Basketball from a fan’s perspective

The End

Despite what I hoped didn’t materialize on Thursday for the Lakers and Laker Nation as the Suns beat our Lakers 113-100. Naturally on Friday morning disappointment reigns supreme among Laker Nation, the Suns are to be congratulated for the win and ending the playoff run of the Lakers. I will bleed Purple and Gold, my Man Cave full of Laker memorabilia remains intact it’s not been trashed. Two Laker fans blasted the team, the coaching staff and pointed out the lack of effort. I could make numerous excuses for the loss Thursday night and the series however I refuse to do that.

Looking back to last November or so I mistakenly believed the off season moves would permit the Lakers to successfully defend their 2020 NBA championship. We are aware teams don’t win championships on paper; allow me to simply state the results fell short of November 2020 expectations. I refuse to make jokes about health issues for AD or any other Laker apparently Charles Barkley doesn’t agree with my take. Sorry folks I can’t take anything Barkley states seriously whether it’s Laker related or something else. This is the same Barkley who once stated he intended to run for governor of Alabama.

Later it turns out we discover Barkley wasn’t registered to vote. This Laker squad will look vastly different next season for one reason, the bulk of its members are signed to 1-year contracts. LeBron will return a year older so will AD and Talen Horton-Tucker. Early reports indicate the Lakers have a desire to sign reserve Alex Caruso. As for the draft the Lakers have the 22nd pick in July, at this point we are unsure who that pick might be. As of this publication we have the possibility of five players reporting to training camp in the fall. Expect Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder to sign contracts with other teams. As this outlook changes (and it will) you will be updated on them.  

The NCAA & The Shark

If you’ve read Off the Dribble any length of time you know I have issues with the NCAA. This is an additional story to share, most of you probably have never heard the name Jerry Tarkanian, he died in 2015 after coaching more than 40 years. He’d retired from coaching in 2002 at his alma mater Fresno State.  From 1973-1992 he was the head coach at UNLV and was solely responsible for making the school a nationwide powerhouse, in 1990 his UNLV team won the NCAA championship. We have no idea at this point of the true story, we have no idea if Tark the Shark was cheating or not, but it reached a point the coach had enough.

Enough was enough, Tark decided to sue the NCAA, this policy of harassment he claims begin when at the time he coached Long Beach State. “I wrote that the NCAA will go after the small schools but never the big schools,” he said. “Western Kentucky got put on probation even though there were a lot more violations taking place at Kentucky. “Warren Brown [then the head of the NCAA] wrote to my athletic director ripping me. He wrote, ‘What does Tark think, Long Beach is a big school?’ ” From that point on, Tarkanian said, the NCAA hounded him.” The short version of the story rather than go to trial the NCAA decided to settle, they paid Tark a sum of $2.5 million without admitting liability. Why would the NCAA pay such a large amount of money if they were innocent? The next portion to cover for this body is the Ed O’Bannon case, that will be covered later. 

Los Angeles Times April 2, 1998

Chicago’s NBA History

If you are a certain age, you might believe Da Bulls are the only NBA team to represent the Windy City. That is not the case, the cities NBA history goes back to the founding of the NBA, in fact there have been three teams with Chicago on the front of their jerseys. The first team was the Stags, they were born in 1946 and they were a member of the Basketball Association of America, that’s number 1. If you remember your trivia the league would later merge with the National Basketball League and would become today’s NBA. The Stags did not last long, according to the records they folded in 1950 with no further explanation.

Of course, that was the “minor league” period of the NBA, several teams went out of business between 1946-1954. The roster of the Stags details only one familiar name, Kenny Sailors. Sailors is enshrined in the Naismith and College Basketball Hall of Fame; in addition, he is credited with being one of the first jump shooters in basketball. In 1940’s basketball the set shot with both feet firmly on the ground was the offensive weapon of the day. The city would be without NBA basketball until 1961 when the expansion Packers began play, that’s number 2. The team was terrible, in addition their games were played in an arena near the old stockyards.

It was said at the time many were unsure which stunk the most the team or the cattle next door. The second season witnessed a name change as they became the Zephyrs but that still didn’t do any good. By the 1963-64 season ownership moved the team to Baltimore and it would later move to Washington D.C. In 1966 the NBA looked toward Chicago once again and awarded the city an expansion team. This team was named the Bulls and that’s number 3. The Bulls did have a connection to the Stags, both played in the Chicago Stadium. The arena would serve as home for the Bulls from 1966-1994, the United Center opened the following season. It’s easy to see why the NBA continued to offer opportunity after opportunity to the city. Chicagoland currently contains the 3^rd largest metro populations in the nation, in much of the earlier years it contained the second largest base in the nation.   

Did you know? 

Prior to reading the announcement I was only aware of two Lincoln Universities, one located in Missouri and the other in Pennsylvania. I now am aware there is a third school, its located in Oakland California and was founded in 1919 so it’s not exactly new. In any event they are beginning a basketball program and have hired Oakland native and former NBA player Gary Payton to become the first coach. It’s my understanding the school will begin play as a Division II program but transition into Division I basketball. Congratulations are due Payton as he begins this new journey in life.