Chatter

Lots of free agency chatter going on. Here's my take on some of the topics.

Warriors first, and this is pure wishful thinking: Ownership needs to bite the bullet and not worry about luxury tax. That said, there probably is a point even a franchise worth the price of the Taj Majal
can't go beyond. Anyway, the Warriors should roll up their financial sleeves and pay KD and Klay their well earned big buck,with a look to one year down the road, not for next season. Next season is going to be an exercise in creativity. If we get a lottery pick next year, is that such a bad thing, especially if you have your core healthy and happy coming back?

Sacramento Kings: Willy Cauley Stein wants to depart. Well, no team wants a disgruntled player on its team. Cauley has spent 4 years refusing to learn how to hit a consistent middle distance jumper or a consistent jump hook, so when is he going to do that and with which team will he suddenly get off his ass and figure his game out.

Kwhi Leonard: Jeez, you really want to leave a championship team and a fabulous city that is not in the purview of Donald Trump and that has turned you into it s hero and an ownership that will give you more money than any other franchise in the league????? OK. So you're out of there. Where do you go. Obviously, its a homeboy thing - the City of Angels. But which Angel? If he's smart, it will be the Clippers' Angel. Why on earth would he want to team up with Lebron, who is so ball dominant? And, aside of AD and Kuzma, not much else to round out a team. On the other hand, he could be the one player missing from the Clips to make them a Championship caliber team.

Kyrie. Go where ever. Boston is better off without you. Boston should sign Horford. Every team in the league wants a guy like Horford.

Kemba Walker is a stud, but is he really a point guard? Is he really a smart player. However, the Suns need a pt guard who can spread the floor desperately.

Middleton is a bit of a mystery to me. He has a quiet, solid game worthy of half an All-Star status. He is on the right team with the right personal and the right coaching. If he leaves and goes to the wrong team, he could be mis-utilized. For example, if the team he goes to wants him to carry the scoring load and opponents' D focuses on him. It's not going to happen, Chris.

Vucevic: Why is everybody talking about this guy?He's old news. You can't win a championship with him in the post. So why should a team shell out big bucks?

Tobias Harris is an interesting player. He is an excellent shooter, but an average defender. If Kawhi leaves Toronto, I can see them making a play for Tobias to fill the scoring gap. Would he be right for the Sacramento Kings? He's still young and appears to be dedicated to improving his game. So, yes, he could spread the floor, but then what do you do with Harrison Barnes? I love Barnes D and I love Barnes smarts.

Enough for the NBA and onto to a Life comment.:

Our country, as it stands now under the presidency of Donald Trump, has not been as divided into two opposing camps since the Civil War. It is not North vs South, but it is symbolically the Confederacy vs the Union.

The poem for today's blog hearkens back to my playing days.

Doris Day  (1922-2019)               by Tom Meschery

     “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stele.”

             Dante Alighieri

Doris died and all I can think of

is her sitting courtside clapping

as the Lakers pour it on,

led by Jerry and Elgin.

The rumor was

Doris was getting it on with Elgin,

but I refused to believe the girl

next door who sang Secret Love,

and Que Sera, Sera,

perky Doris of my fantasy,

would do anything so gross

as have an affaire.

Oh, Romance on the high seas

where has your blush gone?

My arm slipped around the shoulder

of Sharon Baily in the balcony

of the Metro. I reached

carefully inside her sweater,

felt the soft flesh beneath the bra

and her shiver, while on screen

Calamity Jane stuck a six-gun

in the pocket of her dress

for the marriage scene

that ended the movie.

It had taken me that long

to work up the courage

before the curtain rose

and the theater lights came on.

Seven decades later, I want to cry

for the loss of first girlfriends

and lost fantasies, remembering

our pitiful generation of white men

all moved by the same stars

of stage and screen,

by the mystery of women’s flesh

that we believed in like altars.

All we wanted was the girl next door,

greeting us at the door with her apron on

as we returned home from work,

dinner almost done, a highball

ready and our slippers.

Was this too much to ask, Doris,

that you not take off your clothes

for Elgin and in the shadow of love

not be the harbinger of change,

you of all women, let that mantle

fall to someone else, to stars

from another galaxy. Remain

in my mind as I always imagined

provocative and chaste.