Basketball from a fans perspective.   

An élite basketball program

Louisville basketball has received a “black eye” regarding alleged illegal activities.  This one the second under Rick Pitino forced the school to terminate the contract of the coach.  Despite these negatives Louisville remains a prestige program along with Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA.  With an international reputation the school must conduct a wide scale search to find the next Louisville coach. 

I thought at one-point interim Coach Dave Padgett might be retained but that may have been for continuity purposes.  Padgett on Pitino’s staff faced the “Babe Parelli condition.”  Parelli was a good quarterback on a bad Packers team, at the time the legendary Vince Lombardi took over Parelli figured he was a keeper due to his previous record.  Lombardi cut him: “Nothing personal you represent the old Green Bay Packers, I’m building a new Green Bay Packers team here."  Certainly not fair but Padgett might conjure visions of the departed Pitino since he was on the former coach’s staff.    

Battle Los Angeles

The above title is from a 2011 sci-fi movie, a squad of U.S. Marines battle an alien invasion of earth and Los Angeles becomes the final area to stop the invasion.  The 2018 Battle Los Angeles is not a movie rather it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of Los Angeles NBA fans.  As this is written the Clippers stand 37-33 while the Lakers are 31-39 a mere six games apart with weeks remaining in the NBA season.  It’s likely one of the Staples Center tenant misses the playoffs although it’s possible both miss the cut. 

I stated a few weeks back my belief one team is ascending (Lakers) and one descending (Clippers).  The Lakers have continued the process of infusing youthful players in starting and reserve roles.  Several veterans have been traded except for Luol Deng who remains glued to the bench.  Laker youth have replaced the grizzly veterans and play a much greater role now than the beginning of the season.  To be fair the Clippers made several off-season moves to improve the team however resulting injuries and the deadline trade of Blake Griffin have yet to prove successful.  It should be interesting over the next 6 to 7 weeks to see how this Battle of Los Angeles turns out.    

Speaking of Los Angeles

ESPN gathered a panel of writers with LeBron being the subject, a few projections were made for the balance of his NBA career.  The one I found most interesting is his destination.  32% of the panel believe LeBron would remain with the Cavs (my view), finishing in second place was the Lakers with 22% was the Lakers and the Rockets in third with I believe 20%.  The Clippers were 0.5% or something close to that number.  This is certainly not a scientific in the least bit, but I did find it interesting the thoughts of a group of writers.

“We are the Champions, my friends”    

The Yellowjackets of Graceland University are likely singing one of the lines from the 1977 Queen classic: “We are the Champions; my friends and we’ll keep on fighting til the end.”  They become the 2018 NAIA champion beating LSU-Alexandra in OT on a last-minute basket 83-80.  Graceland is in Lamoni Iowa about two hours’ drive-time north of Kansas City (MO).  It’s easy to understand why cheering might have been more in favor of Graceland.  This was historical, the first time for Graceland University in the NAIA tournament and the first win for the school.  Congratulations are in order for the Yellowjackets of Graceland University.   

I’m not that good

I’ve witnessed a great deal of basketball over the course of my lifetime.  That includes youth, middle school, high school and college basketball.  Of course, the NBA is included in this account especially those college players attempting to gain employment in the NBA.  Several players come to mind who I though had “star” written over them but failed miserably at the NBA level, on the other hand there have been a number who cause me to say: “Where did he come from.” 

Yesterday I cover several college players who announced they intended to leave school for the NBA.  I began reading comments regarding Mohamed Bamba, Trae Young and a few others.  I could include from several of the observations they should remain in school.  They have no skills to play at the next level or at least that’s the belief of the writers.  I thought for a moment, if these guys are so good at evaluating talent why are they not working as scouts for an NBA team.