Kareem, the Soul of the NBA & etc

 In the 1970/71 NBA season, I played against Lew Alcindor, now Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the Milwaukee's first round draft choice out of UCLA. A rookie, he was already a force and he would remain one for the rest of his 21seasons in the league, most of which were spent as a Los Angles Laker. My one memory of Jabbar from those day was how impossible he made it for any player to drive the paint, to do anything in the paint, for that matter. Since a lot of my game, even back then in my last year in the NBA when I was less than my physical best, had to do with getting put backs off the offensive glass, playing against Kareem was particularly frustrating. 

That was then, this is now. Kareen is long in retirement. I am even longer retired. Today, I hardly think of Kareen as a professional basketball player any more, He has published non fiction and fiction, written articles, led progressive discussions about race and society. He is quoted often on a variety of subject that affect this county and the world. No, I can't think of him as the man with the sky hook or the player who swatted away my meager efforts to score. When I think of Kareem in 2021 in terms of basketball, I think of him as the one player that exemplifies the soul of the NBA. 

If it were the power of the NBA, I would think of Wilt Chamberlain; if it were the skill of the NBA, I would chose Michael Jordan; if it were the finesse of the NBA, I'd select Steph Curry; if it were the energy of the NBA, I'd see Magic, and for basketball smarts, I'd select Larry Bird. (Wasn't it Bird who said once, "I wasn't a very good student, but I'm a PhD in basketball?") And so he was. And so it is that the core, the spiritual intelligence of the soul of the NBA belongs to the thoughtful, scholarly, and empathic Hall of Fame Center, Kareen Abdul Jabbar.   

Why am I writing this today, when it is something that I've long believed? It is because on Facebook this morning I saw Kareem's thoughts on NFL QB, Aaron Rodgers. Kareem said, "Rodger's ignorance regarding the science of immunology brings back to life the old stereo type of he big dumb jock. His utter lack of even the most basic knowledge is shocking."

DUMB JOCKS, that's what Donald Trump and his ultra conservative, racist minions have been calling us from the time Colin Kaepernick knelt on the field during the national anthem to the statement that Lebron James should keep on dribbling instead of speaking out against racial inequity. And Rodgers, by his stupidity about COVID has played right into these despicable Trumpian people's hands.   

I wonder if All State Insurance Company that is providing Aaron Rodgers with a hefty paycheck to endorse their product believes we're all a bunch of dumb jocks? Dumb enough to buy their insurance? Rodgers will assuredly become the poster child for Anti-Vaxxers. Is All State hoping to cash in on the Anti-Vaxxer market? 

Well, as the saying goes, I guess Aaron Rodgers should just keep passing the football and stop talking about medical science as if he know what the F--K he's talking about. 

A VERY LARGE ETC: For those of you NBA fans who didn't see Steph Curry's magnificent 50 point production against the Atlanta Hawks, you missed some beautiful magic. Curry is Macavity the Mystery Cat, (When opponents try to guard him, he is never there.) the elegance and grace of Barishnikov, and Henri Matisse (critically defining color and shape in modern 20th century art.) - oh, yes, Curry and the Art of Basketball. 

I watched with mild interest Markief Morris's hard foul on Nicola Jokic and the Joker losing his temper slamming the back of Morris. And now the NBA is in an uproar. Not to mention a few Serbian brothers now versus the brothers. How the NBA has changed? In the NBA of 1960's and '70's that episode would have been considered a little manly disagreement, emphasis on the little. Here's a small poem on the subject from the prospective of a man who played in the NBA in the Sixties. 

In the Moment   by Tom Meschery

The whistle blows
and I'm caught
between curbing my anger
or punching the player
who just fouled me.
Oh, what the hell, I think. 

A Major League City with a Small Town Newspaper & etc.

