Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday

Listen to them and not him!

Heard enough talk about Victor Wembanyama from me, prepare yourself I am only beginning there is so much more to cover over the next 8 months? Joe the local YMCA legend and others have quite a few thoughts regarding Wembanyama and his future in the NBA. The majority of the negative comments belong to Joe and his associates. How about reading what these next few people have to say about the youngster, they just might have little more of an idea what it takes to play at the NBA level. In addition I believe it might be a little more advisable to listen to what they have to about Wembanyama over Joe and his buddies. 

“We’ve never seen anything like Victor Wembanyama”-Rudy Gobert Wolves

“He’s like a 2k created player every point guard who wants to be 7 feet, he’s a solid talent”-Steph Curry, Warriors

“He’s incredible man like I believe in 2045 everybody is gonna look like Victor”-Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks

“That type of talent and skill it just puts a smile on your face. The league is in trouble when he comes in”-Kevin Durant, Nets

“No one has ever seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and graceful, he is a generational talent”-LeBron James, Lakers

“Victor Wembanyama is the singular greatest prospect in NBA draft history”-Adrian Wojnarowski ESPN Senior NBA Insider  

What you just read are excerpts made regarding Victor Wembanyama. If you want to do an assessment of his talent and possible NBA future listen to them and not Joe and his YMCA league experience. Joe might be a legend at the Y and on the playground, but he’s never played the game at the highest level. I take the statements above as proof over that of Joe, sorry man.

Potential Talent but lack of effort

There are untold numbers who play the game, the vast majority fall short. They are not good enough to play at the NBA level which is often our barometer but even there we find differences. The one’s who become superstars, those who are good role players and the underachievers. Who are the underachievers, they are incredibly talented but fall below the level we expect of them. When compiling this I remember reading a story about the old Brooklyn Dodgers. They had a pitcher at the time, every season it seemed he won 18 or 19 games but never won 20. A reporter asked him why he fell short, and his response was simple, “If I win 20 games, they will expect me to do it every season.” As for our basketball players none suffered any major injury during their NBA career, they just failed to play at a high skill level despite their apparent talent projection, here goes:

Michael Olowokandi a.k.a. The Candy Man-He arrived in the NBA drafted number one in 1998 by the Clippers. Why does he make the list, the Clippers hired Kareem Abdul Jabbar to tutor him on Big Man play. Keep in mind this would have been prior to small ball, NBA centers were not expected shoot threes, they played a back to the basket game. As for the coaching of Olowokandi I’m unsure how long it lasted but when it ended, he was questioned by a media member, and this was his response. Olowokandi, “I learned as much as I could” which is odd considering this 7-foot 270-pound center left the NBA with an 8 point and 6 rebound career.

Andrew Bynum-The Lakers drafted him as the 10^th pick in the first round in 2005. Coming out of high school it was believed he needed time to adjust to NBA play and that was the case. After trading Shaq many in Laker Nation believed they had a new and improved version of Shaquille O’Neal. Speaking to the media someone compared him to Shaq, Bynum said confidently ‘The difference I hit my free-throws’ and he was correct. The Lakers moved Phil Jackson and replaced him with Mike Brown who Bynum openly disrespected. Before the days of centers jacking up 3-point baskets he defied the coach hosting up a shot which missed badly. By age 26 injury and mostly his head would be his last year in the NBA.

There are others who could have been profiled, these two are noteworthy because in my view they could have been so much better if their heads were screwed on properly. Others might contend Olowokandi playing at the University of the Pacific didn’t face stiff competition. We could see potential but not the lack of effort. Bynum’s career was cut short due to injury however he never seemed that interested, basketball was what he did, not what he loved. Both entered the NBA with all the tools yet appeared unwilling to work toward improvement. Depending on your age I’m sure you have a list as well, there were two others I considered adding but didn’t for one reason. Although I consider them underachievers if we look at their career numbers, they are above average. 

Might we see a change? 

Several accounts have been written regarding HBCU basketball. For those who might be unfamiliar the initials stand for Historically Black Colleges & Universities. In the 1950’s through perhaps the middle 1980’s these schools produced about 60-85% of the NBA’s talent. Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Change would witness state schools especially in the south began recruiting a greater number of black talent. Black athletes especially those in football and basketball would no longer leave their home states of Alabama, Georgia and other southern states. These athletes rather than head for California, Michigan and other locations remained at home.

There was ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ at work regarding the future of athletic programs at HBCU institutions throughout the nation. The cause was an ever-increasing number of black athletes recruited in-state especially in the south, the effect HBCU athletic programs were no longer able to recruit the cream of the crop in talent. As an example of the eroding talent pool Robert Covington of the Clippers is the lone HBCU player in the league in 2022, Covington played his college basketball at Tennessee State University in Nashville. The dwindling pool of football talent for the NFL has not been quite as drastic as that in the NBA.

As for basketball ‘baby steps’ are in place, slow change as we begin to witness former NBA players become head coaches at HBCU schools. Former point guard Kenny Anderson is now head man at Fisk. Reggie Theus is in charge at Bethune-Cookman, Juan Dixon at Coppin State, Bonzi Wells, LeMoyne-Owen, Mo Williams, Jackson State. I don’t wish to mislead you by this account, it’s going to take more than hiring a few former NBA players as head coaches in order to raise the level of play at HBCU’s.  There is a requirement for more steps like those of the Jordan Brand, the brand’s announced a 20-year partnership with Howard University and there are other efforts at work.