Basketball from a fans perspective

“Neither criticism nor praise should be highly regarded” 

Tex Winter 

Still funny all these years later

The late Marvin “Bad News” Barnes was an outstanding player in the ABA. He was a power forward before the name came into practical use by most in the media. As for the nickname it was given to him based on the numerous off-court problems he experienced over the years. As for his basketball this story continues to circulate since the middle 1970’s. Either the time zone issue was never explained to Barnes or worst yet he just wasn’t too smart.

His Spirits of St. Louis team played the Kentucky Colonels in Louisville, the city is located in the Eastern Time Zone while St. Louis is Central Time. The story goes Barnes looked at his airline ticket and discovered he was leaving Louisville at 8:00 p.m. but would be landing in St. Louis at 7:57 p.m. After checking the information these were reported to be his words, “I ain’t getting on no time machine.” It’s stated he rented an automobile in Louisville and returned to St. Louis in that manner. Do we have any idea if the story is true, not really but it's continued to circulate all these many years later. 

Your status

I’ve mentioned this previously, we live in the age of social media. With that said anyone described as a celebrity can voice an opinion and there is a rush to place a mic in front of them. Before I comment allow me to say I’m no fan of Lil Wayne, I am aware he’s a rapper but that’s about all. Oh one other point, he claims to be a Laker fan, welcome to Laker Nation if you are a devoted member. Now for the boo part of this discussion, Lil Wayne had decided the Lakers need to trade Anthony Davis. My first question, did Rob Pelinka resign or was he fired?

I once saw an interview with the late Jerry Buss, the originator of Showtime indicated he not the GM or anyone else made a trade. He never named the player but laughed and said that was the last trade he made and he’d never do it again. Did daughter Jeanie Buss make a decision on AD? I might say I have been disappointed in the health of AD, I’m sure he is not intentionally on the sidelines but it seems he can’t stay healthy. Despite this fact at least for now I have no desire to trade AD for anybody, the chief reason I can’t. I have no authority to arrange a trade, guess what neither does Lil Wayne? It’s nice he’s that passionate but it doesn’t mean anything especially since he’s in no position to affect change. The difference in the two of us, he’s got a great deal more money than me but I’m better looking.

I’m sure Laker Nation would have desired a much smoother start of the season, the Sunday win over the Blazers left them with a 5-win 5 loss season. I guess we can consider the fact this could be duplicate of last season. You remember don’t you, I do after 10 games the Lakers had but 2 wins while losing 8 times. It’s clear Darvin Ham is still tinkering with the lineup, barring injuries I’m looking at the next 10 games to determine what the future (considering key injuries) might hold for the Lakers. I still believe they are a playoff team beyond that no one really knows.

Louisville basketball

The University of Kentucky has played competitive basketball since 1911…a long, long time. They might be the only school with an NAIA and NCAA Championship on their resume. They won the NAIA Championship in 1948 beating Indiana State of course both schools now play a Division I schedule. In 1980, 1986 and 2013 Louisville won NCAA Championships although 2013 was later made invalid due to past improprieties. Louisville holds unique status in one area in particular their schedule. Louisville begin to rival that other state school Kentucky and that’s where the problem might have begun. The two schools faced one another in the past but beginning in 1959 all that stopped. It was believed the legendary Adolph Rupp (1930-1972) refused to schedule the cross-state rival during the last few years he served as head coach.

Every season especially after the arrival of Denny Crum at Louisville in 1971 elements within the state wanted the schools to play one another. Once Rupp retired the schedule did not change immediately. The narrative goes the state legislature “forced” Kentucky to play Louisville. For historical purposes it should be pointed out the schools never competed in the same conference. A single event was responsible for the two to set up a schedule to play. A Kentucky legislator threaten to withhold state funds from Kentucky if they continued a refusal to play Louisville. Beginning in 1983 the two schools less than 100 road miles apart now schedule a home and home series at the start of every college basketball season. This year’s game is set for December 21 at Louisville.

Was the NBA a possibility?

The late Bob Gibson was among the best pitchers of his era, of course he’s been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. There are numerous other honors accorded this flamethrowing right hander. Gibson was the NL MVP in 1968, he was twice the NL Cy Young winner and twice World Series MVP. Those are just a few of the honors Gipson won during his distinguished baseball career. Despite youth health issues he would go on to compete in baseball and basketball in high school.

Gibson was Nebraska All State in basketball and would attend Creighton University on a basketball scholarship. It’s difficult to look back at that time but evidently he must have been good, its reported the 6 foot 2 Gipson averaged 22 points a game and he was named a third team Jesuit All American. Later he played basketball for the Globetrotters for one season but gave it up due to travel and the double-headers. Could Gipson have played in the 1957 NBA, I don’t have the answer however that question will forever remain unanswered. Based on Gipson’s baseball record we might say basketballs loss enhanced the Cardinals and major league baseball.