Basketball from a fan’s perspective

What do you think?

At the rate, the Suns and Nets are scoring what should NBA fans expect if these two teams should meet for the championship? Could we see a 175-150 game or better yet perhaps 140-125?  To date its been Nets 115-107 and 125-86 over the Bucks, in the west its Suns 122-105 and 123-98 over the Nuggets. Can you reflect on a period when playoff scoring was this inflated? I admit I haven’t seen all these games end to end however there appears more offense is being played than defense. Even more interesting on the Nets side James Hardin remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.  

How bout them Suns

I’m not talking about the Chris Paul lead team it’s the Charles Barkley version. A letter writer claimed much of Barkley’s problem with some teams is he never had any talent around him. That might be debatable to a degree, those teams were certainly good. Let’s look at those Suns, they had Barkley at power forward plus Kevin Johnson at the point. KJ was a talented combo guard prior to the term becoming popular. Johnson spent all but one season of his brilliant NBA career with the Suns.

Johnson’s numbers nearly 18 points and 9 assists during his 10 years with the Suns. They would play for the 1993 NBA championship but losing to the Bulls 4 games to 2. One of the keys to the Suns lack of playoff success…the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite assembling several good teams, the Lakers were often the Western Conference representative. Don’t take my word, research those Suns teams during Barkley’s time. They were particularly good just not good enough to win a championship due to the competition being better. 

Gatorade Player of the Year

Aminu Mohammed is headed to Georgetown in the fall, I’m disappointed this Springfield (MO) youngster is not on his way to Mizzou but that’s another story. I’m not going to detail the numbers for the 6-foot 5 shooting guard, he attended Greenfield Academy School where he proved to all he is not one dimensional. Mohammed maintained a 3.69 GPA proving he is an outstanding student-athlete not the other way around.

McDonalds All American, Mr. Show-Me Basketball winner and he’s been invited to Team Nigeria Olympic training camp. Those are just a few of the honors accorded Mohammed. Prior to publication of this account came news upcoming Gonzaga Bulldog Chet Holmgren was named National Player of the Year. Holmgren had an outstanding senior year at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis. Expect to see the 7-footer in action as he begins play at the collegiate level in the fall, congratulations Mr. Holmgren on this honor.   

The borough over the city

This account is somewhat connected to one written May 30 although it is intended to be different. As the Knicks are now playoff eliminated and the Nets advance a little history for you. New York City contains two NBA teams although only one has NEW YORK on their jerseys, wonder why? The basis has its origin in baseball believe it or not. The baseball team currently representing the City of Los Angeles is somewhat new compared to the history. The Dodgers were founded in 1876 but began play officially from 1884 to 1957 in the borough of Brooklyn.

What transpired in 1957, you guessed it the team moved to Los Angeles. Prior to that move in its earliest days played in the borough of Brooklyn, over the years they were the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fast forward to the 2012 move, the Nets would move from New Jersey and the owners at the time wanted to pay homage to the borough. Instead of being named the New York Nets they would adopt Brooklyn once again. If you remember the earlier account, the team did play under the New York Nets in the early years of its founding. We have teams with state in front of their name (Minnesota Wolves, Texas Rangers etc.) but the Nets remain the only professional team with a district name rather than the city.