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Basketball from a fans perspective

It seems

Every morning or afternoon I’m reading a story on who the Lakers should sign for their 15-man roster. You want to know how bad it’s gotten, just the other day I read one connected with Nerlens Noel. My thought didn’t he sign with someone else, yes he did I discovered? I looked at the publishing date and discovered it was 2 days old. Unless we are discussing a historical event I try as best possible to maintain stories of the current nature. This is written on Sunday for publication on Monday and it involves Colin Castleton.

While the Lakers appear to be searching high and low for that center they actually have him under contract although it’s a two-way. I know what you are going to say, “Summer League basketball is not real basketball, there are no veterans present.” I’m going to agree with you except, how can a rookie learn to play at the NBA level if never given the opportunity. The numbers for the 6-foot 11 250-pound Castleton were good. 20.6 points, 13.5 rebounds, 6.4 assists along with 1.7 blocks per game in 40 minutes of action. For me the numbers in bold really stand out, they offer proof Castleton is not a selfish player he can find the cutters for skillful assists.  

He’s a Royals fan

It’s difficult to locate many Royals fan outside of the Kansas City metro. The struggle is real, this season the Royals are the worst team in major league baseball, you see the difficulty for fans. As this is written they just lost their 73 game of the season, they have only been in the win column 28 times thus far. Despite such a poor record they have a long-time fan on the east coast, not only that this guy grew up practically in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Who is this glutton for punishment you might ask before I go there allow me to return to the past. It was July 24, 1983, the Royals back then were one of the better teams in the majors, among the talent on the team was third baseman George Brett. For those unfamiliar with Brett he was among the best hitters in baseball history (look him up). The Royals were playing the Yankees in the old stadium demolished in 2009.

The Royals were behind 4-3 in the top of the ninth when Brett hit a two-run homer against their ace reliever Goose Gossage. Brett would circle the bases and touch home plate and returned to the visitors’ dugout. Yankee manager Billy Martin called time out and met with the home plate umpire, after consultation with the other umpiring crew Brett was called out…the basis, pine tar on his bat was ruled to be too high. The Royals played the remainder of the game under protest, a ruling was made by the commissioners’ office in their favor and the final inning was re-played August 18 with the Royals deemed winners. Watching the July game on WPIX-TV in his Jersey City home was 10-year-old Dan Hurley. Hurley now UConn basketball coach indicates that’s the day he became a Royals fan and has continued his allegiance to this day. Of course his occupational sport is college basketball, last April Hurley’s UConn team became NCAA champions as the Huskies beat San Diego State 76-59.

OTE made its presence known

If you saw the 2023 NBA draft or read about it you are aware of this fact, Overtime Elite or OTE had its coming out party on June 22. This new league had Amen Thompson as the number 4 pick while Ausar Thompson was chosen pick 5, it was more than just the twins being drafted. These two became the first athletes drafted into the NBA by OTE a startup league in its second year of operation. Much later Jaylen Martin and Jazian Gortman signed two-way contracts, both played this past season for OTE.

One or more of these athletes must prove successful in order for the league to register on the NBA’s radar. We can attest to the fact OTE has certainly gotten off to a swift start. As for its background OTE is based in Atlanta and the league contains six teams, these teams play one another and also compete against national high school competition across the nation. 2021-22 was the first season of play for OTE, unlike the G-League and similar leagues a prospect can begin play as a 16-year-old. This is a partnership league, players receive a minimum salary of $100,000 along with a signing bonus plus shares in the business, high school classes are provided for those yet to receive their diploma. Financial opportunities plus the opportunity to play competitive basketball is certainly quite a dividend.

Several former NBA players are associated with the OTE in several capacities, Dominque Wilkins is administrator/general manager. Carmelo Anthony, Jay Williams and Pau Gasol serve on OTE’s board of directors and beginning in the fall several games will be televised on Prime Video. Only time will tell if this startup league will be successful into the future, we can agree on this single fact. OTE continues its task in signing talent for the upcoming third season in the fall, how about internally? Could we see additional teams added, after all there are only 6 teams at this stage. 

No requirement to be a butt head

Sometimes we have it all wrong, we have a tendency to believe those who are blessed with great wealth are butt heads. Possibly in a number of instances that observation might be correct, how about the other instances? We could profile Josh Kroenke as an example, he’s been super rich his entire life. Josh was born into the Walton family of Wal Mart fame. He attended public high school in Columbia (MO) and Mizzou on a basketball scholarship. Kroenke was an okay basketball player and the basketball world was aware Josh was not headed to the professional ranks.

After time he was named president of the NBA Nuggets and NHL Avalanche by his farther Stan. I was made aware by a former Mizzou basketball player Josh Kroenke was truly a friend, despite his families great wealth he’s remained an everyday guy who loves the game of basketball. This person stated in Columbia from time to time he’s heard negative comments regarding the Kroenke family…really not surprising though. Josh Kroenke President of Basketball Operations for the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. This transplanted Missourian has a reason to be proud, his Nuggets team culminated the season with an NBA championship.