Basketball from a fan’s perspective

The doctor has spoken

The American Basketball League (Fall 1962-Dec 1963) is easily forgotten due to such a short life. Despite this fact 3-4 players would later play in the NBA, one even became a head coach, this league was just a blip in time. On the other hand the American Basketball Association was different, this start up league began play in 1967 and lasted until 1976 when the NBA absorbed 4 of its teams (Nets, Spurs, Nuggets & Pacers). It was no merger despite the fact that’s the line the NBA advertises. In spite of the passage of time Julius “Dr. J.” Erving remains disappointed in how the league is remembered.

“I think the NBA does not work hard enough to preserve the legacy of the ABA and is very self-serving,” those are just a few of the words of the basketball legend. “There was mixed emotions, and there was a lot of angst associated with the merger of the ABA in the NBA.” I once looked at Erving’s scoring totals and thought he should have scored more than what I’m seeing. Sure enough another site separated his ABA scoring totals from those accumulated in the NBA. This is an easy fix however the NBA is in no rush to address it. The NBA will never allow the records to be included in their totals but the Naismith Hall could gather this information. Will anything of this nature ever become a fix, truth is I have serious doubts.

Quotes, basketballnetwork.net Jan 29, 2024

He did it again

I wonder what occurred, did LeBron James turn down an autograph request from Dillon Brooks when he was 10 or 11 years of age? Stuff like that sticks in the memory banks of a person at times. Whatever occurred in the past Brooks anger toward LeBron traveled with him from Memphis to the Houston Rockets his current team. On Monday evening Brooks received a technical foul deemed a Flagrant 1 by game officials after hitting LeBron in the head. As you are aware a player must receive a Flagrant 2 to be ejected from a game. I thought it was worth a check before proceeding further with this post.

If we examine the current leader board for technical fouls you probably thought the NBA leader might be a guy by the name of Draymond Green, it’s not. Green’s suspension probably moved him further down the list, in fact he is so far down the list he fails to even make the top 25. The NBA leader to date is Dillon Brooks of the Rockets with 10 which I suspect does not include the Monday game. So I must guess it’s not just LeBron that’s a problem for Brooks there are others in the NBA. Maybe Brooks does this bad boy act to pump himself up for games, some of us are not impressed, this type of action makes you out to be a bully.

No longer possible

In the 2014-15 season the Kentucky Wildcats almost reached perfection. Although there were some close calls the team finished regular season play with a 31-0 record. They made it through post season play until they faced Wisconsin in the semi-finals of the NCAA tournament. The 38-0 Wildcats were taken down by the Badgers 71-64, Kentucky finished the season with one loss. In my opinion that might have been the last “Super” college basketball team in America.

The landscape is so vastly different today as we look ahead to the April 2024 champion, this is not intended to take anything away from the team crowned champion. From a casual observer the recruiting portion has changed little, here are the takeaways as I see them. Transfer portal-Most of us remember a time when John Smith decided to transfer. Smith would likely be forced to sit out a semester before becoming eligible to play. For the last several years the transfer goes through immediately and he begins play in the fall. I remember once Mizzou had two players transfer at nearly the same time, one was ruled eligible the other ineligible. Even though there was an appeal the NCAA said an emphatic NO on the ineligible player. NIL-this is interesting from several aspects, I could be wrong on this matter but I understood the ability to pay athletes came first from a number of states rather than the NCAA. Once these states began saying it was okay the NCAA was forced to allow payment to student-athletes. Coaches-movement among the nation’s coaches appears at times to move at an accelerated pace, it’s moves from a Division I lower echelon school to one with a larger footprint. In addition to that coaches are replaced a great deal sooner.

Once upon a time a school might continue to employ a non-winning coach, they would replace him after the season. That no longer exists, colleges are willing to terminate and allow an interim assistant to handle the reins the balance of the season. Are the three issues alone responsible for the change in college basketball, maybe not, however these and others have been contributing factors in the fact there are no more super basketball teams.

Television & basketball

You might have read the account recently about Elvin Hayes, this is about the post effect of the game. It was mentioned up to 1968 no college basketball game had been telecast nationally, the UCLA-Houston match changed the sports television landscape forever. This game saw a mix of local stations across the nation affiliated with ABC, CBS & NBC plus several independent stations to form a network. Telecasting this game was the vision of the late Eddie Einhorn and his TVS network. The UCLA-Houston game must have proven to the existing networks there was an audience for more than local college basketball. The information is a little unclear, the indication is the CBS Network begin broadcasting the Final Four in the early 80’s although it is claimed NBC had been airing it since 1969.

Whatever date is correct the groundwork for the future was laid out at the time. ESPN certainly has made the largest splash with its coverage of college basketball. It would appear the network has agreements with all the major conferences although that too is a little confusing. As an example a Georgetown game might be telecast on ESPN, CBS Sports Network or Fox Sports. Also in operation is the YES Network plus NESN (New England Sports Network) and several I might have omitted. I failed to mention the “packaged” networks such as the Big10, SEC and ACC. As for the future that appears quite murky, will the impending become one of streaming offerings? Will the consumer be forced to pay for the NCAA Tournament and other specialty games? We certainly don’t have answers for all the issues raised, we must make plans to adjust whatever the future holds.