Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Bits n Pieces

The re-start of the NBA season will be finalized Thursday.  It reported 22 teams will comprise the second portion of the divided NBA season.  An 8-game seeding tournament will commence in Orlando in July with an end date of October 12.  We shall see how this format works out once play begins. 

The NBA is yet to finalize the 2020 draft.  Despite an Obi Toppin and James Wiseman this draft appears to be rather shallow compare to even last season.  Usually we must wait three or four years down the road to determine the depth of an NBA draft.   

Best  

This from a fan, he claimed the 1988 McDonald’s All-American team was the best.  I did not bother checking other years but simply decided to check out some of the names on that 1988 team.  A few were successful in college while others it was college and the NBA.  I must agree the names are certainly impressive.   

Alonzo Mourning

Anthony Peeler

Billy Owens

Christian Laettner

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

Stanley Roberts

Shawn Kemp

LaPhonso Ellis

Todd Day

Malik Sealy

Chris Mills

Lee Mayberry

Several of the names might be unfamiliar to you, Google any you might have a question. 

Carbon Copies  

Allen Iverson and Nate ‘Tiny” Archibald were almost copies of one another.  Iverson’s NBA career ran from the late ‘90’s up to 2010.  Tiny played from 1970 through the 1984 season.  The two were similar in stature with Iverson standing 6 feet tall and Tiny a reported 6 foot 1 although his height is debated.  As for Iverson he was 165 pounds and Tiny was 150.  Over the course of their careers there were other differences, Iverson would appear to be the better scorer but that can be debated. 

Early in his career Tiny could shoot and score with any opposing player, he would adapt his game to the role of a traditional point guard of the period once Tiny moved to the Celtics. Tiny was the better assist man (7.4) over Iverson (6.2), as for other honors.  Tiny is enshrined in the Naismith and College Basketball Hall of Fame, Iverson is yet to be accorded the distinction.  We might conclude Iverson was more competitive that is not intended to denigrate the competitive nature of Tiny.  In conclusion the game of both stood just as tall as many of the 7-foot players they opposed.  

Is he a 1 or a 3? 
This self-confessed Laker fan has observed LeBron James much closer since he arrived in Los Angeles.  Mizzou Coach Cuonzo Martin in a radio discussion regarding athletes said, “I think LeBron James should be compared to Magic Johnson.”  I decided to look closely at the two, they are the same height 6 foot 9, LeBron weighs 250 pounds versus the 229 of Magic.  It is unfair in a sense to look at career stats, Magic’s been retired since 1996 while LeBron remains an active player. 

LeBron has certainly been a better scorer however Magic’s game was never about scoring.  The career assist total for Magic was 11.2 per game and LeBron’s   numbers are 7.4, so they are close.  LeBron’s numbers clearly indicate he has always been a past first guy.  I can agree with Cuonzo Martin if we look strictly at the assist total however the scoring by LeBron far exceeds Magic.  If I offered a conclusion, I would borrow the term from the NBA’s past and state LeBron is more a point-forward rather than a pure point guard. 

The Kings in Kansas City

The ownership group moved the NBA Royals here in 1972 and they were re-born as the Kings.  It is the contention of several the Kings never adopted a winning franchise due to scouting.  They were poorly run due to finances, this extended to the level of locating NBA talent.  The Kings drafted several good players but missed on a few franchise players by the time they departed in 1986.  As an example, in 1974 Scott Wedman was made the 6^th pick in the first round.  Wedman was certainly a good player however Jamaal Wilkes was picked much later, Wilkes is in the Naismith Hall of Fame. 

The following season the Kings chose Bill Robinzine another good player but Gus Williams and World B. Free would be picked later.  1977 might have been the worst for the Kings, Otis Birdsong was selected however Marques Johnson, Bernard King

and Jack Sikma would later be chosen.  Johnson is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame while the other two are in the Naismith Hall.  1978 witnessed the Kings choosing Phil Ford, they could have picked Larry Bird and denied the Celtics all those championships. 

1981 saw the Kings choose Steve Johnson over Rolando Blackman and in 1984 they picked Otis Thorpe over Larry Nance Sr. and Danny Ainge.  Okay this is a little revisionist history going on, who could say any of these players in conjunction with others makes the Kings franchise a winner.  We have discussed in the past the difficulty in assessing talent at the collegiate level and projecting it into the NBA.  This becomes an exercise in What If.  If the names are unfamiliar to you conduct a little research for yourself.