Basketball from a fans perspective

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It appears you can go home

Just recently, this past Wednesday to be exact we asked the question, where is Emoni Bates. After announcing, he was leaving Memphis State the youngster was no place to be seen. The transfer portal witnessed a considerable number of players changing schools but missing among the number announced was Bates. There was considerable speculation regarding where Bates might be headed, we even speculated he might be headed to Australia.

Now we have the answer to the question we posed, Bates is returning home to Ypsilanti Michigan and will enroll at Eastern Michigan University. The school hired alumnus Stan Heath in April 2021, this past season the Eagles finished with a 5-15 conference record, 10-21 in the MAC. Ypsilanti is home for Bates, he was born and raised in the city. As for the school and its relationship to producing NBA talent. A small contingent of talent began their NBA careers at Eastern Michigan, the two most widely known are Earl Boykins and “The Iceman” George Gervin to the NBA.

More than Brunson?

Jalen Brunson proved quite valuable to the Mavs this past season. The 6 foot 1 Brunson proved his stature was almost on the same level of the much taller Luka. His value increased during the Mavs playoff run, based on pending free agency Brunson is in for a big payday. The Knicks intend to seriously pursue Brunson, management made several strange moves the night of the NBA draft. Most recently the Knicks traded Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks to the Pistons, with this move they have now cleared $19 million in cap space. If the Knicks should be able to sign Brunson fans will see improved play at the point but what about the balance of the roster? There’s got to be more forthcoming for the Knicks…right?

This is interesting

Did you see the tweet by Mychal Thompson former player and current Laker broadcaster? This paraphrases his comment, “The Wolves need a ring too, in the draft they passed on Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. In addition, they traded Andrew Wiggins to the Warriors.” The Wolves had the 5^th and 6^th pick in the 2009 draft, they chose Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn both point guards. I must admit at the time I thought it a strange move however there may have been a belief Rubio would remain in Spain.

We don’t have the information years later. In any event later with the 7^th pick the Warriors chose Curry but the story continues to evolve. In 2011 the Wolves had the second top that year, they chose Derrick Williams. Later at 11 the Warriors would take Thompson in the draft. We mentioned earlier the Wolves traded Andrew Wiggins for D’Angelo Russell in February 2020. In fairness to the Wolves none of us had any idea Steph would become Steph, his shooting prowess would become amazing or Klay for that matter would become the outstanding player he would become.

Following in dad’s footsteps 

Two familiar names were announced joining the Lakers. Scotty Pippen Jr. and Shareef O’Neal. The son of Scotty associated with the Jordan led Bulls, of course Shareef is the son of Shaquille. Although both play the game of their famous fathers neither to this point appear above average players. Sound surprising, not really history says the son’s often follow their fathers into the game. We can look at Jeffery and Marcus Jordan the sons of Michael.

Both were good enough to play at the collegiate level although neither progressed past that. Rick Barry’s sons played in the NBA, but none had the Hall of Fame career of their dad. Ron Harper Jr. signed a two-way contract with the Raptors, will he be able to duplicate the career of his famous dad? There are others we might have omitted this is but a simple exercise to point out many of these son’s attempted to follow in their famous father’s footsteps to limited success.

He was a second-round pick

Can you imagine this, a second-round draft pick who would earn a Hall of Fame selection? Earlier you completed reading an account regarding draft choices who became the best ever for the franchise. This best ever legendary pick lasted until the second round of the draft that year. We must travel back to 1964, back then the NBA was much smaller than it is today, in fact there were only 9 teams in the league. Expansion for the league was a few years away.

Despite the smaller number of teams there were actually more draft rounds, in fact that year there were an astounding 15 rounds before it was complete. Before you begin laughing keep in mind all the franchises didn’t participate up through that last round. That second-round pick for the Knicks in 1964 would become Willis Reed who led the team to two NBA championships. Who was the first pick that year by the Knicks? He was the late Jim (Bad News) Barnes, Barnes began with a strong career start however numerous knee and Achilles injuries would seriously impact his NBA career. Even the best of the best are not always able to determine one’s talent level.