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Basketball from a fans perspective

"Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball."

Phil Jackson

Change is in the air

Should we suppose the NBA Suns were ahead of the broadcast changes? Back in the spring Suns management announced they would not re-new their television contract with Bally Sports. No further explanation was given for the change or at least that’s what I remember reading, the intent was to make Suns games available on local over the area broadcast systems. Earlier this month we saw the Disney fight with Charter/Spectrum, several channels including ESPN were blacked out. Although ESPN and other affiliated channels are now back on the air changes will be forthcoming.

I’m reading accounts indicating cable systems will be changed significantly over the next few months and years. Sports packaging as it relates to satellite and cable television will change, notice I didn’t say might it will! Back to the Suns, it’s written games will be available on local stations across the State of Arizona owned by Gray Television. As this is written there is no indication how many of these stations exist, in addition to local over the air a streaming service of games will be available through Kiswe. How is this going to work out for fans without cable or satellite…we return to the 1950’s. Suns management is offering free antennas for over the air broadcast of games.

According to news reports the Suns quickly ran out of antennas so we might say on the surface this would appear a good move on the part of the Suns. Management has made the claim Suns broadcast numbers will tripled over the sum of households in the past. I asked the question at the beginning of this account, did Suns management see this broadcast change coming or something else existed? The focus of this discussion centers on the NBA Suns, there is no system in place to reveal how the change in cable/satellite might impact other professional sports.

What about Bob?

No, the headline is not a reference to the 1991 movie starring Bill Murray, it’s a reference to Bob Huggins. He is definitely out but is the fight over? You remember the confusing story, arrested on a DUI “he” faxed in a letter of resignation. Later he claimed his wife had signed the document and he still believed he was head coach of West Virginia basketball. He would sue the university unless they returned him as head basketball coach. The only information I can locate as this is written, 

Attorneys for Huggins and the university are conducting meetings, I have no insight or crystal ball but believe this will likely occur. The parties will come to some sort of a financial arrangement and Huggins will remain on the sidelines. He will not return as head basketball coach at WVU, there is no way that occurs. It’s not only the one issue that impacts a decision there is the homophobic hot mic radio incident that occurred weeks prior to the DUI arrest. I am quite sure there is a basketball program somewhere in the nation willing to hire Huggins. Without providing names I can think of at least two coaches who were hired after questionable conduct issues.

The Spurs home

We’ve covered the effort to build a new Spurs arena, this effort is partially driven by the June draft. Of course you are aware Victor Wembanyama was made the top choice by the Spurs. Looking toward the future entities within the San Antonio/Bexar County government believe now is the time for a new arena. Thanks to a fan who lived there we can return to the past, there have been three arenas serving as home for the Spurs:

HemisFair Arena 1973-1993 This arena only held 10,146 when opened in 1968, by the time the Spurs moved renovations had raised seating to 16,057.

AlamoDome 1993-2002 The arena was actually built for an NFL team that never arrived, based on that fact it contained the largest seating in the NBA. Portions were partitioned off to not make such a cavernous building. Despite “downsizing” the AlamoDome could still host more than 31,000 for basketball. The Spurs returned to the arena for their 50Th Anniversary and more than 68,000 fans attended the game played last January.

SBC Center 2002-2006/AT&T Center 2006-2023 Frost Bank Center 2023-? This is the present home of the Spurs and for the upcoming season will see a name change as the arena becomes the Frost Bank Center. As for the Spurs NBA Championships the first was one in the AlamoDome, the others in the SBC/AT&T Center. We shall see what prevails in the future, will there be a new arena replacing Frost Bank? NOTE: History buffs please take note, from 1978-88 the Detroit Pistons played in a “football stadium” too. The now demolished Silverdome in Pontiac Michigan was also home for the NFL Lions for a time. As for NBA basketball seating was quite huge however it was short of the attendance registered at the AlamoDome.

Mizzou in Da House

I'd mentioned Annor Boateng in an earlier account, he is one of the top prospects in the Class of 2024. Boateng just began his senior year at Central HS in Little Rock Arkansas. He's a 6-foot 5-inch wing and is being recruited by a number of schools. They are Georgia Tech, naturally Arkansas, Auburn, Indiana, LSU Mizzou, Ohio State and Virginia Tech along with several others. What’s different about Boateng besides the number of schools recruiting him?

If you haven’t noticed it yet allow me to clue you in, Mizzou is in contention for Boateng to come play in Columbia. I’ve mentioned this previously but would like to state it again, the State of Missouri is no longer flyover country. Prospects are not flying over or around visiting other programs, they are landing at Columbia Regional Airport to visit the campus and meet Coach Gates and staff. Just in case you wondered once the decision is made there is no guarantee Boateng will decide on Mizzou. It’s just nice to know prized prospects are not overlooking Mizzou any longer.