Basketball from a fan’s perspective

“Nothing will work unless you do.”       John Wooden

Bits n Pieces

Take the money if it’s there should be the choice.  The reference of course is the one and done athletes, it’s been a belief for several years school will always be there.  If a guaranteed NBA payoff is in your future, why take a chance on returning to school and risk suffering injury.  A few years ago, I cannot remember the year or the name of the player.  This University of Colorado basketball player had been projected to be a high draft pick.  He chose instead to return to school for his sophomore or junior year, he suffered a devastating injury, he was never drafted.  Take the money and run if its guaranteed school will always be there. 

This is for the coffee lover in you and me, our lives could not exist without coffee.  We have plenty of company, one of those lovers of the brew made from beans of the Coffea plant is former NBA player Dikembe Mutombo.  He’s in a different position from most of us reading this how much does he love coffee, enough to start his own company?  Don’t expect to pick up Mutombo at your local supermarket, for now you must order over the internet.  In retirement several players have gone into business to our knowledge Mutombo is the first in this type of commerce.  

Ice Trae

The main reason I refuse to view sports talk radio valid, it’s the Trae Young effect.  It just as easily could be Kristaps Porzingis as however this account regards the Hawks point guard.  I’ve told this story previously, every time “Ice” Trae has an outstanding game it’s noted at this desk.  When he was in college at Oklahoma, I paid a great deal more attention to sports talk radio than I do at present, and this represents what I heard one afternoon. 

Young had blown up in the Big 12 Conference, he’d become the talk of the conference with his scoring and assists as a freshman.  After the first of the year his scoring and assist numbers diminished a bit.  This talk show guy concluded Young “couldn’t play” at the collegiate level.  He made other negative statements about coach Lon Kruger as well which also later proved untrue. 

In any event an NBA scout assessing Young said, “In the NBA they (teams) won’t be able to throw junk defenses at him in the NBA.”  Young came on strong in the second half of his NBA rookie season and could have been named Rookie of the Year.  Trae Young has proven to be an NBA talent and it just reminds us, be careful who is dispensing the information.  Often with many of the media it becomes theatre, we are being entertained rather than informed. 

OG, (old guy)

Pacer forward Domantas Sabonis is good, the proof we offer he’s an All Star.  The son is good however this account is about his dad Arvydas Sabonis.  Arvydas was huge, he stood 7 foot 3 and a hefty 291 pounds by the time he arrived in the NBA.  Two issues would prevent us from witnessing his talent during his prime.  It was different back then; he was drafted by the NBA Hawks in 1985 but the political climate of the time would prevent him from leaving Lithuania.  Arvydas did not arrive in the NBA until the 1995-96 season, a skilled athlete who like Connie Hawkins, we never saw him at his best. 

Arvydas was a 31-year-rookie by the time he began play for the NBA Blazers.  The second issue impacting his NBA career was a devastating Achilles tendon injury which robbed him of much of his early flair, by the time Arvydas reached the NBA he was a shadow of his former self.  Despite this fact he was a skillful passer from the center position and may have been among the first Big Man with a 3-point shot.  If you look at his NBA career number’s, they appear rather pedestrian.  Numbers alone don’t provide us a true picture of his talent that’s why he was rewarded after he retired, Arvydas has been enshrined in the FIBA and Naismith Halls of Fame.