 The fifth game of the 2021 World Serie was played yesterday. The Atlanta Braves were leading  the Houston Astros 3-1 and could have won the title with a win. Instead, the Astros won. It is not unusual in sports for teams to rally during championships and extend the series. What is unusual and shameful is that the Sacramento Bee, the newspaper that services a major league sports city (home to the NBA's Kings)  with a metropolitan area population of over two million people, did not carry a word about the game in its morning newspaper. THE WORLD SERIES????? For the last four years the Sacramento Bee does not bring its readership any news that developed after - I'm guessing - 2 p.m. It is disgusting. My wife and I agree we continue our subscription only because we don't want to see another newspaper fold and its assets broken down and sold separately to make money for the greedy hedge fund sharks that gobbled up the paper and promised to make it a gold standard newspaper again. There's not enough gold in their standard to fill a cavity. 

Let's hear it for Alana Beard, the retired WNBA All-Star and now business woman in her quest to bring a WNBA team to Oakland, CA. The Warriors and Raiders have left. The A's are threating to leave to Las Vegas, where else? I'm betting the Oakland fans will embrace the new team. And if she can't get Oakland to back her, why wouldn't the Warriors be willing to have WNBA team in Chase Arena? 

Let's not get overly enthusiastic over Jimmy G's impressive performance against the Chicago Bears, a team missing its best passer rusher. On the other hand, it is enough reason to stick with him at QB. As I stated in a previous blog, Lance needs to watch and learn. I don't know what goes on in NFL practices, but it seems as if, given their commitment to him, Lance should get lots of reps with the starters in practice and at least a few chances at specific times during games. And not simply for running plays. Mentor teachers know a young teacher needs time by him/herself to run a class. They hand over the reins and let the run. Football in no different. Finally, I must say I was impressed with Garappolo and wish that this his states against the Bears become his stats for the rest of the season. If that happens, holy-think-thank, what do the 49ers do then? 

A quick observation: OKC has found its point guard of the future in 6'8" barely 19 year old Australian Josh Giddy. The kid has all the right instincts.  And just a baby. 

Franz Wagner is making heads turn in the NBA in his rookie season. And some teams that passed on him, might be having regrets. I'm thinking of my Warriors who took Jonothan Kuminga ahead of Wagner. The question in this case is - and will only be played out in time - has Wagner reached his potential, given a certain amount of improvement due to experience? As for Kuminga, he is 19 years old and has clearly not reached the skills set his awesome physical talent portends. I'm betting on Kuminga in the long run.    

I'm happy to see that the average NBA dance team member makes around $500 per game with a bonus of approx $1,500.00. This is a part time job, but not an easy one to handle ie: juggling practice sessions,  if they have a fulltime employment, which I dare say all the women (and now some men) must have to support themselves.  The Warriors according to the internet pay $600 per game. I've never been a fan of most of the grind and hump dance routines, but there is no doubt these dancers work their butts of, and lately I've been noticing more creative routines with more narrative for the discerning fans. I'd bump the salary per game to $800. As an incentive to attract the very best dancers. Fans are paying big bucks to go to games; they deserve the best entertainment. My wife says lower the price of hotdogs. Food might be classified as entertainment, no? 

By the way, an NBA mop boy can make up to $90,000 per year with benefit. One can start a family on that salary and with a second income for spouse live a pretty decent life. Some teachers don't make $90, 000 per year. (In California, a teacher with 10 years experience makes $72,937 per year). I note the disparity not because mop boys should get less, but for God's sake, teacher should get more. 

So wishing only the best for mop boys, let's consider changing their title to something like Custodial Assistant. Just in case, later in life a mop boy's son asks his dad what he did for a living. Mop boy at forty years old doesn't sound too dignified. 

Sometimes less is more as in these three lines by William Shakespeare in honor of the World Series:

"What work's, my countrymen, in hand?
               Where go you
With bats and clubs?

Random Subjects

 Like the honey bee flighting from flower to flower, I'm going to flip from subject to subject:

If the NFL doesn't reveal all of the evidence it culled from the Washington them, Congress should investigate. There is too much history of racism with that team to call Gruden's vile emails a one-off.

I think it is time to do away with the NBA corner shot. It's too easy and nothing to be excited about the way it was when the 3 point line was introduced. Consider, the percentage from the corner is over 50%.Let the 3 point line begin four feet back from the corner. By doing away with the existing corner shot, we create a true value to making 3s and might possibly renew the value of the middle distance shot. 

