Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Not a good feeling

A scheduling change allowed me to see the Nets-Lakers game on Friday, I thought ahead, “At last an opportunity to get a winning streak going.” Little did I realize the Nets had a surprise in store for me, the less than .500 Nets did a beat down of the .500 Lakers 130-112. The Lakers actually got out to a decent start for a change but it seemed every time they missed a shot the Nets especially Cam Thomas would score. Thomas emerged from the Nets bench and totaled 33 points as it seemed every shot he took went in the basket. At this point it should be of note I didn’t see the entire game, I was uncomfortable with how easily the 16 win 24 loss Nets were scoring the ball.

No need of punishing myself, not a good feeling regarding this game. I changed channels before the half and watched a movie or something more entertaining than what I was seeing. I checked out the final score Saturday morning on my phone. The Laker lineup has been changed back to the one at the beginning of the season, this was to infuse more scoring by them. Other lineup changes were made to stress Laker defense. “Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice,” and this from Darvin Ham the following day. “It’s over for the excuses, man. We got to play basketball,” I truly wonder who is supposed to be affected by his comment. The largest mystery for me, all the nicknames hung on AD in the past about missing games…the guy is ballin’ and it appears to be no help at all to his Laker teammates.  

Did I clarify this

I wanted to re-visit this story because it might not have been totally clear. In addition I wanted to provide some additional information. By 1976 the American Basketball Association or ABA was down to 7 teams, technically it was 6 the Virginia Squares had filed bankruptcy prior to the hostile takeover by the NBA. Two teams, the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis would be disbanded and their roster placed in a dispersal draft.

The Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets (now Brooklyn) and San Antonio Spurs franchises moved into the restructured NBA. According to information I uncovered, “neither the settlement itself nor the years that followed have provided for ABA statistics to be officially recognized and integrated into the NBA canon.” I will use the term hostile takeover based on the actions occurring in 1976 and hereafter, you are free to continue to refer to the actions as a merger if you wish…not me. Although ownership’s changed over time I’m sure even today’s owners probably don’t like the term I believe applies.

A defender

I held a conversation with a co-worker recently, he’s from New Jersey on the metro side of New York City. I wanted to place that before you prior to me providing the balance of our discussion. He asked me, “What’s your issue(s) with Stephen A. Smith?” I repeated to him what I’d informed most of the readers, why must Smith insert himself into every basketball story. I then mentioned the Pacers Tyrese Haliburton and the claim “He’d (Smith) contacted a member of the Knicks and informed him they should draft this guy.” I cannot respond to that statement except why now, why is Smith’s part of the story coming to light three years later?

My co-worker said, “He (Smith) played the game and he might have seen Haliburton in college, Smith is a Knicks fan.” I can’t dispute my co-workers statement however I can question how much basketball knowledge Smith might possess. I haven’t read Smith’s book however he did play in college although the numbers he scored are rather microscopic. He claims he didn’t play much due to injury again I have no method of verifying his claim. As for the ability to spot talent that is debatable, some of the best coaches (Phil Jackson among the names) were only average players but very good coaches and analyzers of talent. At this point I will yield to my co-worker, perhaps Smith is not as bad as I believe. There is just one thing, he would be a tad bit more tolerable to me if he quit placing himself in the middle of his story’s.

Rules  

It doesn’t matter if the discussion revolves around college basketball or the NBA. Most rule changes generally are made to enhance the game to some degree. Allow this example, in the NBA the 1973-74 season saw blocked shots counted for the first time. From 1946 through the 1974 season we had no idea how many shots Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and others might have blocked. How about shooting, the American Basketball League and later the American Basketball Association both utilized the 3-point basket in their game.

As for the NBA they were late to the party, they reluctantly adopted it although it would be 1979 before the shot was introduced. There are probably other rule changes added over the years those come to mind without any great research on my part. Once again there is change, the 2023-24 NBA season has witnessed a rule change I never believed would be required. An NBA team member must play a minimum of 65 games to be considered for any award, this includes MVP, Scoring and Rebound leader, Rookie of the Year etc. It’s a shame the NBA was forced to add such a rule, evidently with load management being in place and other stuff the league felt this rule change was needed.

Turn around

It was a different NBA back then, this is my belief. There might have been the thought Victor Wembanyama going to the Spurs will make them competitive immediately. Talented as I believe the youngster is I don’t believe that’s possible for anyone in this age of NBA play. There might have been someone else you can name, the only athlete accomplishing the feat might be Lew Alcindor. He was made the first pick in the first round of the 1969 draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, the previous year the expansion Bucks finished with a 27-win 55 loss season. That was good enough for a 7th place finish in the Eastern Conference, what occurred a year later with Alcindor in the lineup?

The Bucks won 56 games losing 26 and finishing in 2nd place, did the addition of one talented player change the dynamics of the Bucks? You better believe it did especially with them earning a playoff berth in his rookie year. A superior talented Alcindor was able to make a significant difference. In 1971 Alcindor would convert to the Muslim faith and change his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and the balance of the story is NBA history. Some might argue in the 1969-70 season the NBA contained only 13 other teams compared to Wemby facing 29 opposition teams. On the other hand it could be looked at in this manner, today’s NBA might contain less talented players compared to that period. Just something to consider, this certainly doesn’t make it correct.