Basketball from a fans perspective

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I’m shocked!

Not really but I wanted a headline grabber, and this story is really not that in a sense. It represents a continued policy of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Recently the coach added an assistant to his staff, her name is Candice Dupree former WNBA player. Dupree will take on a role as player development coach with the Spurs. This move certainly shouldn’t be surprising if you are familiar with Pop, he was in the forefront of making change in the NBA consider this fact. 

Over the years there have been 15 female assistant coaches in the past up to the present in the NBA, but Pop was the first coach to open the door. Becky Hammon was hired by Pop in 2014 and she became the first female assistant coach in the NBA. She resigned last season to take over the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. What did the Aces accomplish once Hammond took over as coach…the Aces only managed to win the WNBA championship? Will there be a female coach in the NBA one day, that’s likely to occur in basketball over the NFL? The NBA should be commended for attempting to equalize job opportunities.

What he said

On the surface the response of guard Marcus Smart might seem callous by many. Asked about the coaching change for the Celtics he said, “Nobody died.” Allow me to finish the quote, “Nobody died. I still love Ime as a person and as a coach. He led us into the Finals. It’s just something unfortunate happened to him.” For some it depends on your perspective, I held a conversation with a co-worker and Celtic fan. I know you are probably shocked there are Celtic fans in the middle of the nation.

I digress however this was my statement to Rory. “The Celtics will be okay there might be a little drop off, they might not return to the Finals. This assistant coach (Mazzulla) is not an unknown voice, Celtic players have heard him. There will be some of the old by the former coach and some of the new Mazzulla will implement. Rory is not quite as optimistic as I am, however, I will stick by my view for now. He claims the injury to Robert Williams will impact the team. He’s also looking at Jaylen Brown whose name was floated around in trade circles all summer. “I think if I was Brown I would be upset.”

It depends

I hit my growth spurt between my 6^th and 7^th grade year of school. I remember it well because my mother had purchased jeans for both my brother and me with the intent of wearing them over summer into the start of the school year. As we approached the start of school mom asked me to try on the jeans, needless to say they were hitting me around my ankles. I thought “Boy I’m on my way to 6 feet tall”, I didn’t grow to the height I hoped. The growth spurt varies among individuals, as an example folks might say “The Bulls Scottie Pippen was a skillful passer for a guy 6 foot 8 in height.” The explanation is simple, in high school he was forced to play the point because he was nowhere near the height he would eventually reach. Pippen was a 6-foot 1 point guard at Hamburg (AR) High School. We could make a similar statement about the Lakers Anthony Davis who is almost 6 foot 11.

At Perspectives Charter High School in Chicago, AD was a 6-foot 3-inch point guard who gained an aptitude for passing the basketball. In the case of Pippen and Davis we have examples of two players who experienced growth spurts. For Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and others there was none of that. These two graduated high school at their NBA height (7 foot 1) and gained additional weight playing in the NBA. I could locate no high school information on 6 foot 10 Chris Webber or 6 foot 11 Kevin Garnett. These two certainly are on the list of best passing Big Men. Once again, I have no high school data on this man, the best current passing Big Man in the NBA is Nikola Jokic. Jokic who stands 6-foot 11 and 284-pounds has assists numbers astronomical for a player his size. Last season he dealt out 7.9 assists to Nugget teammates and two years before it was 8.3.

Is this it?

There appears a belief only Blue Blood programs win the Division I championship every season, that is the perception and not actual fact. Let’s explore the years 2002 through 2022. We can state with certainty Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky have registered the bulk of wins during this 20-year period however there are some names you may have forgotten. Check out the ‘other’ champions and the year they won below:  

Maryland – 2002

Florida – 2006 & 2007

UConn – 2004, 2011 & 2014

Villanova – 2016 & 2018

Louisville – 2013

Syracuse – 2003

Virginia – 2019

Baylor – 2021

Can they, or should they?

I saw an interview on NBA TV of Giannis Antetokounmpo recently, perhaps you saw it too. During the interview he expressed how much he appreciated the opportunity to play for the Greek National Team over the summer. Once the interview was complete the host began a discussion with Sam Mitchell former NBA player and coach turned analyst. I’m going to paraphrase the quote, Mitchell indicated Antetokounmpo, and others had been playing all summer, they won’t need much of a training camp. At the same time, we probably will see them in limited action during the exhibition season. Then the real question, at what point does the body begin to break down?

It’s documented the regular season and a deep playoff run an athlete could play well over 100 games. If we toss in another 30 or so playing in Europe during the summer, you see where I’m going don’t you? I certainly would not place myself in front of Antetokounmpo or any other Euro player desiring to play for their nation. There comes a point the body must rest and by this, I mean fully rest. The question becomes can the NBA place restrictions in a player’s contract, or should they? I realize nationalism is more important in this instance than the NBA but there comes a point. The body can break down based on the wear and tear of a rigorous “two seasons” of basketball?