Basketball Jones

We’re busy as can be these days and so I haven’t had time to post anything for the past few days. Here’s a few updates on matters of concern to this feature:

First, Ben’s mighty Team 4 squad (henceforth known as the Red Scourges) played much better on Saturday, losing to hated rival Team 3 (henceforth known as Purple Haze) by a score of 54-32. Ben did not score in the game but played very good defense, grabbed a few rebounds and had at least two assists that I counted. He also managed to foul a Purple Haze player without causing a bench-clearing brawl (more on that in a moment). More importantly, our mighty Scourges did not fold under full court pressure. You can see that the kids learned something from the fearsome thrashing they took from Team 2 (henceforth known as Yellow Rain) last week. The team is now off for the holidays and will retake the court on January 6 against Team 5 (henceforth known as the St. Anthony B Team).

Second, the college basketball season is off to a rollicking start. We’re seeing some very exciting Division I basketball this season, including excellent performances from my beloved Badgers and my equally beloved Marquette Warriors. I know, they changed their name to Golden Weasels or something like that about a decade ago, but they will always be the Warriors to me. The Badgers had an impressive home victory over Pittsburgh over the weekend and Alando Tucker & co. now have two pretty impressive Big East scalps on the wall. Meanwhile, Marquette has played very well and is the only team to defeat Duke thus far. You have to love Division I basketball. We can only hope that someday we can see Division I basketball here in Minnesota.

Third, since just about every pundit on the planet has weighed in on the Knicks-Nuggets brawl from last weekend, why not add my two cents? I think that the NBA does have an image problem because of things like this, but I think there’s a larger concern that transcends the NBA, which is the boneheaded machismo that surrounds the concept of “respect,” or more importantly, “disrespect.” Too often we see people resort to violence at the slightest perception of an insult, or a “dis.” The Knicks are a terrible team and it was obvious that Isiah Thomas, the NBA great who is incredibly miscast as coach/majordomo of the New Yorkers, ordered a hard foul because of a perceived slight. Thomas is now pushing 50; it’s long past time that he grow up.