Basketball from a fan perspective

Googles

Lew Alcindor sustained a scratched cornea prior to the historic 1968 UCLA-Houston game.  How much the injury effected his play we do not know.  This is history, the Elvin Hayes led Houston Cougars defeated the UCLA Bruins ending the Bruins 47-game winning streak.  Once in the NBA and a name change Kareem Abdul Jabbar suffered an eye injury missing 17-games in the 1974-75 season. 

Once he returned to action, he wore googles from that point till the end of his basketball career.  Why out of the blue did this come to the forefront you might ask?  Anthony Davis missed the Laker exhibition game versus the Wizards due to sustaining an eye injury in the previous game.  Tall guys have this problem due to their height and opposing players swiping at the basketball when it's above their reach.  Perhaps the nearly 6-foot 11-inch Davis should consider wearing googles, they worked capably for Kareem. 

The scale remains unbalanced

Most of us are aware WNBA player salaries are nowhere near the level of the average NBA player.  Several in the WNBA have chosen to sit out the season due to corona or social issue concerns, stepping forward with help is Kyrie Irving.  Irving's KAI Empowerment Initiative is committing $1.5 million to aid in the support of several WNBA players.  This commitment of funds by Irving’s group will aid the cause greatly since the scale remains unbalanced regarding salaries. 

Are there others?

Based on their college and NBA careers yesterday we posed a question.  We believe the trio of Michael Jordan/James Worthy/Sam Perkins might be the best in college and the NBA.  We could locate 5-6 teams with great starters however the teammates were outstanding in college but only registered limited or no success at the NBA level,  In 1970 UCLA faced Jacksonville State for the NCAA Championship, 7 foot 2 Artis Gilmore plus 7-foot Pembroke Burrows clearly were talents.  Gilmore is in the hall of fame; Burrows became the tallest law enforcement officer in Florida State history. 

St. John’s and Chris Mullen come to mind; Walter Berry was outstanding but never came close to the numbers he exhibited alongside Mullen.  We could make the same statement for LSU, Shaquille O’Neal Hall of Fame but Stanley Roberts never approached his LSU numbers.  Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) was good however his career was cut short and, in this corner, we believe the NBA may have black-balled him that story for another time in the future.  Much nearer to the present the University of Indiana had two outstanding players, Cody Zeller, and Victor Oladipo. Oladipo certainly has been more successful at the NBA level.  This will conclude the account unless someone can add names. 

He is not we have been advised
Over the years I have read several stories indicating how frugal number 23 Michael Jordan is.  We heard the story, “He’d (Jordan) would rather spend your money than his.”  We had no ability to determine if the story was true or false.  In this instance we know the accuracy or at least the reported truth.  Once upon a time Michael Jordan had a lawsuit filed against Chicago area department chain?

The store had used his likeness in a series of commercials the only problem they appeared to have made little if any effort to contact him.  The suit went to trial and the jury sided with Jordan the court awarded him $8.9 million dollars.  After the judgment was rendered Jordan stated he “intends to sign the check over to 23 area charities he believes have benefited Chicago area residents.”  We gained insight into Jordan’s personality viewing “Last Dance”, much of it confirmed what we believed.  MJ is one of the most competitive persons alive, despite this mantra it appears as an owner he's remained in the background with his Hornets.