Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Tuesday, Thursday plus Saturday & Sunday 

The “real” playoffs

I realize a portion of the play-in tournament was scheduled and played earlier in the week, allow the explanation for the headline. A co-worker said to me, “The playoffs begin on Saturday,” I responded by stating the play-in tournament had already been played. Chuck said, “The real playoffs begin on Saturday, I don’t count the play-in.” I laughed, that might be the view of more than my co-worker. In any event we have:

Milwaukee at Indiana Noon Central

Clippers at Nuggets 2:30 Central

Detroit at New York 5:00 p.m. Central

Minnesota at Lakers 7:30 p.m. Central 

A portion of the Sunday games had not been finalized as this is written, an updated schedule will be provided in the Sunday edition.    

Bully pulpit

“A public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue,” bully pulpit was the term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). This I believe exists for Stephen A. Smith, Jason Whitlock, Skip Bayless, Craig Carton and a host of others. They appear on our television screens or podcast and provide us their opinions about a bunch of sports stuff. They are certainly entitled to their opinion of matters but this is where it appears one-sided. This past Tuesday Stephen A. Smith addressed Suns owner Mat Ishbia regarding “what a terrible owner he was.”

During a much later press conference Ishbia talked of the words of Smith and guess what…on Friday Smith revisited the matter with apologies for a portion of his earlier statement. He then proceeded to address the issues raised once again. This could become a point-counterpoint if it were to continue and currently it is. Who’s correct, likely both and for these reasons, Smith is always working on building his brand and Ishbia is aware of the inner workings of the Suns Smith has no clue. The majority of media members go about their work on a daily basis. They probably make little if any effort to sensationalize the events they are covering. My closing statement always, double-check on who is providing you the information, that member of the media has an agenda.

Heisman Trophy winner in the NBA

A bit of background on Charlie Ward, he played quarterback while enrolled at Florida State University. In 1992 he was the winner in voting for the Heisman Trophy however there was an issue which later impacted his athletic legacy forever. He won numerous other awards while at FSU, the only reward he might have wanted was to be titled “NFL Draft pick.” That dream wouldn’t occur, standing 6 foot 2 and 190 pounds perhaps the prevailing thought “He’s too small” to play quarterback in the NFL.

Ward had a backup plan, he lettered in football and basketball and the NBA did come calling. Ward was drafted in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft as the 26 pick, there was an 11 year career in the NBA the majority of it spent with the Knicks. After retirement he served as an assistant coach for the Rockets and later basketball and football coach at two stops. On April 16 Ward was hired at HBCU Florida State A&M as men’s basketball coach. The school had a winning conference record however they finished with 14 wins and 17 losses. Hopefully, the athletic department will allow Ward ample time to build his program at A&M. For those introduced to him that’s how a Heisman Trophy winner had an NBA rather than NFL career.

Portal

I held a discussion with a friend recently, it was centered on the transfer portal, based on that fact I began to conduct research and discovered the following. the football numbers are astronomical but this is a basketball blog. As for basketball it’s slightly better than football but certainly nothing to brag about. The portal closes on Tuesday April 22, currently there are over 2,000 college basketball players in the portal. This number is significantly higher than last season when about 1,000 players entered the portal.

I have no desire to prohibit players from their life pursuit however we are on The Highway to the Danger Zone. While surfing the net I came across a team don’t remember which one, how the roster came together was detailed. It appears the majority of the team is now comprised of portal transfers, no holdover sophomores, juniors or seniors. I’m unsure if there were any incoming freshman. There are times I am able to see the Big Picture and provide what I believe might be an answer. That does not exist at this point I have no idea how to address the basketball portal issue. Someone smarter than me must offer a solution for this growing problem, at this rate of evolution the portal will eventually come crashing down on all of us. What do you think, hopefully you have a solution in mind because I sure don’t?