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Basketball from a fans perspective

Where has the time gone 

I believe this to be correct, I think LeBron James first NBA game was televised in 2003 and I saw it. There was a great deal of curiosity on my part, could this high school phenom make the gigantic leap to the NBA. I certainly wasn’t thinking Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s scoring record would be broken let alone by this 18-year-old on my television screen. I’ve followed his career from Cleveland to Miami and back to Cleveland. I was displeased when he left the Cavs, but his return home made all that okay.

Then the rumors started, free agency would detail several teams were after his services including my Lakers. I admitted it back then and will admit it now…I hoped LeBron would pick another team. As you are aware he chose my team and the rest is history. There’s been only the one championship and based on the team’s health and his age that might be it. I never imagined all those years ago that 18-year-old on my television would become the NBA’s leader in total points. He would break the record established by Kareem Abdul Jabbar who broke the total set by Wilt Chamberlain. Interesting the NBA’s all-time point total set by three Lakers.

He's raw

The headline certainly belongs to Mizzou’s 6 foot 10 Mohamed Diarra, he’s from Paris France by way of Garden City Community College in Garden City Kansas. Of all the new players on this Mizzou team Diarra is the most fascinating for me. An international player, how much did he play prior to coming to this country? The question was asked by me and others at a point, Mizzou was badly outrebounded with their munchkin lineup…why was DIarra not playing? Coach Gates eventually answered the question by stating he’s got a great deal of catching up to do. I thought a moment, the leap from community college basketball to Division I SEC might be as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Nobody is able to accomplish the feat quickly however there is movement on Diarra’s part. We’ve seen the coach utilize Diarra in increasing minutes over the past few weeks. Although his movements on the court are somewhat animated his ability to go after the ball is not. The recent box score details two games of 10 rebounds for Diarra and one area that’s good for him…free throw shooting. He’s not the team leader but 65% ain’t too bad. This part I don’t know, he played two seasons at Garden City and this season at Mizzou will be three. I’m unsure if there is a covid year available, if so, Mizzou would have two additional seasons to train the Big Man from France.

Chicago and the NBA

If you are a certain age the Bulls are likely the only Chicago NBA team most who are reading this can identify. Some of you a slight bit older might remember the Packers, the NBA decided to expand, and Chicago was awarded a team which began play in the 1961-62 season. That team would only last two years in Chicago, year three saw them re-locate to Baltimore and re-named the Bullets. The problem poor attendance and a poorer team. Okay that’s good, you have knowledge of at least two Chicago teams. Did you know there was a third team, in fact this team was an original member when the league first began play. The Chicago Stags came into being in 1946 as a Basketball Association of America team and moved into the NBA in 1949 with the merger.

1950 saw the Stags close up shop, the city would remain without a team until 1961. What I find most interesting it appears at least on the court the Stags were a success. When they ceased operations, the team had won 145 and lost 92, their playoff record was not very good 8 wins and 14 losses. The records are incomplete however it appears the Stags may have been under financed which cause them to cease operations. There is a Bob Cousy connection, the point guard was drafted by the Blackhawks (then in existence). Cousy wanted more money than they were willing to offer, thus he was traded to Stags and when they went out of business a dispersal draft was held and Cousy would become a Boston Celtic. This concludes the brief history of Chicago’s first NBA team and one few even realize existed at a point in time. If I were a betting person, I would place a very large wager 20-30 Chicagoans are unfamiliar with the Stags.   

                                                                     

Black History Moment

A little-known story recently revealed in the last few years. HBCU North Carolina Central University played a game against Duke University. You might say “Big deal, this happens all the time” and my response might be this game had more significance than that. The game was played March 12, 1944, in the segregated south of the day. There would be no method for a college game to be hidden today but it was a different time. NCCU had one of the best black basketball teams in the nation at that time, Duke was good, but both had numbers of students serving in the military during World War II.

It was reported coverings were placed over the windows to ensure no one saw this all-black team playing an all-white team in 1944 North Carolina. How all those involved managed to keep this out of mainstream Durham remains a mystery to this day. Players took a different route to the gym to ensure no one was followed. The shorten version of this story NCCU won the game 88-44, after a break the two teams mixed their squads and played another game, certainly a violation of the Jim Crow laws of the era. The Durham police never discovered the game was being played nor was it published in the two newspapers of the day. There is no official record the game ever took place, the question might be did it occur or was it fiction?

Has this occurred to you

Ever had someone try and persuade you to agree with them and you refused? I remember one instance in particular, the City of Kansas City sold Kemper Arena former home of the NBA Kings. One of our previous mayor wasn’t keen on building a new arena, he led an effort to increase the seating. Kemper opened in 1974 (now Hy Vee) went from its original 17,500 seats to 19,500. The next mayor elected wanted an arena to go with a revitalized downtown entertainment district. This mayor got the project rolling and the Sprint Center (now T-Mobile) opened in 2007.

The basketball seating capacity was 18,972. Now this is where the difference of opinion comes into the discussion. It certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the old arena (19,500) contained more seats, the question from my acquaintance it was larger than T-Mobile. With my bad eyesight I informed him my belief the arenas were about the same size. He continued to press the point in an attempt for me to agree with his view. Sorry Charley, I can’t see it (LOL) if you believe the Kemper Arena is larger that’s okay, that’s just not how I see it. Once he figured out, I wasn’t going to budge from my original position he gave up. Now friends this really proves nothing, he could be correct however with no physical proof I refused to change my position.