Basketball from a fan perspective
He took the winning shot
With
the Laker-Nugget game tied 121-121 who do you suppose takes the shot with the on
the line, is it LeBron, Anthony Davis, or somebody else? On Monday it would become forward Kyle Kuzma
which was certainly surprising to most folks.
Not only did Kuzma sink the 3-point basket he took the shot over 7-foot 2-inch
Bol Bol who was guarding him. After
three losses in a row Laker fans appreciated the 124-121 win, but Jesus might
not.
Questioned
after the game Kuz said, “I think Jesus could have been in front of me, and I probably
still shoot.” As for his shot total
Kuzma managed to fill it up, a blazing 68% shooting from the floor 6 assists, 3
blocked shots for a grand total of 25 points.
Kuzma was not the leading scorer for the Lakers that honor belonged to LeBron
James with 29 points, Anthony Davis would score 27. Dion Waiters led the bench mob scoring 12 points.
Their families love them….
There
are members of the media I enjoy reading and discussing their explanations of
issues. Unfortunately, the numbers are
small because a significant number are more concerned about being part of the
story instead of the story itself. You
want names, how about Jay Bilas ESPN’s college basketball analyst. Bilas is always informative and insightful
without as I indicated becoming part of the story. Another name to add is Adrian Wojnarowski who
covers the NBA for ESPN, Woj was suspended recently but it had nothing to do
with his reporting.
Woj is
always clear and insightful in his reporting.
I have been reading and listening to the Sporting News Mike DeCourcy for
several years, his specialty is college basketball reporting. We could add the
name of Brian Windhorst ESPN NBA columnist and analyst to our list. Len Elmore and Donny Marshall Fox Sports cover
NCAA basketball expertly, former Coach Steve Lavin of Fox Sports could be added
also. This certainly is not complete but
just several in the media that I believe have credibility.
The
Rooney Rule
If
you follow the NFL, you are aware of The Rooney Rule. Named after the late owner of the Pittsburg
Steelers it simply states NFL teams must identify and include minority coaches to
be interviewed anytime a head coaching position opens. Recently the West Coast Conference
implemented a similar rule, but it is broader than one enacted in the NFL. The ruling is titled The Russell Rule after
legendary University of San Francisco Boston Celtic Bill Russell.
“The WCC
on Monday (Aug 3) announced it will adopt a diversity hiring commitment that
will require all member institutions to include a minority among the pool of
final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach
and full-time assistant coach within the athletic department.”* Member schools are Gonzaga, Pepperdine,
Loyola Marymount, Portland, Santa Clara, Pacific, St. Mary’s, San Diego,
Brigham Young and the University of San Francisco.
*cbssports.com/college-basketball
Salt Lake City
If we
held a discussion on basketball bastions it is highly likely Salt Lake City
would be omitted. We just skip over the
Utah city anytime we discuss basketball, despite our exclusion that should not
be the case. The history begins with the
American Basketball Association, the franchise began
in Anaheim (CA) in 1967 as the Amigos.
Later the team re-located to Los Angeles and were renamed the Los
Angeles Stars. The Stars failed to draw
fans with the Lakers and UCLA basketball in the same city.
In
1970 the team moved to Salt Lake City becoming the Utah Stars, the Stars were a
competitive team but one again the team was hemorrhaging money. In 1976 with the NBA-ABA merger only four ABA
teams were added to the NBA, Utah was not one of them. From that point until 1979 no professional
basketball was played in the city. The
New Orleans Jazz were born as an expansion franchise in 1974, in 1979 the team
would move to Utah becoming the Utah Jazz.
So, with that we have the brief history how Salt Lake City arrived in the NBA.
