Basketball from a fans perspective

“Be led by your dreams not by your problems.” – Roy Williams

This is late

By the time you read this you will be operating on information overload, you will have read and heard numerous accounts of Game one. This is written at 10:50 p.m. Central Time, the Suns-Nuggets concluded about 30 minutes or so ago. My thoughts, I was surprised Giannis was able to play, and he did play reasonably well considering he was returning from a serious injury.  The same could be said for Mr. often M.I.A. Khris Middleton who also had a good game. It appeared most of the evening the Suns were much quicker to the ball. What I found most interesting the Bucks were actually the leaders in rebounds 47-43. Despite being outrebounded the Suns appeared to “out quick” the Bucks who appeared a little slow of foot for loose balls and rebounds.

On the side of the Suns Devin Booker didn’t shoot particularly well but still managed to score 27 points. DeAndre Ayton scored 22 points on lobs, dunks and tip ins, he also snatched down 19 rebounds. Ayton should have registered 20 rebounds; Chris Paul contested a ball which should have gone to Ayton if CP3 hadn't managed to wrestle it away from Ayton. 36-year-old CP3 was simply outstanding, 32 points 9 assists and only 2 TO’s. He shot a sizzling 63% from the floor 57% from 3 and he was 100% from the free throw line. CP3 had only 4 rebounds too bad he couldn’t have done better in that department, just kidding. When Cameron Payne replaced CP3 the game moved from sonic to hypersonic for the Suns. The Bucks will regroup and play better tonight, will they win? I have no idea, let’s just state the best team is likely to win.

Decisions, decisions

About 3 weeks or so ahead of the NBA draft college players have a decision in front of them. Part of the decision is information communicated to these athletes. They are divided into two camps, those who indicate they are remaining in the draft and those revealing they intend to return to school. There are far too many in number to mention all of them, let’s look at just a few names. Big Man Kofi Cockburn indicates he’s withdrawing from the draft although we are unsure at this point if he’s headed back to Illinois.

Kansas received good news as Ochai Agbaji and new teammate Remy Martin withdrew their names. Rest assured Bill Self feels a great deal better now than he might have 48 hours or so ago. Maryland’s Aaron Wiggins indicates he will remain in the draft. Cade Cunningham, Jalen Suggs and several other names intend to be drafted July 29. This is written July 7 so those withdrawing their names have until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to decide.

For the math qualified (which is not me)

In the summer of 2010 Carmelo Anthony was still a member of the Nuggets. We had attended a destination wedding in Las Vegas, our flight from Kansas City had us landing in Denver and taking another flight to our destination. On the return home we boarded (my term) a tram which took passengers from one terminal to another. At the second or third stop this tall guy boarded our car along with a friend.

On closer inspection I said to myself, “That’s Carmelo Anthony.” I nudged my wife and her response, “Why don’t you get his autograph?” I told her “I’m not going to bother him.” Now the math question, figure this one out if you care. What is the mathematical probability of a guy from Kansas City preparing to board a flight home arrives in Denver at the precise time Carmelo Anthony boards that same tram? No, Anthony was not on our flight so that might aid you in your computation.   

Chuck Taylor All Stars

A friend posted a photo of Dr. J. in his first college game for UMass, he informed us the good doctor scored 27 points and 28 rebounds in that first college game. My eyes were drawn to his feet and the pair of Chuck Taylor All Stars he sported. Today’s youngsters only know the shoes as making a fashion statement, back in the day Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars were the Lamborghini of basketball shoes. His given name was Charles Hollis Taylor, but his nickname was Chuck, born in 1901 he would later take up basketball and eventually he went to work for the Converse Rubber Company.

Taylor would become a salesman for the company and responsible for improvement and promotion of the shoe which later would bear his name. There was no other basketball shoe available, this is eons prior to Nike, Adidas and several other brands. It was the Chuck Taylor All Stars which set the standard. There were a smaller number of athletic shoes back then versus the present day. The second-best shoes of that period were a brand-named US Keds or P.F. Flyers. At that time even NBA players wore Chuck Taylor All Stars, most teams wore all white Taylors.

The Celtics who dominated the league during that period were the only NBA to wear the black version of Chuck Taylor All Stars. Converse with its Chuck Taylor All Stars was the only shoe true ballers of the era wanted, for years Converse dominated the basketball world with its iconic shoe.  Nike would arrive on the scene in 1984 however in the beginning they only produced running shoes. It was only years later they moved into the basketball shoe business; the world would change forever once Nike entered the market. Converse is still in business however they are owned by…you guessed it Nike.  So, there you have it the brief history of Chuck Taylor All Stars the top basketball shoe up through approximately the late 1960’s. This is unknown to most under the age of 45 or so, to them Chuck Taylors are a fashion statement.