Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Which team is a winner?

This is written ahead of Thursday night’s game, both Los Angeles teams are down 3 games to 2. Who wins the series, do the Lakers return from the brink of oblivion or do the Suns win? As for the other Los Angeles team, the Clippers lost on Wednesday night to the Mavs 105-100. Who prevails here, the Clippers or the Mavs? If either or both Los Angeles teams are eliminated there will be plenty of finger pointing in SoCal. This will be published with no change, by the time you read this today the Lakers will have been eliminated or winners of Game 6.

Here I go once again

It started about 10:30 p.m. or so Central Time April 5, 2021. That’s the date it was decided Gonzaga did not play good basketball because the Baylor Bears managed to walk all over them. This is no intent to lessen Baylor’s championship they were clearly the best team. The issue is many of us are now kicking Gonzaga basketball to the curb because they lost in a championship game. Some in the media and fans point to the West Coast Conference as being weak, they fail to take into consideration the NCAA run by Gonzaga.

No disrespect intended but they were expected to beat 16 Norfolk State, then it was number 8 Oklahoma. From that point they beat number 5 Creighton number 6 Southern Cal, then upset minded UCLA an 11 seed. After losing to Baylor, they still finished the season with a 31-1 record, that’s certainly outstanding from where I sit. If you wish to disparage Gonzaga basketball it’s on you, they had an exceptional season and only an outstanding Baylor team could have beaten them. 

Bill Bradley, Renaissance Man-Part II

After his All-American career at Princeton adjusting to the NBA was not easy for him. The Knicks placed the 6-foot 5-inch Bradley in the frontcourt he’d played in college. That proved to be a disaster, eventually he was moved to the role of shooting guard. Bradley turned out to be a serviceable pro player but never reached the heights many might have expected. After contributing to the Knicks two NBA championships Bradley retired in 1977, what to do…what to do. 

Bradley was 34-years old, and he’d been campaigning for Democratic candidates throughout the State of New Jersey. In the summer of that year Bradley decided to run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey and he won in the fall with 56% of the vote. We don’t know if it was name identification or just the fact, he was the better candidate. In 2000 Bradley ran in the presidential primaries but would later withdraw his name. After he left the Senate Bradley served in several corporate and civic roles. This is a condensed version of 77 years of Bill Bradley’s life, like many of us there are portions in part I and II omitted. There exists numerous source material for Bill Bradley who many believe is a Renaissance Man. 

Survivor

Like the long running television program, the NBA playoffs are a Survivor series. Failing to advance in these playoffs are the Knicks of New York City. The NBA managed to “survive” all these years without the Knicks. One of the key reasons the Knicks failed to advance was the less than stellar play of their star forward Julius Randle. After winning the Most Improved Player for the season he disappeared in their series against the Hawks.

During the season Randle was 24.1 ppg contrast that with 18.0 in the playoffs. He shot nearly 46% from the floor in the playoffs he dipped to 30%, but it was his 3-point efficiency which really suffered. From 41.3% during the season, he rolled off the cliff dropping to   33.3%. The Knicks losing to the Hawks 4 games to 1 was not all his fault, NBA basketball continues to be a team game. Randle’s teammates did not excel during portions. Knick fans especially Spike Lee probably believed he’d perform better. Oh well there is next year, and this is proof the Knicks are a playoff caliber team now. 

The Wizards fail to advance

As the Wiz are eliminated from the playoffs this might appear to be another trash Russell Westbrook column. That is not the case, the NBA remains a team game, generally we cannot remove one player however there is a question. With his speed and leaping ability why must he settle for jump shots? It’s become abundantly clear he’s not a good shooter from the floor.

19 points a game and nearly 12 assists in 5 games clearly demonstrates his ability, we could note the 10 rebounds a game as well. The part that glares at us is the 33.3% shooting from the floor. My belief has always been you attempt to maximize those things you do well (assists & rebounds) and minimize those you don’t perform well (shooting). If for some reason Westbrook retires without a championship there will be many like me who might say, "He could have been a much better player."