Published Monday thru Friday   

Basketball from a fans perspective

“If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan  

Elgin Baylor

“The dog ate my homework”

Well not quite although it was close, I was fully prepared to view the Nuggets-Lakers game on Tuesday. Seated comfortably in MY chair I watched as the defending champions jumped out in front of my Lakers. Then it occurred, somewhere in the middle of the second quarter my television screen went black and there was no sound. My first thought, “must be a network issue” when there was no picture two to three seconds or more later I did my usual. I began to check other channels, sure enough all contained black screens. I looked at my cable modem and most of the lights were out, oh boy there is a problem.

I called the cable company and the automated voice said, “_________customers are experiencing an outage and service should be restored by 9:00 p.m. (Central Time).” That became the end of my account of the game. Service was restored before the time I was given but it was too late for the Lakers by then. From my iPhone updates I believe they got the Nugget lead down to 7 points but eventually lost 119-107.  From the box score the Lakers gave up far too much defensively allowing the Nuggets to shoot 52.7% and 41.2% from three. I’m going to give the Nuggets their props, they beat my Lakers. If you live in Denver or maybe a Nuggets fan you can stop reading at this point. I hope you don’t expect the Nuggets to shoot like that the next time they face the Lakers.

I’m not hatin’

I believe an addendum was required based on my LaVar Ball account from yesterday. Listen, I will give the man his flowers now while he can smell them. He is to be congratulated from me, to train three son’s two of whom were drafted and playing in the NBA. It’s the other stuff that’s been a constant bother over the years. Folks use to say, “an empty wagon makes the most noise,” i.e. if you’ve got nothing to say don’t say it.

Over the years we’ve heard LaVar Ball disparage many past and present-day players. He’s done the same regarding the Lakers and their management. Almost always its followed up by “My son(s) is better than ___________” which often doesn’t compute. Is he starved for attention or is it something else, it certainly can’t be money. I can’t speak for the middle son but I would guess both NBA sons have taken care of mom and dad financially.  Is it attention he seeks no matter how negative it might be?

The real deal   

The NBA season has begun in earnest, allow me to run a few letters written to NBA websites over the years, they are quite interesting.

“Nobody is watching the NBA”

“When Michael Jordan retired I quit watching the Bulls”

“No need to turn the game on until the 4^th quarter”   

“I only watch the NBA playoffs, no need of following regular season games”

“The season is too long plus they play too many games.”

What I find most interesting, the letter writers all chose to contact an NBA.com site. It would seem to me a letter of the type would be more effective if sent to the offices of the NBA rather than to ESPN or Yahoo Sports.  

There is a trust factor

Once upon a time the NCAA ruled college sports with an iron fist. Whatever ruling they mandated that was it, teams complained loudly to their fans and the media but that was about it. Nothing changed, that was then, at a point in time we discovered the NCAA wasn’t quite as proper as it presented itself. The Kansas basketball fiasco figures into this account however there is more to the story. The NCAA presented evidence of what it believed were improprieties by a college program, there is at least one problem. Justice in the past was not always disseminated evenly for similar cases.

In the recent past Oklahoma State in basketball and Mizzou in football self-reported on irregularities with their sports teams yet both were hit with penalties. I have long maintained an organization needs to be in place to manage matters of policy and that’s been the problem. In the case of Kansas basketball they said the school was guilty but, “we can’t decide the degree of punishment, the issue will be turned over to an independent body for action.” Kansas claimed all along they did nothing wrong, based on the summation from last week evidently they didn’t. For me the question, how do you charge 5 Level 1 violations and then the offending party receives a slap on the wrist? I wonder if there is anyone besides those associated with the NCAA willing to defend the actions of this organization.