Basketball from a fan’s perspective

“Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you.”  John Wooden

The hits keep coming

We see arriving stage right LeBron James, exit stage left is Dennis Schroeder.  The mercurial guard will be sidelined for the next 10-14 days health and safety protocol, that leaves Schroeder absent until the playoffs begin. At the start of the season, it was my hope the Lakers would be able to defend their championship, at this point the outcome remains unclear.

The path ahead appears greatly crowded with those playing superior basketball to the Lakers. First it was AD out for an extended period then it was LeBron, he wasn’t out as long however his missing contributed to the current slide of the time.  In between those two we witnessed player after player out for a period due to injury or illness. I remain faithful I must, I am a part of Laker Nation who is a fan win or lose. The hits i.e., injuries keep coming over and over and over. An announcement came Monday morning indicating a sore ankle would sideline LeBron for the game against the Nuggets. 

Not all the time

The University of Kansas introducing their newly hired football coach is the basis for this post. It’s a well-known fact, 99% of college football coaches across the nation earn more in salary annually than basketball coaches. There is no argument on my part football generates the largest amount of revenue except in a few instances.  The schools without football programs and the roughly 1% of basketball coaches who exceed the earning of the football coach, this is a guess on my part but here are just a few I believe.

John Calipari Kentucky

Coach K. Duke

Bill Self Kansas

Roy Williams North Carolina (recently retired)

Mick Cronin UCLA

Bob Huggins W. Virginia

Jim Boeheim Syracuse

Chris Mack Louisville

Give it time

Monday after last week’s NFL draft, the host of a local sports talk radio show mentions the grading system used by those in the media. They provide us a letter grade giving us their view how well a team might have done in the draft. The radio host made one statement I believe is valuable and I’m going to add another. Radio guy said, “The question remains did that team address it’s needs in the draft?” I would take this one step further by saying until that player is on the field or court how do you determine success or failure. Days after a draft in football, baseball or the NFL is far too soon to make a proper evaluation of a team’s result.

A couple of NBA examples, Kobe Bryant was the 13^th pick in the 1996 NBA draft.  Only the keen eye of former president and GM Jerry West saw the talent potential, it took 3-4 years before Kobe was a starter. He’s going into the Hall of Fame this month because his NBA career was outstanding.  A more recent example might be the 2018 draft, Luka Doncic had no early competition for rookie of the year.  By the time the calendar turn to 2019 Hawks point guard Trae Young asserted himself.  Near the end of the season many argued Trae should be rookie of the year. In conclusion don’t become too excited regarding letter grades until at least the season starts. 

Why

If you are a reader of Words eye view any length of time you’ve understood this for quite a while.  There is an attempt to detail the history of the game of basketball and it’s done with purpose.  Perhaps you might have read the same statement as me, this has become the basis, “You can never tell where you are going until you understand where you’ve been.” 

That applies for practically everything in life including the game we love basketball. Oftentimes a story might not be told in its entirety and sometimes parts of the story might be omitted. The purpose and hope by this writer is to light a fire of curiosity on your part, it’s hoped to spur you to explore a subject covered in greater detail than reported in this blog. No worry, if you are not a history buff as many are just enjoy other stories that might be more to your liking.