Basketball from a fans perspective

An accurate summation

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne certainly provided us insight with just a single sentence. “The Nets were overwhelmed, exhausted and undone by everything but basketball.” That about sums of the season and playoffs for the Nets. I wonder what she’s got to say about the Lakers. Will the effort to build “super teams” by signing free agents or trading for THAT ONE player disappear?

I can see it

Have you ever wondered why a basketball player might chose to leave college? He might be named a second-round draft choice on a mock draft site; in some instances, his name might not appear at all. There are monetary opportunities to play for pay not directly connected to the NBA. This undrafted player could head to Europe or Australia and earn a significant salary, it would be short of NBA money but considerably more than the average working person. This contract could have added benefits such as free apartment rental or other incentives.

That’s not the only outlet, the player could chose to play in the G-League although the salary would certainly fall well short of Euro or Australia earnings. Finally, there is the free agent route although it might be the most difficult of all. As examples the Raptors Fred Van Fleet was never drafted but has managed an NBA career. It’s early for Laker Austin Reaves, he wasn’t drafted but preferred to go the free agent route. It’s claimed he informed NBA teams “Don’t draft me” which is certainly different. Reaves just completed his rookie season, similar to Van Fleet he was not drafted either. A few more undrafted NBA players to consider J.J. Barea, Udonis Haslem and Jose Calderon.

He's hired

The University of MO-Kansas City moved quickly in finding a replacement for the departed Billy Donlon. In a surprise move to many veteran Marvin Menzies was hired as head coach, Menzies has over 30 years of coaching experience at a number of stops. From 2007-2016 he was head coach at New Mexico State, in 2016 he took over the program at UNLV. Menzies has 249 wins on his resume, so it is hoped he continues his winning ways at Kansas City. Welcome aboard coach Menzies and when not coaching you can dine at several of the best barbeque restaurants in the nation.

The pace appears to be increasing

It serves no purpose except to get this off my chest. I am so very tired of reading Player A. is better than Player B. but this is the real problem. Often the discussion revolves around players of two sometimes three generations. How can we say in truth Joel Embiid is better than Kareem Abdul Jabbar looking strictly at the numbers? I’m unsure if this comparing player is increasing due to social media, the internet or something else.

Nothing is proven by stating Hal Greer doesn’t belong on the 75^th Anniversary NBA Team, he’s there despite the period he played. You might believe he doesn’t belong you have your opinion which is okay, but you can’t remove his name. This rant covers Hall of Fame enshrinement as well, “Yao Ming doesn’t belong in the HOF, his career wasn’t long enough.” This one from last week, “Manu Ginobili was a skillful player but not HOF material etc. etc.” We often find ourselves arguing about issues we have no authorization to change. As I stated this will do no good, it’s not going to change one opinion however I will continue to avoid questions from anyone claiming “Team/Player A. is better than_________.” You can fill in the blank.

For my Kansas friends        

There are 350 NCAA Division I basketball programs throughout the 50 states, despite the large number schools there have been few that have actually won an NCAA Championship. This tournament traces its history to 1939 so the 2022 is the 83^rd year of competition. Bet you didn’t realize in that time only 60 schools have been crown champions due to the number of multiple winners. We could look at the many winners and say their basketball programs have played outstanding basketball on a consistent basis. The schools below are the top multiple winners we speak of:

NCAA Championships

UCLA-11

Kentucky-8

North Carolina-6

Duke-5

Indiana-5

Did you notice which school failed to make the Top Five, I’ll clue you in it’s the Kansas Jayhawks. Naturally I expect a rebuttal, they will remind me and others once again how many NCAA Championships they won (4) versus Mizzou (0). I will remind them, the guy who invented the game (Dr. James A. Naismith) and the first coach at Kansas had a losing record. Don’t believe me, check the history for yourself, by the way do we care to discuss Kansas football while comparing sports programs, I think not.