Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Tuesday, Thursday plus Saturday & Sunday

BREAKING NEWS!

Most of us were unfamiliar with the name Mark Walter, I make this statement despite the fact he was a Laker minority owner. The announcement caught all of Laker Nation off guard, the Buss family was selling its majority interest in the team. Walter’s been a long-time minority owner of the team despite the fact most of us had no inkling of this fact. A brief look at the Buss family history, Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million which included the NHL Kings and the Forum.

When Jerry died in 2013 the franchise passed to his children. Jeanie Buss has held the role of governor for the team and its reported she will continue in that role. As for Walter he is CEO and chairman of TWG Global, this from the web. “It invests across various sectors including financial services, insurance, AI and technology, sports, media, and entertainment, and merchant banking. TWG Global is also known for its motorsport division, TWG Motorsports, which manages its racing teams.” As for the sale price of the team news reports indicate it was in the neighborhood of $10 billion, currently the Buss family owns about two-thirds of the team. As for the future we should not expect immediate changes in the manner of team operations. I almost left out this very important fact, Walter also owns the Dodgers.  

Portions of this account from Yahoo Sports and Wikipedia

Missouri basketball

The SEC schedule for Missouri is yet to be finalized however the non-con portion is now complete. At first glance my impression is this, the schedule is middle of the road…it’s not too tough nor too easy. A portion and dates have already been mentioned however there were a couple of game dates that required clarification, with that said here goes:

Howard University Nov 3 (Mon) – road

Southeast MO State Nov 7 (Fri) – home

VMI Nov 9 (Sun) – home

Minnesota Nov 12 (Wed) – home

Prairie View A&M Nov 17 (Mon) – home

South Dakota Nov 20 (Thur) – home

South Carolina State Nov 25 (Tues) – home

Cleveland State Nov 28 (Fri) – home

Notre Dame Dec 2 (Tues) -road

Kansas Dec 7 (Sunday) – neutral (Kansas City)

Alabama State Dec 11(Thur) – home

Bethune Cookman Dec 14 (Sunday) – home

Illinois Dec 22 (Mon) – neutral (St. Louis) 

22 Turnovers

The final score read Thunder 120 Pacers 109, the lopsided score is easy to understand. The Pacers committed 22 TO’s during the game some forced others unforced. We’ve looked at SGA as the driving force behind this Thunder team and he is but once again help was there for him. J-Dub scored 40 points and much of it with timely scoring, did I say he played tough defense? SGA had his usual stat game, 31 points and 10 steals, but in my view this might have been the Thunder’s most complete game.

On the other side Tyrese Haliburton clearly was injured, he finished the game for the Pacers with 4 points all from the free throw line. T.J. McConnell emerged from the Pacer bench and attempted to keep the game even for a time, although he accomplished his task for a brief portion it was too much Thunder defense and offense. Even with a healthy Haliburton I’m unsure if the Pacers will contend successfully tonight. It seems to me even the games won by the Pacers they are like ants pushing a huge boulder up a hill. Excuse the symbolism, that’s been my thought. My wife asked me before Game Five who wins, I stated very quickly “I don’t know.” As for tonight’s game the Pacers could win although I have serious doubts.

His travel ticket

Kevin Durant will be playing somewhere other than Phoenix next season. As this is written that location is an unknown however he’s provided us those he preferers. They are in no particular order, the Heat, Spurs and Rockets. I have no intention to choose a destination for him but he remains an enigma for me, despite his talent the guy’s been all over the NBA. Drafted and played the last season the Sonics were located in Seattle, he would move to OKC with the team. From 2016-19 it was the Warriors, 2019-23 the Nets and 2023 to the present the Suns. He’s been an NBA champion twice with the Warriors and Finals MVP two times.

In addition Durant was named 2014 league MVP and he’s been a perennial NBA All-Star 15 times. I’m going to stop at this point, there is so much very more Durant’s managed to accomplish over his pending Hall of Fame enshrinement. There are suiters for his services not specified in HIS choice of teams so you know what that might entail. Durant could be traded to a team he doesn’t wish. What if that scenario plays out, what do we suppose occurs? Despite his travel from coast to coast I’ve never read or heard of him butting heads with a coach. Durant having issues with a teammate might be a different matter, a report has claimed his desire to leave the Warriors was based on problems with former teammate Draymond Green. I cannot confirm or deny the truth behind that story.   

The Perfect Storm

In 2000 Hollywood released a movie under the title The Perfect Storm. I’ve often wondered about the definition of the term so I decided to define it for you and me. “A perfect storm is an unusual combination of events or things that produce an unusually bad or powerful result.” For our study we intend to focus on the latter portion “powerful result.” This might apply to the Mavs, sure they traded franchise player Luka Doncic however a combination of events caused a less than successful season. This should work out well for Cooper Flagg, he can be inserted into the lineup with very little difficulty based on the returnees.

Anthony Davis remains a very talented player who missed a considerable number of games after arriving from the Lakers. He should be good to go if only he can remain healthy but it’s not just him. Veteran Kyrie Irving suffered an ACL tear March 3 and was lost for the balance of the season. Center Dereck Lively a vital contributor to the playoff Mavs the year prior only played 36 games, Daniel Gafford also missed considerable time during the season. There were others missing from the previous playoff Mavs during the 2024-25 NBA season but I attempted to provide a sketch of why the Mavs missed the playoffs. So there you have it, everyone except Irving returns healthy and adding Flagg to the lineup should aid the cause. If they can remain healthy the Mavs will compete in the Western Conference.

Oxford Language Dictionary