Basketball from a fans perspective

A Dominican in the NBA

Any time athletics and the Dominican Republic are mentioned we think baseball.  The Caribbean Island nation has produced numerous baseball players over the years. In this instance we are discussing basketball and not baseball.  Chris Duarte is his name and at the end of the month his name will be announced in the annual NBA draft. He’s a 6-foot 6-inch shooting guard and is said to be “NBA ready” by a few scouts. Although he was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic he journeyed to New York City with his family for his last two years of high school. From there it was Northwest Florida State and on to Oregon where he refined his game even further.

Duarte is old by NBA standards as a grizzly 24-year-old, most NBA rookies are usually between 19-22. but don’t allow his age to fool you. He was Pac-12 All Defensive First Team, First Team All-Pac-12 and Third Team All American. In addition, Duarte won the 2021 Jerry West Award. Duarte is quoted as stating “I believe I’m a lottery pick”, nothing like super confidence. Several teams have brought Duarte in for a workout including my Lakers. It should be noted Duarte would not be the lone Dominican in the NBA. There was Felipe Lopez in the late ‘90’s, still active is Karl-Anthony Towns and Al Horford to name just a few.   

Everybody Hates Chris Patrick

Is Patrick Beverly a dirty player, the question is difficult to answer for a variety of reasons. If you are a fan of the Clippers, you probably see nothing wrong with his “aggressive” style of basketball. He reminds many us enforcers of the past, most recently it was probably Bruce Bowen, he spent the bulk of his NBA career with the Spurs. He was known to use several methods to play defense against opponents, like Beverly his teams didn’t expect much from him offensively defense was his forte. Prior to Bowen is one enforcer in the Naismith Hall of Fame, his name Dennis Rodman.

Rodman too used a variety of methods to “get into a players head”, Karl Malone hated, and I use the word strongly playing against Rodman. In addition to defense rebounding the basketball was his specialty. Although he stood but 6 foot 7 and weighed 228 pounds Rodman led the NBA in rebounds for 7 consecutive years, he was twice Defensive Player of the Year. Perhaps Beverly is like the others, lacking talent in one or two areas he decided to concentrate on playing tough hard-nosed defense. Is Beverly a dirty player, you be the judge. As for the recent issues Beverly had with Chris Paul there are two stories here.

Throughout his NBA career Paul has been an agitator mostly verbal, perhaps Beverly had enough after Paul sunk a 3-point basket extending the Suns lead. It’s clear Beverly is over the top, TNT’s Kenny Smith referred to him as the present-day Dennis Rodman and was roundly criticized because his co-host must have found that statement to be far from accurate. After pushing Paul in the back, he later apologized however that’s not going to save Beverly from an NBA fine. NBA league offices have suspended Beverly for the first game next season. I believe it should have been at least a week, he claims it was a move of frustration, I don’t believe that for one minute. It’s simple he continues to play bully basketball; I hope someone knocks him on his $%^(#^ too. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVGINpX9-uc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVGINpX9-uc

I’ve recovered but apparently not him

Reading Off the Dribble over time you might remember learning of a trade that never transpired. Well, technically it did occur it’s just the fact then commissioner David Stern decided to void it. Chris Paul from the Hornets (Pelicans) to the Lakers, Stern said it wasn’t in the best interest of the NBA and that was that. I had lamented the history but concluded it was in the rear-view mirror, so I satisfied myself with this fact.

Although I managed to leave this event in the past apparently former Laker Magic Johnson doesn’t feel the same way. He covered the issue on one of the numerous talk programs on ESPN just last week, he discussed Paul and his Suns team as they compete for an NBA championship. There is no doubt the Laker down years might have never occurred with Kobe Bryant at shooting guard, Chris Paul at the point and Pau Gasol at the power forward. Events occur in our lives we often have little control over, that is the case here with the trade that officially never transpired. 

Let’s go back in time

The Bucks and Suns face one another beginning tonight for the 2021 NBA championship. We mentioned the 2021 NBA champion would be new since no Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, Rockets, Celtics, Cavs or Warriors would be declared a winner. If the Suns win it will be a first time for them, as for the Bucks it will become their second championship.  For the Suns it’s 1993 all over again, that was the last time they played for the championship.

That Suns team contained Dennis Johnson, former Celtic GM Danny Ainge and a guy by the name of Charles Barkley. The Suns would lose that championship series to the Bulls led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and others. As for the Bucks they won it all in 1971 however 3 years later it would be different as they fell to the Celtics. That Bucks team contained Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. That winning Celtics team in 1974 was led to the championship by Dave Cowens, JoJo White and John Havlicek.