Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays

Breakout game

Thursday evening Bronny James had the game that made his critics shut up. Sure it was a G-League game however it was still good, the only downside the South Bay Lakers lost the game 106-100 to the Valley Suns. It was a game high 30 points on 57% shooting from the floor which included 3 for 3 from the 3P line, he finished up with 3 rebounds and 2 assists. I am pleased with this continued development in Bronny’s game and hope it continues. His stats look good for the season, 14 points a game 3 rebounds and nearly 3 assists. I will backtrack a bit and remind you of my earlier comment regarding young James. I had no problem with Bronny being drafted although I didn’t believe then as I continue to believe now he was ready for the rugged play of the NBA. He wasn’t going to play major minutes with the parent club an extended period of play was required with South Bay. I have no inside information at this point the best destination for Bronny to date is not the Lakers but to remain with the G-League affiliate South Bay.

Bill Belichick

I listened to a conversation on sports talk radio on Thursday regarding Bill Belichick. As most are aware the longtime NFL coach has been hired by North Carolina as the school’s head football coach, that part is surprising but not the basis for this rant. One of the radio host indicated “Belichick wanted his son to take over as head coach with the Patriots if he’d remained there, in addition his son might take on an assistant coach role at Carolina.” They proceeded to discuss fathers and the fact some chose to clear a path for their offspring.

The two hosts appeared to have no issue with this process and my mind immediately began racing. As I’ve indicated there is not much NBA talk here but I’ve heard plenty of conversation regarding nepotism when it comes to LeBron and Bronny James. My objection last June to Bronny James was I didn’t believe he was ready for the NBA, the relationship to his father was not that important to me. These two radio host certainly don’t set the standard but I did find this interesting. There is no issue regarding nepotism it appears to matters more who you are, there is no occasion for me to wish ill will toward the Belichick’s I have no connection to Carolina, we shall see what unfolds.

He returns…to a degree

The Clippers announced Kawhi Leonard returned to practice for the first time this season. This was actually the first time he’d worked out with the team since last season. This was no declaration he was ready to play but it certainly gives Clipper Nation hope for his return. There remains a question, Kawhi is now 33-years of age with a long history of injuries can he return is the question? The quick response is yes however will the “old” Kawhi be able to return, allow me to elaborate? I remember Kobe Bryant and his Achilles tendon tear, he was 34 and after a time was able to return to the Lakers. I don’t remember reading it but it seemed to these amateur basketball eyes of mine he wasn’t the same.

Kobe returned and would play two more seasons for the Lakers but it seemed to me the lift was not there. He’d lost a step or two on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, for him this must have been devastating. The positives we read from coach Lue should be expected, he certainly would have no reason to downplay the comeback attempt of Kawhi. The portion of this story that concerns me most, although Kawhi and Kobe were comparatively the same age Kobe didn’t have close to the injury history of Kawhi. According to ESPN Kawhi “has missed 204 of a possible 460 games since joining the Clippers in 2019.” That is an astronomical number to have missed, two and a half seasons worth of games. I truly hope Kawhi is able to return but when he does I wouldn’t expect the “old” Kawhi if I were you, that version is history.

The dangers of court storming

Mizzou is not any different from any other school in this instance. The thrilling 76-67 win over then number one Kansas triggered the student body to storm the court. As I stated Mizzou is not any different however in this instant court storming became quite expensive. The SEC issued a fine of $250,000 to Mizzou for last Sunday’s action, the SEC in a manner similar to others prohibits such action but why such a large fine? This is from KSDK’s website, “It is Mizzou’s second violation of the SEC rules since they were instituted in 2023.

The first was when football fans stormed the field after a win against Kansas State on Sept. 16, 2023. The punishment for violations starts at $100,000, escalates to $250,000 for the second offense and is $500,000 for the third violation and each violation after that. The money goes to the SEC Post-Graduate Scholarship Fund because it was a non-conference game.” I checked Mizzou’s schedule, with the addition of teams to the SEC they will only play Tennessee (current number one) once. This game will be played in Knoxville, if Tennessee is still number one and Mizzou beats them there is no danger of an expensive court storming. 

And you wonder why?

In the past up to the present day a number of athletes have been “bad actors” for a variety of reasons. When they make an error no matter they should be called out for their actions. This is for the media and their often misguided or miss-aligned attempts at a message. Often we are reading or hearing the words of someone who was never talented enough to play the game at a high skill level such as what they report. I have no idea where it began, however, the feud between Kevin Durant and Stephen A. Smith could be used as an example. My response is simple, although athletes, especially in the NBA, accumulate huge sums of money they are subject to many of the same issues we face.

The only difference between them and us is their vast financial wealth which allows them to avoid some of the pitfalls of life. They had a difficult day on the basketball court, who critiqued the difficult day you experienced on the assembly line or in the office? I’m not claiming those in non-sports fields escape free, they too are subject to review however theirs is quite different. Most generally it’s one on one between you and the supervisor it’s not a dress down between you and a couple of million folks. All these media members are attempting is to gain clicks for their podcast or viewers for their program. Keep this in perspective next time Gilbert Arenas, Stephen A. Smith or some others go off.