workload.  The old days of Lundquist, Musberger or Nantz are history, they represented broadcasting college basketball in the good ol days.  The other matter with the expanded number of games being televised it provides younger media talent to begin broadcast careers.