Basketball from a fans perspective

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Eddyville

This is a town of 2,500 souls located 40 some miles east of Paducah Kentucky. Despite the population apparently Eddyville is home to one of the best basketball players in the State of Kentucky. That player would be Travis Perry entering his junior year at Lyon County High School in the fall, Rivals.com rates Perry a 4-star prospect in the Class of 2024. The 6-foot 2-inch point guard has 13 scholarship offers waiting for him? The most significant offer might be from his home state Kentucky Wildcats but wait there is more. Recently one of the schools with an offer for Perry is the University of Missouri. Good ole Mizzou right in the middle of Big Blue Nation attempting to entice one of their native son’s to Columbia.

We are quite a distance from 2024 but this is the significance of the effort, the continued aggressiveness of Dennis Gates and staff in recruiting potential talent. Take it from this member of Mizzou Nation memory says there might not have been a single coach in history attempt to recruit a Kentucky athlete. This number would include long-time coach Norm Stewart. In all likelihood Perry decides on Kentucky or somewhere else among the many offers. Mark this down, we don’t know whether Gates will produce a winner, this we do know…he and his staff are quite aggressive attempting to recruit talent. Because a prospect lives in a particular state fails to take into consideration, he’s bound to attend that school. We can look at incoming Mizzou freshman Aiden Shaw from Stillwell Kansas in metro Kansas City. 

He's not ready

I attempted to provide an assessment of Lakers who might possibly be added to the parent clubs regular season roster based on summer play. One of the names you might have noted missing from the list was Shareef O’Neal. There is certainly no intent on my part to claim he’s limited or no talent; young O’Neal has size and bulk (6 foot 10 & 225 pounds). The issue, we are unsure how much his heart surgery might have impacted his development as a player.

His dad certainly was not thrilled with the idea of Shareef attempting an NBA career at least at this point. I will be shocked if he earns a spot on the parent club, with that said we could entertain several alternatives for O’Neal. The first of course would be to play for the G-League South Bay Lakers, the second would be an either-or scenario, he could head for Australia or Europe to continue developing his game. O’Neal is yet to reach the crossroads of his very brief career, but he must prove to NBA GM’s he’s got skill enough to play at this level even in a reserve role.

Kansas City Kings?

I know, the franchise left my hometown in 1985, it’s been my contention for a number of years they made a huge mistake. That mistake indirectly led them to leave for the greener pastures of Sacramento, allow this explanation. The American Basketball Association was going out of business in 1976 there is no doubt, the league had been hemorrhaging money in an attempt to compete with the established NBA. As mentioned previously the Nets, Pacers, Spurs and Nuggets were absorbed into the NBA. What about the remaining players, a number of exceptionally talented players whose teams folded had and uncertain future in front of them. The NBA decided a dispersal draft was necessary for the remaining players, the names were placed in a pool. The draft would be conducted in this manner, the NBA team with the worst record would draw first and so forth and so on. 

The Bulls, Blazers and Kansas City Kings were one, two, three that season. The Bulls would draft Artis Gilmore who was 26-years old at the time. Gilmore would provide the Bulls outstanding play as a 7-foot 2-inch scoring and defensive center. Next up the Blazers who chose power forward Maurice Lucas he might have been one of the strongest players in the league. Some years later Lucas would be one of the key members who aided the Blazers in winning their only NBA championship to date. It was a different NBA back then, why choose a guard when there were so many quality Big Men available? That’s exactly what the Kings did, they picked a very serviceable Ron Boone who stood 6 foot 2 inches. 

Boone provided valuable play to the Kings but compared to what Moses Malone would accomplish brought his team and NBA championship and him into the Hall of Fame. The Pistons made their pick choosing Marvin Barnes and then the Blazers turn again. They chose 6-foot 10 inch 21-year-old Moses Malone, although they didn’t keep him Malone would go on to a Hall of Fame career with the Rockets and Sixers. It’s my contention Kings management believed a Ron Boone would not be as cost prohibitive as a Moses Malone. I can only imagine what might have occurred if the Kings made the right choice in 1976. The team might have eventually become a contender and Sacramento could still be wishing for an NBA franchise. Oh well, revisionist history only placates me (and maybe others in the city).  

You heard the same story’s I heard

A large number of people claim the late Kobe Bryant was not a good teammate. They were quite critical despite having little if any firsthand information. Laker coach Phil Handy provided us insight into the Mamba mentality with these words. “I (Handy) asked him why he was such an as*hole. He said “some teammates don’t understand the work. I see dudes walk in 10 mins before practice & leave right after. Why the fu*k am I gonna pass them the ball?

I don’t respect their work ethic. I’m busting my as* & they don’t wanna work.” We know how that works don’t we, this was posted just recently. Kobe passed in January 2020 yet in reading Handy’s words in 2022 there are many who continue to find fault with the mentality Kobe possessed. How about being the best version of yourself possible? Even that might be difficult for some. From my perch I can only say this, confidence in some instances is perceived as arrogance. That is not always the case there are some who work on a higher plane, the part I could see Kobe might be guilty, he didn’t raise the level of many of his teammates around him as much as he should have.