Basketball from a
fan’s perspective
Who do you believe?
The names Jonathan
Givony and Mike Schmitz might be unfamiliar to many of you, they are identified
as longtime NBA draft analysts. I cannot
relate the length of time I’ve read comments regarding draft prospects over the
years, let’s just state they have been at their craft for a while. The two were longtime employees of draftexpress.com
but are now employed by ESPN and their latest mock is the basis for this
account.
They list
LaMelo Ball as the top pick in the 2020 draft and RJ Hampton as the fifth
pick. What’s the issue, a couple of fans
have no disagreement with the talent issue of Ball and Hampton rather the draft
position. Now my question for you, who would
you tend to believe? Two longtime draft
analysts or two guys sitting in their man-cave deciding which player is going
to be chosen in what order.
You decide
Polls can
make us happy or sad depending on the circumstance, as an example the college basketball
polls conducted weekly. The AP and the
Coaches poll are often used by the media and fans to justify the strength of
one team over another. A DePaul fan
pointed out his team is undefeated and won three games versus power conference
teams. You ask where they appear on the
poll, DePaul received votes but is not currently unlisted. It’s difficult for us to not pay attention to
polls but nobody should take too much stock in their accuracy. The much truer test is the first Monday in April,
that’s the date the NCAA champion is crowned.
The balance of the story
I’d
written a Carmelo Anthony story titled “Why has no NBA signed him?” A day prior to publishing the story, the
Blazers signed Anthony so the written word I’d put together was deleted. Let’s check in on what’s occurred since his
signing, Anthony is averaging 17 points a game while shooting 46% from the
floor. The area you and I cannot see is
his defense, how much has he aided the Blazers in that department?
This is
interesting, after playing small forward throughout his career ESPN.com’s NBA
page has Anthony listed as the starter at power forward. The Blazers are a hot mess right now
partially due to injury, as this is written they are in last place with an 8-12
mark in the Northwest Division. Big Man Jusuf
Nurkic indicates he’s out until January 1st which leads to even more
playing time as a starter for Anthony.
The signing has provided dividends, recently Anthony was named Western
Conference Player of the Week an honor he’d not gotten since 2014.
It had to end
The game
wasn’t on television anyway, the reference is the Mavs-Lakers game. Interstate travel prevented me from even
following any portion of the game. Final
score Mavs 114 Lakers 100, the Lakers had won 10 consecutive games a much
better start than many (including me) expected.
I checked recent history the 2019-20 Lakers have 17 wins; do you realize
the 2015-16 Lakers won 17 for an entire season.
I don’t
ski but the buzz word I continue to hear is “Don’t get in front of your
ski’s.” I guess it simply means
don’t get ahead of yourself which is what I intend to do. Once again, I can state with certainty I’m
pleased at the play of my favorite team.
At the same time, I must take into significance the NBA season is long,
there are injury possibilities plus back to back games and other issues
affecting play. Overall 17 wins versus 3
losses ain’t too bad is it? The key for
the Lakers or any other team for that matter is to avoid losing streaks. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.
OG
The Urban Dictionary defines OG as “Original
Gangster”, the more common usage term today is Old Guy. With that our first but not the last
basketball OG to be covered. His given
name was Vernon Earl Monroe, most basketball fans were more familiar with the
name Earl Monroe. Monroe had at least
two nicknames. One familiar to most was
“The Pearl”, in Harlem’s fame Rucker League he was dubbed “Black
Jesus.” Monroe was made the second
pick in the 1967 NBA Draft by the Baltimore Bullets (Wizards).
Opposing players, fans both hostile and
friendly would become familiar with his herky jerky moves up and around the
basket. You read a variety of names who
brought street basketball to the NBA many claim it was the Pearl. In 1971 Monroe was traded to the Knicks and blended
with Walt Frazier, the first question from mouths of that era, how can two players
who dominate the ball exist in the same backcourt? Both thrived as teammates, look now Frazier
and Monroe in the Hall of Fame. Monroe’s
got honors, enshrinement in the CIAA Hall of Fame, jersey retirement by the
Knicks and elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1990.
It’s your choice
In the KC metro one of the two sports
talk radio stations fired a host over the summer. The remarks he made over the air about KC
Chiefs coach Andy Reid I heard after the fact.
Over the last past 3 years I found myself listening to less and less
sports talk radio. I discovered
generally it was drive-time to and from work, rarely did I listen at home. This is KC so it’s understandable the
conversation of the local teams was often front and center, well it should
be. There were two issues that caused me
to cease listening all together.
The first, over the years it became more
and more the host giving you his opinion of a subject and expounding it over
and over and over. Perhaps we might be
all guilty I hope not but that was the main reason I turned off my radio. At times when I listened there was practically
no discussion of the NBA, as for college if it wasn’t the Big 12 especially
Kansas it wasn’t covered. I grew tired
of the “We hate Duke, North Carolina” rant heard often on both local
stations. So, there is the story, I
certainly am not telling you what to do.
Continue to listen to sports talk radio, it’s clearly your choice.
