Basketball from a fans perspective

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Team USA

In an exhibition match on Saturday night Team USA squeezed past South Sudan 101-100, a layup by LeBron James proved to be the winner. Allow me to say this, I was dressing for an outing while watching the game so I’m sure there are aspects I missed. Team USA would register a couple of significant runs and I thought, “This is over.” Team Sudan would come roaring back, fact is they led at points in the game. You know me, the line from the movie classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid…” Who are those guys?” Before writing this I decided research was in order, has the world caught up with the NBA this quickly was my first thought? Royal Ivey is the head coach of Team Sudan, he is an American.

After playing at Texas he spent 10 years in the NBA and is currently an assistant coach with the NBA Rockets, wait there is more. One of his assistant coaches is Luol Deng who played at Duke and spent 15 years playing for a number of NBA teams. Hold on there a minute there remains several additional college and NBA connections. Of the 12 players for South Sudan I discovered 6 of them played at American colleges or in the NBA. The remainder were playing as pros either in Europe or Australia. This is not an attempt to lessen the almost loss it’s to prove a point I have been trying to hammer out for months. We have a stream of international players arriving on our shores hoping to gain skill playing the game we love. We’d better become accustomed to close games in the Olympics, Pan American and FIBA games from here on out.

A disclaimer

I have utilized two primary sources regarding information on NBA draft prospects. As for high school prospects up till now no matter where they might be headed there were only two sources. This includes those who might be headed to college, G-League, OT Elite or Australia. Over the weekend I added On3.com, although this site covers more than high school prospects it appears promising to add to our library of information. As for the headline it is meant to point to the fact I have no connection with On3 in any fashion. Keep an eye out for future references from On3 informants to appear along with those of Rivals and 247Sports. This continues my effort to provide you the reader with all the information I can gather from various recruiting sources.

This is scary

We really have no idea how the Western Conference race in the NBA turns out next season. Based on a July 2024 critique it could be rough for some teams, on paper this season could be right out of a Stephen King novel. It should be of note that the Wolves, Nuggets, Mavs should be the main contenders for playoff berths. I would consider the Pelicans and Kings as second tier in the race for the championship. As for the others expect the Grizzlies to play much better this season. They will have the benefit of Ja Morant who missed all of last season, don’t expect the Grizzlies to play as they did in the past.

In addition to that the young and improving Rockets and the Chris Paul led Spurs (I didn’t mention the other guy) should also be upgraded. Who remains, we have the Suns, Clippers, Lakers, Jazz and Blazers that’s it. Of course there is the play-in tournament to consider. There are always injuries to take into account, that’s hardly a subject for now but we realize one or more of these teams will be seriously impacted by injury. I don’t know what to say beyond what’s already been pointed out. I’m going to change the line Bette Davis used in the 1950 movie classic All About Eve because it fits better. “Hang on its going to be a bumpy night ride,” this completes a middle of the year assessment of the Western Conference of the NBA. 

Bruno Mars is first

Are you a fan of Bruno Mars, no matter he’s up first. I don’t have the rights to the video but I can point you toward it, not Mars but owner Steve Ballmer and the YouTube video. Ballmer is sitting with Terrance Mann and an unidentified female discussing the stuff contained in the Intuit Dome. The multi-billion-dollar arena in Inglewood is a thing of great beauty. It brought about a question from me, I wonder if this series of events unfolded. Ballmer met with architects and said, this is what I want…did he go into great detail who knows. The Clippers play might be a notch below that of this past season however Clipper fans and a few Laker fans will flock to Inglewood anyway.

They will do this based on the fact this arena defies the wildest imagination of everyone. Words fail to provide evidence of the greatness of the Intuit Dome so one might be left with wonderment unable to adequately describe what they just witnessed. I’m quite sure owner Ballmer is pleased being able to extricate himself and his team from Crypto.com arena, his Clipper team will now separate themselves from the Lakers. The NBA schedule is in the rudimentary stage, the first game is yet to be announced however this date is solid. Pop star Bruno Mars will open the arena August 15 and 16, later dates in August up through November will see other entertainment acts before the first basketball is tossed up in the air.

Eddie Bird

Bet you didn’t know Larry Bird had 4 brothers, the youngest being Eddie. He was the baby brother of the siblings 10 years younger than his more well-known brother. The 6-foot 6-inch Eddie probably influenced by his elder brother took up the game as well, how good was he you ask? He attended the same high school of his brother in French Lick Indiana, Eddie scored nearly 22 points a game as he led the school to 18 victories out of 24 played his senior year.

He even attended Indiana State the same school of his older brother however while he certainly was good he was nowhere near the level of Larry. He averaged 14 points game a year during his three years at Indiana State. Eddie was passed over in the 1991 NBA draft but was chosen by a team in the defunct USBL. That same season he attended a Sacramento Kings free-agent camp probably hoping to be signed by the Kings however the end of the camp saw him leave with no contract. Eddie Bird probably had the desire to play the game but must have lacked the talent to play at the NBA level. There was a report he could have gone to Europe to play but that would not be the case.