Basketball from a fans perspective

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These are mine…what about yours

It’s being reported NBA viewership is down, notice there is no mention of attendance. Panic has not set it yet at the NBA offices however there is an explanation I believe is there. We are in the middle of the NFL season, the league dominates the airways playing essentially a Sunday through Saturday schedule. In addition to Sunday daytime, the Chiefs have played Sunday, Monday and Thursday night. An add-on game will be played on Friday afternoon this season. The Chiefs are not scheduled on Saturday however other NFL teams are. Okay what else at the top of my list remains Load Management, with the NBA scheduling fewer back to back games I wondered why. A family spends $100-$200 (tickets, travel, seats and food), they arrive at the game and discover All Pro player A is not playing.

Another area of concern for me, far too much Three point shooting. If a team has a “Steph Curry” equivalent that’s one thing, why must every roster member shoot three’s, I see so many bricks at times its unbelievable? Lack of post play in this era, it’s not necessary to play bully ball as Shaq did. I hate Big Men shooting from distance unless they are Robin Lopez types. I’m closing with officiating, a travel is just that…why has this portion of the game become so irrelevant? There are other elements game officials ignore that bother me but the failure to whistle a travel is the most egregious. Finally the last element, the NBA offices announcing the following day officials made an incorrect call. They are not going to play that portion of the game over, what’s the purpose of publicizing the error? These are mine…what about yours?

The Kansas City-Denver connection

I’ve mentioned on occasion I belong to an American Basketball Association social media group. Recently information was presented connecting the Nuggets with Kansas City. According to an account Kansas City was awarded a team in 1967 in the new ABA. The team would never play in Kansas City unable to secure a home arena which is somewhat strange. This would be several years before Kemper Arena and later T-Mobile were built, venerable Municipal Auditorium was in use at the time for basketball. The arena’s capacity was negligible compared to those of today (10,500). In any event I could locate no information related to an attempt to secure another arena.

Prior to the start of the season owners James Trindle and Bill Ringsby moved the franchise to Denver and the team would be named the Larks. Ringsby owner of the Ringsby Rocket Trucking System changed the name to Rockets prior to the start of the season. As some point Trindle sold his share of ownership to Ringsby for $350,000, Ringsby would be the sole proprietor of the Rockets until 1973 when he sold the franchise. The team name would remain the Rockets until 1974 when they became the Nuggets, why the change? By this time talk of a merger/expansion was probably the driving force for the transformation. The name Rockets existed in Houston and it would be unsuitable to have two teams in the NBA with the same name or at least that’s the belief.

An early look

You are aware of the NBA teams that have gotten off to a slow start. Those teams will be covered later, for now we’ll check out those at the top of the standings. In the East the clear surprise for the 2024-25 season must be the 17-1 Cavs, fact is they are ahead of the defending champion Celtics (14-3). The Cavs won 48 games last season and in the playoffs beat the Magic 4 games to 3. They would lose to the eventual champion Celtics 4 games to 1 so it’s clear the Cavs were good. As for the Celtics they would be at the top if not for the Cavs, it’s early so we shall see if this competitive race remains throughout the season.

In the West the Thunder, who were expected to be near the top find themselves tied with the surprise Warriors for first place, both teams have 12 wins as this is written. As for those teams not playing at the level expected, in the East the Sixers must be mentioned first. The Sixers record is 3 wins and 13 losses but Joel Embiid and Paul George have been missing. The Bucks, despite a wealth of talent have played below par thus far. In the West can I say the Kings and Wolves have underperformed to date, both were playoff teams last season. For the teams not playing at the level expected the Sixers clearly have the worst record of those in the East and West. There is still time for the Sixers and others to turn their season around but they better start soon.

What do you think

Who are the Top 10 high school basketball players in the State of Missouri for 2024-25? A .com site bvmsports.com from Kansas City provided it’s list and then a strange thing occurred for me. I noticed 6 of the 10 basketball players they selected play for Link Academy. Just in case the school might be an unknown this is a prep/basketball school located in Branson (MO) in the heart of the Ozarks. Link plays a national travel schedule, although fairly new the school’s sent a number of players to colleges across the nation.

If this sounds to be a criticism on my part that is the case, this is not aimed at the athletes nor the school. My disagreement is with bvm sports and how they titled the account. Checking the schedule there are three games to be played in Branson and an annual national tournament held in Springfield (MO) every season. The balance of their schedule is laden with games from Texas to Utah to Kentucky and more. I didn’t check the bio’s however I have doubts if any members of the team really have Missouri connections. I’m sure some reading this will believe I’m being far too critical, maybe I am but that’s just the way I feel.