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Basketball from a fans perspective

This is interesting

What’s the most popular sport followed in this country? That’s easy it’s football but wait there’s more to this statement. A company statista.com compiled figures for the 2022 calendar year, they questioned a sample of folks to determine which sport is their favorite? Below is the percentage although I’m unsure of the number of respondents to the question.

Football 51%

Basketball 40%

Baseball 39%

A couple of notes, it’s not clear by statista.com in the instance of football if it’s the NFL and the college game combined or just the NFL. I could make the same statement regarding the percentage that indicate they follow basketball, are there any surprises for you? There are for me, how far baseball has slipped in the eyes of the majority of Americans. Think about this a minute, do you know anyone under the age of 40 (excluding the athletes) who are rabid fans of baseball? Does this represent a change in the habits of most Americans? The game most followed in the ‘40’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s no longer has the clout it once held.

Bits n Pieces 

I believe many of us who follow the college game were familiar with the name Gradey Dick. We knew he was a McDonald’s All American, we knew he was also Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2022. Here’s what we didn’t know, the 6-foot 8-inch shooting guard would have a breakout first year with Kansas basketball. A year that’s seen his NBA stock rise at a swift rate. One site nbadraft.net projects Dick as the number 5 pick in the 2023 draft, as for nbadraftroom.com they place him at 17. What occurs for the future of this youngster, that certainly is an unknown, but this is solid. If it can be confirmed, he would be a lottery pick I’d find it difficult for him to remain in school.      

Brian Windhorst of ESPN is one of those in the media I find informative and have little disagreement with. Recently Windhorst points out throughout his NBA career at several stops LeBron did not have a great deal of success with rookie teammates. It appears he might fail to appreciate those learning the game. We know this to be correct based on stories we are hearing. It would appear he’s prodding the Lakers to give up first round draft choices. We guess the draft choices are utilized to acquire veteran talent to play alongside LeBron. This is not for LeBron but for others, how can a rookie learn the game at the NBA level if he’s not playing with the best talent? In closing we know this to be a fact, while at Cleveland LeBron persuaded the Cavs to trade rookie Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. 

Sink that free-throw and boy did they, the Heat set an NBA free-throw record recently. In a game against the Thunder player after player went to the line, each sunk shot after shot after shot etc. Jimmy Butler led the way for the Heat with his 23 for 23 from the line but there was help for him. Five other Heat players went to the line and shot 17 for 17 making for an NBA record 40 out of 40. Despite the prolific shooting the Heat had to hang on for dear life only beating the Thunder by one point 112-111.

10% is the figure a fan claimed, allow me to explain further. An interview where Magic Johnson indicated if he’d been with the front office the Lakers would have been able to sign Kawhi Leonard. A fan responding to the story said, “It doesn’t matter Leonard’s only played in 10% of the games since the Clippers signed him.” Okay, Leonard missed all last season which would have been 82 games. The two seasons before that Leonard played 57 and 52 games now one of those was a covid year however the league did play close to 80 games. He was nowhere close to a complete season in either year. I didn’t check the fan’s math but 10% might appear to be correct.

It’s a population thing…maybe

The most highly populated states in the union also contain the most NBA teams. I guess that shouldn’t be too shocking, should it? that is a statement of fact, and we can begin to prove it. They are concentrated in the order of population beginning with California, Texas, Florida and New York. The State of California contains the highest number of residents in the nation, located there are the Kings in Sacramento, the Warriors in San Francisco and the Lakers and Clippers in Los Angeles. Texas is the second most populated state in the nation and contains three NBA cities, they are the Dallas Mavs, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets.

Florida is number three in population and home for two teams the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. New York is now in fourth place in population, once the city of Syracuse and Buffalo had NBA teams now it’s only the boroughs of New York City with the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. That’s it, the states with the highest population base also have the greatest concentration of NBA teams. Sidebar here, Chicago and Milwaukee are a little over 100 road miles apart. At the time expansion Milwaukee arrived in the NBA (1968) it was a different era. I have serious doubts if a “Milwaukee” type scenario would exist today, the Board of Governors just wouldn’t approve two franchises located less than 100 road miles apart.