Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Monday through Friday

Hail to the Chief

The title is the personal anthem of the President of the United States. Well that’s not going to be played however there is a connection. As most of you are aware Robert Sarver owner of the Suns is suspended for the year by the NBA. With the suspension Sarver decided instead to sell the team. Although no majority owner has been identified a potential minority owner has been identified. I have no method to document this account I’m only reading reports.

Barack Obama former President of the United States is reported to be interested in becoming an owner. Is it true, we have no method to verify the story however it makes sense on several levels. Obama played basketball in high school and while serving as president would play the game on occasion. He’s also made appearances at NBA and college games while serving in office, this is a developing story so we must wait to sort it out. In truth unless there is unannounced background activities this is liable not to be resolved until early next year.

He’s an institution

Word came the 2023 NCAA championship game will be the last for Jim Nantz of CBS Sports. We’ve seen Nantz and heard his voice for such a long period of time many tend to believe the job’s always been his. He began broadcasting the championship game in 1991 replacing Brent Musberger. No mystery as to why Nantz is retiring, he indicates the need to spend more time with his family. For nostalgia purposes let’s take a brief look back, that 1991 championship game saw Duke led by Coach K. defeat the Kansas Jayhawks under head coach Roy Williams 72-65.

Non-conference schedule

Mizzou’s schedule is somewhat vanilla, the only really tough games in my view are those where they face Kansas and Illinois. They will play Kansas at Mizzou Arena on Saturday afternoon December 10. In the Annual Braggin’ Rights game they will face Illinois Thursday evening December 22 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. I hope no one believes I’m stating these are the only tough non-conference games…they are the toughest in my view.

The following games will be competitive, Wichita State (Tues night Nov 29), Southeast Missouri State (Sun afternoon Dec 4) and UCF (Sat morning Dec 17) should be good games. It’s my hope the remaining 7 non-conference games will prepare the Mizzou Tigers for tough Southeastern Conference basketball. Maybe that might be the plan all along by Dennis Gates and staff, I’ve noticed the more competitive games are played the last portion of the non-conference schedule. On the other hand it just could be a figment of my imagination.

Not good

Wednesday evening the NBA world received the news, although it was not shocking, I believe it certainly was surprising. Kawhi Leonard would miss the next two games, I thought it odd he wasn’t a starter in the team’s early season. Leonard had taken on a reserve role coming off the Clipper bench, that I found a little unforeseen. Now we receive the truth, it’s reported Leonard is experiencing swelling in his surgically repaired right knee.

The Clippers were prepared for a deep playoff run this season with the return of Leonard and a healthy Paul George. Now the knee acts up and the question, is this just a glitch or will he ever return to the Kawhi Leonard of the past? Despite the fact I root for the other tenant at Staples Center (I know that’s not the name) I hope Leonard is able to return to the lineup. This I am sure of, unless Leonard is at full strength the Clippers might not make it out of the Western Conference, we shall see what develops with this story. 

Can he do that?

It’s interesting the commissioner is addressing the issue tanking of teams, perhaps it’s the prospect of drafting Victor Wembanyama or maybe something totally unrelated. After all this is not the first time we’ve heard the term used when a quality talent appears on the NBA horizon, a team wants to secure a better draft position. Commissioner Silver was in Phoenix to address Suns employees, but the tanking issue came up as well. This is a portion of Silver’s message, “We put teams on notice, we’re going to be paying particular attention to the issue this year.”  The proposed solution is quite radical and I’m unsure if he’s got the power or if the owners will give him Carte Blanc to fully address it.

Moving the culprit(s) into the G-League while moving that G-League team to the NBA. That’s the part I question whether it could be accomplished. Again if proven I believe a far more beneficial punishment would be a humongous fine levied on the culprit(s) and exclusion from the NBA draft for a period of let’s say 5 years. In closing there is a further concern. You might have read or heard the same interpretations as me, those claiming “Wemby needs to be drafted by the right team.” These cynics name the teams they believe are bad for the NBA, the Jazz, Thunder, Spurs or Hornets. As for my take, so what if it’s not the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls or Nets. A projected talent must not always play for one of those major market teams to bolster their place in the NBA.