Basketball from a fans perspective

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday & Friday

Geography is interesting

Stillwell is 45 miles from Lawrence Kansas home of the Kansas Jayhawks. The University of Missouri is located in Columbia and 150 miles from Stillwell. What does geography have to do with basketball, Mizzou received a commitment from 4-star and Class of 2022 prospect Aiden Shaw. Shaw attends Blue Valley High School in Stillwell; he might be a tweener at 6-foot 8-inches and a slim 190 pounds. It will be interesting to see if he plays at small forward or shooting guard since he’s got 3-point range. Shaw becomes the highest rated Mizzou prospect since Michael Porter Jr., Jontay Porter and Jeremiah Tilmon committed four years ago. Among the schools recruiting Shaw, Iowa State, Nebraska, Arkansas, Maryland along with Kansas and others.

The secondary reason this is a big deal, Stillwell although on the Kansas side is included in the Kansas City (MO) metro and perhaps Shaw is the first prospect who chose Mizzou over Kansas. There is an added ingredient, Shaw claims Kansas quit recruiting him after a time however there might have been other factors. A check shows three Rivals Top 50 in the Class of 2022 have committed to Kansas. Bill Self and staff were supposed to have backed away, based on this and the present roster perhaps there might have been more a concern on other prospects by Kansas, who really knows the true account? Shaw joins 6-foot 4-inch point guard Christian Jones from East St. Louis, his a July 2021 commit. Are there more prospects for Mizzou, which becomes a question because there is only one senior on the team for the upcoming season? IF EVERYONE returns and with these two additions will there be a requirement to recruit extensively?

It’s official now

A groundbreaking occurred on Friday for owner Steve Ballmer and the Clippers. This ultramodern arena will be in Inglewood and why is a new arena important. We need to ask owner Steve Ballmer, he believes the Clippers require their own identity, if they continue to share Staples Center with the Lakers and Kings, he believes this would be impossible. Ballmer went on to state this is one of the few areas with two NBA teams, “I grew up in Detroit and everybody rooted for the Pistons.” Ballmer’s point is valid, New York City has two NBA teams but two buildings.

The Knicks play in revered Madison Square Garden while home for the Nets is Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The separate venues extends to the baseball teams too, the Yankees in Yankee Stadium while the Mets play baseball at Citi Field. Football is a different matter, we can understand why NFL teams can share one stadium. NFL games are generally 7 days apart, an NFL team playing on Thursday night is not scheduled to play until the following Sunday hence the NFL Giants and Jets can share MetLife Stadium successfully.

As for the NFL in Los Angeles we could make the same statement for SoFi Stadium home of the Chargers and Rams. Back to Ballmer and company a moment, the prediction this new arena will turn out to be a good move for the Clippers and Lakers. Perhaps war has been declared, owner Ballmer says, “I hope Laker fans feel threatened by the new Clippers Arena.” The Clippers and Intuit a company that specializes in financial software signed a 25-year naming rights agreement. The name on the outside of the building will be the Intuit Dome. The most important part no taxpayer expense, the $1.8 billion arena will be built with private funds. With groundbreaking complete on Friday Clipper fans can look forward to the Intuit Dome opening in 2024. 

Television & the NBA 

Television has been an integral part of the NBA since the 1953-54 season. The defunct DuMont Network had the first national television contract but not for long. The smaller number of stations caused the NBA to move its telecast to the NBC Television Network the very next season. You are familiar with the national networks over the years, there’s been ABC, CBS and later with the advent of television cable. The USA Network, TBS, TNT and ESPN all broadcast partners at times, but what about the regionals? Over the years the broadcast names and even the teams have changed. As we head into the 2021-22 season the regional broadcasters are:

Altitude Sports – Nuggets

AT&T Sportsnet – Rockets, Jazz & Blazers (2021-22)

(incl. Root Sports)

Bally Sports – Hawks, Nets, Hornets, Cavs, Pistons, Mavs, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Wolves, Pelicans, Thunder, Magic, Suns, Spurs

(incl. YES Network)

NBC Sports Regional Networks – Celtics, Bulls, Warriors, Sixers, Kings, Wizards

MSG – Knicks

Spectrum Sports - Lakers

Sportsnet and TSN - Raptors

(Shared rates)

The Blindside  

After reading of the early part of Jimmy Butler’s childhood all I could think was the 2009 movie The Blindside. The movie was loosely based on former NFL left tackle Michael Oher. Butler’s childhood was a carbon copy of Oher, his father left the family when Butler was an infant. At the age of 13 his mother decided to kick him out of the house, he would later state she said, “I don’t like the look of you.” Butler shows he stayed with friends moving from place-to-place friend to friend during his teen years. At Tomball High School near Houston Butler gravitated to sports particularly football and basketball.

Butler’s bio says he was not heavily recruited from high school, he chose to attend Tyler Junior College and from there it was onto Marquette University and eventually he made it to the NBA. The Bulls would become his first team, drafted as the 30^th pick in the first round of the 2011 draft. He would play for the Wolves and Sixers before arriving in South Beach. The Heat become his fourth team, but this movement has little to do with lack of talent or effort on his part. Butler is a 5X NBA All Star is now a valued member of the Heat; it’s hoped Butler can one day lead the team to the NBA Finals.