By Ken Fogarty As was described on the second episode of the recent MJ vehicle “The Last Dance”, April 20, 1986 was a historic day for the NBA, but one of revenge for its greatest of all time. The story begins a day earlier when (as Danny Ainge tells it) Jordan lost some dolla bills on the golf course to the Celtic guard. Michael suited up the following day for game 2 of their playoff series and got his revenge… Michael Jordan ended up with: Points: 63 (an NBA record that still stands) FT Percentage: .905% Assists: 6 Rebounds: 4 …. And still lost the game …. In the history of the NBA playoff ..read more

By Ken Fogarty Dick Vitale famously introduced “PTP” as he enthusiastically labeled great college players as ‘Prime-time Performers’. Yes, this article is about PTP players, but there’s no college mention here… Prep-to-pro is the term given to NBA players who were drafted by their teams directly from High School. In the early years of the NBA draft, a player had to finish his four-year college eligibility to be eligible for selection (or wait for his class to graduate). In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court applied the Sherman Antitrust Act in a decision where the NBA was forced to allow Spencer H ..read more

By Ken Fogarty As a Sixers fan, I painfully recall watching Kawhi Leonard launch a 3 point attempt that bounced one, two, three, four times on the rim, before falling in to defeat Philadelphia 92-90 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Two points, and you’re going to the Eastern Conference finals. Two points and you’re going golfing…. As a member of the 2020 Los Angeles Clippers, Kawhi has continued play worthy of the best of the NBA. His numbers improved in several categories since last year’s MVP campaign; points are up (26.6 in 2019 – 27.1 in 2020), assists (3.3 in 2019 – 4.9 ..read more

By Ken Fogarty This week we are combining two of our favorite pursuits – comparing NBA player careers and comparing how NBA draft picks panned out. As with most everything in society today, the 2020 version of the NBA draft has been postponed and will take place on October 16th (vs. June 25th). To help those of you who are missing the annual summertime pass-time of debating if early summer NBA picks will pan out, we offer up a bit of historical NBA draft information. 50 years ago this year, the 1970 NBA Draft was held on March 23. At that time, college basketball players either had to play o ..read more

By Ken Fogarty Every year the National Basketball Association drafts prospective players from the ranks of college, international and (in cases like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant) high school basketball teams. The draft itself has lived up to the standards set by all 4 major sports in terms of pomp, celebrity and glitz, but all of that hype belies the stark truth of the situation; choosing the right draft pick could set your team on a path of historic success (see Tim Duncan). The very first NBA draft took place in 1950. While it’s true that professional basketball began drafting players in 1 ..read more

By Ken Fogarty There are currently 22 players in the NBA who have #1 as their jersey number. In the history of the NBA, 231 Players donned numero uno. As anyone who’s played sports knows, the number you get in pee-wee ball is usually just what’s on the shirt that the coach throws at you. But it’s also understood that, with supreme athletic talent comes the benefit of being able to request the number you want. So what is it about players that specifically choose to be #1? Are players that choose that number attempting to create a self-fulfilling prophecy and universally declare that they are ..read more

By Ken Fogarty Hello and Happy Friday basketball fans! Welcome to one of our new features where we take a team and look at their history, dive into the numbers and look at the best seasons these teams had to offer as well as their most forgettable seasons. For this first edition, I’ve chosen the Denver Nuggets. I’m a Sixers fan who’s recently moved from Brooklyn to Denver, and so in honor of my new hometown, we’ll look at the team currently 3rd in the Western Conference. Denver Nuggets (Denver Rockets from 1967 to 1974) Seasons: 53 (44 NBA 9 ABA); 1967-68 to 2019-20 Record: 2159-2128, .504 ..read more

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