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Basketball from a fans perspective

A correction

If there is a mistake made and its brought to my attention I want to provide a correction. I wrote this in yesterday’s Off the Dribble. I authored my view of Winning Time the HBO production regarding the Showtime Lakers. This is a portion of what I wrote, “Despite this fact it might have been better if he’d chosen to write about the era without feeling the need to embellish the storyline. This I saw at the beginning of a movie, “The following dramatization, although fictionalized was inspired by an actual event.” It might have been a good idea for Pearlman to use this at the beginning of each episode.” I am offering a correction, at least one episode of Winning Time contained similar wording. With that I’m apologizing to Jeff Pearlman for incorrectly reporting a fact of his production. As for the reason why Pearlman chose to exaggerate some events no apology is offered.

No longer flyover country

The State of Missouri and more specifically Columbia where the university is located was dubbed “flyover country” by some in the media. You are asking the question how did the nickname come about, that’s easy to explain? It seemed high profile basketball prospects would take flights over and around the state and few landed in Columbia. At least for the near future that is changing and it might no longer exist for the most part. If you are reading this Tuesday morning he arrived yesterday. He stands 6-foot 10-inch in height and weighs 235-pounds, his name is Jayden Quaintance. He attends Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh North Carolina and was on campus to check out the facilities at Mizzou.

He likely met with coach Gates and his staff. Quaintance is listed as a Rivals 5-Star prospect and another site, 247Sports awards him 4-stars. As I’ve attempted to impart to fellow members of Mizzou Nation there is no guarantee Quaintance commits to Mizzou today or even some future date. This is the best portion of the visit as I see it, Gates and staff are beginning to attract top notch talent to Mizzou. I’m unsure if this is in order but believe the next visit September 1 will be Trent Burns, Burns is a 7-foot 2 inch 220-pound prospect in the Class of 2024 from Houston Texas. Rivals awards him 4-Stars, with Big Man Peyton Marshall committing last week there is lesser of a chance Burns decides on Mizzou. Despite that fact the visit offers proof Gates and staff are building something. In closing I can state I hope this trend of attracting talent continues into the future, I believe no longer does “flyover country” apply to Mizzou.

When he speaks, I listen

Former Laker great James Worthy’s gone on record before the season starts. Last winter his eye was on Austin Reaves, he claims Reaves has proven he’s the MAN. Who is Big Game James looking at this upcoming season as the X factor for the Lakers, he claims Rui Hachimura is the focus for him. After being acquired in a mid-season trade it took some time for Hachimura to adjust to the Laker scheme. Once the playoffs began Hachimura really came to the forefront.

The Laker power forward shot a sizzling 55.7% from the floor and 48.7% from the three line, I almost forgot his 88.2% from the free-throw line. Hachimura’s scoring average was only 12.2 points per game however the Lakers are not necessarily looking at him for scoring. They hope he continues to play steady defense and bring to the table numbers close to those above. At 6 foot 8- and 230-pounds Hachimura can defend centers on switches. Worthy has announced where his focus is this season. I know I’m going to pay attention, whenever Big Game James speaks I listen.

Pros and Cons

It’s clear by now the NBA intends to expand one day, it’s practically a done deal with Seattle and Las Vegas at the front of the line. Which city is in third place, it might surprise some but that might be Mexico City. To date the only NBA franchises existing are in this country and the Raptors in Canada. Exporting the NBA to Mexico would be something few probably have considered except for Adam Silver. The commissioner has gone on record indicating the NBA is looking south of the Rio Grande. What is intended here is to explore the pros and cons of adding a team in Mexico City. I’ve never visited Mexico, this supposition is based on research and my opinion. Keep in mind the major portion of this account is my opinion, which certainly fails to argue you should agree with my view of the subject matter. Pro-Mexico City is the largest populated city in the northern hemisphere with 22 million citizens. Every person is not interested in the NBA but as you can see the population to support a team is there.

Pro-the arena presently in use was opened in 2012, it seats 22,300 it would move into first place as the largest arena in the NBA in its first year. Pro-no time zone issues, it’s 1:24 p.m. Central Time as I write this, it’s 12:24 p.m. in Mexico City. If an NBA team was to play in Europe there would be a 7–8-hour time difference in France versus the United States. Pro-the economy, Mexico’s GNP is ranked 14 in the world. This places Mexico ahead of most European Nations in Gross National Product including Saudi Arabia…that’s surprising isn’t it? A quick study might place the issues raised as in favor of the NBA expanding to Mexico City. Well we must stop and consider there are negatives to expansion into Mexico. Con-the first one to me at the top of the list of negatives is altitude, Mexico City is 7,349 feet or 2,240 meters above sea level. The NBA city with the highest altitude above sea level is Denver at 5,276 feet or 1,608 meters. Visiting NBA players have complained for years about the rarified air in Denver, just imagine the complaints about Mexico City.

Con-criminal activity, some might find this offensive however it exists in the U.S. we might as well discuss it in Mexico City. Based on my research I can uncovered the fact Mexico City has a lower crime rate than the balance of the nation. Con-With a city of 22 million you can bet there would be an air pollution problem. Is this issue serious enough to remove the city from consideration, I don’t think so? Con-language barrier, Spanish is spoken by the majority of residents however that fails to take into consideration that would be a detriment to obtaining an NBA franchise. I place the issue of language last because in this day I fail to believe it would be a hinderance to an NBA team calling Mexico City home. There is basketball played currently, The Capitanes de Ciudad de Mexico are three years old and have now become an NBA G-League team. In conclusion what occurs, one day Mexico City will one day receive an expansion team…exactly when is an unknown date.