FINISH…

Today is the last day of 2022. We gotta finish strong…

Watching Hawks-Lakers Friday night and early in the game LeBron James stepped in on defense and drew an offensive foul. LeBron is playing his 20th season in the NBA. He’s a 4-time champ, a 4-time finals MVP, a 4-time NBA MVP, 18-time NBA all-star and 13-time all-NBA first team.

Late in the game while LBJ was on the free-throw line Hawks fans were chanting, “MVP, MVP!” Keep in mind the game was in the ATL. Lakers were down 15 in the second only to come back and win behind James: 130-121. As for his numbers on his 38th birthday: 47 points (18-27 FG), 10 rebounds and 9 assists.

Wednesday night Gonzaga beat Eastern Oregon University 120-42. The Mounties are NAIA.

Miami Hurricanes off to a 13-1 start, 4-0 in the ACC with their win over Notre Dame, 76-65.

Pitt Panthers over North Carolina 76-74.

Most assists since the 2018-19 season in the NBA? Trae Young at 9.2 and second is Russell Westbrook at 9.0. James Harden (8.9) Chris Paul (8.6) Luka Doncic (8.1) and LeBron (8.1) round out the top six.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put on a show Friday night with 43 points and 20 rebounds leading the Bucks to the 123-114 win over the Timberwolves. The Greek Freak became just the 7th player in NBA history to record 40+ plus and 20+ rebounds in back-to-back games. Moses Malone, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Elvin Hayes, Bob McAdoo and Bob Pettit.

More importantly the win breaks the Bucks 4-game losing streak. T-Wolves have lost 5 straight.

In Milwaukee they have heated seats…for the players and coaches on the bench! Remember the wooden folding chairs they had at the Boston Garden?

CJ McCollum broke the New Orleans Pelicans record for most 3’s in a game with 11 leading the Pels to the 127-116 over the 76ers. McCollum finished the game with 42 points on 13 for 20 including 11-16 from downtown. Pels have won 5 straight.

In his broadcasting debut for the Big Ten Network, Dane Fife did a fine job as color analyst on the Michigan State – Buffalo game. If he decides to pursue a broadcasting career, he’s got a bright future.

My friend Ray LeBov of Basketball Intelligence pointed out to me his favorite color analyst Jim Peterson. I listened to the Timberwolves broadcast against the Bucks – I agree with Ray, Jim is very good.

I may have to rank all 30 NBA teams broadcasting crews.

Ray sent me a link from the Miami Herald on a good story about Erik Spoelstra explaining to Tyler Herro on “impacting winning.”

“I remember the first day I was in Miami I’m pretty sure he said those words: ‘If you want to play next year, you have to impact winning.’ And that was my goal from that day on for myself, to impact winning and continue to do it as I got older.”

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article269038807.html#storylink=cpy

I’m sorry but all these people dancing on various NBA courts during timeouts, between quarters and at half-time is played out. Would much rather see youth basketball players going up and down playing against each other.

A high school basketball player in Boston was charged with assault on a referee and will face criminal charges. Come on people. We gotta be better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEBRON JAMES

LeBron turns 38 today. The guy has had an incredible career. But you don’t need me to remind you.

In my eyes, he’s the second greatest basketball player of all-time. (Michael is and always will be #1).

If you know the game, you know what time it is.

LeBron is about to become the all-time leading scorer in the history of the NBA.

Old school heads get upset when their guys get passed on lists. You can hear it in their voice and read it in their emails or texts. Face it fellas, these guys playing today are incredible.

Scoring isn’t even LBJ’s strength, it’s passing.

Check the Top 10 assists leaders of all-time; LeBron is 6th. Matter of fact, the Akron, Ohio native is the only player on both lists; scoring and assists. Not too shabby, huh?

Fire Up Chips – did you see where Central Michigan beat Michigan Thursday night in Ann Arbor, 63-61? Michigan was up 61-60 and on defense when Reggie Bass of CMU made a 3-pointer with :11 left to give the Chippewas the win. CMU is 5-8, Michigan, 7-5.

“Let me give (Central Michigan) credit for coming out here and playing harder than us, being more physical than our team, being more prepared than our team. And it starts with me first as a coach,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “Central Michigan was the team that was the grittiest, toughest, nastiest. We just got outplayed.”

The Boston Celtics are the best team in the NBA right now. I can see them winning the championship in June. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are big-time. Throw in Marcus Smart and Al Horford and you have a nice squad. By the way, Derrick White is third in the league in “plus-minus” with +220. Tatum is first at +256.

Last night while watching Boston play the Clippers I realized the C’s the best broadcasters in the league; Mike Gorman and Brian Scalarbrine are a joy to listen to. Gorman is not one of those “word vomit” guys either. He allows you to watch the game without unnecessary blabber. And Scalarbrine is great with the analysis; he knows the game and gives his honest opinion.

Luka Doncic followed up his historical performance last night with 35 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists. Mo load management for Luka. Just a recovery beer.

Former college player and college coach Dane Fife will be working the Michigan State – Buffalo game tonight for BTN. Dane’s one of the good guys.

