Basketball from a fans perspective   

Published Monday through Friday

Why does this stuff happen to my Lakers?

You’ve seen the Dr. J. windmill dunk over Michael Cooper and the Lakers over and over and over and over again. The dunk occurred in a 1983 playoff game, this past Sunday night it happened again. No, it wasn’t Dr. J. or Cooper they have long since been retired. This time it was the Grizzlies Ja Morant and the Lakers Avery Bradley it was……….well never mind. Check out the link below and judge it for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiIqD0u0VN4

Bits n Pieces

If you played for the late John Chaney at Temple, you were guaranteed to be a practice. This from the coach, “I scheduled practice at 6:00 a.m., this guaranteed the team was in bed by 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. We suppose a player might have attempted to fake illness but somehow that might not be advisable. The coach had a drill sergeant mentality about him which says, “If you told the coach, you were ill, you’d better bring a doctor’s note to practice.” 

Covid is impacting the college game in the same manner as the NBA. It shouldn’t surprise Mizzou was forced to cancel its game scheduled against Mississippi State. Mizzou had announced over the weekend Coach Cuonzo Martin tested positive for covid. By the time this is read Mizzou will have faced Arkansas at home. Hopefully, this was a significant win for a Mizzou team desperately needing a win. As for the Pac-12 they have decided to follow CDC guidelines and reduced the self-isolation process to 5 days. We don’t know the accuracy of this news because it’s more than a week old, cbssports.com claimed at that time more than 150 college basketball games have been cancelled or postponed at that time.

The other day we mentioned veteran Larry Brown serving as an assistant coach on the Memphis staff of Penny Hardaway. Almost forget former NBA player Rasheed Wallace, we guess most who witness his play never believed he’d take on such a demanding role as an assistant coach. Prior to (or maybe toward the end of his career) the NBA implemented suspension of games versus the number of technical fouls. Wallace was always the leader or near the top in technical fouls on an annual basis. He is the only player we know who received a technical foul for “looking” at an official. Steve Javie was a game official with a quick whistle versus hot head Wallace. I was unable to locate the details of the incident however bottom line Javie gave Wallace a technical foul for “looking at him.”

The Battle for the Western Conference

A team besides the Suns or Warriors could certainly move to the forefront, the Grizzlies and Jazz appear to be capable however which one it might be is an unknown. In addition, there are road hazards which might pop up inhibiting play. In a perfect world the Suns and Warriors face one another for the Western Conference Championship. The Lakers, Mavs, Clippers, Wolves and Spurs have an outside chance at winning it all, but a “perfect storm” must occur for any to make a deep playoff run.

That perfect storm did occur once in my memory, a lower seeded team beating one above them. The last time I remember without research is 1994, the Nuggets a number 8 seed beat the number one seeded Sonics. The defending Western Conference Champion Suns should battle the Golden State Warriors for the crown. Last season there might have been questions about the Suns but this year they have proven capability. The Warriors were not in the picture last season as injuries impacted their win-loss record considerably. The good of course neither the Suns nor Warriors will battle the other in the first round of the playoffs. Those teams missing the playoffs in the Western Conference will begin earnest preparation for the 2022-23 NBA season.

Best of the Best-Mizzou

Who are the Top 10 players to ever wear a Mizzou jersey? For this purpose, we are not detailing whether the player had a professional career, this is based on their impact and what they accomplished for the Tigers. In addition, we must take into consideration some players did not compete for four years. Depending on your age names might be unfamiliar to you, as with any list this represents an opinion. These are not in any order, with that here goes:

 

Anthony Peeler 1988-1992

Larry Drew 1976-1980

Steve Stipanovich 1979-1983

Linas Kleiza 2003-2005

Jon Sundvold 1979-1983

Kareem Rush 1999-2002

Derrick Chievous 1984-1988

DeMarre Carroll 2007-2009

Kim English 2008-2012

Doug Smith 1987-1991

Mizzou fans, what do you think?