A fans perspective

Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday

The pupil beat the teacher

Rick Pitino has been coaching for several decades, this includes stops at quite a few schools across the nation. The 73-year old Pitino began his resume at Boston University (5 seasons), then it was Providence (2 seasons) and 8 seasons at Kentucky. Pitino remained in the State of Kentucky as he took charge of the program at Louisville for 16 seasons. It was then a 3 year break and a move to Iona where he remained for a 3 year stint. 

The coach has spent the last 3 seasons as the head coach at St. John’s University. Given his extensive coaching career, it's unsurprising that he's worked with a great number athletes, including Mark Pope now head coach at Kentucky. Yesterday the two schools faced one another with Kentucky securing the win over number 22 St. John’s 78-66. I’m unsure if Pitino has ever coached against one of his former players before Saturday so this could have been a first. For those unaware of this news Pope played his college basketball at Kentucky where that same Rick Pitino once coached. 

The Big Ticket

That was the nickname given Kevin Garnett, he was the franchise of the Minnesota Timberwolves. After he left in a trade his number 21 jersey was never retired. To my knowledge he never spoke anything positive regarding his tenure in Minnesota, an impasse formed between the franchise player and the owner. More recently owner Taylor would place a For Sale sign on the Wolves and after time new ownership took over. Change in ownership and change in the franchise player too, Garnett has made peace with the Wolves the team he first displayed his NBA talent for the world.

It was announced recently that the now retired Garnett will become part of the Wolves front office in a number of capacities. This newly created position involves business, community efforts and content development which might cover a wide range of areas. We have now come full circle, Kevin Garnett was made the 5th pick in the 1995 NBA draft by the Wolves from Farragut Academy in Chicago. At that time, the NBA allowed high school players in the draft. There is a classic novel written by Thomas Wolfe published in 1940, titled ‘You Can’t Go Home Again.’ The web view of the title simply states; ‘Recognizes that we are changed as we journey through time and so returning to a place can be a letdown-not meeting nostalgic expectations.’ In the instance of Garnett I believe this is not the case, he ‘Can Go Home Again.’

There was time

Despite complaints from many of us television is the primary reason for the growth of basketball. Doesn’t matter if it’s the NBA, college or even high school, all levels have been telecast over time. This is written Saturday afternoon, I’ve switched  from the CBS Network coverage of the St. Johns-Kentucky game to NBA TV and its coverage of the G-League South Bay Lakers and Sioux Fall Skyforce. Up next on CBS is the Ohio State-North Carolina game and later it’s NBA TV again for the game between the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets. During the course of the season ESPN will schedule a number of high profile high school games and later the McDonalds All American game. I believe the college game was the driving force for the change, after all it was February 1940 when a game between Fordham and Pitt was telecast from Madison Square Garden.

Professional basketball existed but nothing like that of today, you think the G-League is minor league…so was pro ball in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In 1946 once the Basketball Association of America began play the television cameras were there. It would be October 1954 before the first national telecast of an NBA game occurred, a match between the Boston Celtics and Rochester Royals. The Game of the Century or at least that was the title given back in 1968 to the first college basketball game broadcast on a national basis. This game between the Houston Cougars with Elvin Hayes and Lew Alcindor’s UCLA Bruins was the brainchild of 32-year old Eddie Einhorn and his TVS Network. Einhorn was able to string together a number of independent and network stations to broadcast the game throughout the nation. The story of basketball and television continues to evolve this is but a brief portion of the history.

This was a surprise

A number of you reading this might remember the name Kendall Gill. He was the 5th pick in the first round of the 1990 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets, he would play for a number of NBA teams over his 15-year career. Keep in mind Gill would have guarded a number of the all-time greats of the period. Asked to name the top five players of the ‘90’s who provided him the most difficulty defending I was slightly surprised. Although he acknowledged Michael Jordan’s greatness he was not at the top of Gill’s list, he placed Grant Hill in the number three position while MJ was ranked second.

The guard Gill claimed was most difficult for him to defend was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf the former Chris Jackson. Gill says “Abdul-Rauf was like (boxer) Manny Pacquiao throwing punches you didn’t see coming, that was Abdul-Raul he was so quick you didn’t see his offense coming.” Some might remember the account written a time ago on Abdul-Rauf the LSU sharpshooter. AI Overview: “Shaquille O’Neal has consistently praised his former LSU teammate Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), calling him one of the best college players ever, highlighting his incredible scoring (50+ points multiple times as a freshman/sophomore), and advocating for LSU to retire his jersey, viewing Jackson as a dynamic, Steph Curry-esque guard who was essential to their dominant team.”