Basketball from a fan’s perspective 

No super teams
There are no super college basketball teams this season.  Tuesday’s evening Texas Tech upset undefeated and number one Louisville 70-57.  This season the question is, “Who wants to assume the top spot in order to be taken down?” 

When is a dunk not a dunk?
You might remember the Rockets James Hardin had a dunk not counted as a basket.  The dunk occurred last week in a double OT loss to the Spurs.  After viewing the video it’s apparent the officials missed the call, the ball clearly went in the basket but bounced out and that was their basis for the ruling.  The Rockets appealed the loss and Monday the NBA ruled on the matter. 

“In its ruling, the NBA agreed with the Rockets' contention that referees misapplied the rules. However, commissioner Adam Silver determined that the Rockets had sufficient time to overcome the error "during the remainder of the fourth quarter and two subsequent overtime periods and thus the extraordinary remedy of granting a game protest was not warranted." 1. 

The decision by the NBA should not shock or surprise anyone. It’s an embarrassment to the league and they certainly wouldn’t entertain replaying the game from the point of the dunk. On Monday evening Kings power forward Nemanja Bjelica sank a deep 33 foot 3-point basket giving his team a 119-118 win over the Rockets in Houston.  Talk about pouring salt into a wound a Kings text read, “Protest that.”

1. ESPN.com

Play the game
I’ve tried lately to avoid commenting on some of the dumb stuff media members spout.  The latest, basketball “expert” Skip Bayless of Fox Sports has come to this conclusion.  ‘Kawhi Leonard will be in better shape come playoff time versus LeBron James.’  He figures LeBron will have played heavy minutes throughout the season while Kawhi will have load management rest.  Well Mr. Bayless this Laker fan is hoping for an NBA championship but.  Should a “rested” Kawhi Leonard beat a minutes weary LeBron so be it.  Enough of Bayless I hope to not mention your name again in this blog. 

Like father, like son
Longtime NBA and TNT broadcaster Marv Albert has a son in the broadcast field.  Although Kenny Albert has covered basketball in the past, he’s currently not announcing basketball today.  As for the Eagle family it’s a different story.  Most are familiar with the name Ian Eagle; he’s broadcast the NFL and NBA and is currently the broadcaster for Nets basketball. Ian’s son is the new radio voice for Clippers basketball. 

Noah Eagle began the 2019-20 season broadcasting Clipper basketball.  This is another story that may have existed previously, but it’s believed to be a first.  We have a father and son both broadcasting NBA basketball at the same time.  Noah Eagle in the same manner as his dad and the Albert family is also a graduate of Syracuse University. The broadcast tree of Syracuse stretches far and wide throughout the NBA and NFL. 

Can the game be exported?

The NBA has long scheduled exhibition and regular season games overseas.  China, Great Britain and France are just a few of the world’s nations the NBA’s visited in the past.  What about the college game, can it make a similar impression as the NBA on foreign shores?  The variables are quite different, NBA teams arrive with athletes familiar to most fans.  A For college teams it would be a far different story.  The game is world-wide, no question on that however we must take into consideration it will be an experiment.  As for the teams next December Kentucky will play Michigan in the United Kingdom in London, the date is yet to be announced.