Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Tuesday, Thursday plus Saturday & Sunday 

He plays the saxophone too

Annor Boateng is talented in two areas although technically its three, this is not in any order, the basketball court, music and academics. He received Academic All American honors while in high school so that indicates not only is he a talented athlete he’s just as capable in the classroom. By now many of you are asking who is Boateng, he is a soon to be Missouri sophomore guard. The 6 foot 6 inch 215 pound guard didn’t play much as a freshman however that has nothing to do with his ability. He arrived in Columbia Missouri last fall as a Top 40 prospect in the nation by 247 Sports (26), ESPN 100 (33) and Rivals (34).

That says a great deal from scouts who believe he’s talented enough to play at the Division I level, to what degree will not be determined until fall and winter this upcoming season. Check this portion out, he led Little Rock Central High School to the 2024 State Championship in Arkansas. Boateng was a two-time Gatorade Arkansas Player of the Year. In addition to his music talent he is majoring in computer science. Missouri was able to out recruit Arkansas for the most talented basketball player in the state. We might just discover he fails to adjust to the tough SEC however I don’t believe that will be the case, Mizzou fans are just as excited about seeing him in action as the balance of the team.  

Who was it

I had forgotten this story, the late Kobe Bryant once went on the record in 2012 with the LA Times. As you are aware Kobe played for the Lakers from 1996 until his 2016 retirement. During this period, a considerable number of players were in place when he arrived and even more appeared during Bryant’s career. Some of you are aware he and Shaq were feuding at a point, this would be partially the basis for Shaq's later trade to Miami. 

Despite this issue and perhaps others the Big Aristotle being on the roster was not the worst teammate Kobe ever had. In addition it should be of note Kobe was driven, driven for excellence. If he perceived a teammate not giving their maximum effort Kobe had other methods to address it. Perhaps that was the case here, he was reported to have told the player “You can’t talk to me.” Some of you might remember him, his given name was William Henry Patrick III but you probably know him better by his nickname…Smush. He would play two seasons, 2005-06 and 2006-07 for the Lakers. He’d played at Fordham University however he went undrafted in the 2002 NBA Draft. After having several basketball stops he arrived in Los Angeles in 2005 and impressed then coach Phil Jackson, he would make Parker the starting point guard. In 2007 Parker would sign an F/A contract with the Heat. 

This from Kobe: “Smush Parker was the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.” In fairness to Parker if we look at the numbers they are not spectacular but not terrible. I’ve got to believe a personality issue existed between Kobe and Parker, with much of the Shaq-Kobe feud public that’s the only conclusion I can guess. Parker would claim his backcourt teammate never talked to him directly.

What I hit…what I missed

The regular season is over, there are plenty of hits and misses on my part, these are but a few. This one is a miss, I speculated which NBA team in Los Angeles would be the best. The Clippers fooled me, I didn’t expect them to be this good despite their talent. This would be a hit…I believed at the start of the season Cooper Flagg would have an All American season at Duke. Although his team came up short in the NCAA Tournament I found it difficult at times to believe he should have been in his senior year of high school. This next one qualifies as a miss, the Nuggets were to be the Nuggets…The Joker had his usual triple-double season but the balance of the roster, that’s partially why Mike Malone has no job today. The Missouri Tigers were a hit, I was probably the only member of Mizzou Nation who believed they would bounce back from the tragic 0-18 last season.

Missouri was unranked at the beginning of the season they entered and were ranked as high as 15, a few losses placed them at 23 before they fell out of the Top 25 after the loss to Creighton in the tournament. This is an individual, earlier I mentioned the Clippers, their improvement was thanks in part to Kawhi Leonard. This qualifies as a miss because I wrote back in December that he would never play at a high skill level again, he proved me wrong. Unfortunately, Shaka Smart also is a miss, despite my belief in him as a coach his teams always come up short at the end. This is also a miss, at the beginning of the NBA season I expected the Mavs to be competitive again. Playing for the NBA Championship last year with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in the lineup…how could this ever be a miss? Lastly how much do you expect from a 40 year old basketball player, not much unless that player is LeBron James. This one qualifies as a hit, he can still ball despite his age and I expected as much.

4,124

The subject of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game is being examined here once again, as a reminder to some this historic NBA game that was played in Hershey Pennsylvania rather than Philadelphia. At the time the NBA often “farmed out” home games to nearby communities, the city is located less than 100 miles from Philadelphia. This game was played on March 2, 1962, although I was not present, there are several reasons to believe that the 100-point game took place. The primary reason is the headline, there were 4,124 persons in attendance that night. It might be difficult for spectators to compute scoring in their heads while observing a game but generally one might have a general idea of the scoring. 

As for the participants, there are Chamberlain teammates Tom Meschery. Meschery is 86 years old, Bob McNeill also 86 years old was a member of the Warriors but finished the season a Laker. We also have Frank Radovich (87 years old) a member of the Warriors. Knicks Richie Guerin (92 years old) and Dave Budd (86 years old) are also living. Why after all these years none of the participants for both teams have never come forward claiming the scoring event was a fraud, I know why, they were part of the conspiracy too. Meschery was on the floor in this game that night and indicated that Chamberlain scored 100 points in the game. At the time when news reached the wire services the following day, there was no record of anyone disputing the game or the scoring achievement. While the complete game is not available, the fourth quarter of the radio broadcast can be found online and in the archives of the Library of Congress. My desire is for someone associated with the Warriors to conduct a poll in Hershey to uncover anyone in attendance. 

If necessary a polygraph test should be conducted to ensure the respondent is telling the truth…too much? No I don’t think so, we’d place this account as true rather than the question mark that hangs over some non-believers. Check out the newspaper box score printed the following morning. Throughout history here and abroad historical events have occurred which offers us no visual proof, do we simply give into conspiracy theories because there is no evidence? We witnessed Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home run record in April 1974, did anybody see Ruth set the record in 1927?

 

Why

Yes, by now you know I have issues with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and the following is an explanation. Find the video for yourself, there is no requirement for you to agree with my take. SAS is always so positive in his tone and this is the example from a video on ESPN’s NBA page on ESPN.com. We listen to the positives applied to Cooper Flagg by former NBA player Carlos Boozer, then came SAS. “I love the kid, he’s the number one pick in this upcoming draft. There is no question about it.

The only blemish on his career there were 4 times he had a chance to win a game and he failed all 4 times. That’s just the last play of the game that happens you miss more than you make.” SAS continued with his commentary, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah Wah (adults talking in the Peanuts cartoons). Someone might conclude what SAS is not that bad, if it isn’t why was it even necessary to mention? Because he loves to critique the effort or production of others I am going to assume a new role. I intend to critique him as he does with others, he won’t see it but it sure will detail for many there is another side of the story.