Basketball from a fans perspective

Now he expresses concern

Shaquille O’Neal the basketball player has remained one of my favorites, as for the analyst Shaquille that’s another matter. Just yesterday I read an article on MSN’s NBA page, Shaq was discussing his dominance during his NBA career. No one dared stand in his path when the 300-pound behemoth was driving toward the basket for a thunderous dunk. He dubbed himself Superman during his playing days, just like the fictional Superman was stopped by Kryptonite so was Shaq.

Shaq’s Kryptonite was no rock it was the times he would trudge to the free throw line. In any event the article I read detailed his problems from the free-throw line and one sentence jumped off the page at me, his large hands being part of the difficulty. Reading that I decided to conduct a little research on my own to determine why Shaq was so poor from the line. He was also responsible for Hack-a-Shaq, opposing NBA teams would foul him on purpose with his mediocre performance from the line. While playing as a defense for his poor shooting he would say, “I make ‘em when they count,” The only problem the statement was far from the truth. I thought about Connie Hawkins and Dr. J., two players with huge hands, I decided to use these two for my experiment. According to my research the hand length of Hawkins was 10.5 inches and hand span was 11 inches.

Dr. J. was 9.5 inches and his hand length was 11 inches. As for Shaq his hand length was 10.5 inches and his hand span was also 12 inches. Are you ready for this, I looked at only his NBA numbers not those in the ABA. Hawkins career was 77.9%, Dr. J. was a career 77.7% free-throw shooter. As for Shaq it was 52.7%. So it may well appear hand size had nothing to do with Shaq being such a poor free-throw shooter. I find it amusing all these years later Shaq realizes how much more dominate he could have been with practice, practice and more practice.

The Eastern League

One writer said this, “The Eastern Professional Basketball League was the second-best pro basketball league in the country during the 1950’s and early ‘60’s when the NBA had 10 or fewer teams and only 100 players.” Games were often played in high school gyms although players received $100 a game, they had day jobs they played in the Eastern for the joy of playing professionally. League teams were located mostly in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York and in towns such as Scranton, Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre and Trenton. The league began play in the 1946 season about the same time the BAA began play.

Most of the players’ names are probably unfamiliar to you so I will note just one name you might be familiar with. Generally those reading this probably believe Phil Jackson’s coaching legacy began with the Bulls, that is not the case. After his playing career was over he began as an assistant coach with the Nets. From 1982-1987 Jackson was head coach of the Albany (NY) Patroons, his team won the 1984 championship. It should be noted that by this time the league had been re-branded and had become the Continental Basketball Association. As for Jackson you are aware he moved to the Bulls and later the Lakers winning NBA championships in both locales. In a manner of speaking we could say the league was the predecessor of the NBA G-League, the Eastern League a.k.a. Continental Basketball Association.

The best backcourt

Sports media is often guilty of seeing what’s in front of its face. That is the question for you, regardless of the outcome of this NBA Finals I’ve heard some in the media pronounce the Mavs backcourt “the best in the NBA.” I’m really not sure if I am ready for that, maybe in 2024 but for all time? Luka Doncic is skilled at passing the basketball and has an arsenal of shots. As for Kyrie Irving he too has a mix of offensive weapons to draw from. The one area I can pick at is their defense, however, keep in mind there is no requirement to be a great defensive backcourt

Who is at play now besides this duo and in the NBA’s past…. there are candidates. We could point to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, the two who would become the Splash Brothers leading the team to several NBA championships. My initial thought might be Magic Johnson and Byron Scott, important keys to the success of the Showtime Lakers. They faced stiff competition at the time from Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars guard for the Bad Boy Pistons. One backcourt that might be overlooked or not receive the credit due in our search would be Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili these too were driving forces in the success attained by the Spurs during a time. Perhaps because of the start of Ginobili being a 6th man at first might be a factor. If we turned to the distant past how about Jerry West and Gail Goodrich of the Lakers, they had competition from Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe of the Knicks.

In an even earlier period Celtics Bob Cousy and Sam Jones were the backcourt of those Celtic championship teams. How do I omit the Jordan-Harper combo of the Bulls, Michael Jordan and Ron Harper. These combos and others were key to producing winning teams, some were certainly superior in the realm of offense, others such as the Bad Boy Pistons might have been better defenders. In conclusion your opinion is your own, as for me I have a great deal of difficulty declaring the Mavs backcourt of Doncic-Irving the best ever.

He certainly might be the expert

I haven’t dropped a bomb on Jason Whitlock for quite a while so here goes. He said Charles Barkley’s retirement is based on problems dealing with corporate broadcasters or something similar. Guess what, Whitlock could be correct, how many jobs is it now Jason? This is not in any order of hiring, part time at The Herald Times in Bloomington Indiana, Charlotte Observer, Ann Arbor News all newspapers. Also included is the Kansas City Star newspaper, WHB and KCSP both sports talk radio stations in Kansas City.

AOL Sports, ESPN (twice I believe) and Fox Sports (also twice). We must include Outkick a sports and political commentary website, it was later sold to Fox and with that came the departure of Whitlock. In June 2021 he partnered with Blaze Media where he presently resides. By my count that is 13-14 jobs he held or is holding at present. I’m sure his mail might have been forwarded to two addresses at near the same time based on all the moves he’s made. So I agree, Jason you certainly should know the ends and outs of corporate America based on the number of jobs you’ve held.