Basketball from a fans perspective
He’s likely headed for the NBA
We believe we know
the names Commissioner Adam Silver will announce to the television audience and
fans at Barclays Center in June. They
roll off our tongues easily, DeAndre Ayton from Arizona, Duke’s Marvin Bagley and
international player Luka Doncic. There
are others to consider, we have Michael Porter Jr. at Mizzou and Mohammed Bamba
at Texas and Trae Young, Trae Young?
Young might not be a
name expected at the beginning of the collegiate season but has demonstrated
his capability early for the Oklahoma Sooners.
He’s a smallish player at 6-2 and 180 pounds, the others mentioned play the
center and forward position. Young is a
point guard who can shoot lights out, a number are comparing him to Steph Curry
of the Warriors. I’m not ready to go
there yet however he certainly appears to be a budding talent.
Is it true?
This past Saturday
witnessed number 12 Oklahoma slipping past number 10 TCU 90-89. I posed the question a week or so ago, will
Big 12 teams beat each other up during the conference race? West Virginia (7), Kansas (11), Baylor (18)
and Texas Tech (22) are the remainder of Big 12 teams and their Top 25 ranking. We must see how the race turns out, but this
type of action might conclude with Kansas winning the conference title yet again.
NBA Black-out policy
The issue I raised
the other day about NBA telecasts in my zip code. I checked NBA.com and remain unable to
provide you or me a satisfactory explanation.
For now, consider the matter closed, I did discover an interesting detail
which I’m sharing. The last time I
subscribed to NBA League Pass all the games were included in the package. All that’s changed now if you desire to only
see one teams games you can do so excluding black-out rules. The fee for only one team is considerably smaller than the 30-team package. Next season I just might decide to subscribe to a Laker game
package.
They drop from the ranks of undefeated
teams
It’s just turned 2018 and we have not a single undefeated college team remaining. Three teams all lost their games on December
30, Oklahoma upset TCU 90-89 thus the Horned Frogs lose their first game. Butler beat Villanova 101-93 while late night
saw Arizona State lose to in-state rival Arizona. There you have it no more undefeated teams
remain in Division I college basketball.
As for Division II there remain 8 teams without a blemish on their
record.
What I don’t like
I borrowed the
headline from ESPN.com’s NBA page, I could only find three things I don’t like about
living in Kansas City. The first, we
have no beach unless we count the one at Longview Lake. It’s certainly convenient it’s about 9 miles
from my front door, as for Venice Beach California it’s 1,643 road miles from
my house. The second obstacle is evident
to most NBA fans here, there is none except for the one annual exhibition game
we are provided. As much as I love the
game I refuse to pay regular season prices for an exhibition game, if we ever acquire
our own team again that becomes a different story.
The last is media
coverage of the NBA which is non-existent here.
Sports news at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. has been reduced significantly
that’s understandable. I don’t appreciate
the lack of sports radio coverage; example Kevin Harlan has broadcast NBA games
on Turner Network Television since 1997.
Harlan wasn’t born in the metro but makes his home here, one of the
local guys telephones him at this time of the year and into the spring. All this local guy wants to do is discuss the
Chiefs and the NFL, I realize Harlan broadcasts the NFL but why a 10-minute
phone call every time discussing the NFL?
