A fans perspective 

Published Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday

Am I held hostage

Let’s face facts, all of us desire to be entertained in some form or another. For me one of those areas is basketball be it amateur, college or the NBA. I admit it I have become spoiled, I want when I want it i.e., basketball. As an example Mizzou basketball comes up short in the national picture, rarely are games televised in that manner except for their game versus Kansas. Because this issue prevails I was “forced” to change my cable package in order to receive the SEC Network which contains all…the Mizzou games. In the NBA, it’s just as bad on Monday evening I wanted to see Cooper Flagg and the Mavs in action on NBA TV. When I turned to the channel at the appropriate time it was blacked out in the Kansas City market.

When the signage directed me to another channel, sure enough there it was FanDuel Sports Kansas City a channel I’m not paying for. The problem only exacerbates itself further based on the change in the NBA television package, I have TNT however Turner is no longer part of the family of channels broadcasting games. Streaming services have been added to the NBA family, I don’t have Amazon Prime nor Peacock which says; “Dude you are going to miss a number of games unless you make a change.” Charles Barkley was quite vocal indicating “The NBA had abandoned its fans.” That might seem an extreme point of view but I hope you understand where I’m going with this latest rant. I (We) want stuff but are we willing (or able) to pay for it? I hope you see my (our) dilemma, must we always sacrifice to entertain ourselves? There is really no requirement to see every NBA game that’s available or is there?

The All Star Game

Despite the cloud hovering over the Intuit Dome and the Clippers the NBA continues to move on. Commissioner Silver announced there would be no changes regardless the outcome of the investigation involving Aspiration, owner Steve Balmer and forward Kawhi Leonard. “There’s not contemplation of moving the All-Star Game,” Silver said, “and planning for the All-Star Game and the surrounding activities are operating completely independently of the ongoing investigation.” Everyone might look at this differently than me, I didn’t expect a change. A catastrophic occurrence might cause an event of this type to be moved but not an investigation which is likely compiling paperwork. All Star planning is years ahead of the actual date, as an example the decision regarding the Intuit Dome serving as the game site was announced in January 2024. Thinking back I’m unsure if the NBA has ever dealt with an issue surrounding the All-Star game.

Associated Press

What are they teaching

I was conducting research in another area and decided to check a portion of 247Sports. I was curious about center or post play which has all but disappeared from today’s NBA. This is a subject that’s been discussed in this blog from time to time…what about Big Men and what are they teaching them. We’ve discussed the fact basketball even down to the high school and AAU level is an inside-outside game. The premium shot and it been that way for a time is those taken behind the three line. Inside post play has disappeared, no longer are behemoths contesting for position down low near and around the basket.

If I think for a moment Shaquille O’ Neal might have been the last NBA post who played a power game. From checking the list of centers on 247Sports there is no cap on growth, several of those listed are well above 7 feet in height. Is anyone teaching post players anything but shooting three’s, I’d sure like to know? That requires further investigation which will be conducted in the future, in the meantime check out the Top 10 in the Class of 2026 for 247Sports. It should be noted you might recognize a few of the names because the majority of them may have been profiled in the recent past. One note on my part, I would imagine if a few of these prospects fail to gain additional pounds they possibly will become power forwards rather than true post players:

Arafan Diane 7-foot 1, 290 Iowa United Prep

Ethan Taylor 7-0, 244 Link Academy

Davion Adkins 6-foot 9, 205 Prolific Prep

Darius Ratliff 6-foot 11, 195 Archbishop Stepinac

Josh Irving 6-foot 10, 200 Pasadena

Marcis Ponder 6-foot 11, 328 Gillion Basketball Academy

Tristian Reed 6-foot 9, 230 Link Academy

Cody Peck 6-foot 10, 205 Davidson Day

Sinan Huan 7-0, 225, Georgetown Prep

Sam Fuches 6-foot 10, 215 Germantown 

Say what

We’ve discussed basketball shoes from time to time in this blog, the original Chuck Taylor Converse is probably one of the most famous shoes throughout the ages. The vast majority of colleges and professional athletes wore this shoe up through the 1970’s. The canvas of Chuck Taylors yielded to leather, synthetic leather or mesh. Was it the shoe or the player that wore it, the Air Jordan brand Introduced in 1985 exploded on the basketball world. In 2025 there remain NBA players and others who swear by the brand. There was a different shoe in 1989, 35 years ago Reebok introduced a shoe unlike others in the marketplace. It was called The Pump and it was indeed unique and certainly revolutionary at the time.

The shoe was named the Pump for a unique reason, from Wikipedia “It was the first shoe to have an internal inflation mechanism that regulated a unique fitting cushion in the lower and upper tongue to provide locking around the ankle.” Did the shoe provide the wearer an advantage, that question could only be answered by the athlete wearing it. Former Celtic guard Dee Brown won the Slam Dunk Contest in the 1991 NBA All Star game wearing the shoe. A few NBA players adopted the shoe but its appeal seemed to wain after a time. I read there was a football version made and Emmitt Smith of the NFL Cowboys was said to love it. Today we find the shoe as a collector or fashion accessory in some circles, in any event check out the video of Brown winning the dunk contest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6J17-Ekrw0