A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE NBA 2022 DRAFT

You'll get plently of information from the talking heads about this season's drafts' winners and losers and which of the top draftees will impact from the get-go. They will discuss trades, and endlessly go over Kyrie Irving's inexplicable stalemate with the Nets' management over playing next year for a paltry $37 million plus dollars. Inexplicable to at least 90 % of the American population. (Are we at all bored yet????) The 10 remaining %, given their propensity for greed might understand such behavior. Trump and his minions for example, but even they might wonder about turning down $37 million dollars for a year's work playing hoops. So, what can I add to the palaver? 

How about Paulo Banchero winning the Best-Dressed-Award? Or Jaden Ivey complety brought to tears that he was drafted #5 by the Detroit Piston. Got to say, I love it that his mom played in the WNBA. I could predict that my Golden State Warriors might have landed a possibly great player in 6'9" wing Patrick Baldwin, at the 28th pick, given his injury history is not ongoing. I can say I'm toitaly baffled by the Charlotte Hornets giving up 6'11' Jalen Duren, a pretty niffty pick-and-roll center, who is not simply a rim protecctor or a catch and dunk post. So what if they have two talented centers. Mark Willimans at 7'2" will definatly provide rim protection. Oh well, it is Michael Jordan's call becasue he was a player, he knows, right? I seem to recall a time when Jordan picked a young high school player as the # 1 pick in the 2001 NBA draft named Kwame Brown and paid him huge bucks for zero production. The real problem is the Hornets really only got a bunch of 2nd round draft choices in return for a player with a huge upside. Or, i could congratulate GM Monty McNair of the Sacramento Kings for drafting for need and selecting a future All Star in 6'9" wing defender and 3 point shooter Keegan Murry, while he still has a lot of trade flexibility left and money in the bank. Or I could say that it's time for GM Sam Presti to stop collecting first round draft choices and start building a team that can compete, but the talking heads are all over that subject. 

Instead I want to talk about parents. Back in the day -  as they say - that being before the turn of the century, on NBA draft nights, it was a rare sight when a selected African American player would be joined by his father. Not so, these days. Proud African American dads have joined proud African American moms to celebrate their sons making it into the NBA. It is also worth noting that some of the parents are of mixed racees. How cool is that? How this must gall the racists in our country that still trumpet the cause of white supremacy. Trumpet aa in Donald Trump and his white Republican devotees. And it is not just the NBA, this country is fast becoming multi racial and multi cultural. About frigging time. HooWah!!! 

Not a sports' poem, but one of the great poems about fathers by African Amercian poet Robert Hayden

THOSE WINTER SUNDAY     by Robert Hayden

   

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were earm, he'd call

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house.

Speaking indifferntly to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love's austere and lonely offices. 

  

The NBA Parade & etc about the 2022 NBA Draft.

 Driving down Market Street in the Warriors NBA Championship Parade was like coming home. I was raised in San Francisco, played my high school ball at Lowell High and my college hoops across the bay at Saint mary's College. My best NBA playiing days were spent as a power forward for the San Francisco Warriors. My jersey #14 hangs from the Chase Center Arena rafters. I am the local boy made good. I like to think of myself as the First San Francisco Warrior. My teammates and opponents knew me by my nickname, The Mad Manchurian because I was born in Harbin, a city in the previously indempendant country of Manchuria -  now part of China. The Mad part has to do with my on-court intensity, which at times I've been told appeared to possesses some of the qualities of madness. 

This small history of Tom Meschery was going through my mind as my wife, Melanie and I were driving down Market Street in a pomegranate flame plainted Chevy lowrider convertible with all the hydraulics. Melanie and I have been part of all the Warriors' victory parades since the first of the Dubs era in 2015. For the last two, we took Melanie's grandson John-Clark and the following year, my granddaugher, Carson, both were avid hoopster. This year, back in San Francisco, where this team originally began in the fall of 1962, my son Matthew and his 10 year old son, Leo, were with us. I instructed them to make sure they waved to all the old people in the crowd lining the sidewalk who might have seen me play. I think they thought I was joking. Hall of Fame Warrror's legend, Rick Barry, who brought the NBA title to San Franciso for the first time in 1975, was riding in the yellow jeep in front of our car. Although in his late seventies, the fans recognized Rick instantly. Some imitated Rick's underhand free-throw style to prove it. Rick was a heck of a better player than I was, but our parade lowrider outshone his jeep. Such little competitions between teammates never end, do they? The Warriors players were in open air busses in front of us. At times the parade came to a halt and some of the players descended onto the street to greet their fans. It looked as if half the City of Saint Francis was out to honor their Dubs. On our drive home from the parade, I told my wife to prepare for next year's parade.  Considering the return of injured frist round draft choice 7 foot 1 James Wiseman and the improvement of this years' two outstanding rookies, Mosed Moodey and Jonathon Kuminga, the Warriors could very well be a better team next season. 

ETC ABOUT THE DRAFT

i have changed my mind about Chet Holgrem, His slight 7 foot body weighing in at 196 pounds might be sturdier than I first believed. If this is the case, Chet with his superior skll-set should go number one ahead of Jabari Smith. Paulo Banchero, who is half Italian and holds dual Italian U.S. citizendhip might be the most NBA ready. Banchero value is well known by the teams. Except the Italian part. My wife and I love Italy, Florence escpecially, and for that reason would select Banchero number one. This is called subjective analytics. 

The mock drafts are all showing the Kings picking Jaden Ivey at number 4. I predict if they do, it will be to trade him to the Washington Wizards, who covet Ivey, in return for a vet power forward, a defensive minded wing and our choice when their seleciton comes at ten. It's the smart move to get veteran help. We'll see if i'm right. If they keep Ivey, then they made a huge mistake, which has often been the case with the luckless Kings. I hope I'm wrong. I like Coach Mike Brown and wish him only the best as he takes over the Sacramento Kings. 

The Warriors pick at 28. They were lucky with Jordan Poole at that late pick three years ago. Crossing my fingers. I wouldn't be surprised if they chose a pure point guard. Curry will need rest in the future, and really Jordan is best as a scorer. But the deal these days is tall, long and athletic. 

Keep your eyes on the Spurs. Pop and Co alwasy manage to find someoen good out of the hoard of wantabees. 

My choice of a poem today is all about nostalgia. Guess it had something to do with being in San Francisco, driving down Market Street, thinking of past glories.  

EARL HE PEARL MONROE  by Tom Meschery

In the rec league
they called me Black Jesus.
When I walked onto the court
the crowd parted like the Red Sea.
In college someone found a rhyme
and I became the Pearl
I guess I've been a mixed 
metaphor ever since.
Today, when I back a player
down toward the paint
and spin into my shot,
I know before the ball leaves
my fingers it's going in.
At that moment I can heal the lepers,
raise the dead.