Basketball from a fans perspective

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The 75^th Anniversary

We have mentioned the youthful age of the NBA in the past compared to other professional sports. 75 years might seem ancient depending on your age, versus football, baseball and hockey played well over 100 years the NBA is quite young. The NFL began play in 1922, college football in the 1890’s. As for baseball in 1898 the National League began play and the NHL in 1917. Now that’s out of the way allow us to return briefly to the NBA’s more recent past.

The first game in NBA history witnessed the Toronto Huskies in action versus the New York Knicks, it was played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The 75^th Anniversary Game will be played November 1, 2021, at Madison Square Garden between the Raptors and the Knicks. As for the Huskies they would shut down after a single season in the Basketball Association of America forerunner of today’s NBA. The game will be telecast on NBA TV for fans, surely a ceremony of some sort will be held prior to the beginning of the game.

Paul George can play

If you read an earlier assessment of the 2021-22 Clippers you might have come to the wrong conclusion. I don’t remember the exact words, but I said something to the effect, “With no Kawhi Leonard for a major portion of the season, in fact he might miss the season the Clippers won’t compete for the championship.” Several might have believed I was stating Paul George couldn’t lead the Clippers without Kawhi, that was not the case. PG is a very talented player he appears (notice the word) unable to “lead” a team deep into the playoffs. Kawhi Leonard is not a vocal leader however he manages to provide leadership by scoring and rebounding the basketball.

Over the course of his career PG has come up short even when Kawhi was available. We can simply look back to the 2020 playoffs as an example. Leadership on the basketball court is sometimes difficult to define. It can be getting in teammates face and imploring him to play better. It could be unafraid to take the difficult shot when the clock is about to expire. It also could be stepping to the line and taking the free-throw that wins the game. It could also be diving on the floor to gain control of a loose ball, all those and several missing hopefully you get the idea. In closing there are more than a few talented NBA players like PG missing in this account. In this instance the focus is only regarding Paul George.

He was scorched

The Last Dance documentary provided us insight on the championship Michael Jordan led Bulls. The story unfolded before us provided us a great deal of information many of us had no prior knowledge. For several old enough to remember there was an adversarial relationship with Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause. While serving in the front office Krause had issues with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson just to name a few. Several incidents were detailed in The Last Dance but there was an issue for me, Krause left the Bulls and died in 2017. The producers of this documentary were able to contact most of the individuals and they provided their perspective except one…Krause.

The documentary was released in 2020 and we have no idea when production first began on this project and the time it was completed. We never had the opportunity to hear Jerry Krause defend himself we even heard from Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf but nary a word from Krause. The production people contacted Krause and he declined we just don’t know. This wouldn’t have been a huge issue if not for Magic Johnson. What has Magic got to do with this when he spent his entire career as a Laker. For unknown reasons he decided to inform us his view of this issue. His words, “Jerry Krause destroyed the Chicago Bulls Dynasty: I think if they were able to keep the team together, they probably would have won 10, 11, 12 championships.” I believe we realize players talk among themselves, but this is one time Magic needs to zip it, he really has no clue of all the intangibles that existed at the time.

Too many intangibles

Recently a story came to our attention that requires further detail. The story revolved around a 6-foot 5-inch 8^th grade student who was termed “the best 8^th grade player in the nation.” He’s even been nicknamed the “Baby KD” a reference to Kevin Durant, of course no way can a middle school student be compared to Durant. There is video of Christian Jones Jr. on YouTube, and you can check it for yourself. Hold on a moment, let’s not get too excited the youngster is yet to earn honors at the high school level.

Several might remember this story from the past, a Kansas City Star reporter wrote of a young man I know personally. He wrote “___________ is the best 8^th grade basketball player in the Kansas City Metro”, this was quite interesting I thought. Fast forward the young man was good, good enough to become a starter in high school all four years however there was an issue. Talent around him caught up and might have exceeded him in that area. With that l say let’s not become too excited regarding talent until it reaches a certain age.