Basketball from a fans perspective
We don’t need no NFL…. today belongs to us!
December 25 is
Christmas for many throughout the nation and the world, I say Merry Christmas to
all who celebrate to you and your family.
I remember in 2011 consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote a letter to then
Commissioner Stern asking the NBA to curb scheduling games on Christmas
Day. Nader’s reasoning didn’t make a
great deal of sense below is the letter:
“I urge you to
reconsider the Christmas day NBA overload in a spirit of decency, regard and
recognition as to how this will disrupt family gatherings throughout the day
with predictable arguments between children and parents about watching the
games instead of spending quality time with siblings, parents, relatives and
friends.”
Never been in
arguments in my household how about yours?
Forget I even mentioned this it didn’t make a great deal of sense in
2011 and it doesn’t now. In any event the NBA schedule is full. Below are the teams playing start time and
network.
Sixers at Knicks
11:00 a.m. Central ESPN
Cavs at Warriors
2:00 p.m. Central ABC
Wizards at Celtics
4:30 p.m. Central ABC
Rockets at Thunder
7:00 p.m. Central ABC
Wolves at Lakers
9:30 p.m. Central TNT
They were still Kings
It’s been discussed
the Kings were not very good during the 13 seasons Kansas City was home. They finished above .500 only four times
while here and the of those most games they won in any one season was 48. Despite the poor team record and even poorer
draft choices the Kansas City edition of the Kings had several outstanding players,
this is my Top Five best of the best.
Leading the way is Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald, he’s in the Naismith Hall of
Fame, need I say anymore. Talking about
records that will never be tied or eclipsed Archibald holds one of the
records. In the 1973 season he led the
NBA in scoring (34.0) and assists (11.38).
It just so happens he might have been the first combo guard in the
NBA.
No doubt center Sam
Lacey is the second best to wear a Kansas City Kings jersey. The 6-10 Lacey played
tough defense on the best of centers of that period which include Kareem Abdul
Jabbar, Dave Cowens and Nate Thurmond to name just a few. Lacey was quite skillful at passing the
basketball, in one season he averaged 5.7 assists leading NBA centers in that
category. Scott Wedman arrived in the
NBA from Colorado, Wedman would go on to play a significant role with the Kings. What happened, with free-agency pending the
Kings could not afford to keep both Wedman and Otis Birdsong so what did they
do? They allowed Wedman to walk and
traded Birdsong.
Otis Birdsong was
probably the best shooting guard the University of Houston had produced up to
that time. The Kings taking Birdsong in
the first round he would have four outstanding seasons prior to his trade to
the Nets. Finally, we arrive at Phil
Ford an All-American point guard at North Carolina. Ford was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1979. For reasons unknown Ford (now in the College Basketball Ford was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1979 For reasons unknown Ford (now in the College Basketball Hall of Fame) was trade to the Nets for Ray Williams. Williams would play all of one season in a Kings jersey. There you have it the best of the best, most left Kansas City due to managements inability to pay them.
The year of someone else
It occurs every
season, the bragging regarding the Big 12 conference. At the end of the season Kansas is declared
champion. A few years they win the
post-season tournament other years it’s been another team. The invites go out and by the second or third
round Big 12 teams have all been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. Could 2018
be different, let’s check the records as of December 24:
TCU 12-0
Texas Tech 11-1
West Virginia 11-1
Oklahoma 10-1
Baylor 10-2
54 wins versus 5
losses, could a weak non-conference schedule be the factor here? Better yet do these schools wind up “beating
each other up” in conference play thus allowing Kansas another
championship? I guess we must check back
in the spring to determine how this all plays out.
