This & That July 19th

 I was struck this morning with Sam Amick's article in The Athletic about Joel Embid in which he sude the term RINGZ CULTURE. What a shame it has come to that. Historically it minimizes so many great NBA teams that reached the Finals and lost. I'm thinking of th great Utah Jazz teams of Stockton and Malone, and Charles Barkley's and Kevin Johnson's fabulous Suns' teams. To them I add my marvelous 1967 San Francisco Warriors team with Nate "The Great" Thurmond and Rick Barry. We lost to Wilt's 76ers, which was a great team even when with Moses Malone at center they later lost to Walton's Trailblazers. I never wore diamonds on my finger, but what shines most is in my heart. Ringz are finally  just glitter. 

Let's hear it for Sabrina Ionescu, the WNBA player who shot lights out 37 pts in the recent 3 pts shooting contest at the WNBA All-Star Game. There's a lot of talk already about a NBA vs WNBA shoot out between Steph Curry and Sabrina. Advertisers are lining up. So are Vegas odds makers. Aside from her miraculaous performance, there is a point to be made here. When you see shooting like this and watch the recent WNBA games, I don't think it is too farfetched to believe that someday there will be a female who can make it on to an NBA team. Okay, not in any of the power positions, but how about as a point guard who can shoot like Ianescu? Of course, she'd have to have the body and strength of Serena Williams, but is that so hard to visualize? I wrote a novel called She's Got Game about a female college All-Star who forgoes the WNBA to try out for the NBA. It's in manuscript and waiting for an agent. Any agents out there, I'm listening. 

Hurrah for Carlos Alcaraz for defeating Novak Djokovic for the singles mens' championship at Wimbledon.  A worthy young champion. Spain should be proud. One takeaway from the presentation at the end of the match. Ever since COVID, I stopped cheering for Djokovic when he refused to be inoculated. I don't do selfish well. So, I was thrilled the young Spaniard defeated him. But Novak's concession speech made me change my mind about him. It was so honest, I couldn't help to believe he's a much better person that I thought. Yes, he's still wrong about COVID, but he understand what it takes to be an athlete, to be gracious in a loss. I still won't cheer for him, but I will not bad-mouth him either. 

Here's a poem I wrote after watching the Wimbledon. 

RACKET   by Tom Meschery

To his astonishment,
his shot goes wide
its fault he seems
to be assigning
to the racket
staring up at him
out of his hand,
not to any misjudgment
on his part.
Fingering the stings
he speaks to it
as he might speak
to an enemy
Perhaps  a change
of rackets
will be all it takes.
He threatens or cajoles
while in the stands
we wait for service,
his rage to end
and the match to continue,
down 40 love.