Basketball
from a fan’s perspective
“Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It
never did and it never will.”
Frederick
Douglass
The history
I
read so many sources sometimes I am unable to point to a particular writer. In any event this writer posed the question could
Joel Embiid, Nickola Jokic and (one other) be at the top of the list for NBA
MVP. He approached it from the
standpoint of “foreign born players” winning the award. I must guess he didn’t consult the history
prior to writing his account. He didn’t
do what I just did, in 1994 Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria) was the league MVP and
the first foreign born.
Steve
Nash (South Africa & Canada) won the award back-to-back in 2005 and 2006. In 2007 Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki won, thus
three years in a row a foreign-born player was the winner. For the last two years Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) has
been the NBA’s MVP and my hope. I hope
this is not a miss-read on my part what the writer was attempting to impart. The NBA like other man-made entities is not
perfect, despite this fact the league has made a great effort at leveling the
field in several areas. I would venture to say the NBA is more a “world game”
than any other sport short of soccer (football).
The saga of Mac McClung
Mac
McClung has a dream; he wants to play in the NBA. His dream is shared by thousands and
thousands of basketball prospects throughout the nation and world. McClung can “ball” as they might say, he
broke the high school scoring record of a guy by the name of Allen
Iverson. McClung followed in the
footsteps of Iverson enrolling at Georgetown, but he would leave after just a
season, he would enroll at Texas Tech.
Once again, McClung proved he could play skillful basketball in the
tough Big 12 Conference…but! The
6-foot 2-inch point guard is on the move again, he’s entered the transfer
portal and is leaving Texas Tech attempting to locate his third school to begin
play. Will McClung make it to the NBA,
that question remains unanswered at this point?
A third school in three years will soon occur, you will be informed of
the move just as soon as McClung decides on his future. Will the lack of stability work against McClung
as he continues to change schools and work on his NBA game at the same
time?
A difficult task
I
am going to provide you my All-Time Lakers, they are not in any order just as I
see it. This is extremely difficult to consider
the number who played outstanding basketball for the Lakers, in addition, I have no intention
to detail the why, here goes:
1st
team
Kareem
Abdul Jabbar
Jerry
West
Magic
Johnson
James
Worthy
Kobe
Bryant
2nd
team
Shaquille
O’Neal
Jamaal
Wilkes
Elgin
Baylor
George
Mikan
Wilt
Chamberlain
Probably
one of the most difficult tasks ever, several on the second team could have
easily been placed on the first team.
There you have it my Top 10 All Time Lakers.
Opening the flood gates
Nuggets
guard Monte Morris and the Nets Spencer Dinwiddie have committed to play for
Nigeria in the Olympics. This is not a
new thing, several years ago American NBA players began committing to play for nations
other than the U.S.A. These players had
a connection, as an example, Kyrie Irving is not Australian, but he was born there,
Earl Watson former NBA player and Suns coach has relatives from Mexico, he
could have chosen to play for Mexico.
The
latest players to go this route have no connection to the African nation or the
continent, don’t get me wrong there is no fear on my part the U.S.A. loses it’s
the principle. America is a nation of immigrants;
do we allow all NBA players a nation of choice to play in the Olympics? FIBA or someone needs to step forward and correct
this mess, I am a party of one who believes this doesn’t make a great deal of
sense.
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