Basketball from a fans perspective   

Published Monday through Friday

Bruce Weber

Surprising but not shocking news, Bruce Weber resigned as K-State coach on Thursday. The coach had a 184-147 record at K-State, he was 497-301 at Southern Illinois, Illinois and K-State. It appeared every season since his arrival he was on the hot seat with alumni, students and fans. In his 10 years at K-State his teams were never able to compete successfully against in-state rival Kansas. During his time as head coach his K-State teams managed to beat Kansas only 3 times out of a total of 25 games played.

Some of you are stating Kansas basketball is among the best in the nation, no argument in this corner. This is no rivalry; you’ve got to beat the other guy occasionally for it to be considered a rival. Weber is 65-years old however that’s certainly not to state the coach should retire. He’s been a winner at every coaching stop including K-State. As for the age thing, Jim Calhoun longtime UConn coach retired and later returned to Division III University of St. Joseph, he’s since retired a second time. Assisting Penny Hardaway at Memphis State as an assistant coach is 81-year-old Larry Brown. K-State is in the same picture as Mizzou, this hire must be a slam dunk, who does K-State hire?

A new low

This Laker team continues to find added methods to embarrass themselves. On Wednesday evening it was losing to the worst team in the NBA the Rockets. Near the end of the game LeBron was driving toward the basket for an apparent layup, if not that he would have been fouled and win the game on the line. What did he do, dipping below the basket he spotted Carmelo Anthony at or near the 3-point line?

LeBron decided to pass the ball to Anthony who promptly missed the shot sending the game into overtime. In OT, the Lakers were losers 139-130, this is the part you might find most interesting. The “shoot first” mentality of Kobe Bryant informs us he would have NEVER passed the ball when there was an opportunity to win the game. LeBron reportedly offered an explanation why he passed the basketball; some guy I know who lives in Kansas City was not interested in reading the WHY on LeBron’s decision. It would have sounded like an excuse to him for yet another loss.

12 versus 2

No argument here, the NFL is the most popular sport for fans in the U.S. Despite that fact the NFL comes in second place in gender hiring of game officials. The NFL was bragging loudly wanting the nation and world to acknowledge a female official worked the 2021 Super Bowl, that’s a good thing. We could look at black and minority hiring of coaches but that’s another story not directly connected to this. Do you have any idea the number of female officials who worked the 2021-22 season in the NFL?

We have the answer for you, its 2 which certainly is progress, as for NBA basketball it’s a total of 6. The difference the NBA clearly wants to increase its number as an example there are 4 officials working on a part time basis and 2 fill-ins from the NBA G-League. That’s a total of 12 female officials, the number is small compared to our overall number of male officials, but it offers us proof. Despite what you might have heard or reported the NBA is clearly the leader in gender hiring for game officials. It is about time the NBA says aloud, “Hey, look at me.”

Those days are gone

It is extremely rare for NBA players of today to play 82 games. We are not playing additional games from the 1970’s however league expansion and travel are the keys, players not suffering injury sometimes “rest” during the regular season. This issue can be good and bad depending on your team, the hope is that sub will be able to step into the starting lineup and aid his team. The “other” Los Angeles team has managed to accomplish this to remarkable success.

With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George out of the lineup they have managed to remain competitive. They certainly have not played at the level hoped with those two out of the lineup, as for the Lakers that’s been a different scenario. We know Anthony Davis’s been missing for a while who stepped up in his place. On Monday it was announced LeBron suffered knee soreness and would miss the evening game against the Spurs. The Spurs a below .500 team with no LeBron in the lineup were winners 117-110, who stepped up for the Lakers? That’s been the problem, much of the blame has been laid at the foot of Westbrook, it’s true. If I placed a percentage, I’d say 50% of the poor play by the Lakers this season is the point guard’s fault, the other 50%.

Best point guard ever

Prior to placing further words on paper consider this fact. Point guards could and have always scored when called on, the difference in this era many have become combo guards. Guys who can distribute the ball but often lead the team offensively in a number of categories. With that complete we begin our discussion, who are the best point guards in NBA history. For our purposes we choose a Top 10 beginning with:

Magic Johnson

Penny Hardaway

Isiah Thomas

John Stockton

Gary Payton

Oscar Robertson

Steph Curry

Steve Nash

Chris Paul

Nate “Tiny” Archibald

Check out the names above and see if they agree with your picks. After careful thought and consideration these are my Top 10, I omitted Jerry West and Allen Iverson both shooting guards in point guard body’s. guess we could refer to them as combo guards maybe. Did I miss someone you believe should be included in this list?