Basketball from a fans perspective   

Monday through Friday

The Land Down Under

Australia is the only nation that’s a continent to itself. Because its located in the southern hemisphere it’s been nicknamed The Land Down Under. This island nation and continent has sent a number of athletes to the NBA in in the past, Luc Longley who spent most of his career with the Bulls was drafted in 1991. Australia just might have sent the best ever this season in Josh Giddey. We’d seen Giddey’s name on most 2021 mock NBA Draft sights, we reserved our judgment on his play for two reasons. The first was to determine if the 6-foot 8 combo guard would be drafted. Once he was drafted, could he play at the NBA level effectively? We are approaching the end of February OKC fans haven’t had much to cheer about this season, but Giddey’s play is worth praise.

The Thunder are in last place in the Northwest Division and in the Western Conference they only exceed the Rockets in win totals. Madison Square Garden which has seen its share of great basketball saw Giddey put on a performance against the Knicks. He scored a season high 28 points with 11 rebounds and 12 assists which led to a 127-123 OT victory. This game was Giddey’s second triple double and he followed that with his third triple double in a row two nights later against the Spurs. His season scoring is a modest 12.4 points, but the other part is significant. He’s averaging nearly 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, outstanding considering the poor play of his team and the fact he’s in his rookie year. Giddey has certainly justified being selected number 6 in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft.

Who died and appointed you in charge?

As a reminder to some and information to others anymore I rarely listen to sports talk radio. For me with the exception of 2 or 3 hosts most lack credibility with me, there is a reason. I don’t tune in to listen to their opinion I would tune in for them to provide information I didn’t know. Are they only concerned with creating controversary by their comments? This might not be fair to the host, I only tuned in to the station while on a daily run and this is what I heard.

“I gave you time to respond, evidently no one in the area is interested in a discussion on college basketball.” That is a bold statement considering the limited number of listeners that might be listening. 10:00 a.m. or so, weekday…those who might listen to this guy were at their place of employment. If he genuinely believes there is no interest in college basketball so, be it, I would not be brave or bold enough to make such a statement. I have no desire to ever listen to this guy again, I don’t want his opinion I want information. Evidently deciding there is no local interest without research clearly indicates he is an entertainer and not an informer.

The Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards 

Depending on your age this might enlighten many of you, did you know the Wizards came into existence as an expansion franchise in 1961? They were not in Washington D.C. however, their birth occurred about 700+ road miles west of the city. The team’s founding was in the City of Chicago (before the Bulls), The Packers changed names the following year to the Zephyrs. Year three saw the franchise on the road to Baltimore Maryland and later the Washington suburb of Landover Maryland and finally D.C. itself. From 1944-1954 Baltimore had an ABL/BAA/NBA team known as the Bullets.

In November 1954, the Bullets franchise folded leaving the city without an NBA team until the move by the Zephyrs in 1963. The name change to the Bullets was a gesture to the earlier basketball history of the city. These series of moves was complete by 1997 at the time the franchise moved into Washington D.C. proper. The decades of NBA play has seen a number of the best players in the leagues history wearing Bullets jerseys in Baltimore and later in the Washington D.C. metro. The names read like a who’s who of NBA greats, they include Earl Monroe, Wes Unseld, Gus Johnson, Elvin Hayes plus Phil Chenier along with several others.

Let’s check them out

Talented basketball players often fail at coaching. In the NBA we can check out two greats, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Interesting as demanding as we are led to believe MJ didn’t even make the attempt. Its likely better in his case to have become an owner rather than a coach. As for Magic Johnson he attempted to coach the Lakers at one time. We soon discovered the magic that existed on the court was not sitting in the coaches chair. In the college ranks we can look at Penny Hardaway University of Memphis.

Now in his 4^th year as this is written Penny has 77 wins and 40 losses for a .658 percentage. At the University of Michigan Juwan Howard is in his 3^rd year, he’s at 55-27 and .671. We mentioned Patrick Ewing, outstanding as a player at Georgetown and with the Knicks. His record at Georgetown has been less than spectacular, 68-79 .463 is certainly not what was expected when he was hired in 2017. Jerry Stackhouse is now in his 3^rd year at Vanderbilt and has a 34-49 .410 record. There are more than the few college coaches profiled here with NBA experience. Each of the stories for these coaches is different however the point is simple coaching is a job not wanted by all former players, some are not quality hires.

Reading between the lines

We are sure…No, reasonably certain LeBron James is not pleased with Laker GM Rod Pelinka. This displeasure might stem from the Lakers made no moves to improve the team prior to the trade deadline. With Anthony Davis later injured the Lakers standing has become even more critical, they could miss the playoffs all together. LeBron used part of his time during All Star weekend to offer praises in the direction of Thunder GM Sam Presti.

LeBron mentioned Presti’s keen eye in spotting talent, he went on to mentioned Josh Giddey along with Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook all drafted by Presti. No disagreement from me with LeBron’s statement, the Sonics/Thunder GM has assembled a great deal of talent but guess what? A. The Thunder are in last place as this is written, actually sitting below the Lakers in the number of wins thus far. B. None of the names mentioned are currently on the roster with the exception of Josh Giddey drafted last June. Presti’s ability to spot and draft talent is commendable but the inability to retain that talent fails to impress me.