As much as I'd like to see Trey lance start for the 49ers the rest of the way, at this point with the team falling apart, it would endanger his confidence. Let him watch and learn, then have a full summer off and a good training camp and come in fresh. Trade Garappolo for a good offensive lineman. 

Not much I know about baseball, but the World Series has started. Who can I cheer for now that our west coast teams have been eliminated? Guess it has to be Atlanta. Not much I admire of Texas these day although I should not blame the Astros for Texas' primitive and racist state government

I do not believe the LA Lakers collective old timer All Star strategy will work. Nothing against old timers, mind you, since I am one. 

Isn't it amazing how Andre Igudala can miss from distance time after time during the game, then when the shot counts, he drills it. 

I'm not saying the following NFL teams will win the Super Bowl, but they are the teams that have all the ingredients position by position to win it all: In no special order: Dallas Cowboys; Arizona Cardinals; (Are there really a lot of the bird variety in Arizona?): Tampa Bay Buccaneers; the Los  Vegas Raiders, and the Buffalo Bills. 

If the NBA wants to decrease the number of injuries to players, the league should mandate all training staff should incorporate Asian martial arts training into each player physical fitness plan. And all Bigs should be required to take ballet lessons. 

 As for the NBA 75th Anniversary team: In my opinion these four players should not have been on it: Hal Greer, Elvin Hayes, Sam Jones, and Jerry Lucas, and replaced by these four players: Klay Thompson, Tony Parker, Tracy McGrady, and Pau Gasol. I won't comment on why but let me just say in the case of Elvin Hayes, if he wasn't the biggest ball hog in the game, he'd have never piled up his All Star numbers, and he  was not a great locker room guy. Ask any teammate.

Here's a pome in honor of one of the honored members of the Anniversary Team, and one of my all time favorite players and a true gentleman. I wrote the poem in his voice, thus the poem in italics.

Earl "The Pearl" Monroe     by Tom Meschery

In the rec leagues
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 a pearl.
I guess I've been a mixed
metaphor ever since. Sometimes
when I backed a player
down into the paint
and spun into my shot,
I knew before the ball left
my fingers it was going in.
At that moment,
I could have heled lepers,
raised the dead. 
 

Jon Gruden & racism and NBA Players Arrested and Etc

 Jon Gruden in an email to Bruce Allen, the President of the Washington NFl team, once known by the racist slur "The Redskins," referring to De Maurice Smith, the African American NFLPA director in 2011, said of him that he had "lips the size of Michellin tires." You don't get more racist than that. Gruden, now the coach of the Los Vegas Raiders claims that back then he referred to people who lie (meaning Mr. Smith) as having "rubber lips." Really, Jon? Got caught being a racist and pulling shit out of the air? I check out the Urban Dictionary to see what it says about rubber lips. Definition #1: Someone who mangles the pronunciation of a word through lingual clumsiness. Definition #2: The rubbery shape of a person's lips. Think Mick Jagger. Nowhere could I find having rubber lips meaning to lie. That pretty much hoists you, Jon, on your own petard, wouldn't you say? 

Another thought to keep in mind for those still willing to give Gruden the benefit of the doubt. To whom was Jon Gruden emailing this slur? Answer: To the brother of George Allen, famous for his racist "Maccaca Moment" to describe a man of color who was tracking his political speeches. Aha! And lets make a further connection: Bruce Allen was hired by Washington team owner Daniel Snyder a staunch conservative Republican who was proud of his team's name "Redskins" considered racist my Native Americans. Voila! And lest we forget, Mr. Snyder donated $1 million dollars to racist ex-president Donald Trump. Checkmate, baby!

There is a whole lot of inductive reasoning going on, Jon, that leads to a reasonable conclusion about you that in 2011 you meant exactly what what spewed out of your mouth to be  a racist slur. Nobody believes that rubber lip lie crap, 

Would Jon Gruden of today use raciest slurs? Probably not, not that he might not want to, but because in today's media sensitive society, he'd be caught out pronto and would be out of a job just as fast. Jon Gruden is not a stupid man, but he might very well be a deeply ingrained racist. The evidence seems overwhelming.

