Basketball from a fans perspective

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying” 

 Michael Jordan 

We can all learn

All of us gain information from a number of sources but sometimes I wonder. Allow me to explain, James Brown a Laker website contributor in his headline and account claimed, “Darvin Ham can learn from Frank Vogel.” You are familiar with the parties, Ham is the present Laker coach and Vogel now with the Suns was replaced by Ham. Despite the fact he was fired I respect Vogel as a veteran leader and NBA Champion coach. James Brown is certainly entitled to his opinion however there is a key factor for me here, what NBA or college team did Brown coach? Each of us has an outlook about a particular subject matter and that’s fine however that fails to take into account your expertise.  

We can second guess Ham plus any other coach and player in the NBA and that’s actually okay. The portion I find unacceptable, a member of the media deciding one coach needs to adopt the philosophy of another. It’s easy to set behind your laptop and make these brilliant decisions, I do it too but there is a difference. I never ever claim to have an idea what it takes to perform XYZ for one reason, I’ve never been there and neither has Brown. I wonder if this person is okay with me suggesting he make changes in his writing. All of us are subject to second guessing, Darvin Ham, the media guy and me. I heard a statement years ago from someone else in the media. He said, “I try not to take myself too seriously”, I think that should apply with the Vogel-Ham suggestion, again folks just my opinion.    

You remember don’t you?

Mizzou basketball was quite competitive last season, there was one area they often came up short. Although the roster contained Big Men they played relatively few minutes, Dennis Gates preferred to utilize a speedy but undersized lineup including reserves. The coach is attempting to correct this rebound deficiency for the upcoming season and into the future. The future in another installment later, in the present is 7-foot 5 230-pound Connor Vanover in the lineup. Vanover arrived in the transfer portal from Oral Roberts after play at Arkansas for two seasons and one at Cal-Berkley. The numbers Vanover produced last season, while not spectacular were decent. The question, can he transfer that same level of play to the tough SEC?

I have no idea however Gates believes Vanover can accomplish the task. What does Vanover believe he brings to the forefront for Mizzou, bunches of stuff. As an example distance shooting, although he stands 7-5 he’s unafraid of shooting from distance. Get this, he credits his mom for that skill, she played at Arkansas and stands 6 foot 2. With a dad the same height it’s easy to understand how he grew to his present height. This from Vanover, “Defensively I can be an anchor/rim protecter inside and then offensively I can space the floor and be an inside-out big.” Vanover indicates he was through with college, he planned to turn pro but later decided one more year of school would help. He indicates he loves the family environment at Mizzou and the head coach who is a player’s coach, he checks on us all the time. So there you have it one of the many new Tiger players expected to continue the winning ways of the revitalized program. 

NBA expansion

Expansion is on the horizon for the NBA, it’s not really a question regarding the first two expansion choices. The commissioner has not named them however conversations surround Las Vegas and Seattle. I believe there might be a phase two expansion, at least two additional teams added to the NBA. There are others who could be in a second group expansion. I have no intention to detail the reasons only point out those named appear to be brought up most often in discussions.

What I found most interesting cities below were mentioned on several websites. The locations named are not in any order so here they are ready, set and go. There are three international cities who make the list all of them in the Western Hemisphere, they are Vancouver and Montreal in Canada and Mexico City. In the U.S. we have Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Anaheim, San Jose, Austin and Kansas City mentioned. What do you think, besides Las Vegas and Seattle what about the others listed? I will leave you to make an evaluation of which city may be valid in a phase two expansion.

A re-visit

I don’t believe I’m as angry as I might appear at times, one of the bothers for me is dumb comments. I’m revisiting an event of last spring, there was no misunderstanding on my part. The reason I make the statement is because he repeated it three times to three individuals at different periods. I’m paraphrasing it but essentially this is what he said, “The Chiefs have played deep into the playoffs the last three seasons, I’ve had little time to focus on college basketball. I think college basketball should start it’s season in late January.” His co-host thought this statement made sense, another person agreed with him. Finally he received a rebuttal, he makes a weekly telephone call and interviews a national college basketball writer.

When he ran his proposal past this guy without any sort of hesitation this writer said no. There is no argument on my part that the NFL Chiefs have played deep into January and on into February when earning a Super Bowl berth. The college basketball season begins in November and ends the first Monday in April. What’s most interesting is that this NFL-college basketball schedule has existed for well over 80 years. The NFL has expanded its number of games and the same could be said for college basketball over the years. Unlike radio guy over the last 5 years I’ve managed to successfully keep track of both football and basketball without missing a beat. The Chiefs rule Kansas City sport talk radio, I’ve got no issue with that, I take issue with someone who despite hosting a radio program appears incapable of following both sports.