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Basketball from a fans perspective

A difference of opinion

We constantly have differences of opinions on players, my argument has always been that it’s unfair to compare players of different eras. This time we have two whose careers overlapped one another. Jazz guard John Stockton holds the All-Time record for assists in the NBA. The number for Stockton is 15,806, the active player nearest him is Chris Paul with 11,501. At 38-years old it is highly unlikely Paul passes or even ties the Stockton total.

Laker guard Magic Johnson is in 7^th place with 10,141 assists and that’s where I begin this. Recently a friend declared “John Stockton is the best point guard in NBA history.” That caused no pushback on my part however the next portion of his statement most certainly did. My friend said, “I don’t consider Magic Johnson a point guard, he was a forward.” I could agree with a portion of that, standing 6 foot 9- and 220-pounds Magic certainly matched up well with most forwards of the era. The only issue for me, that’s not the position he played except maybe on defensive switches. Because we are discussing assist totals how about LeBron James, he’s in 4^th place with 10,420 assists.

If my friend had said “LeBron ain’t no point guard” I could agree with him on this one, he’s played point forward his entire NBA career. On the other hand despite his height Johnson was a point. We have no idea the assist total Johnson might have accumulated without his premature retirement at age 32. Much of the media dubbed Paul Pressey “point-forward” at the time he played due to his passing skills. Might we consider Magic (and LeBron) as such?

Don’t look too far into the future

Some might claim this is a cautionary tale, why are you trying to tie Dennis Gates down so early? There are a number of reasons for my view on the matter, Mizzou is not a Blue Blood program or usual destination for upward bound coaches, that’s the principal reason the school decided to extend the contract of Gates back in May. As pointed out previously the issue has been stability in the hiring, if Quin Snyder is hired now that would be a good thing. In 1999 Snyder’s time under Coach K. was likely the deciding factor in his hire, I must acknowledge that was a miss at the time.

Mizzou interviewed Bill Self then at Tulsa but passed on hiring him in favor of Snyder. In truth Mike Anderson was a good hire except it always seemed he placed one foot outside the door awaiting another coaching job. Like Snyder I believed Frank Haith was a good coach however he arrived with “unclaimed baggage.” Haith’s past at Miami and lack of wins, especially the last season caused him to resign prior to a likely firing. Would Haith have been terminated anyway…I don’t have the answer. After he departed the AD at the time made a hasty and bad hire in Kim Anderson. Allow a brief explanation here, Anderson had tasted success at the D-II level. In addition he’d played for legendary Mizzou coach Norm Stewart, it turned out Anderson was unable to recruit talent successfully and team performance suffered.

Cuonzo Martin was another coach I genuinely admired but after a few years under his leadership the basketball program reverted to losing ways. Much as I hated to see turmoil exist again a new coach was required. AD Desiree Reed-Francois and her team began searching for a replacement for Martin. At the time Dennis Gates was announced a loud sigh could be heard from St. Louis to Kansas City, Springfield to St. Joseph. The question out of most mouth’s, “Who is this guy?” There is no requirement repeat what occurred after the arrival of Gates, can I just conclude by stating my belief he’s a keeper.

Sixth man

Several reading this account might remember Lou Williams, he retired this past June after a 17-year NBA career. Williams was one of a small number drafted from high school into the NBA, the year was 2005. During his career Williams appeared as a valuable commodity off the bench for 7 NBA teams. He was selected three times as NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2015, 2018, 2019). In the last few years we’ve noted a number of postseason awards named after a former player or individual.

Examples are the Larry O’Brien trophy (NBA Championship) honoring a past NBA commissioner. We also have the trophy with Wilt Chamberlain’s name (NBA Rookie of the Year) and the Michael Jordan trophy (NBA MVP). Williams has gone on record indicating the Sixth Man of the Year trophy should be named after him. He goes on to state if the trophy is not named for him it should be either Jamal Crawford or Manu Ginobili. What do you think, do you agree with Williams that the poll should be named in his honor? The counter statement might be, shouldn’t Williams allow the NBA to nominate him?

What is it

We all believed the Pac-12 was going to die quickly with the number of defections in recent weeks. Hold on a moment that might not quite occur as we speculated. A story is circulating that the remaining schools, Stanford, Cal, Washington State and Oregon State are looking at expanding at least to 8. This is only conjecture and I offer no proof however SMU, USF and Memphis are reported to be the prime candidates to be added.

They would require only one additional school to become an 8-team conference one they operated from 1968-1978. And then we hear this story the conference is considering adding even more schools becoming the Pac-18. At this point I need to correct earlier information provided you. The Pacific Coast Conference operated from 1915-1959, it then became the Athletic Association of Western Universities (1959-1968). In 1968 the conference became the Pac-8 and 1978 became the Pac-12, in 2023 the defections begin to the Big XII and Big 10.