Basketball from a fans perspective

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You don’t say

The 2023 NBA draft saw two French players chosen at the top of the draft. As you are aware Victor Wembanyama was made the top pick in the first round. This was followed by his fellow countryman Biel Coulibaly who was made pick 7 also in the same round. Fast forward to the 2024 draft and we witnessed Zaccharie Risacher being the number one pick followed by Alex Sarr at two, we had the first two picks in this draft both from France.

In total the last two NBA drafts contained a total of four players from France, this might appear to be a trend however there is a great deal of labor if they are able to draw even or better yet past Canada. I was a little surprised the statistics I uncovered indicate our northern neighbor has provided the most NBA players over time 61 in total. As for France it's currently in second place with 47 players, there are an additional 67 nations of the world that have produced NBA over time. Besides Canada and France the following are the top talent producers:  

Serbia-33

Nigeria-30

Croatia-23

Brazil-20

Puerto Rico-20

Spain-20

Argentina-16

Senegal-14

The “New” New York Knicks 

If you live in the Boston area or you are a Celtics fan you better avoid reading this. I have no intention to trash your team…fact is they are closer to repeating as NBA champions than my Lakers are to earn one. Why the warning you ask, I say this because the Knicks have a chance to better the Celtics in the upcoming season. Before I go any further allow me to say we must consider injuries, they are a factor no matter the sport. IF the Knicks manage to avoid major injuries (which impacted them) they will be serious contenders for an NBA championship.

This is the how, power forward Julius Randle returns to action after injury. Center Mitchell Robinson who provides rebounding and defense is back from injury too. Mikal Bridges arrives from a trade with the Nets, he joins his Villanova/Knick teammates: Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. The Villanova gang are proven winners having tasted success with an NCAA championship. I would slight OG Anunoby if he were not included in this look at the Knicks. Arriving in a December trade he was a valuable contributor to their success. Despite the glowing report by yours truly outside of major injuries there is this consideration. The Celtics after their championship run of last season are not going to roll over and play dead. The Knicks must be able to bring their A game to the court each night which they certainly appear capable of.

It's rare

Recently former Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki said this in a recent interview, “I should have retired two years sooner.” He left the game in 2019, as for the headline few athletes no matter the sport rarely make the same confession. In the case of Nowitzki he entered the NBA in 1998 which says he played an amazing 21 seasons…quite an accomplishment. Realizing the comment of Nowitzki there are others who might have stayed too long, Vince Carter is a name that comes to mind. TNT’s Kenny Smith once dubbed Carter “Half Man Half Amazing for his spectacular dunks.

Carter played an amazing 22 years in the NBA, at the end he was no longer the highflyer that had thrilled fans and teams alike for years. Much earlier we might have made a similar statement regarding Shaquille O’ Neal. The last few years of his NBA career were not pretty as he moved from team to team maybe chasing another championship ring, he’d ceased being the dynamo we remember on the court. LeBron James will turn 40 before the 2024-25 season ends, why is he still playing? I don’t have the answer for him or any of the others named, perhaps it’s the love of the game or something we as fans are unable to see.      

We okay   

The recently completed Olympics, especially the basketball portion prompted this account. The NFL is riding mighty high these days, they have permanently moved NFL games into the Christmas Day calendar for now and into the future. The television numbers certainly prove people are tuning into the NFL over the traditional calendar of NBA games. Commissioner Roger Goodell and company believe there is no sport surpassing NFL football…oh but there is despite the belief shared by many in the NFL community. If we exclude the U.S. the number one sport in the world remains soccer or as the world refers to it football. There’s not a single nation in the world that fails to play soccer (football), the second most popular sport played world-wide is not the NFL.

The game the world plays is basketball, do you want proof of this fact? If I had large sums of money I would place a wager on this belief. I believe you could travel anywhere in the world and this would occur. Place a photo of Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady in Paris, Berlin or Athens I believe maybe 4 or 5 of 10 persons might be able to identify him and provide his name. If you repeated this act with a photo of Steph Curry, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant 8 perhaps 9 of 10 persons could correctly identify the player. That’s okay Goodell, continue to hold onto your belief, I for one can acknowledge the fact this number one position in sports only applies in the U.S., the remainder of the world following NFL football is quite small by comparison to that of the NBA and basketball in general.

The Bullets

Baltimore is similar to my hometown, no NBA here. The chief difference I didn’t discover until recently the city had two NBA franchises and both were name Bullets. Some might be aware the Wizards franchise in Washington D.C. was once the Baltimore Bullets, prior to that the Chicago Zephyrs. Let’s set a timeline here to unravel what occurred in years past. The original Bullets began play in 1944 in the American Basketball League, hopefully to not confuse you this is not the same American Basketball League that operated from 1961-1963.

In any event these original Bullets played from 1944 to 1947 then moved into the Basketball Association of America. Following the merger with the National Basketball League they moved into the NBA in 1949 and played until 1954. The only history I can detail indicates the team struggled on the court, this may have been a key to their demise at the end of the 1954 season. Baltimore remained without an NBA team until 1963 when the Zephyrs moved to the city. The team remained in the city another 10 years before moving to Maryland becoming the Capital Bullets then Washington Bullets and in 1997 the team was re-named the Wizards. Baltimore now suffers the same fate as Kansas City and St. Louis, there will never be another NBA franchise that refers to the city as home.