Basketball from a fan perspective

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Temporary home---Mayor Quinton Lucas a man of his word sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, he identified Kansas City as a possible temporary home should the Raptors be unable to play in Toronto in the upcoming season.  On Monday Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes sent the mayor a tweet affirming his support for the effort.  The mayor’s letter contained his signature and the signatures of three U.S. senators (two Kansas and one Missouri) and two U.S. congressmen.  This is a good news/bad news story, many of us desire NBA basketball in Kansas City even on a temporary basis.  The bad news, covid being the foundation for the NBA returning to Kansas City.       

We have the answer---Julius Erving a.k.a. Dr. J. has given Glen Rivers permission to continuing using his nickname as coach of the Sixers.  There might have been others however actor Michael Rappaport first said it, “He’s now Glenn, he can’t be Doc in Philadelphia.”  As for the origin of the nickname Rivers claims it was the late Rick Majerus who tagged him with the nickname.  He attended a summer basketball camp one year with a Dr. J. T-shirt and Majerus spotted the shirt and gave him the nickname.  Doc stuck with Glenn through college at Marquette and into the NBA as a player later as a coach.   

No asterisk then---A writer reminded me and perhaps it was mentioned earlier, the Pistons won the 1989 NBA Championship sweeping the Lakers 4 games to 0.  What occurred, the Lakers were forced to play without their starting backcourt.  Byron Scott and Magic Johnson both suffered hamstring injuries and the reserves were unable to compete against the Pistons being swept.  We heard no mention of an asterisk by the Lakers coach at the time, who was the Laker coach at the time, it was Pat Riley now president and general manager of the Heat? 

Can’t blame this on James Dolan--- The Knicks owner receives a great deal of criticism for the state of the Knicks.  Dolan has only been involved in ownership of the time since 1994.  Kareem Abdul Jabbar had grown up in New York City, he only ventured west to play basketball at UCLA.  In 1969 he was made the first pick in the NBA Draft by the Bucks, by 1975 Abdul Jabbar indicated he wanted out of Milwaukee.  We discover in October 2020 Abdul Jabbar wanted the Knicks and not the Lakers, makes sense for several reasons. 

He’d grown up rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Knicks however there was one difficulty according to him.  The Lakers made it clear they wanted him by offering extra incentives, as for his hometown Knicks he claims they were less enthusiastic to acquire him.  The Knicks should have been fully aware of Abdul Jabbar by 1975, he’d won an NBA Championship and was named NBA MVP three times.  Just a small number of honors Abdul Jabbar won before finishing his career as a member of the Lakers.        

Cousins is certainly in Karl’s head---Veteran George Karl last coached in 2016 at Sacramento, Boogie Cousins played for Karl at the time, but he also left the Kings the following season.  Have an idea where this story might be headed, okay I will clarify it for you?  We are in the last week of October 2020, we guess the last time the two named individuals might have encountered one another was likely four years ago. 

Despite the passage of time Cousins is certainly in Karl’s head, for no apparent reason he felt it necessary to inform us Cousins was a terrible player to coach.  This is not intended to be a defense of Cousins or his apparent attitude because we had no idea what might have occurred between the two.  It appears Karl is one of those individuals who continues to hold on to grudges, whatever you might have done, or he believes you might have done is difficult for him to let go.