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Basketball from a fans perspective

He’s at the front of the line

A number of college and international players are thinking of the 2023 NBA Draft. Taylor Hendricks is saying not only am I thinking about the NBA draft I’m doing something about it. The 6 foot 9 inch 210 pound Taylor becomes the first to declare for the draft. Taylor a UCF freshman decided it was time to move to the next level…the NBA. Three mock draft sites predict Taylor as a first round choice so he’s hired an attorney in preparation.

Who were they

You’ve read the account, the late Willis Reed hit the first two shots he took in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Championship. Reed went to the bench and didn’t re-appear for the balance of the game although the Knicks won the championship easily thanks to two Knicks. Neither of them are named Walt Frazier although his scoring and assists were key to the win. Replacing Reed in the lineup was the Bowman/Stallworth tandem. These two would face off against 7-foot 1 inch Wilt Chamberlain.

Nate Bowman would be considered a journeyman NBA player, the 6-foot 10 Bowman played his college basketball at Wichita State and the Bulls prior to the Knicks. Bowman would battle Chamberlain and then turn over the job to teammate Dave Stallworth. Stallworth gave up even more height since he only stood 6 foot 7, it’s ironic but he too played at Wichita State. Nobody stopped Chamberlain but these two managed to hold their on despite the fact they only scored 10 points, 4 by Stallworth and 6 by Bowman. Two unsung heroes who died much earlier but were instrumental in the Knicks winning that first NBA Championship.

Pay the man please

History sometimes tends to repeat itself, in this case I hope that is not the outcome. Some might remember the Lakers lost valued reserve Alex Caruso to the Bulls. They either couldn’t or wouldn’t match or exceed what was available to him on the open market. Has the loss of Caruso changed the Lakers, we can debate that although he was a valued reserve. Once again, the Lakers find themselves in a similar situation this time it’s shooting guard Austin Reaves. You remember his story I hope, coming out of Oklahoma he informed NBA teams “Don’t draft me, I prefer to choose my own team.”

The team of choice would become my Lakers. His rookie year the 6-foot 5-inch Reaves proved he had swag and lived for the moment; I remember one game he took the winning shot as the clock was ticking down. Reaves sophomore year has provided us proof he continues to work on his game or is it just adjusting to the NBA? Whatever the case in Sunday’s game against the Magic these are his numbers. Emerging off the bench he scored a career high 35 points on 64% shooting from the floor. Also included was 6 rebounds and 6 assists key to the 111-105 win over the Magic. I have no idea what it make take for Reaves to remain in Purple and Gold I can only say please, please.   

Focus on something else

Those outside the Kansas City metro are unaware of this story. The sports talk radio guys are stoking the flames regarding Eric Musselman. It seems they were offended with the behavior of the Arkansas coach after his team’s victory on Saturday. You might have seen Musselman pull off his shirt in celebration of the win but that was the problem. Kansas fans believe he was shaming them and their team. I say Kansas fans need to get over it, evidently, they can dish it out but cannot accept it.

It’s okay for them to razz Mizzou fans when the shoe is on the other foot that’s a different matter. I cannot detail for you all the time Kansas fans have given us their opinion on a Mizzou game when the teams are not facing one another. I thought some of the animosity would cease once the teams were in different conferences but that has not been the case. Anytime the subject is mentioned its always “Mizzou fans writing the letters or making the disparaging comments.” That truly could be the case, however I try in this blog to cover what I believe is relative and not personal. We shall see if this story leaves in a few days, I will keep you posted.

Change the name please  

I’m sure those in Dub Nation will not be satisfied reading this but here goes. Ownership should change the team name to back to the San Francisco Warriors, allow me to explain my reasoning. The Pistons until recently played home games at Auburn Hills about 50 miles from downtown Detroit. They never became the Auburn Hills Pistons, Detroit remained in front of Pistons. Let’s check the history, in 1962 the Philadelphia Warriors moved to San Francisco and took on the name of the city. Over the course of time the team played in various arenas around the Bay, never having a true home.

In 1971 the team began to play in Oakland and at that point they were retitled the Golden State Warriors. It’s clearly understandable why the name change, the team was playing in Oakland and the prevailing thought might have been “We cannot be the San Francisco Warriors if our home arena is not in the city. This name would remain in place and then came the news. A new arena which became the Chase Center was planned, the building was across the Bay. The Warriors returned to San Francisco and their new home in 2019, I thought a name change would occur again. That was not to be I guess fans are comfortable with Golden State in front of the Warriors name.