Basketball from a fans perspective

Who said it?
“In 2018 the NBA is the most relevant (US sport) to youth culture, and it is the league that others are chasing.” 

Adam Silver
Mark Cuban
Jeanie Buss
Dan Gilbert
Michael Jordan

The NBA is clearly in the lead among other leagues in player development, diversity in hiring, innovation and marketing of apparel.  There are other areas I’ve omitted however those are the top of my list, as for “Who said it”, the answer appears below if you can unscrambled the name. 

nabuc kram

Hall of Fame ceremony
On Friday September 7^th the Naismith Hall of Fame will conduct its annual ceremony.  Among those to be inducted in the HOF are:

Grant Hill
Charlie Scott
Maurice Cheeks
Steve Nash
Jason Kidd
Ray Allen

Those are just a few names of the inductees, if you are not in the Springfield Massachusetts area the event will be telecast on NBA TV. 

The Shark
Jerry “The Shark” Tarkanian placed UNLV basketball on the map once he arrived and established himself.  Tark landed in Las Vegas after coaching Long Beach State for five seasons.  He hit the ground running, his first UNLV team finished the 1973-74 season with a sparkling 20-win 6 loss season.  For the next 19-seasons his Runnin’ Rebels won 20+ games every apart from 1980-81 when they finished 16-12.  Tark’s 1989-90 team was 35-5 and won the 1990 NCAA championship.  

War seem to exist between Tark and the NCAA during his entire tenure while coaching UNLV although the NCAA never uncovered anything substantial.  Although the NCAA never admitted any guilt they reached an out of course settlement with Tark for $2.5 million in 1998.  Tark spent his last 7 years coaching his alma mater Fresno State.  His coaching record at Fresno State was no different than his earlier stops at Long Beach State and UNLV…. winner. 

In 2013 Tark was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield (MA).  February 11, 2015 Tark died at the age of 84 after experiencing breathing difficulties.  We always got the impression the coach walked the “tightrope”, if he ever recruited illegally or something else he never was really convicted of anything.  The public knew where Las Vegas was located few were aware of UNLV prior to Tark’s arrival. 

Curious  
I wanted to check the Top 25 cities in the nation without an NBA team.  The only metro areas lacking a franchise and the population are really no surprise, every city had an NBA franchise except:

Seattle-Tacoma (4,684, 516 population),
St Louis St Charles-Farmington MO-IL (2,911,769 population),
Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV (2,635,228 population)
Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS (2,446,396)

No surprise Seattle is the largest metro without an NBA franchise but what about the others?  There never are reports of the NBA returning to St. Louis or the desire to place a franchise in Pittsburgh.  That leaves Seattle and Kansas City alone, no argument from me Seattle should be next up.  Talk (and that’s all I can term it) with Kansas City being whispered again.  Will the NBA return to Kansas City in the next 10-years, yes, I could see that occurring?