Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Sounds like desperate measures

You can stop reading this if you’ve heard the issue regarding the Sixers and their home fans. The Game 4 crowd a very vocal contingent of Knick fans could be heard cheering for their team. It seemed at points they actually outcheered the much larger Sixer gathering in the building. This is written prior to Game 6 in Philly and I’m unsure if you notice a change, apparently the Knicks gathering should be much smaller. The owner of the Sixers purchased 2,000 tickets for the game to ensure Knick fans will be seen but not heard, as I said by the headline it certainly sounds like desperate measures. With such a short distance (100+ miles) between the two cities a number of Knick fans must have made the drive or taken a train to Philly.

The Trent Tucker rule

I have no intention to test your NBA knowledge, let’s just say I couldn’t remember the answer regarding the Trent Tucker rule. Have you ever wondered about the game clock utilized by the NBA? The clock has a 10th of a second on its face, an NBA game is never over until the clock reads 0.00. The rule came into existence due to frustration by coach Phil Jackson back in the day.

Note the following explanation; “The Trent Tucker rule states that you must have at least 0.4 seconds remaining on the clock to catch-and-shoot.” Did I say frustration, “The rule was passed after the 1989-90 season and named after New York Knicks player Trent Tucker after he made a game-winning shot with 0.1 seconds left on the game clock. The rule was born out of a game between the Knicks and the Chicago Bulls on January 15, 1990, at Madison Square Garden.” Jackson and the Bulls later appealed to league headquarters and the rule would be implemented by the NBA.

Everyone is in the same conference…almost  

You might remember I wrote the Big XII might consider a name change becoming a 16-team conference July 1. After conducting a bit of research that particular conference is not unique, several schools have moved so the Big XII is not the only one gaining additional members. I did a quick check and discovered there are others close to the number of the Big XII, note the conference and behind it are it’s affiliated schools, check the numbers out:

Big 10-15

AAC-15

Coastal Athletic-14

Atlantic 10-15

SEC-14

With the overabundance of moves most conferences contain a minimum of 10 schools, naturally there are exceptions. These moves have caused the demise of the Pac-12 Conference, I don’t know if this to be a fact however it appears the conference is or soon will go out of business. Schools are into spring sports however they conclude no later than May 30. With that the Pac-12 will officially close the shop July 1, 2024, all its former members are now affiliated with other conferences throughout the nation.

The Porter’s

Michael Porter Jr. has continued to play outstanding basketball for the NBA Nuggets. He displays a talent we believed he was at Mizzou but injury. A devastating injury sidelined him for his freshman year, in the spring he declared for the NBA Draft. MPJ has several brothers, they might be close to as talented as he is however they have gone a whole other direction. By now you are aware younger brother Jontay has been permanently banned from the NBA due to gambling interests…but wait there is more. Another brother Coban was involved in a drunk driving fatal crash last year. Recently Coban was sentenced to 6 years in prison. And now one more Porter, Jevon was arrested and charged with a DWI recently. Despite the serious circumstances Jontay, Coban and Jevon remain brothers to Porter Jr. I would expect him to support them as any sibling would.  

His legacy

Nagging injuries plus the toil of NBA play have left Kawhi Leonard an above average player. Once upon a time while a member of the Spurs and later Raptors a belief was held by many he might be discussed in the same breath as many giants of the game. He will never earn that honor as injuries have impacted his career to a large extent, they have kept him from being named among the greatest all time. That view is but a distant memory as Kawhi continues his play for the Clippers. Through his time with the Spurs, Raptors and Clippers he’s never come close to playing 82 games. Kawhi played 74 games in the 2016-17 season for the Spurs that’s been it, the following year it was only 9 games. In 2021-22, while a member of the Clippers Kawhi missed the season entirely due to an ACL injury and surgery.

If we check his body of work at a time he’s not dealt with injury or illness it is quite impressive but it’s the other thing. That other thing is an assortment of injuries which have kept him off the court for extended periods of time. The question is asked no matter the professional sport, “How valuable a player are you to your team when your appearance in a jersey is limited?” 15 or so years from now a youngster having never seen him play will read about Kawhi Leonard and question his value to a team. Those of us able to witness his play can only say, “You should have seen him play when he was fully healthy before injuries impacted his career.”