Basketball from a fans perspective

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Coming to America

No, this is not the Eddie Murphy classic it’s Victor Wembanyama Coming to America. The Metropolitans 92 from Paris France will play G-League Team Ignite and Scoot Henderson. The games are scheduled October 4th and 6 in Henderson Nevada. The games will be telecast on ESPN’s family of channels. We’ve seen YouTube video highlights of the 7-foot 5 French youngster in action, a complete game certainly would appear more noteworthy. It should be mentioned again most mock sites project Wembanyama the top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and Henderson number two. As we get closer to the date a reminder will be posted, better yet if you are in the Las Vegas area you need to circle those dates on your planner or other device.  

1363

The number 1363 represents the airmiles between Los Angeles and Kansas City Missouri. It’s a 3 hour and 4-minute flight and two time zones away from us in the Midwest. Based on the travel distance and time zone one might tend to believe I’m the only Laker fan here in Kansas City. Not that is not the case, I can cite several examples for you providing otherwise. At my workplace (approximately 250-300 employees) including me there are 5 Laker fans in the building of which I am acquainted. Such a small number might seem insignificant compared to employees or the population of the metro. Consider this fact, I’ve yet to hear a fellow employee claim ‘I’m a Bulls fan’ or ‘I root for the Warriors’ or any other NBA team.

On occasion I have encountered some in the area who claim allegiance to teams other than the Lakers, the number I come in contact with is quite small. My employment is in the public arena and my job is in the reception area, I see a great deal of foot traffic on a daily basis. Few days pass when I don’t see a customer in a Laker cap, tee shirt, jersey, hoody or some other paraphernalia with the Laker logo visible. Even more interesting this list includes male and female customers. One might believe Oklahoma City a 4 and half to 5-hour drive from Kansas City there’d be a bunch of Thunder fans here, if they are here in the metro, they certainly haven’t made their presence known. In truth I can remember seeing Bulls jerseys but even that’s only occasionally. One last discussion point, I wonder should Kansas City ever return to the NBA what its impact might be on the ‘Kansas City’ branch of Laker Nation.

‘Why can’t you be like’….

I’m two years older than my brother which caused him an issue in a high school class. I was an average to good student in my sophomore English class as for my brother it was a different matter. It’s not the fact he wasn’t bright enough he just didn’t apply himself at times to his studies. When Ken reached his sophomore year, he had the misfortune of having the same teacher as me two years earlier. Whenever he failed to work on the assignment the teacher would tell him, ‘You are certainly not like your brother’. He told me later that continuing statement by her upset him because she did it all the time when his work was incomplete, or he evaluated poorly. By now you are asking yourself ‘Where is he going with this story of Sophomore English, how about the Buss family and running the Lakers.

I’ve read continuing complaints regarding Jeanie Buss and her effort in managing the team. It’s as if folks are stating ‘You sure are not succeeding with the Lakers in the same manner as your father.’ I’m going to give Jeanie a break for several reasons, the chief one this is not 1979 the year Dr. Buss purchased the Lakers. There are a great number of dynamics at work in the NBA of 2022 that didn’t exist back then. From what I’ve read there were few instances Dr. Buss was directly involved in managing the team. It’s been pointed out he was more responsible for the business side of the Lakers. His relationship with Magic Johnson and trading Shaquille O’Neal certainly cannot be discounted. As for Jeanie Buss, give her a break…I know some of you will refuse but consider this single fact. I am certainly more comfortable with her managing the team over brother Jim.

Throwback jerseys

You might remember reading a few weeks ago about 75^th NBA Anniversary jerseys. The Celtics, Knicks, and Warriors then in Philadelphia are the only Basketball Association of America teams active 75 years later. Even the celebrated Lakers were not part of the league, they were born in 1948 in the City of Minneapolis a National Basketball League team. The actual date the NBA was born was August 3, 1949, as the BAA and NBL merged to become the NBA we recognize today. Despite this history fact all NBA team intend to sport a jersey in honor of the 75^th Anniversary. The Rockets are one of those franchises not yet born, in fact their birth can be traced as recently as 1967 in San Diego and not Houston. 

The Rockets were an NBA expansion team born in San Diego California, in 1971 the Rockets would move to Houston Texas. As for the Rockets throwback jersey instead of the Red, Black, Gray or White combo most Rocket and NBA fans are accustomed to seeing they will wear the 1967 jerseys, those jerseys were a Green and Gold combination. In other Rocket news this was a little surprising to me, for unknown reasons the Rockets never got around to retirement of Elvin Hayes number 44. That oversight will be completed in the 2022-23 NBA season. As for the jerseys I don’t have ownership of the photos so they cannot be provided in although they exist on several dot.com