Basketball from a fans perspective

There are no bad guys

After seeing the Wolves dismantle the defending champion Nuggets I was solidly in their corner. It’s not the fact I disliked the Mavs prior to the series start it was my belief the Wolves were the better team. All the Mavs had going for them was the Luka-Kyrie combo, of course it was more than this duo. They had a good starting five plus adequate reserves. As for the conclusion of Game 5 you may have seen more of the final than me.

I changed channels with most of the 4th quarter remaining, I said to myself “No way are the Wolves coming back from this.” Doncic got off to a fiery beginning from the three, he must have hit every shot he took although I do remember him missing one. At a point in the game the Luka-Kyrie combo scored or slightly exceeded the point total of the entire Wolves team. The final score read Mavs 124 Wolves 103 as the Texas Twins scored 36 points apiece. Someone said “This (Mavs) team might have the best backcourt in the NBA.” I’m unsure if I am ready to make that claim however they are certainly talented and really good. The “twins” for the Wolves managed to match one another with 28 points but that was about it, KAT and Ant Man were unable to lead their team to victory.

The most compelling factor, the Wolves a good defensive team couldn’t seem to compile enough offense during this series, they couldn’t easily score the ball when required, in addition there were a number of forced and unforced errors which became a contributing factor to the Wolves loss. The Mavs will play the Celtics for the NBA championship as for the Wolves they will access this series loss and return next prepared to succeed and win. Wolves fans are naturally disappointed but consider this fact, you have a young team for the future and one that will contend for a championship in the future.

Is a 3-peat even possible

I’m unsure if we truly realize the significance of UConn’s back-to-back NCAA championship. UConn becomes the first to accomplish the feat since Florida did it in 2006 and followed again in 2007. Before that, the last team to duplicate this effort was Duke in 1991 and again in 1992. From 1967 through 1973 UCLA won the NCAA championship every season but wait there is more interesting news. Joe Lunardi the bracketology guru for ESPN claims the UConn Huskies have the opportunity for a 3-peat in 2025.

In this age of one and done and transfer portal athletes it’s difficult to imagine a team having the ability to even think 3-peat, if any team is capable UConn would be a prime candidate. With all the variables in place I always never say never however if Lunardi believes its possible I will go along with his observation. As you might remember reading a time ago I’m a fan of Dan Hurley and have been for a time. In my view provided UConn has a talented enough roster he’s one of a handful of coaches who are capable of coaching a 3-peat.

Too smart for the NBA

If you’ve heard the story regarding the Celtics Jaylen Brown you can stop at this point. I never heard the story until now but it’s amazing, one GM suggested “He might be too smart for the NBA.” Graduating high school in Atlanta it could have been Duke, North Carolina or some other basketball power. Brown decided on Cal-Berkley known more for academics over sports. After all when you play chess that would be one of the schools in your circle to choose.

*“(An unnamed) NBA assistant general manager also said Brown’s high level of intelligence and inquisitive nature could intimidate some general managers and coaches,” Spears explained. “He added that (Brown) is a good kid who doesn’t fit the mold of a so-called basketball player.” “He is an extremely intelligent kid,” the NBA assistant general manager continued. “He took a graduate school class at Cal in his freshman year. He is a person who is inquisitive about everything. Because he is so smart, it might be intimidating to some teams. He wants to know why you are doing something instead of just doing it. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s a form of questioning authority. It’s not malicious. He just wants to know what is going on. Old-school coaches don’t want guys that question stuff.”

So that gives you an idea of what Brown faced regarding the NBA draft, and on top of that the guy plays chess too. Did a team or teams pass on him because of the questions raised regarding his intellect? We don’t know however it appears that could have occurred. At times it would appear he is overshadowed by teammate Jason Tatum however as cerebral as Brown is it probably fails to register with him. He was shocked to hear he’d won the Larry Bird Eastern Conference MVP after his team’s sweep of the Pacers. Expect to continue to see outstanding play from intellect Jaylen Brown now and into the future.

*Marc Spears-The Undefeated

Officiating

I find it interesting, of all the professional sports we hear the most complaints it seems regarding basketball officiating. In baseball umpires and in football referees get it wrong constantly, even with benefit of replay basketball appears to garner the greatest number of complaints, by the way I have no stats to back my belief. Let's check out a couple of facts which might impact officiating. In baseball and football fans are seated some distance from the action, in basketball fans are often seated right on top of the action. I'm unsure if this is the case it sure seems that way, television coverage has increased over the decades. We probably have more cameras operating at major league events than ever in history. 

In addition the picture quality is vastly improved as well. Standard definition (SD) was the traditional television picture for years, picture quality sometimes suffered. Rabbit ears and in some instances outside antennas helped improve an often fuzzy, grainy picture. Along comes cable/satellite which increased the picture quality and then a few years later high definition (HD) became the standard. Picture quality has improved to the point you can sometimes see grass clippings on the baseball or football field. Complaints regarding officiating will not cease with this little exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to share a few thoughts, the last consideration we must take into account we have human being officiating these games. The human eye can miss a play or call it incorrectly, it occurs there is no method to circumvent that sometimes even with instant replay.