Basketball from a fan perspective

My Top 10 NYC basketball players

Over the generations New York City basketball has turned out a who’s who list of outstanding basketball talent over the years.  Once upon a time the great majority of the city’s talent remained in the metro, they attended St. John’s, Columbia, Iona, Rutgers, and others.  All that’s changed now in more recent years, high school talent has left the city in droves for other programs    throughout the country. 

Metro NYC continues to produce some of the best basketball talent in the nation it’s just visible elsewhere.  A recent example would be the Knicks top 2020 pick Obi Topping, born in Brooklyn he played his basketball at the University of Dayton.  As for the history even basketball hotbeds like Chicago, Los Angeles and others cannot compete with this list.  Keep in mind we are discussing high school talent; we are excluding any pro career they might have experienced.  

  1.Kareem Abdul Jabbar

  2.Julius Erving

  3.Nate ‘Tiny’ Archibald

  4.Kenny Smith

  5.Kenny Anderson

  6.Stephon Marbury

  7.Billy Cunningham

  8.Roger Brown

  9.Connie Hawkins

10.Bernard King

Our list is the top 10 athletes believe to represent the best of the best high school basketball talent.  There are several others who could have been included but were omitted, it certainly wasn’t intentional your list might contain them.  We could have included Albert King, Felipe Lopez, Lance Stephenson, Sebastian Telfair, Rafer Alston and Ron Artest who barely missed my cut.  Although my decision was difficult I must state the names mentioned and perhaps others were excluded due to space rather than talent in choosing my Top 10 All-Time greatest list.  

We do what we do

This is written November 24; additional player changes might have occurred by the time you read this account.  As of this date several websites and talking heads on television have awarded grades to NBA teams regarding the draft and free agency.  Let’s check a little closer, first I too fall into the trap as well so this should not be considered a complete rather reality.  Awarding letter grades is the method we are accustomed; it provides us an imaginary litmus test. 

Despite the grade the following is what a grading system fails to provide, we believe the Clippers signing Kawhi Leonard is an A, we cannot see load management making it a C+ or perhaps a B grade.  In 2013 the Cavs made Anthony Bennett of UNLV the top pick in that year’s draft, we later discovered Bennett couldn’t play effectively at the NBA level.  Scouting reports at the time indicated he would be an “effective pro.”  For those old enough to remember the name one account had him rated as Larry Johnson prior to injury. 

These two examples are cited as evidence grading systems often fail us.  Probably the best approach to make regarding the draft and free agency is one of caution.  That is the issue, many want to be the first to say, “I told you so” is why we often overlook potential landmines.  We have no ability to see into the future if that’s the case perhaps the Clippers and Cavs would have taken a different course.  On the other hand, with all the information in front of them make the same decision. 

2020 deaths

As we head for the midnight hour 2020 has been a traumatic year punctuated by the pandemic that took full effect in March.  The year started January 1, the first day of the year came the announcement of the death of David Stern former NBA Commissioner and the man generally given credit for building the NBA what it is today.  Stern had fallen ill while at dinner but died in January of the year.  Near the end of the month came word of the helicopter crash killing Kobe Bryant his daughter and 7 other passengers and several others.  2020 would see many well-known names in the world of basketball die, the names are not in any date order.  The basketball world mourned their loss, please not the team they are most associated with is provided.       

Tommy Heinsohn-Celtic player and broadcaster

John Thompson-former Georgetown coach

Lute Olson-former Arizona head coach

Wes Unseld-Bullets and former head coach

Jerry Sloan-Longtime Jazz coach and former player

Mike Storen-ABA Commissioner

Fred ‘Curly’ Neal-Harlem Globetrotter

Cliff Robinson-Blazers  

Naturally, this list should not be considered complete, there are several names omitted.  Our desire was to focus on the names familiar to most with basketball history, R.I.P.