Basketball from a fan perspective 

The NBA Draft -- It’s becoming an ever-moving event, i.e. the NBA Draft.  The original date was set for June 25 but that might have been set prior to COVID and the suspension and then resumption of play.  The first date we heard post pandemic was October 9.  The latest news now has the NBA Board of Governors meeting to revise the date once again, it appears (we believe) the revised date will become will be November 18. 

It would make sense in at least one instance; the planned start of the 2020-21 NBA season is tentatively scheduled for December 25.  At this point it is unclear if a Draft Combine will be held, as for the start of the season there are other events impacted by a later NBA start.  This is a guess but there is a serious doubt the start of the season will be delayed until January 2021.  It is evident whatever occurs over the next few months dates of NBA dealings will be compacted.    

Number one and two-- First it was the Bucks, the Milwaukee team was eliminated and down went the number one seed.  Even more interesting with the best record in the NBA regular season the Bucks found themselves on the back end of an 0-3 start before eventually losing to the Heat.  On Friday evening came a Game 7 between the Celtics and the defending champion Raptors, at the end of the evening the number two seed was eliminated as well.  We say all the time there are no upsets in sports, believe it they do indeed occur.  We cannot speak for other sports however upsets certainly exist in the NBA. 

Best in the metro ever-- This is a revisit of an earlier story, in 2020 the metro population of Kansas City is slightly over 2 million souls.  Certainly, a much smaller population than New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles.  Despite this fact anytime a discussion is held regarding the best high school talent ever there is only one name.  We could mention Wyandotte’s Lucius Allen or Larry Drew, Anthony Peeler at Paseo or Jaron Rush who played at Pembroke are the names most often mentioned.    Although he’s mentioned in the same discussion, he identifies Warren Armstrong as the best.  Allen would play his college basketball at UCLA with the legendary Lew Alcindor.  Armstrong played his high school ball at Kansas City’s Central High School graduating in 1964. 

In that period little film exists of his play however his exploits on the basketball court became the stuff of legend.  Standing 6 foot 2 Armstrong was a rock solid 205 pounds during his basketball career, at Wichita State the legend would only grow.  He took on the name Jabali as his last name while in college, it reflected his solid play.  Jabali is Swahili for boulder or rock, he certainly was rock solid in his play and his mentality.  His sometimes-volatile nature may have impacted his possible NBA career.  In that era the draft was more than two rounds, Jabali was made the 44^th pick in the 4^th round in the 1968 NBA Draft.  Sources report Red Holtzman then coaching the Knicks wanted no part of Jabali, he would sign with the ABA Oakland Oaks. 

Jabali likely had a greater ABA impact than at Wichita State being named 1969 ABA Rookie of the Year.  Injuries would force him to retire after 7 years but in that time his exploits would continue the legend.  Whenever a list of ABA greats are compiled Jabali’s name is always included.  Jabali died at the age of 66 in 2012, after all this time still the top high school basketball player in Kansas City.  In case you might be interested in additional detail David Thomas who competed against Jabali wrote a book published in 2019 titled Jabali A Kansas City Legend, it’s available on Amazon and other book sources.   

"A setback is a setup for a comeback”--The headline is a quote from Pastor T.D. Jakes of Dallas. The quote might apply to many however it certainly applies to Richard J. "Dickie V" Vitale. After the NBA Pistons fired him, he was talked into working for a fledgling cable sports network. After being fired he wanted the Rutgers job and had applied for the position of head coach. Fast forward to December 5, 2011 the University of Detroit dedicated the "Dick Vitale Court" prior to a scheduled game.

Vitale’s collegiate success at the university had led him to be hired as head coach of the NBA Pistons in 1978.  Unfortunately, his collegiate success did not follow him into the NBA, about a month after he was fired December 5, 1979 to be exact Vitale began working as a basketball analysis for a new cable network with the initials ESPN. I think we can all state with conviction working for ESPN has gained him more notoriety than his past two coaching stops.  This has been mentioned in the past some have been critical of Vitale, they claim he “loves Coach K. and Duke basketball and he fails to ever take notice of bad news involving college basketball.”