Basketball
from a fan’s perspective
A departure and
arrival
The Lakers waived Boogie Cousins for now, Markieff Morris is
expected to sign with them after a buyout from the Pistons. I must admit I know more of the Morris twins
Markieff and Marcus from their time at Kansas than I do their NBA careers. Laker Nation must consider the team made the
best move considering the circumstances, they did not give up Kuzma whose name
was mentioned in several potential trades.
As for Boogie I hate to see him go but there is light at the
end of the tunnel. He could re-sign with
the Lakers in the off-season or perhaps another team might be interested in
picking him up. Dwight Howard needs to
thank Boogie, if not for the Achilles injury the roles of these two could have
been reversed. So, in addition to a city
rivalry we add to it a sibling rivalry with Markieff now a Laker and Marcus
with the Clippers.
He doesn’t know
beans
Every time Trae Young achieves an outstanding accomplishment I
smile. I smile as I think back to the local
radio guy. I’ve told this story
previously we had a sports talk radio host who was always suffering (per usual)
from oral diarrhea, running off at the mouth and discussing basketball which it
was clear he didn’t have a clue. He
compounded his ignorance by paying only attention to the Big 12 Conference and more
especially Kansas basketball. The guy
tried to convince his listening audience Trae Young “had no game.”
It was about this time in Young’s freshman year at
Oklahoma. I listened to the words of an
NBA scout rather than this guy. The
scout said, “They won’t be able to draw junk defenses once he (Young) arrives
in the NBA. Since Young’s arrival in the
NBA every time he has an outstanding game as I said earlier, I smile. On Thursday the slim Hawks point guard was outstanding
in his teams win over the Magic. Young
scored 50 points in the 129-124 winner over the Magic. Young wasn’t just chunking up shots, he shot
48% from the floor.
The Admiral
David Robinson wasn’t really an admiral, he was given the
nickname as a graduate of the Annapolis, the U.S. Naval Academy. Upon graduation Robinson was commissioned an Ensign
(2nd Lieutenant) and promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade when he left
the Navy, that’s equivalent to an Army or Marine Corp 1st
Lieutenant. Robinson was just under the
height limit of 6 foot 8 inches tall but received a waiver to enter the academy,
four years later he stood 7 feet tall.
The bio indicates there was nothing noteworthy about his high
school basketball, he was better at academics then sports. Can we just say the talent was lying beneath
the surface? The next four years at
Annapolis led him to be named an All-American.
At 7-foot 1-inch Robinson was too tall for duty aboard a naval ship
which he hoped would become his career.
Instead his career would become the NBA and he would spend it as a
member of the Spurs.
By the time Robinson graduated from Annapolis an agreement
was made with the Secretary of the Navy and Robinson would only spend 2-years
on active duty. Later with Tim Duncan
they would become one of the most lethal twin towers in NBA history. By the time Robinson ended his 14-year NBA career
his play witnessed him enshrined in the FIBA and Naismith Hall of Fame. For reasons unknown anytime a discussion on NBA
Big Men occur Robinson’s name is rarely mentioned, he won championships, MVP’s
yet is left out of the discussion.
It was just the
manner it was written
One of the websites I visit regularly bleacherreport.com
contained an interesting article. “Five
teams who might tank to secure LaMelo Ball”, I almost fell out of my chair
laughing. It was not for the reason you
might first suspect, from all indications Ball is a legitimate draft
prospect. The question, would the Knicks
or the Bulls or other teams lose on purpose in order to draft him?
We cannot be for sure, but we imagine a team with a budding
superstar on the horizon might attempt to lose on purpose. What’s what provoke
laugher on my part, besides the fact the youngster has at least one serious
issue to eliminate. It’s been reported
Ball plays little if any defense, despite what an uninformed visitor might
believe they do play defense in the NBA.
