Basketball from a fans perspective

Ben Simmons 2.0
Make no mistake about the comparison, Josh Green is 5 inches shorter and a great number of pounds smaller than Ben Simmons.  It’s yet to be determined if he will equal Simmons skill level on the basketball court.  Here’s the connection, Ben’s dad is an American who traveled to Australia to play professional basketball.  While living in Australia he met and married a resident, Ben and other siblings were born of this union.  Josh Green is a 6-foot 5-inch 185-pound shooting guard attending IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida. 

Rivals awards Green 5-stars and rates him the number 10 prospect in the nation.  The connection between Green and Simmons, Green’s dad an American also left for Australia to play professional basketball.  Green’s dad met his mom an Australian, they later married and Josh was born of this union.  The Big Boy programs have offered Josh scholarships, they are Arizona, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova to name a few.  Josh Green is another name we need to follow-up later once he decides on a college. 

You are beholding to the team 
Radio and television personalities get paid to whoop it up for the home team.  They are allowed the freedom to criticize the home team, but those remarks can only go so far. Marv Albert was the long-time radio-television voice of the Knicks.  It was said the Knicks decided in favor of a change when his remarks were deemed too critical.  Of course, Albert went to work for TNT and NBC and hasn’t missed a beat.  That’s not the case for former NBA player Bruce Bowen turn analyst, he no longer has a job. 

His firing as analyst for the Clippers took a circuitous path, who to blame Fox Sports West or the Clippers?  Right or wrong Bowen has been very critical of the Kawhi Leonard circus this summer and made his feelings known.  Was this former Spurs player loyalty to his former team cost him a job?  It’s believed Leonard wants Los Angeles doesn’t matter if it’s the Lakers or Clippers.  The Clippers looking at free-agency next season might not have appreciated Bowen’s remarks regarding Leonard. All and all it still remains a strange move, a very strange from my viewpoint.  

The worst trade in NBA history
In 1975 the Lakers drafted a 6-9 power forward named Don Ford.  Although not a spectacular player Ford lent himself well to the Lakers over the next few years.  In 1980 Ford was traded to the Cavs for back-up point guard Butch Lee and the Cavs first pick in the 1982 NBA draft.  The 1981-82 Lakers won 57 games while losing 25, they would reach the championship round of the finals and face the Sixers.  The Lakers beat Dr. J’s Sixers 4 games to 2 becoming the 1982 NBA champions. 

Meanwhile on the eastern side of the nation the NBA season had not been very kind to the Cleveland team.  The Cavs would finish the regular season with a 23-59 record and last place in the Eastern Conference.  Last place and no first-round draft choice to be had. Keep in mind the draft lottery was yet to be implemented, 1985 would be the first year of the lottery.  In any event the June draft witnessed the Lakers coming off a championship year having the rights to the first pick.  They chose North Carolina 6-9 forward James Worthy.  Who would have believed “Big Game” James would become a vital member of the Showtime Lakers? 

Worthy’s outstanding play for the Lakers would lead to enshrinement in the Naismith Hall of Fame after his playing career concluded.  You ask what ever happened to Ford and his NBA career, he would play two seasons for the Cavs and they would release him.  The steady Ford would conclude his professional basketball career with an Italian team.  The question, did the Lakers realize they were drafting a HOF player in 1982?  Of course, they didn’t, there were circumstances unforeseen at the time, this must qualify for the worst trade in NBA history.