Basketball from a fan’s perspective

I’m unsure about you

There are times I read an account and say to myself, “That can’t be true can it?”  That’s the case Monday evening, a story broke in Bleacher Report.  The story written by Tyler Conway regarding Kawhi Leonard and the Lakers.  Tyler Conway leveled a series of serious charges against Leonard’s uncle.  

If you remember last summer the uncle was reported to be acting as agent for his nephew.  Rather than detail the story I’d rather you’d read it and formulate your own opinion.  In closing my only statement is I really hope this account is not true.  Did the uncle believe he’d be able to accomplish the demands Conway claims?

Not as bad as we thought        

Mizzou shooting might not be good however it may not be as bad as first perceived.  I disapprove looking at numbers alone since they often fail to provide a true representation of the events.  In this event just take them for what they are worth, in the last three weeks Mizzou’s registered victory’s over Temple, Southern Illinois and Illinois.  As for the shooting as indicated it’s a little better than we might think. 

Mizzou is shooting .428 from the floor while the opposition is at a .370 clip.  Despite Jeremiah Tilmon’s continuing propensity to foul Mizzou’s outrebounded it’s opponents by nearly 7 a game.  The steal total and block shots a game by Mizzou also exceed the opposition, the shooting is not likely to improve drastically however it could rise somewhat.  Many of you might be familiar with the term “winning ugly”, that might become the mantra of this year’s Mizzou Tigers. 

Load management

Once again, the issue of load management (resting non-injured players) caused a somewhat heated discussion on Sunday.  I said, “I’m going to watch the Lakers-Nuggets game tonight.”  One acquittance stated, “You know LeBron is not going to play he’s got an injury.”  Nevertheless, he felt it necessary to make a statement about load management. 

“If I pay $100 or $200 for a ticket, I expect stars to play.”  Another acquaintance who played high school and college basketball chimed in, “They (NBA) play from October through June, they could play 100 games.  We’ve got to consider the wear and tear on their bodies.”  We didn’t resolve our discussion (or argument), what do you think?  Are fans and the media making too much of the issue?

Need to see him again

Broadcaster Steven Bardo played basketball for Illinois in the middle ‘80’s, he also spent a brief period in the NBA.  Bardo has credibility so this upfront before we continue.  Recently Bardo was quoted, “You better see Kofi Cockburn now because he won’t be at Illinois very long.”  Bardo indicates he’s headed for the NBA draft in June.  Mizzou plays tough defense as Cockburn managed but 13 points and 2 rebounds on Saturday. 

This is not intended to contradict Bardo’s statement let’s just say this.  I need to see him more than the one occasion, at 7 feet and 290 pounds there was much to see improved.  His footwork while good witnessed many makeable missed shots around the basket.  A trio of 6-10-inch defenders harassed Cockburn all over the floor, in fairness Cockburn is a freshman Big Man there is a learning curve.

Deep pockets 

The baseball Royals are a young franchise compared to other baseball teams.  There are teams with over 100 years of play, the Royals franchise is but 50 years old.  In that period the Royals had original owner Ewing Kauffman, he was followed by David Glass.  Baseball approved John Sherman and he becomes owner number three.  Most of us even Kansas City residents had no advance information on the new Royals owner.     Royals reported Sherman was a minority stockholder in the Cleveland Indians.  What about the new owner, he founded a propane company and through business efforts became a billionaire? 

Where am I going with this story you ask, Sherman provides us proof there might be another area resident with deep pockets, i.e. enough money to back an NBA franchise in Kansas City.  The question becomes would the disposable income in the metro be abundant to support another sports franchise?  The clear leader in popularity (and finance) is the NFL Chiefs, next up the Royals followed by MLS Sporting Kansas City.  To my knowledge no NBA franchise is moving so a team here would be expansion.  In addition to paying large sums of money for NBA entry there would be associated costs (player acquisitions, arena agreements and such).  The question becomes, would someone even with deep pockets be willing to justify the expense?