Basketball from a fan’s perspective

I wonder

You might remember the account regarding the ABA, I believe if ABA owners had deeper pockets a true merger might have occurred. It was everyone connected with the young league eager to join the NBA. These are the surprising words of Doe Moe former ABA player and ABA/NBA coach.

“One of the biggest disappointments in my life was going into the NBA after the merger. The NBA was a rinky-dink league---listen, I’m very serious about this. The league (NBA) was run like garbage. There was no camaraderie; a lot of the NBA guys were aloof and thought they were too good to practice or play hard. The NBA All-Star Games were nothing---guys didn’t even want to play in them and the fans could (sic) care less about the games. It wasn’t until the 1980’s, when David Stern became commissioner, that the NBA figured out what the hell thy were doing, and what they did was a lot of stuff we had in the ABA---from the 3-point shot to All-Star weekend to the show biz stuff. Now the NBA is like the old ABA. Guys play hard, they show their enthusiasm and there is a closeness in the league. Hell, the ABA might have lost the battle, but we won the war. The NBA now plays our kind of basketball.”

So are the words of an old grizzled ABA guy few of whom are left or maybe willing to discuss the past, Moe’s words somewhat reflect what I believe. I remember reading Red Auerbach was one of those who was vehemently opposed to the 3-point basket. I’m sure his views were shared by others at the time the Auerbach reflection was easier to uncover.

Wikipedia

His name will be announced

It’s likely Adam Silver will announce his name early in the 2024 NBA draft. His name is Ron Holland and he is a 6-foot 8 200 pound forward, he attended Duncanville High School in Duncanville a city in the DFW metro. I have relatives/scouts in the metro so they informed me early on of this young man’s prowess. Holland was headed to the University of Texas to play for Chris Beard and then all that changed, you might remember the school terminated Beard over a domestic violence issue. Later the district attorney’s office dropped the charges against Beard and the coach would be hired by Ole Miss.

For Holland that would prove to be too late, he’d already made his commitment. He chose instead to begin play in the NBA G-League for Team Elite. As for the NBA if the mock draft sites are accurate projecting Holland’s draft status he is headed for an NBA team somewhere in the fall. Check this out, nbadraft.net places him as pick number 10 for the Hawks while tankathon.com details him as number 1 going to the Pistons. There are others, nbadraftroom.com has him at 2 for the Wizards…yardbarker.com list Holland at 4 for the Grizzlies. You might note a discrepancy the websites don’t agree with the positioning of the draft but they do agree on the player. So that’s the brief story of Ron Holland once headed to Texas until a change took place.

There is no super team

Earlier it was mentioned the top three teams all were losers last week. I’ve coined the Top 25 as a “beauty contest” the real winner is the NCAA champion crowned in early April. Perhaps there is more to the story, maybe the defending champion UConn Huskies, Kansas, Houston and Purdue are not super teams. They are good without being great, of course there is nothing wrong with being good. So what occurs going forward for the teams mentioned and perhaps others? I just checked the AP poll for this time last season and this is interesting.

In first place in the middle of January 2023 is Purdue followed by Houston, Kansas and UConn. Maybe I’m misreading this whole thing, perhaps rather than a dominant team is there more parity among the top 10 or so schools? Based on last year versus this season we could easily conclude that to be the case. I could pose the question, looking at last year and the present could we guess the 2024 NCAA champion might be among the five schools named? That certainly could be the case although in this topsy turvy season it could be Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona or Oklahoma winning it all. In any event maybe we should just enjoy the 2023-24 season for what it is…entertaining basketball.

Speaking of the draft

The proposed change in the 2024 NBA draft is only waiting approval from the players association. The draft will become a two-night affair, round one will occur Wednesday June 26. The second round will be completed on Thursday June 27, there are a number of reasons for the change. One of the keys for me is this, how many times in the second round have they returned from a commercial break to discover the announcing crew is in the middle of discussing the player just drafted.

We in the television audience must catch up to the action occurring during the commercial break. It’s mentioned over two nights teams will have more opportunity to consummates trades and prepare for the Thursday conclusion. Teams have complained about the limited time allowed in the second round to draft prospects. Once upon a time the draft lasted into infinity, in 1974 it was limited to 10 rounds. In 1989 the draft became a two round event but was conducted in one evening. If implemented this change will take effect this summer.

Where did Dub Nation go?

On Wednesday night I tuned into the game expecting the old Warriors to knock out the young Pelicans. To my surprise the opposite occurred. The Pelicans ran around, through and over the top of the exasperated Warriors. Has the “magic” worn out for Dub Nation, has post season play year after year taken its toll on the Warriors? We must first take into consideration the injury factor however that’s only a portion of the issues facing the team. It appears there are behind the scene concerns between Steve Kerr and at least two younger players on the roster. One has even gone so far as to express his frustration to the media.

There is no method to prove this but have selected players begun to turn off the head coach? One more factor to consider is age, this team has certainly gotten older over time. Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have not played near the level of the recent past. Is it too late this season for the Warriors…of course not the calendar is yet to reach February. There remains much of the schedule to be played if the Warriors hope to resurrect this season. We shall see what occurs, the 141-105 beat down administered by the Pelicans certainly was not a good look. Even more shocking to me Steph Curry doesn’t appear to be the same lights out shooter we remember. He will turn 36 in March certainly not elder by NBA standards but he’s got a great deal of mileage on that body.