Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday

I realize

A friend of mine indicated that she didn’t have time for the NBA, she said it’s still NFL season. Wait she stated until after the Super Bowl. That’s okay everyone is not like me…my focus is on the NBA and college basketball. I follow the NFL Chiefs and baseball Royals but nowhere close to passion I have for basketball. That’s okay my friend, I certainly don’t expect you to live your life as I do. 

Tomorrow night it will begin for real…the NBA kicks off its season, in another two weeks or so colleges will begin play.I adjust my television schedule based on what night it is or who is playing. As an example a Tuesday evening broadcast will cause me to DVR any programming scheduled that evening. The scenario plays throughout the week and it gets more complicated once colleges begin play. There have been evenings I’ve watched a 6:00 p.m. Central Time college game and an 8:00 or p.m. NBA game. Once again I don’t expect anyone to have the fervor I have for basketball at all levels. For my friend, it’s okay if it’s the NFL for you until after the Super Bowl.

Breakout game

The headline might be a slight exaggeration on my part, Bronny James did have his best game as a Laker. Sure the game was played against mostly subs for the Warriors and it was the last exhibition game prior to Wednesday. Since this was a game played in California Pacific time versus my Midwest sleepy time I have only the box score as a guide. Bronny’s shooting was good, 17 points however only 41.2% from the floor and 20% from three. In 35 minutes of action Bronny managed to pull down 4 rebounds along with 3 steals while shooting 100% from the line. 

This might be a glimpse at the ultimate future for Bronny but I would be shocked if these numbers will be duplicated once the regular season begins. He remains a budding talent although I continue to reserve my view on his ultimate level. In other father-son news Shaquille O’ Neal’s son Shareef has been signed by the Kings and will play for their Stockton G-League affiliate. Shareef also suffered a heart issue which unlike Bronny required surgery. The young O’Neal is a 6 foot 10 220 pound power forward/center, earlier he played for G-League Team Ignite.

Winning Culture

The headline simply implies a person or team is condition to succeed, the degree of success can vary. If we utilize sports as a barometer I could say the NFL Kansas City Chiefs at least under coach Andy Reid have a winning culture. The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls in a row and are on the road to a third. As for the Royals that’s been a different story, they finished the 2024 season with a winning record the first in 9 years. Because this is a basketball blog we move in that direction, the Celtics broke their tie with the Lakers winning championship number 18 this past June. Although it was 2020 for the Lakers they too place a priority on a winning culture. Do you realize between these two teams they are winners of nearly half the championships in NBA history?

What makes for a winning tradition, probably several things but chief among them is an expectation of success at the highest level. One might state all NBA teams desire winners but there are few capable of continued success. Although the Spurs have fallen on tough times recently the franchise was one under Gregg Popovich which established winning as a key. More recently the Warriors have been the barometer we look toward as having established a winning culture. Can a team be successful without winning a championship for me the answer is yes. I look at it in this manner, every season you are aware injures aside that particular team will finish above .500. They don’t have losing records, losing fails to exist in their environment. There are probably areas omitted by me but those mentioned are key to establishing a Winning Culture for a professional sports team.

Bits n Pieces of information

What If you were asked to name the college and universities with the most NBA talent, which one’s are included on your list? You just checked out the preseason polls and discovered Kansas was the number one team in the nation on all pre-season Top 25 polls. If you named the Jayhawks you would be incorrect, not from me but those who cover the college game for ESPN. They named the Top 10 college/universities for the 2024-25 season, guess again, the Jayhawks ain’t one of the schools. If that’s not the case just who are they? As a reminder this is not my list, here goes:

Duke

UNC

UConn

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

Illinois

Baylor

BYU

Rutgers

The surprises for me besides Kansas missing from their list, the report indicating the BYU and Rutgers roster contained a sizable number of NBA prospects.

Chris Paul’s NBA career is winding down at age 39, I have maintained for a number of years he might be the last pure point guard in the NBA. Guys nowadays are masquerading as point guards but are really combo guards SGA as an example. Shai-Gilgeous Alexander who will receive MVP votes this upcoming season is a point guard, we have Steph Curry along with James Harden. The Nuggets now have Russell Westbrook on their roster…I hope you see where I’m going with this post. Back to Paul, he says there are a couple of directions he’d like to go after retirement. One is possibly coaching and the other is ownership, he too would like to become an NBA owner one day.

Some of you have stated the only reason Bronny James is in the NBA is due to his dad being LeBron. That might well be correct however this familia relationship is not the first instance only the latest. As an example these are the words of former NBA player Chandler Parsons from NBA on Clutch Points. “Because a player is gonna feel some way about the coach. ‘Uh, he snubbed me. You subbed me out too early.’ Three minutes to go, and he looks down the bench and picks Austin to go in instead of me. I’m gonna feel a little slighted by that. I can’t help but think that’s favoritism.” That was Parsons speaking of coach Doc Rivers and guard Austin Rivers with the Clippers. Did this occur, I’m sure it did at some point while father and son were with the Clippers although I certainly cannot validate it.