Basketball from a fan’s perspective

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”     Michael Jordan 

Alex who?

Just because you’ve reached a certain age there is no reason to believe everyone is on your level.  Sports media appears to make a big deal of the fact Wolves guard Anthony Edwards didn’t have a clue who perspective owner Alex Rodriguez was.  Fact, the youngster is only 19-years old it is quite possible he never followed baseball despite the fact A. Rod retired as recently as 2016.  I work with youngsters the same age of Edwards, often discussing sports someone will mention a particular athlete of the recent past.  The response from this group is usually "who" and they will admit there unfamiliar with the athlete or the name?  

Pre-season Top 25

CBS college basketball page along with ESPN.com’s basketball page published a pre-season Top 25 poll.  There might be others however those two are our focus as this is written.  These pre-seasons are published every off-season however this time there is pushback.  A fan wrote; “Is a poll valid with so many variables that could occur between April and November.”  I can agree with this fan, pre-season polls are good for alumni, school administration, students and fans.  Beyond the groups mentioned pre-season polls are beauty contests and really serve no purposes, in addition they often don't come close to the end results in April.   

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We covered the athletic prowess of Jackie Robinson; he remains the only athlete to letter in 4 sports while at UCLA.  Reading new bio information, we discover he might have chosen the NBA over breaking the color barrier in baseball.  After the first season with the baseball Montreal Royals, he returned home and signed a contract with the Los Angeles Red Devils in 1946 a professional basketball team at the time.  It was a racially integrated basketball team, according to the information the team had been organized with the intent to join the National Basketball League

The league wanting a west coast franchise looked toward the Red Devils.  The NBL was in discussions with the Basketball Association of American and of course merged later forming today's NBA.  As for Robinson he left the Red Devils in January 1947 shortly after meeting with Branch Rickey, April 1947 he was in the lineup of the Brooklyn Dodgers breaking the modern color barrier in baseball.  Could Robinson have played in the NBA, we can only take the word of an NBA player of that era?  Earl Lloyd first black player claimed Robinson could have played in the NBA.  Check out the video below which has been run previously.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQxVE1D5TE

Emoni Bates is headed to???

Notice the question marks in the headline, the explanation is as follows.  The high school basketball season concluded a few weeks ago, basketball wunderkind Emoni Bates disappeared from our radar about the same time.  Now comes news Michigan State is on a “Bates Watch.”  They are unsure of his next move, heck he might not be decided on the direction himself.  While researching this account one website claims “He’s the best high school prospect since LeBron James.

Another claims "His game is similar to Kevin Durant.” Accolades can sometimes be misleading and deceiving allow that to marinate a bit.  Best guess he's not returning to high school in August so where does he head?  Pure speculation on my part it's likely one direction or the other.  Here goes, he reclassifies and enrolls at Michigan State in the fall and begins play for Tom Izzo.  That's scenario number 1, how about number 2?  Bates does a "LaMelo Ball", he heads overseas to play for pay and it could be Australia or Europe possibly in his future.