Basketball from a fan perspective
Broadcast partner
Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz were the voice of
Laker broadcasts. Hearn was behind the
mic for 3,338 consecutive games beginning in 1965, the streak ended in December
of 2001. Hearn had to undergo a medical
procedure which caused him to miss the game.
Hearn’s final game was the 2002 NBA Finals where the Lakers defeated the
New Jersey Nets. In August of that year
Hearn died at the age of 85, the broadcast legend was gone.
We can state a portion of the combo was gone,
color analyst Stu Lantz on the job since 1987 continues in the role Laker
Nation is accustomed. Since the death of
his long-time broadcast partner Bill McDonald becomes his third associate. Lantz, a guard played competitively at the
University of Nebraska and later briefly in the NBA. This is background on the Lakers color
analyst Stu Lantz whose voice has been heard first on radio and later television since he began in 1987.
Teammates
This is written prior to Ja Morant and Zion
Williamson facing one another in the Grizzlies-Pelican game. The Rookie of the Year (Morant) versus the
runner up, the former AAU teammates will meet once again. Although both grew up in South Carolina it
was in different towns, AAU basketball brought the two together as
teammates. This was AAU basketball
however there have been high school teammates who were talented enough to play
in the NBA.
Probably the most famous high school teammates
were Nate Thurmond and Gus Johnson who played at Akron’s Central High School. After high school, the two traveled separate
paths to the NBA, Thurmond and Johnson are enshrined in the Naismith Hall of
Fame. As for the present we have Jerami
Grant and Victor Oladipo from DeMatha High School in Maryland, Thon Maker and
Jamal Murray were teammates at Orangeville Prep in Canada. Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell from Monverde Academy in Florida, there are others these are but a few.
Small ball
The NBA is in restart mode so we have no answer
to the question, will small ball for the Houston
Rockets? Robert Covington is the tallest
Rocket in the starting lineup, and he stands 6 foot 7. The middle of the season the Rockets chose to
make a change getting rid of all their Big Men and resorting to a small ball lineup. We must keep in mind the Warriors making this
change allowed them to win three NBA Championships plus contend for several others.
There were skeptics (including me) in the
audience that did not believe an NBA team could win with a small lineup. Keep in mind the Warriors did have Big Men
however they were not the focus of the offense, the Rockets have no Big Men
since the middle of the season. Mike
D’Antoni teams have always contained plenty of scoring and limited defense. The next few months should prove interesting.
The return
Coach Brad Underwood, the student body, alumni,
and fans of Illinois basketball are excited.
Illinois number 21 or 22 depending on which poll you read received the good
news regarding two players. Illinois finished last season in 4th
place in the Big 10 with a 13-7 conference record and 21-10 overall, many hoped
they might compete for the conference championship. The renewed effort would be dependent on two key
contributors to last season returning.
Earlier 6-foot 5 guard Ayo Dosunmu and 7-foot
center Kofi Cockburn both submitted their names for NBA early entry. Relax Illini fans change is in the air, in
this instance it becomes almost celebratory.
On Friday Dosunmu announced he was returning to Illinois, that declaration
was followed by Cockburn indicating he too was headed back to Champaign. Both should lead the way as Illinois battles for Big 10 supremacy in 2020-21.
Records are records
At the time the Sonic franchise moved to OKC
there was a key provision. As a
condition of the move all records would remain in Seattle. Where am I going with this story…straight to
the Forum and Staples Center. A fan claimed,
“The Lakers only won 11 championships 5 of them were won in Minneapolis.” We are unsure if it was an effort to negate
the total however, he is correct.
In 1960 it is likely records were not even considered
at the time this move was made. We have
a few more examples for that fan to consider that exists throughout the
NBA. The Sacramento Kings have Oscar
Robertson and Tiny Archibald’s jersey hanging in the rafters, neither played
for the franchise in Sacramento. Bob
Pettit’s jersey hangs in Atlanta although he played for the St. Louis
Hawks. Unless there is a “Seattle”
provision does it really matter where a team’s record or athlete may have first existed.
