Basketball from a fans perspective

The NHL & NBA

If you check out the early history of the NBA you will discover several NBA owners also possessed NHL teams. My guess, both sports being of the winter variety and played in the same type of building. That’s what exists with this latest news regarding Seattle’s bid for an NBA franchise. Commissioner Silver has made news in recent months and weeks naming possible locations for expansion NBA teams, one of those locations being Seattle.

Samatha Holloway has become executive chair of the NHL Kraken hockey team. The Kraken play in Climate Pledge Arena which her group partially owns according to reports. In any event Holloway has a desire to become an NBA owner, it would appear her connection with TPG Inc. a private equity fund places her in exclusive company. Whether this NBA effort would be a single proprietorship or partnership it would look as if Holloway is thinking NBA at some future date. Preserve her name for future reference, you are likely to hear it once again near the time the NBA Sonic’s become active once again. 

Sit up and take notice

I listened to a critical discussion of the NBA recently. It wasn’t conducted by anyone connected with sports in general, the panel was a 20-something youngster and two 40-year-olds. One of the older adults said, “I don’t watch the NBA any longer, there is far too much player movement. I turned on a game recently and discovered _______ was playing for ______, my thought, when did this happen?” That certainly is the case, some NBA players change zip codes faster than USPS is able to forward mail. That might be exaggeration to a degree however we can use Kevin Durant as the example.

Nothing related to his talent but he’s moved from Seattle (drafted) to Oklahoma City (beginning play) to the Warriors to the Nets and now the Suns. This has nothing to do with the talent Durant possesses on the basketball court, all the moves of his career make me dizzy. Jerry West died recently, he spent his entire career with the Lakers as did Magic Johnson. There are others who accomplished the same longevity but the “Durant’s” of the NBA cause me to say why. It’s not only that it’s Load Management which has become interwoven in our brain. We realize the NBA season is long, there’s a great deal of travel but consider this fact. Ol skool players never sat because they were too tired, they sat down because they were injured or ill. I’m not sure who caused load management to come about there is a name who became the symbol and forced the NBA to adopt it league wide. How about this, I travel to Dallas expecting to see LeBron in the Laker lineup and he is in load management.

The NBA All Star game has become almost unwatchable, the 3-point shootout, the skill competition and other events likely draw more eyes than the game itself. The last point, elimination of the low post game. NBA teams no longer attempt to develop the next Abdul Jabbar, Shaq or Wilt. We all get it, Steph Curry has been a lights out 3-point shooter, everybody ain’t Steph. I hate…I detest guys 6 foot 11 and taller shooting 3’s. Finally the last issue social media, if you must ask why that’s been a detriment to the NBA you haven’t been paying attention, this and more is not the NBA I grew up loving.

I pledged to not do this

We are at the dawn of the NBA draft and I am reneging on something I promised myself. I said my intent was to leave acquisition of players for the Lakers in the hands of those with more knowledge than me. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons, I’m concerned about adding Bronny James. Don’t misunderstand he is a talent however based on the work of one season and playing part-time minutes…he’s not a number 1 pick, sorry LeBron. The player I believe is a number 1 and the Lakers could draft is Zach Edey and I’ll explain.

Anthony Davis has complained the last two seasons about playing center, if the Lakers make this move they can move AD to power forward. Adding the 7-foot 4 300-pound Edey could go a long way toward addressing two Laker issues, rebounding and defense. As for the second round the Lakers have the 55th pick in the second round, if Bronny is on the board at the time then I’d have no issue with him being the pick. My guess is likely it would be G-League for Bronny. Upon completion of this account a news story broke involving Edey. It’s was mentioned recently that the NBA invites a select number of prospects to the Green Room during the draft, Edey was invited but declined the offer.

He's the one

The last transfer added to Mizzou’s roster is Josh Gray who played at South Carolina. Gray is a traditional Big Man standing 7 feet and 265 pounds, it’s unlikely he drifts out to the 3 line to shoot. Whatever he accomplishes will be in the paint. What does coach Gates think, this from Rock M Nation; Josh is the final piece of the puzzle of our recruiting class and we’re excited to have him join the Mizzou family. With our last opening, we sought out a player with physical presence who can provide rim protection.

Not only is Gray capable of filling that role, but with his four years of SEC experience, he has proven to be a top rebounder in this league. He has immense size and is a prototypical SEC big that will complement our roster perfectly in 2024-25.” It would appear from the coach’s comment he’s ready to begin the season July 1 if asked to. It’s yet to be proven, Gray and the others must demonstrate they are ready to compete in the SEC and beyond. As for the Big Man it would appear the coach wants him to concentrate on those areas Mizzou was so lacking last season…defense and rim protection.