Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Sometimes stuff happens

The Sunday edition of Off the Dribble was late, in fact it wasn’t posted until late Sunday afternoon. The story is simple, we had a tremendous wind and thunderstorm hit the metro Kansas City area. Power was out along with internet service. My family was fortunate we didn’t lose our power however with no internet I couldn’t publish. I couldn’t publish despite the fact the Sunday edition was ready and in place to be issued. I could have waited until Monday and publish however I felt an obligation to you the reader. You were treated to two editions in the space of 12 hours or so and the explanation is simple, sometimes stuff happens you have no control over, that was the weekend for me.

Sometimes you hear stuff that’s difficult to believe

I’m driving to work this morning and the hosts are discussing the death of Bill Walton. Both acknowledge the fact they don’t remember seeing him as a player, I thought okay taking into consideration their age. The part I failed to understand was the wow factor of Walton’s life based on the numbers of players, coaches and media people making comments about him. One of the host seemed to marvel with the fact “President Obama made a comment on the passing of Walton.” The two went on and on and on how they had no idea the depth of followers of Walton.

Just a couple more comments on Walton, former Laker James Worthy said Walton took him to breakfast when he was a rookie. Worthy said they talked love, life, happiness and peace and the conversation didn’t touch basketball. Walton always had a social conscience which began quite early, he was arrested while in college protesting the Vietnam War. I’m sure his arrest did not sit well with coach John Wooden. Although the Pac-12 has ceased to exist during his telecast Walton was always promoting the conference. It would really be worthwhile if these talk radio sports guys would spend a little more time researching a subject rather than discussing something you are clearly out of your league.

It certainly didn’t hurt

Celtic fans will read this and say, “You hatin’ on my team,” that is not the case I’m simply pointing out the series events that occurred in the three series leading to the Finals. The Celtics faced the Heat with no Jimmy Butler available, next up it would be the Cavs and Donovan Mitchell would be missing. Finally it was the Pacers and no Tyrese Haliburton available. I realize, the Celtics had to play the games but with these valued team members missing or playing limited minutes, it certainly didn’t hurt.

Another draft story

There is an issue which requires a fix but who performs it, the subject is identifying potential talent of Euro players in the NBA draft. Unless your name is Kristaps Porzingis, Luka Doncic or maybe Victor Wembanyama we don’t know you. Those are the names of the most identified Euro players in recent years, their names came to us prior to the draft but little else from a scouting standpoint. For Wemby it was totally different, although he was not universally known he played in the states prior to the 2023 draft. The other question is the assessment issue, as an example we are able to view scouting ratings for college and G-League talent.

That fails to take place for the majority of Euro players. Zaccharie Risacher is generally believed to be the top choice in the 2024 NBA Draft, nbadraft.net provides us a scouts view of his potential impact on the NBA. On their big board they give Risacher a 96, I believe 100 is the maximum score a prospect can achieve. Alexandre Sarr also from France is listed as the number 2 draft prospect and is awarded a 94. Several other potential first round picks are also awarded a number but as we move into the second round that becomes less and less prevalent. I would imagine by now you are saying, “Is this really an issue of importance?” It depends on your perspective, it is for me but maybe not for you. There are American players we had a “500-page novel” written and they failed to earn a roster position in the NBA.