Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Tuesday, Thursday plus Saturday & Sunday 

The challenge

Des Moines Iowa is a nice city, the 2023 population indicates it contains 210,381 folks, in addition if we count the metropolitan population we have over 700,000 citizens. Based on those numbers it is not small town America, I had an occasion once to visit the city that is home to the Drake Bulldogs. Ah, the Bulldogs who beat my Missouri Tigers in the NCAA Tournament and now find themselves with a new head coach. Just as soon as Drake was beaten in the tourney the University of Iowa came calling seeking Ben McCollum as their next head coach. After a number of years at Division II Northwest Missouri State and four NCAA Division II Championships Drake had reached out to him the prior year.

And then BAM, just like that after but a single season at Drake McCollum was hired by Iowa. It would appear Drake basketball has become a stopping point prior to moving to the next opening, which is certainly an issue. This is what occurred, McCollum was hired to replace Darian DeVries who left for West Virginia. Similar to McCollum DeVries was only at West Virginia one season before being hired as head coach at the University of Indiana…are you confused with all the moves? The real loser in this movement is Drake University, its basketball program and its fans. Drake has hired Eric Henderson as head coach from South Dakota State, the only hope for Drake fans is he’s a winner but not too, too good. If he proves to be a good coach other schools seeking a head coach will be looking toward Des Moines once again.

Meanwhile….

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base, I didn’t know to what level.” That statement wasn’t made by a casual NBA fan it was made by Mavs GM Nico Harrison on Monday. The statement shocked me, how in world someone in the position of Harrison not realizing this fact. Of course he defended the trade with his version of the event, I’m not critical of him, despite the fact the Lakers haven’t won anything I believe they are positioned for the future. That future is based on a healthy Luka Doncic being able to continue to play at a high skill level. With the exception of the Luka trade Harrison has done a respectable job over the last two seasons acquiring talent. In addition Jason Kidd has utilized the talent quite well especially during the horrendous injury issues the team faced before and after the Luka trade.

The NBA Draft order is not set in stone, despite that fact Thursday evening June 25 commissioner Adam Silver will announce Cooper Flagg is picked by the Jazz, Wizards, Hornets or maybe the Pelicans. The Sixers also have an outside shot at the top pick as well. This question is for you, do you have a preferred team you’d like to see Flagg play for? I have a suspicion Flagg will do for the NBA what Caitlin Clark did for the WNBA i.e., increase NBA television viewership numbers whichever team he plays for. The Jazz are located in the Rocky Mountain Time Zone while the other teams are Central and Eastern. That says to me more eyeballs on Flagg as opposed to those if he winds up with the Jazz.

With the NBA playoffs having begun plus the publishing schedule of Off the Dribble I’ve run into a problem. It is extremely difficult to do a write up with two games sometimes three played every evening. This has even created a hindrance for me even regarding my Lakers. Based on playoff basketball scheduling and the Tuesday, Thursday and weekend publishing dates I’m going to omit coverage of the games for now. Once we reach a smaller number of teams or the NBA Finals it will be far easier for me to maintain the publishing schedule, I appreciate you being patient in this process. 

He played two pro sports for Boston

What if I told you there was an athlete who pitched for the Red Sox in the same year he played for the Celtics. You probably wouldn’t believe me. The late Gene Conley is the only athlete to win a world championship in baseball and the NBA. Back in the day salaries in both sports were nowhere near those of today. With a family to support Conley needed extra income. The 6 foot 8 inch Conley was extremely tall for a baseball pitcher in the 1950’s not so much now. He’d played college basketball at Washington State and was good enough to earn honorable mention. In any event the story goes his salary had been cut by the Red Sox, it was customary practice back then if a player had a season below par it was not unusual for a team to reduce that players salary.

That tradition no longer exists in any professional sport to my knowledge. Conley then contacted head coach and general manager Red Auerbach for a job. Conley took on the role as a reserve and was Bill Russell’s relief in the post. This I thought was most unique, he pitched to Yankee Roger Maris in 1961 the year Maris broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. As for the championships Conley was a member of the Milwaukee (Atlanta) Braves. While pitching in Milwaukee he was a member of the 1957 World Series winning Braves. He won NBA Championships in 1959, 1960 and 1961. During a period he played for the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics at the same time. With professional seasons overlapping as they do now it would be extremely difficult to duplicate what Conley accomplished. In all likelihood Bo Jackson with baseball and the NFL along with Deon Sanders also baseball and NFL might be the nearest example to what Conley accomplished.