Basketball
from a fan’s perspective
Covid-19
I am unsure if this was the order of events,
but I believe its correct. Covid-19 shut down the NBA regular season first,
then it was college basketball. Later baseball spring training and then college
spring sports. We add one additional casualty…Words eye view. For the
immediate future publishing will occur every other day. Please continue to
follow Words eye view with this revised schedule, thank you.
Test Bed
The definition for the headline above, “A piece of equipment used for testing new machinery, especially
aircraft engines.” We are
not discussing aircraft engines rather this discussion centers on the NBA Draft
whether its June, July or August. NBA
fans like me wondered, “How are they going to conduct the NFL Draft. Most were aware it would be strictly
teleconference-video due to the pandemic.
Despite a few glitches in the first round a no family/audience draft was
conducted smoothly. My only complaint
NFL Commissioner Goodell appeared somewhat awkward at times.
Dear Commissioner Silver,
I hope you or the assistant commissioner watched
the NFL Draft. There were a few glitches
which I hope were noted by your staff.
If the NBA must conduct a virtual draft the NBA should now be better
prepared.
Larry Laker
Stephen A. Smith is
correct
You did not misread the headline Smith is correct in this
instance. I know I have been on the other side often regarding this gentleman. Smith
was discussing the 2nd installment of Last Dance and the fact
Scottie Pippen indicated he wanted to get paid. If you remember seeing the telecast,
it was pointed out there were 121 NBA players being paid more than Pippen.
Smith said and I paraphrase, “Owner Reinsdorf should have
torn up the contract and signed Pippen to a revised one.” We guess Smith did not hear the portion of
Last Dance when Reinsdorf said, “We were not going to issue a new
contract.” Stephen A. Smith is correct
the owner should have signed Pippen to another contract, he refused so that
fact becomes part of revisionist history.
One of those names
The history of basketball has witnessed several unusual names.
As an example, the late Baskerville Holmes played at Memphis and later in the
NBA, it was said his mom was inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of
the Baskervilles. God Shammgod was not his name legal name, Shammgod called himself Shammgod Wells until he finished high
school. When he enrolled at Providence, he was informed that he would have to
register under his legal name.
Since it would have
cost $600 to change his legal name to Shammgod Wells, Shammgod stopped using
the alias.* Former Nugget guard Fat
Lever is a holdover from his childhood, his little sister unable to pronounce Lafayette it came out as “Fat.” Where am I going with these
stories, we are headed to the latest name to be added to the group. He is named
after a cognac; Courvoisier McCauley plays for Lincoln Memorial a D II program.
McCauley is a 6-4 shooting guard who hails from Indianapolis Indiana.
*Wikipedia
Who is to blame?
Bulls
forward/guard Scottie Pippen was one of the catalysts for the Bulls of that era.
I decided to DVR ESPN’s Last Dance and looked at it again recently, you know
what they say? Hindsight is always better than foresight but consider these
issues. Pippen coming from a large family with two members in ill health wanted
protection that could be the basis for signing a 7-year contract. I remember a
portion of the program owner Reinsdorf said, “We were not going to renegotiate
his contract.”
On the other hand,
at that time the University of Central Arkansas was an NAIA school, it did not
have the prestige of a Kentucky, UCLA, or some other larger more well-known
institution. I wonder if Pippen's agent might have been a contributing factor
to him signing a long term financial limiting contract. On the other hand, perhaps,
Pippen underestimated his NBA value initially. We must assume Pippen was aware
he was good but might have underestimated his ability.
