A basketball fans perspective

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday & Friday

The decision

With the conclusion of the NBA championship a lesser amount of basketball activity remains for the balance of summer, based on this fact there will be changes in the publication dates. For the duration of the summer the schedule will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday publishing dates. At an undetermined date in mid-September Off the Dribble will return to a full publishing schedule Monday through Friday. I appreciate you loyal readers for sticking with me over time.

Here we go again

This time the conspiracy theory comes from former Piston Bad Boy Isiah Thomas. He claims (without offering us any proof) the NBA is “attempting” to make Victor Wembanyama the face of the NBA. In a basketballnetwork.net story, Zeke claimed during the period Michael Jordan played the NBA made him the face of the league. Time out….as with most issues Thomas and others are entitled to their opinion regarding a matter. His belief the NBA is viewing Wemby as the face of the NBA is impossible to prove. As for the MJ thing, for reasons most of them unknown Jordan lives rent free in Zeke’s mind.

I could make a similar statement regarding Magic and Zeke, the two were described by the media to be best friends at one point. This belief existed despite the fact they played on teams that were fiercely competing for NBA domination at the time. Since their playing days ended the friendship that previously existed between Magic and Zeke has all but disappeared and for reasons unknown. As for Zeke and MJ apparently a friendship never existed only a rivalry, with that said change eventually occurred. The MJ Bulls outshined the Zeke led Pistons and perhaps that’s where this conspiracy theory might have begun, it appears to be old fashion bad blood between Zeke and MJ.

It’s been awhile, for others it’s a never

This is written ahead of the conclusion of the Knicks-Spurs series, if the Knicks won it this will be their first NBA championship since 1973 (56 years). They played in the 1999 Finals however the Spurs won the championship that year. There are several teams that have a longer drought than the Knicks, for example the Kings last won an NBA championship two cities ago, they were the Rochester (NY) Royals back then 75 years ago (1951). Sacramento is home at present but the franchise also had stops in Cincinnati and Kansas City prior to its latest home.

In 1958 the St. Louis Hawks interrupted the NBA championship winning streak of Bill Russell’s Celtics, that was 68 years ago. Later the franchise would move to its present home in Atlanta Georgia. The remaining NBA teams have never won a championship and the years of their existence is adjacent, Phoenix Suns (58 years), Los Angeles Clippers (56 years) and their previous incarnation the San Diego Clippers and the Buffalo Braves when they came into the NBA. We close this exercise with the Charlotte Hornets, this franchise has operated for 36 years. There are other franchises without championship on their resume however they are nowhere near the drought of the teams noted.  NOTE: Of course the Knicks did win and are 2026 NBA champions.

 Generational talent: Part Deux

99% of you reading this are aware Cooper Flagg was named NBA Rookie of the Year. The NBA began awarding the honor to a rookie after the 1952-53 season, in that length of time a great number of players have displayed their basketball ability. A few of those names who landed have been deemed generational i.e., they brought a unique skill set into the NBA. That is the case for Flagg, all aspects of his game are light years ahead of several grizzly veterans but the 19-year old Flagg is not alone. Prior to Flagg’s entrance into the NBA came another generational player. Appearing before Flagg was now 22-year old Victor Wembanyama, LeBron James hung “The Alien” tag on Wemby because he too does stuff few players his age have been able to accomplish and he’s only in year four.

These two are not alone there have been others, in 1956 the St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell but traded him to the Celtics. With the Celtics Russell became the driving force to multiple championships with his defensive prowess. A few years later Wilton Felton Chamberlain was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors and the NBA would never be the same, his game might have supplanted Russell’s in that he was a scoring machine who could play defense too. The 100 point game Chamberlain scored against the Knicks in 1962 remains the single game scoring record….but wait there are more. Michael Jordan was a different kind of cat, for me it was his will to win at all cost. A standout game for me was Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against Utah. He was dehydrated and had food poison symptoms yet played 44 minutes leading the way to victory with 38 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Next we arrive at LeBron James, he was fully a man at 6-foot 8 and 245 pounds at the time his hometown Cavs (technically) drafted him straight from high school. He set a standard which will never be duplicated by another four NBA championships on his resume.

The next name will surprise some and they might question why I’m including Shaquille O’Neal as one of my generational players but there is a basis. 7-foot 1 350 plus pounds, no one ever played the power game in the manner of Shaq. Steph Curry might have a bunch of nicknames, mine is “Lights out,” no one ever in the history of the game shot the ball from distance like Curry. I informed a friend 5-10 years ago I’d see Curry shoot from distance and believe….that ball will find the bottom of the net. A number of NBA All Pro’s considered generational were left off my list. The only explanation I can provide they missed the cut but barely, who are they? Kobe Bean Bryant, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird are just a few of the names.