Meschery's Musings of Sports, Literature, and Life

What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Saturday, November 18, 2023

CLUES SO FAR

No question that it's too early to make definitive predication except which teams will be at the top and which team will be at the bottom. The Athletic, a truly dandy source for sports, has said it all, so I'm not going to rehash the obvious Celtics/Nugget etc.

What comes to mind this early? The Tournament. Fans are all over the place on this topic, ranging from Who Cares to Wow! The airplane landing stipes motif down the middle of the court is well done. As I said to a lot of friends and commented on The Athletic, the dark colors are difficult for TV viewers because it is hard to see the ball well, so it becomes a distraction. This is an easy fix: all teams use pastels as some already have. The NBA needed something to pump up interest in the early part of the season and going to the soccer tradition of tournaments was a good idea. Fans need to give it some time to get used to until it too, like soccer, becomes a tradition. One idea the NBA should consider to up the competitiveness is redesign the uniforms by state, instead of team city by team city, ie: California Clippers; California Warriors, etc. And add another bunch of money to sponsor each winning states Civic Education, God knows we need emphasis in this area the way things are in today's anti-Democracy climate. Imagine the championship in Vegas being between the Colorado Nuggets vs the Florida Heat. Governors would be making side bets. Of course there would have to be group chnages next season to make sure this kind of state competion would happen. It can be done.

I was really disappointed in my Warrior, Draymond Green putting a chokc hold on Rudy Gobert. It's pretty deja vue all over again, when Draymond gets in a rage, but choke holds are super dangerous. As a black man, Draymond should know better. Males of his race have been terrorized by choke holds for a long time. Connected but unconnected, I thought Gobert's sanctimonious response disingenuous as I remember a few years back the Frenchman giving his teammates COVID as a JOKE. Un BLAGUE, vous est fou? Draymond, we need you on the court. As a retired English teacher, may I suggest an anger management class.

I'm high on the Warriors two draft choices this year, Point guard Brandin Podzinski and Power Forward, Trace Davis. One thing though, Podzinski, dude, you got to stop with the tongue thing. MJ did that already. And, you're not that good yet.

I appreciate players who don't do a whole lot of screaming after every good play they make. It's satisfying to watch professionalism without the Look at Me, Look at Me B.S. High on my list of grownups is Keegan Murry of the Sacramento Kings who saves his celebrations for when they are really special. I think Trace-Davis of the Warriors has that grown up attitude toward celebrating on the court. Curry did too, but I've noticed the last couple of years, Steph doing a little drama, but if you're Curry most of the stuff you do is dramatic.

I want to readers to consider what players in the pro basketball changed the game. I'm not talking improved a position. I mean basketball was never played the same way again type of thing. Who was the first to popularize the jump shot; who made the league a Big Man's League? I believe one can say that the NBA was never the same after Joe Fulks who popularized the jump shot or never the same after Miken, never the same after Wilt, and never the same after Steph Curry. i'll let you all argue about all the rest from the Cousys to the Doctors to the Birds and the Shaqs. I'm thinkng of adding Jokic to my list of game changers. What do you think. Will the NBA game in a few years be a game of Bigs who can shoot threes and have handles? Will players under, say, 6'6" be possible? Will the NBA become a league of Brobdingnagians?

I am always impressed with the Miami Heat? They build around two core guys, Adebayo and Jimmy Buckets. And if they lose good players along the way, they always manage to find the correct replacements. They lose Straus and Vincent. They get Jaime Jaquez in the first round. A couple of other thoughts about teams. Imagine the Orlando Magic with a real point guard. Is Jrue Holiday the best point guard in the NBA? No apologies. needed to Step Curry who's the best All-Around guard in the NBA. Has OKC finally decided to play for keeps, no more first round draft choice gathering like a squirrel for winter? How long will it be before Zion is injured? 6'5" at 280 lbs is untenable. How long befor Kyrie goes off the farm? Big shout out for Tyrese Maxie, proving the 76ers don't need James the Selfish. A similar shout out to De'Aaron Fox for continuing to improve his game. Got to be in cosideration for the Paris Olympics. Is there a faster player in the league than Fox?' If the Knicks get a consistent 3 pt floor spacer they could be spoilers in the East. Clippers are old and slow. Why is Lakers' AD so inconsistent? Is he out of shape?

Here I am reading my ode to cable cars at a San Francisco event introducing the Warriors new jersey honoring the Cable Car and he first jersey with San Fransisco on its front.