Basketball from a fans perspective   

Published Monday through Friday

Is the NCAA Tournament on the way out?

That’s only a question for now however it might become reality. Bob Huggins West Virginia coach is one of the proponents of a new format. He is proposing the large schools formulate their own tournament. The little guys would not be part of this tournament only schools with student populations of 14,000 plus. If this format was utilized, it would eliminate a number that qualify for the tournament. The basis for this move is revenue, Huggins declares football is already conducting its post-season excluding the NCAA.

The NCAA will fight this effort for one reason alone $$$$. It’s been reported the annual championship tournament provides the NCAA with roughly 60% of its annual revenue. Any time we are discussing millions of dollars no one gives that up without a fight. There are issues with this plan to be tailored or revised, one of them is Huggins proposed number of participants. He says only schools with enrollment of 14,000 or more would be participants. This would say the majority would be Power 5 conferences Pac-12, Big XII, SEC, Big 10 and ACC. Omitted would be traditional teams like Gonzaga, Marquette, Georgetown and others. Rest assured the smaller schools would band together for tournament play, but it just might not be the same under this proposed scenario. 

Was he ever a leader?

I believe the jive talk of former players winds up someplace in the atmosphere. Most times I believe it’s just posturing, “Hey look at me” would appear to often be the case. I happen to like Chris Bosh, but his latest statement leaves me in a different place. This from Bosh on a podcast “And, you know, you’re playing against firefighters,” Bosh responded. “You know, dudes had jobs in the summertime. Dude’s going to be a lifeguard, go work on construction after the NBA season. They had part-time jobs, they went (during) summertime and got a job, bro.”

No argument from me, part of the statement is correct, there were a smaller number of teams during Russell’s time. In addition, salaries were nowhere near the level they are now, many players had off-season jobs to supplement their NBA salaries. Basketball requires teamwork and those Celtic teams played the game at a high skill level allowing them to win multiple championships. In closing Bill Russell has 11 championship rings, how many you got Chris, I will wait for your count? Bosh goes on to claim he was just offering his view and wasn’t trying to slight Russell. How about this, the Celtics probably don’t win 11 championships without Russell in the lineup. The Heat win with LeBron and D. Wade and somebody else at the power forward, there I said it.

Perhaps it was destiny all along

For those who might be unaware the original home of the Lakers was Detroit Michigan, in that city they played as the Gems. The NBL Gems would move to Minneapolis a year after their founding and underwent another name change. They became the Lakers adopting a motto of the state, “The Land of 10,000 Lakes.” In those early days in all sports teams changed locations but rarely names, the move to Los Angeles in 1961 saw the Laker name continue.

Those familiar with the lay of the land realize there are few lakes in Southern California, sorry if you were thinking the Pacific Ocean that doesn’t count. An acquaintance who lives in Los Angeles has begun a trend I find interesting which I will share here. In instances instead of spelling Lakers in the form we are accustomed to seeing for him it’s become LAkers. The LA in all caps signifies Los Angeles, I think it’s cool. Now I have no idea if he originated this trend or not, I intend to adopt for the future use. Maybe it was destiny all along the move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles and maintaining the team name.

The palaces of the NBA

We reported earlier groundbreaking ceremonies have been held on the Intuit Dome, the new home in Inglewood (CA) has a planned opening for the 2024 NBA season. It’s been the view for owner Steve Ballmer is for his Clippers to move out of the shadow of the Lakers and Staples Center. The Intuit Dome will be privately financed in a manner like that of the Chase Center in San Francisco. The Warriors site opened in 2019 and there is a chief reason both arenas were financed privately…cost.

Chase Center and the Intuit Dome planned construction total price tag is more than $1 billion, no way are taxpayers going to underwrite astronomical expenses of that type. It’s our belief this method of construction will continue as costs escalate. In a manner of speaking NBA teams are in decent shape, most arenas are new or have been refurbished. Madison Square Garden in New York City opened in 1968 is still the oldest operating arena. We should take into consideration renovations occurred to MSG in 1991 and 2013. Below are the NBA “homes” opened in the 21^st Century, while others were opened in the early to late 1990’s.

 American Airlines Center-2001(Dallas)

AT&T Center-2002 (San Antonio)

Chesapeake Center-2002 (Oklahoma City)

Toyota Center-2003 (Houston)

Amway Center-2010 (Orlando)

Barclays Center-2012 (Brooklyn)

Golden 1 Center-2016 (Sacramento)

Little Caesars Arena-2017 (Detroit)

Fiserv Arena-2018 (Milwaukee)

Chase Center-2019 (Golden State)

Intuit Dome-2024? (Clippers)