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Basketball from a fans perspective

The real Wemby

Without re-reading a portion of yesterday’s account I believe this statement was made or something close to it. “Victor Wembanyama was probably nervous in his first game on Friday.” Interviewed after the game “I hope to do better” and boy did he do that on Sunday evening. First of all Wemby’s Spurs team lost the game 85-80 over the Blazers, he played a vital role as they erased a deficit but came up short. 27 points on 9 for 14 from the floor (2-4 from 3pt), what I found a little unusual was 7 for 12 from the free throw line. I’ve seen him in action for Metropolitans92 games where he’s shot far better. To complete his filling of the box score were 12 rebounds along with 3 blocked shots. There is no method to determine the number of missed or altered shots with Wemby’s giant presence around the basket.

He was 7 feet from an opposing player, behind the three and with distance took the shot. Wemby “fingernails” on the ball caused it to come up short and into the hands of his Spurs teammate. Wemby accomplished all this in 27 minutes of play, he had only 3 TO’s. I know exactly what you are thinking and I will go there. This is but one game, in addition it’s summer league play. There is no method to determine Wemby’s adjustment until he’s matched against veteran NBA talent. With the disclaimer out of the way allow me to state with conviction, Wemby is going to be good. The question of course is how good and I am not prepared to venture that far out of my lane yet. One score was particularly entertaining, a teammates missed shot witnessed Wemby tipping the ball to himself and then back up for a dunk. With his length and apparent ability he reminds us more of a Ralph Sampson than any other player of the past.

“She said, he said”

Remember the Bob Huggins story that broke over the weekend? The former West Virginia coach is claiming he didn’t resign his job, further he threatens a lawsuit against the school. Question, how did this kerfuffle come about you might ask?  Huggins legal team is claiming the letter received by the school was not from him but rather his wife. His attorneys indicate he was in re-hab when the letter arrived at the school. West Virginia says it intends to stand firm with its hire of interim coach Josh Eilert. Now let’s return to the beginning of the story, Huggins was caught by law enforcement and cited for a DUI. This follows up with the anti-gay remark he made on the radio previously which caused the school to suspend him. West Virginia The produced a resignation letter which came from the email account of June Huggins.

We can read a number of things into this story but I’m going to personalize it a bit. My wife has an email account under her name which she rarely uses. What I consider a “house email” contains my name only. My wife uses this account 98% of the time, she’s used it for official business and personal use. Taking this one step further there have been instances where my wife has made a decision for us without consulting me and I’ve done the same for her. I could see the school accepting a letter from an email account belonging to the Huggins family. This is the portion I find a little difficult to understand, a resignation letter. Would I give my wife permission to submit a resignation letter to my employer?  I’m certainly not attempting to voice my view from a legal perspective…I hope it’s a common sense approach. Will Huggins be returned to the status of head coach, this requires a wait and see answer from both parties.

This is me

I read this recently on one of the social media sites I have and it caused me to think about my declaration. The individual said, “I’m so desperate for football I’m watching XFL (or USFL) games and I don’t know any of the players.” My statement is similar to theirs except portions of it would be written differently from theirs. This is my version with adjustments, “I’m so desperate for basketball I’m watching NBA Summer League basketball, for the most part I know most of the players but not all.” I believe the bottom line here is that we gravitate toward those things that give us joy whether it’s football or basketball.   

Thin skinned

We’ve covered the layoffs at ESPN however I’d like to cover a major portion. One of the names fired by the network was Jeff Van Gundy, a longtime broadcast analyst. A few readers from the early days of this blog might remember I expressed some displeasure with Van Gundy’s broadcast style. I cannot pinpoint a specific date however he became less and less annoying to me. I offer no basis for my attitude change its just the fact I did change, change to the point telecasts involving him no longer perturbed me. In any event now to cover the subject, the NBA was so upset they decided to fire Van Gundy. You just finished reading about draft conspiracies, we go one step further in that direction.      

We are now hearing stories NBA commissioner Adam Silver was directly responsible for Van Gundy being terminated by ESPN. I believe all of us realize the commissioner probably has tremendous power regarding the television side however there is a question. Is/was Silver so thin skinned by Van Gundy’s criticism of officiating and other aspects of the NBA he forced ESPN to pull the plug? I am totally unfamiliar with “Mad Dog” Russo however he’s one of the names associated with the conspiracy theory behind Van Gundy being gone. The rumors circulating could be true however I believe the changes at ESPN had more to do with the bottom line of the network over broadcast personalities. Just my opinion, Russo and those spreading the story could be correct.