On to another distasteful subject:

Can't believe that retired NBA players scammed our NBA health insurance. Shame and for shame on you guys. What's so nuts to me is why? WHY IN THE HELL DO IT? The money doesn't make sense. Let's just say that all these scammers when they played only received veteran's minimum. In the year 2000 the minimum for vets with 4 years experience was $510,000 dollars but probably higher in most cases. But lets just say it was the basic minimum and each of the scanners played eight year seasons. That comes to $4,080,000, not a bad for 8 years work. So, now these guys are scamming a health system for 10 or 20 lousy grand? What's up with that? The only thing I can think of is they're broke and desperate. 

I'm thinking of teachers minimum starting salaries, Small business owners, social workers paychecks and I have no sympathy for these guys. Every single one of the scammers should pay back what they scammed, and they should serve jail time. And they should made to pay for their own health insurance. 

On a happier note, a much happier note, my Golden State Warriors are going to be a vastly improved team this coming season. Kudos to Bob Myers and Joe Lacob for insisting a WIN NOW strategy does not preclude a WIN LATER draft strategy. The Dubs are now a far better shooting team that the last season with Jordan Poole coming into his own and with the addition of Howard Porter Jr and Nemanja Bjelica to space the floor. Let's hear it for drafting Moses Moody and Kuminga. And sticking with Wiseman and not panicking because he was so raw. Klay will be back by mid year. Go Warriors!

I'm also happy to report -  in my humble opinion - that the Sacramento Kings, my fall back team due to the fact I live in Sacramento, with the addition of Devion Mitchell and other vets Like Tristan Thompson, will be a much better team this year. I'm betting they will make the playoffs. I'm not betting a whole lot, but I AM betting. 

Here's a poem from my first collection of poetry Nothing You Lose Can Be Replaced. 

Oscar      by Tom Meschery

          Oscar Robertson, The Big O, Hall of fame guard Cincinnati Royals & Milwaukee Bucks     

Always at those moments
when we thought the game was ours,
out came the cavalry bugler
blowing charge. It was Cincinnati
1963, but today it's pure Hollywood,
soldiers suddenly appearing on the horizon,
the terrified Apache, who always suffered
a losing season, high-tailing it across the border. . . 
were only and an average team. Don't you remember
the Warriors won most of those games.
not anymore. Today, I can't use 
wins and losses, but Oscar's jumpers,
rising over Embry's crushing picks,
the bugle's notes fading into applause - 
I need those picture, like movies
I can watch over and over.

It's About Frigging Time

 It should have happened long ago. Today the NFL announced that they would clamp down on Taunting. It's been going on far too long, and has, in some minds, especially young athletes, a part of the game as they see their favorite football players taunting opponents. Taunting is not cool. It is not manly. It is dishonorable, It is childish. It adds nothing to the game unless you are the kind of knuckle head fan who likes to see stupidity. It is not strategic and it provides the taunter with no advantage, except the enmity of the tauntee. It is not gamesmanship. It is small mindedness.. Taunting is a form of bullying. Those of you in the NFL who taunt, consider the example you are setting for the youngster playing football.  

It should have happened long ago. Today the NBA rules committee announced that in the upcoming season the league would pay greater attention to players on offense drawing fouls, the example they gave was of a player dribble up the court with a defensive player behind him. The player with the ball suddenly stops and the player behind him has no place to go except run into him. Foul against the defense? No longer. It will be called from now on as a no-call (get on with the game) or a foul on the player dribbling who stopped. No longer will offense be able to leap into a defender and get a guaranteed foul and freethrows. A no-call or a charging foul on the offense. Players who try to get this kind of advantage are to put it mildly sneaks. 

In both cases, the acts have something to do with a player's attitude to winning. If winning is one's only goal, then any advantage one can gain seems worth doing.

Here's a small poem by William Makepeace Thackery

Who Misses or Who Wins

Who misses or who wins the prize
Go lose or conquer as you can:
But if you fall, or if you rise,
Be each, pray God, a gentleman.