Ladies and Gentlemen....the Coach.

I'm honored to have my first guest columnist. With the NBA draft coming up I went to my main basketball man, Coach. Some people can cook, some can play the piano, my little gift in life is giving nicknames. Coach and I met in college and the man spewed basketball out of his every pore, so rather than go by his birth name I christened him after the most famous basketball coach in Chicago, DePaul basketball coach Ray Meyer.

I asked him for some draft tidbits instead I got an interesting take on the NBA which one day, if ratings hold, will be having double headers with the Stanley Cup on the VS-Outdoor-What number is it channel. By the way who did win the NBA finals?

I give you, the Coach....




My good friend and college chum doug_plank asked me to write a column on the upcoming NBA draft. My first thought was, “Who cares about the upcoming NBA draft? The NBA finals ratings were at an all time low.” But then a second thought hit me. “Why does no one care about the NBA?”

Even I am not excited about the NBA draft, which if you know anything about me, is very surprising. I grew up in Indiana and am a basketball junkie. I coach high school basketball. I used to know every participant in every Final Four from 1965 to 1991. I used to sit by the TV and watch coverage of the draft with a notebook and give teams grades on the draft. And I don’t care about the upcoming draft? What is that all about?

So why the apathy? Could it be that the NBA is as crooked as the current White House administration? Don’t get me started on that one, I could write a whole book on that subject. Could it be the current NBA commissioner, David “I am the judge and the jury” Stern. Baseball’s commissioner, Bud “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” Selig isn’t any better, but people still care about baseball.

No, I think the apathy stems from the fact that there is no poet laureate for the NBA. No one to wax poetic about the game. Sure, the NBA has Bill Walton, but that is it. Baseball has Tim Kurkjian, who can tell you anything about any player who ever put on a baseball glove. Did you know that Alex Rodriguez is the first player with the last name Rodriguez to have 28 home runs by June 26th since the great Ramon Rodriguez of the Sonora Saguaros? Tim Kurjian knew, and told us all on ESPN. And speaking of ESPN, what about Peter Gammons? A man so famous they put him on the stinking $20 bill. He loves to sing the praises of baseball. And last, but certainly not least, we have the diminutive Bob Costas. Costas can make the Mickster look like a victim and tell you that baseball is so great because it doesn’t have a clock.
Who does the NBA have? Stephen A. Smith? Greg Anthony? Or how about everybody’s favorite, Jim “I hang from Kobe’s jockstrap” Gray. If the NBA wants to see its ratings go up, it needs a spokesperson. That, and league that isn’t fixed like a WWE match.