Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Kansas City Kings  
The Clippers wore Buffalo Braves jerseys on Tuesday evening versus the Blazers.  I wonder if we might ever see Sacramento with Kansas City on the front of their jerseys?

“Devil’s Advocate”

The term has been used for several years, what exactly does it define?  Generally, most believe it has a religious connotation however that’s not always the case.  This from the dictionary, “a person who advocates an opposing or unpopular cause for the sake of argument or to expose it to a thorough examination.”  This involves Memphis center James Wiseman and his NCAA issues.  As you are aware Wiseman’s been suspended and will not return until January over improper financial aid. 

The NCAA in its infinite wisdom decided his family must repay the $11,000 moving fee they received from the Nashville to Memphis relocation.  Will the NCAA demand proof of payment from the charity or some other request prior to Wiseman being reinstated?  As a reminder again this same body forced Kansas to sit Silvio De Sousa for parts of two seasons for a lesser amount of money.  Same scenario, the athlete’s guardian was supposed to have received an unauthorized payment.  The NCAA lifted De Sousa’s suspension with no mention of money, continued proof of my issues with the NCAA. 

 

I don’t understand

My reference source cleared up a portion of my confusion at the beginning, NFL and NBA blackout rules are totally separate.  With that fact I decided to check nba.com but discovered the information provided by that source was somewhat confusing.  These are the facts, Thunder and Nuggets games are blacked out in metro Kansas City zip codes.  This issue only exists with NBA League Pass and NBA TV. 

This issue does not apply to games telecast on ESPN/ABC/TNT.  If Kansas City had an NBA team, I could understand the blackout rule.  I plugged in my zip code and according to nba.com only Thunder games should be blacked out, why are Nuggets games not available?  I’ve contacted the NBA offices with the question, stay tuned for further developments as I attempt to discover an answer from the NBA. 

Not long now

We are not sure of the date, it’s not long now before Knicks coach David Fizdale is fired, we believe.  The Knicks are on a downward spiral and the loss on Monday became number 10 in the last 12 games.  Losing teams in the NFL, MLB or the NBA find it easier to fire the coach/manager at the point in time the team appears to underperform.  Someone we read stated, ‘It’s difficult to win with somebody else’s players’ referencing the Knicks.  We can debate the accuracy in that statement if we look westward at the Lakers or Clippers.  The key to success for the Lakers and Clippers is somebody else’s “good players.” 

International basketball

Hope this doesn’t appear arrogant but the best basketball in the world amateur and the NBA remains in the U.S.  That’s not to say we can afford to ignore the impact of international basketball especially in the NBA, consider the 2018-19 NBA season. 

NBA All Stars

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Joel Embiid

Ben Simmons

Nikola Vučević

Nikola Jokić

Dirk Nowitzki

Giannis Antetokounmpo – NBA Most Valuable Player

Rudy Gobert – NBA Defensive Player of the Year

Luka Doncic – NBA Rookie of the Year

Should we place Kyrie Irving in the count, after all he was born in Melbourne Australia?  We have no idea what the future might hold for 2019 rookies Rui Hachimura, Sekou Oumar Doumbouya, Goga Bitadze or Tacko Fall.  In the U.S. we share a northern border with the great nation of Canada, it’s difficult for me to consider the other 2019 draft picks as international players.  There were a bunch of Canadians in the draft.  I’m not adding RJ Barrett, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Brandon Clarke, Mfiondu Kabengele, Ignas Brazdeikis or Marial Shayok to the list.  So, there you have it, the large contingent of international and Canadian players added to NBA rosters for the 2019-20 NBA season.