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Kofi Cockburn vs the NCAA

The Illinois Big Man has a dilemma, he’s been suspended for the first three games of the season. What did he do, Cockburn sold his Illinois stuff last spring? He unloaded his Illinois jersey and other paraphernalia when it appeared he was headed for the NBA. We are not sure of the order of events without checking, we are unsure if he entered the transfer portal first or declared for the NBA draft. Whatever the case Cockburn changed his mind and decided to return to school and BAM, the NCAA had its case. This summer Name, Image & Likeness became the watch word for college athletes across the nation. No longer bound by NCAA regulations college athletes could earn income from their name, image or likeness. That last man on the basketball or football team is unlikely to secure a business arrangement.

As for others it was a different story many of the high-profile athletes begin signing contracts earning income through NIL, one of them was Tyrone “Ty Ty” Washington Kentucky first-year point guard. Washington signed an agreement with Bluegrass Motorsports Porsche in Louisville. We make no attempt to detail what Washington does for the dealership, we understand Washington is driving an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne SUV around campus. So, this is your story, one guy sells stuff and earns income, but his timing was bad. Based on this fact the NCAA is laying its heavy hand on Cockburn suspending him. It would really be great if this archaic association would rule in an athletes favor for once instead of always laying its heavy hand down. My apologies if it appears I have an issue with the NCAA, I DO! This is not an attempt to declare Cockburn innocent of anything, he is guilty but is it necessary to punish someone for an undertaking no longer in effect just because it occurred.

The “leaders”

After 7 games the projected NBA Champions have similar records. As this is written the Nets of Brooklyn have 4 wins and 3 losses ditto for the LAkers. It is certainly too early to project the Nets or Lakers as contenders for the 2022 NBA Championship besides the fact we are leaving out the other contenders. Are the Bucks going to simply roll over and allow the Nets to win the east without a fight? In the west besides the usual suspects there is one candidate we seem to always ignore…the Utah Jazz. They are primed and ready for the Western Conference battle ahead, still in their prime but down a bit are the Suns.

The road to the NBA Finals was not filled with the landmines that usually occur this past season. The defending champion LAkers were plagued by injury and the others didn’t play as well as expected. As I not giving the Suns their just due, of course not? I happen to believe there were events which allowed the Suns to play for a championship which are likely to not be clear this season. The Clippers are an enigma missing Kawhi Leonard for perhaps most the season. We can add the Warriors to the list they certainly will be a better team than we saw last season. I believe the Suns are good enough to be projected into the playoffs beyond that I am unwilling to speculate.

The debate will continue

Temetrius Jamel has gotten off to a swift start thus far in the 2021-22 NBA season. Oh, you don’t recognize the name, you might be more familiar with Jae, Jae Morant that is. We reported earlier on the monster game he had against my LAkers. He’s continued to prove his worth to the Grizzlies and just might cause us to question Zion Williamson being drafted ahead of him. We cannot really blame the Pelicans despite the emphasis on small ball the NBA is still a Big Man’s game, Morant at 6 foot 3 and 174 pounds versus Williamson at 6 foot 7 and 285 pounds.

We can acknowledge “diamonds” can be found all around us, they can be uncovered at Duke, UCLA, Kansas or Murray State. Murray Kentucky in road miles lies closer to Nashville Tennessee than the more well-known University of Kentucky. As for Zion the two were one-time teammates on an AAU team while in high school. As for the present it’s not just the LAkers, Jae is on a one-man crusade against other NBA teams too. As this is written he leads the NBA in scoring with his 30.4 point per game average, he is shooting 54.4% from the floor (40.8% from 3). In addition, Jae is distributing the ball at a 7.8 assist rate per game while shooting 84.8% from the free throw line. Jae’s game has continued to grow in this his third year in the NBA, what’s that you say about Zion?

Can he play or is it NYC?

The Knicks have gotten off to a fast start this NBA season. We can say part of this is based on the play of Julius Randle, adding Kemba Walker certainly didn’t hurt. Obi Topping in his second year has become a spark off the bench but it’s a starter we intend to check. The starting center for the Knicks is Mitchell Robinson, although his numbers are not astonishing this 7-foot Big Man has proven his value to the resurgent Knicks with his defense and rebounding. Mitchell arrived in the NBA with a gigantic question mark surrounding him, he enrolled at Western Kentucky then changed his mind.

Robinson withdrew from Western Kentucky intending to work out for the draft, with only high school play on his resume the Knicks made Robinson the number 36 pick in the second round of the 2018 draft. We guessed correctly he would be raw, and it would take time to become acclimated to NBA play. Back to the pre-draft, the LAkers among others brought Robinson in and were reported to be interested in drafting him. The Knicks would choose Robinson in front of the LAkers thus depriving them of this budding talent. We can say with conviction he’s not going to make Knick fans forget Patrick Ewing once occupied his position. He will if he continues to work on his game improve it step by step. The Knicks apparently have picked up a sleeper in the draft and the hype might not be all New York.