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Basketball from a fans perspective

“If you are afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail”

Kobe Bryant 

The Big Aristotle and AI

Reebok has not been in the NBA basketball shoe market for a time. Once they had a number of players under contract but over the years those under contract either retired or changed shoe brands. Yesterday Reebok announced Shaquille O’ Neal and Allen Iverson would be joining the corporation. Both former players were hired by Reebok in newly created positions, O’ Neal is named president of basketball operations while Iverson would be vice president. The two are joining the firm that helped launch their NBA careers. "A big part of my role will be leveraging my network to build bridges, connect the brand with players, and help those players develop through their partnership with Reebok," Said Shaq.

Speaking of coaches

Almost every time I talk glowing about Mizzou basketball cynics say this, “How many NCAA Championships have you won?” The Tigers have never won however a large number of schools share the same fate. As I pointed out recently there are 362 Division I programs across the nation, at present there are only 7 active NCAA championship coaches, they are:

Bill Self

Rick Pitino

Scott Drew

Tony Bennett

John Calipari

Tom Izzo

Jim Boeheim*

There are championship coaches who’ve retired in the past few years namely, Coach K., Jim Calhoun and Roy Williams. If we add their names we have a total of 10 NCAA winning coaches in the last 24 years. I’m not going to go back any further because I hope you are able to focus on how small a class there is of NCAA championship coaches. Next time someone brings this up regarding Mizzou or any other school lay this bit of knowledge on them. As for the asterisk behind Boeheim’s name the coach is retiring after the 2023-24 season, unless one of those named win another the 2024 championship will contain a new name.

It’s Naismith not the NBA…

I wanted to remind you regarding a story I’d written back in the spring. This was a discussion between two former NBA players, they decided between them a particular player didn’t belong in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Although both players had outstanding NBA careers they had no idea what they were talking about. I will explain, they voiced their concern on this player due to his average NBA career. No argument from me his NBA was only average however they forgot about the other part, back in the days when athletes remained in school. This particular player had an All American four years of college basketball. He arrived in the NBA highly touted but was unable to duplicate his collegiate success, that occurs with a number of players.

Steve Alford as an example became a coach due to his inability to play at a high skill level in the NBA unlike at Indiana. Shane Battier and JJ Redick two former Duke players had to make adjustments to play in the NBA after outstanding seasons at Duke. The Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield Mass opened its doors in 1959 and the guidelines for inclusion had nothing to do with the NBA. 1. “In contrast to the Soccer and the National Baseball Halls of Fame, Springfield honors international and American professionals, (NBA & ABA) as well as American and international amateurs, making it arguably the most comprehensive Hall of Fame among major American sports.” So as you might note there is no basis for excluding an athlete due to lack of success at the NBA level, it probably won’t occur but this just might. Adam Morrison had an outstanding career at Gonzaga, in the NBA it was a far different matter. Could he be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame, I don’t see why not?

1.Wikipedia

Which one  

The top high school basketball player in the Class of 2024 is playing at Montverde Academy. The school is located in Montverde Florida in the Orlando metro but that’s not the city or state Cooper Flagg calls home. Guess which state Flagg calls home, is it Texas, New York or Georgia? If you know the answer you are ahead of most basketball fans. Flagg hails from Maine and the town of Newport which contains less than 3,200 population according to the 2020 census. Are you scratching your head attempting to figure out the why? While you are figuring that out allow me to provide you additional news.

I believe it was indicated earlier that Flagg decided to bypass Late Night at the Phog, the annual first practice of Kansas basketball. Generally the top recruit Kansas is attempting to lure to the campus is invited. The other portion of the news Flagg is headed to Duke University the weekend of October 20 which is interesting. This visit is official based on NCAA regulations, Flagg had an earlier unofficial visit to Duke over the summer. UConn remains on his schedule and it’s been announced his decision will be forthcoming in two to three weeks. Where do we suppose the 6-foot 9 200-pound Flagg will decide, if I were a betting person I’d say he winds up at Duke? Although I make the statement I’m not a betting person.