Basketball from a fan perspective

Ball versus Ball

The Friday evening match featuring Lonzo and LaMelo Ball was only historic in one instance, it was the first meeting on an NBA court for the brothers.  Brother combos are not an unusual occurrence in the NBA.  There have been several brother combos matched against one another in the NBA in years past.  Hall of Fame player Rick Barry had three sons who played in the NBA at one time, Jon, Brent, and Drew. 

In the present-day NBA in addition to the Ball brothers we have Steph and Seth Curry.  The Holiday brothers Aaron, Jrue and Justin, we also have the Lopez twins Brook and Robin.  The Morris twins Marcus who plays for the Clippers and Markieff for the Lakers, and the Antetkounmpo brothers, Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas.  We also have the Zeller brothers, Tyler, Cody, and Luke who is no longer in the NBA.  There are likely other brother combinations omitted but this was to inform several of you Lonzo and LaMelo are not exclusive. 

Seattle in the NBA

We’ve explored on more than one occasion NBA expansion, at the top of all proposed expansion plans is Seattle however is the NBA ready to return because they failed the city?  Several believe besides me the city was betrayed, does those the area really desire the NBA to return?  Without repeating the entire history, Clay Bennett played a similar game to that of Gregg Luckenbill.  Who is Luckenbill you might ask, he once was the majority owner of the Kings? Luckenbill purchased the team while the franchise called Kansas City home. 

Lukenbill made a promise he would remain in the city and less than two years later they were headed to Sacramento.  A similar account developed in Seattle and finally the owner petitioned the NBA to move to his hometown Oklahoma City.  Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan announced she’d had a conversation with NBA commissioner Adam Silver on a possible return to Seattle.  There is no timetable on expansion or even a return.  Consider this fact, the last time the NBA expanded was 2004 but there is a driving force to expand…. finance.  It is being reported the present group of owners could divide $1 billion should the NBA expand. 

“They’re here!”

The line was uttered by little Carol Ann in the 1982 movie Poltergeist when the spirits first made contact.  If you saw the movie at the theatre or on cable a family home was visited by ghostly spirits.  The spirits in this discussion are earthly in nature, they are the “Laker Haters”.  Like those portrayed in the movie these spirits have risen from the grave too.  Consider this fact from the 2013-14 season through 2018-19 the Lakers won 163 games while losing 329 for a .495 winning percentage. 

During these years we heard more complaints from Laker Nation as to why their favorite team’s play was so poor than Laker Haters.  In the 2018-19 season much was expected as LeBron James decided to cast his fate with the team, a devastating injury would sideline him for several games which all but dashed their playoff hopes.  The Lakers would finish the season with 37 wins and 45 losses but that was then, this is now.  Although the 2019-20 was broken up into part 1 and part 2 the Lakers managed to win the Pacific Division eclipsing everyone’s pre-season pick the Clippers.  After tough battles with several NBA teams, they finally were able to beat the Heat 4 games to 2 winning the 2019-20 NBA Championship. 

The dust had hardly settled on the championship trophy and the haters began to voice their opinions.  You name the excuse those in Laker Nation have heard it since October.  Personally, this Laker fan is not offended I find it quite funny, they must search and search to downplay any success the franchise experiences.  It’s now carried over to free agency with questions of “LeBron is pulling strings” and other far-fetched stories. 

Left out

Recently we profiled my Top 10 list of NYC high school players in history, naturally in compiling this someone always is omitted.  A friend who grew up there indicated Rod Strickland and Dewayne ‘Pearl’ Washington should have been included.  Let’s look back at the two, Strickland grew up in the Bronx and played at Truman where the 6-foot 3-point guard led them to a state championship.  Later he would transfer to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia and be ranked one of the Top 10 players in the nation. 

Strickland would become an All-American at DePaul University and 1988 saw him drafted by his hometown Knicks.  Point guard Pearl Washington grew up in Brooklyn and played his high school basketball at Boys and Girls High School.  In 1983 he was rated the number one player in the nation, later at Syracuse he would also become an All-American.  Pearl was drafted by the Nets in 1986, in 2016 he would die of cancer at the age of 52.  So, there you have the names, Strickland, and Washington two NYC high school basketball legends.  It should be of note both were point guards but could score baskets when needed.