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Basketball from a fans perspective

Who is he trying to fool?

In a cost cutting measure ESPN terminated 20+ employees last week. Most of the number were those we see on television, on the NBA side Jaylen Rose and Jeff Van Gundy were the most well-known names of the total. Stephen A. Smith ESPN’s most visible face decided to address the layoffs. After making it clear he was sympathetic toward those who lost their jobs he laid this bit of knowledge on us. Smith claimed, “I could be next”, after reading this my first thought was who is this guy kidding. Smith is the face of ESPN that’s why they are paying him $12 million a year, his salary is only exceeded by new guy Pat McAfee.

It's being reported McAfee will receive $17 million over the next five years. After reading the “I could be next” statement by Smith my first thought is this is an act. Afterall he’s made news in both areas recently, the first time wanting to take over for Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune. Then I remembered reading Smith’s assessment of Smith’s acting skills playing one of Sonny Corinthos henchman in the ABC soap General Hospital. In closing allow me to state this, I’ve been wrong in the past. I could be mistaken here, ESPN could indeed terminate Smith however I have serious doubts it will occur. This I can state with conviction, if it turns out I’m wrong I certainly will be prepared to admit it.

Talent from all over…except

A few might remember a piece written a while back about how talent arrives in the NBA. I omitted one area and have a statement regarding the others. I failed to mention free agents, the number is quite small in comparison however there are NBA players who were undrafted yet managed to stake out careers in the NBA. Without a great deal of research the first player that comes to mind is Fred VanVleet. You might remember this longtime Raptors guard was passed over in the 2016 draft but has played consistent basketball for his team.

The most recent high profile free agent is Austin Reaves, the Lakers signed him as a free agent in 2021 and near the end of this past season he moved into the starting lineup. I named college, the G-League, Overtime Elite and Australia’s NBL as talent pools suppling athletes to the NBA. Somehow I managed to miss Europe; this was certainly not intentional it’s clear to all there has been an increasing number of players from the Europe. Although it was right in front of my face I also failed to mention NBA athletes coming from the African continent. As the game of basketball has become world-wide we can say in truth other than the areas named Asia has seen a lesser trickle of talent arrive to play in the NBA compared to other leagues and nations of the world.

College basketball news

The 1^st Annual SEC-ACC Challenge was mentioned earlier with Mizzou facing Pitt, listed below are the teams of each conference and there opponent. The dates are Tuesday November 28 and Wednesday November 29, Tennessee will travel to Chapel Hill facing North Carolina. LSU at Syracuse along with Mississippi visiting Georgia Tech. Notre Dame visits South Carolina and Miami will face Kentucky, Clemson at Alabama. North Carolina State and Alabama close the evening action on Tuesday. On Wednesday Duke will visit Arkansas, which should be an interesting match as well. Texas A&M will face Virginia along with Florida at Wake Forest.

Duke travels to Arkansas, Virginia Tech and Auburn are matched against one another. The nightcap is closed with Georgia at Florida State and Boston College against Vanderbilt. If we pay attention to the media we might tend to believe the number of Division I colleges and universities is quite small. Those of you unfamiliar with the figure what do you think, is it 100, 200 or 300+? If you said 300+ you would be the winner, the total is much higher than some might believe. In addition there is always movement. Schools moving from NAIA to Division I or Division II level to I. The answer currently is 351 schools across the nation, alphabetically the count begins with Abilene Christian University in Abilene Texas and ends with Youngstown State University in Youngstown Ohio.

The brief legacy of the American Basketball League

The late Abe Saperstein owner of the Globetrotters at the time was upset. He claimed the NBA owed him a franchise more specifically it would be the Los Angeles market. That would turn out to not be the case, the NBA allowed then owner Bob Short to move his Laker team from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960. In his anger Saperstein made the decision to begin his own league to compete with the NBA, the league would become the American Basketball League when it begin play in 1961. The ABL should not be confused with the ABA which came along 5 years later.

This upstart league began play in the fall of 1961 completed that first season hemorrhaging money. The fall of 1962 the ABL started its season once again however it all came crashing down December 31, 1962, the league went out of business. Although franchises had moved about the ABL closed shop with 8 teams. The first season the Cleveland Pipers were ABL champions, the second season witnessed the Kansas City Steers being league champions. The startup league contained several innovations few are aware. It was the first to implement a 3-point line, they had an 18-foot free throw lane instead of the 12 utilized by the NBA at the time. The shot clock ran 30 seconds over the 24 used by the NBA. The ABA, which begin play in 1966 also had financial difficulties but was more stable than the ABL.

There was no national television contract similar to the one held by the NBA. Unlike the ABA-NBA merger the ABL with only 8 teams had a smaller pool of talent. Despite the smaller number a few players from the defunct league found employment in the NBA once the ABL went out of business. I mentioned this previously but it’s worth repeating again, Bill Russell was not the first black coach for a major professional basketball team. That honor goes to John McClendon who became coach of the Cleveland Pipers in 1962. The brief history of a league long forgotten but part of the basketball history of America.