How about this story below of a parent in youth sports? It’ll never get better, it’s only getting worse that is until coaches and administrators come together and stop these cowards from trying to have influence.

https://www.ky3.com/2022/12/28/judge-sentences-willard-mo-man-after-pleading-guilty-threatening-sons-basketball-coach/

SWING THE BALL

Wednesday night I watched Davidson (7-5) visit Fordham (12-1) on CBSSN. Fordham’s only loss this season was at Arkansas by 26. The Rams entered the night on a 15-game win streak at Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx.

It was the A-10 opener for both schools. Davidson came out on top 57-43. The Rams shot 3-31 from downtown. Cats weren’t much better, 3-12. Tom Penders rolling over in his grave.

Did you know Denzel Washington played for Fordham’s JV team back in the day?

Tempers flaring in the D. Pistons and Magic in a light skirmish in the second quarter that saw 3 players ejected. Moe Wagner pushed Killian Hayes out of bounds so Hayes went after Wagner. Both players were ejected as well as Hamidou Diallo and Pistons head coach Dwane Casey. As for the game, the Pistons came out on top 121-101.

UConn stayed undefeated (14-0) with a win over Villanova, 74-66. Huskies, Purdue and New Mexico the only schools without a loss in men’s division one basketball.

Brooklyn Nets keep on rolling – they went to the ATL and beat the Hawks 108-107. Kyrie Irving led the way with 28 points. Kevin Durant added 26. Nets have won 10 straight. Hawks played without Trae Young and Clint Capela. They’ve lost 3 of their last 4.

While the Nets are moving up the ladder, the Milwaukee Bucks continue to struggle. In Chicago they blew a 15-point lead with 8:08 left in the game and lost in OT 119-113. Milwaukee has now lost 4 straight. Bulls showing some life have now won 4 of their last 5. DeMar DeRozan scored 42 points for Chicago on 15-25 from the field while Giannis led the Bucks with 45. DeRozan, who is a master at the mid-range pull-up did not attempt a single three-point shot. The Bucks meanwhile shot 9-44 from deep.

Funny question from the Milwaukee Bucks play-by-play person to the color analyst during the game. Bucks have the ball, tie game, :07.8 left in the game. “What do you think they do here?”

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

INCREDIBLE

I hope you watched Luka Doncic Tuesday night against the New York Knicks. He scored 60 points, grabbed 21 rebounds and handed out 10 assists. Mavericks announcers said no player in the history of the league has ever had a 60-point, 20-rebound triple-double.

Wait, not even Wilt? The Big O? Michael? Bird? Kareem? Magic?

WOW!

“To do something that’s never been done before, that’s hard to do,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “There’s been some great players before him. Elgin Baylor and Wilt, he was in that class, and then he separated himself and made his own class.”

Biggest play from Luka last night happened with :04 left in regulation. Knicks in a foul or defend (up 3, on defense, less than :10 left in the game). They foul Luka. He makes the first, Mavs down 2. Luka misses the second on purpose, Knicks can’t get the defensive rebound so Luka grabs it, throws it up and scores. Tie game. We head to OT.

That’s why some coaches don’t like to give the foul.

Mavs won in OT, 126-121.

Great win for Dallas. They’ve won 4 straight. Awful loss for New York, they’ve now lost 4 straight.

PRACTICE

Practice is the backbone to a player’s success.  It’s where you get your extra shooting in, you work on conditioning, and most of all, you get to spend time with your teammates running the offense and working together on the defensive end.  It’s where you learn defensive principles, concepts and where you see who can help you on game day.

I once read a great quote about Michael Jordan being the greatest practice player in the history of basketball. I also found this from Adrian W. of Yahoo Sports on Jerry Krause.

“Michael absolutely killed Scottie in practice every day for his first two years. Mike just tore Pip up. He made Pip learn how to compete and forced him into playing hard. Had there not been someone to challenge Scottie like that, I’m not sure what would’ve happened to him.”

What if Jordan had not went after Scottie Pippen hard in practice every day? Would Scottie have been as great as he turned out?

You need to compete every day in practice; regardless if your best friend or roommate is guarding you in a scrimmage game or even if you are competing against them in a drill.

Here’s a piece on Jordan from ESPN’s Melissa Isaacson.

“We’d run a three-man shooting drill in practice,” longtime assistant Johnny Bach recalled. “And Michael always made sure he had the threesome he wanted. Not Trent Tucker, not Johnny Paxson, not Craig Hodges [among the best 3-point shooters in the league].

“He’d say, ‘I’m calling my pigeons up to shoot.’ They were shooting for some remuneration. He’d force himself to shoot under pressure. He needed a challenge to beat [Scottie] Pippen. He knew Horace [Grant] had a nice shot. He’d also throw some wicked passes to [his shooters]. You’re supposed to honor the code to throw a good pass to the shooter, but he had a way of throwing screwballs and sinkers. Not that he would have tolerated that. That was imperial Michael at his best.”

“Run it back, run it back,” is what Michael yelled when his team lost. It is what he said whenever he had lost.

Run it back, run it back is something that needs to be said over and over in practice if you expect to improve. Is it any wonder the greatest player in the history of basketball was arguably the greatest practice player of all-time?

Here are a couple of practice tips that all players can use:

Come prepared to practice hard every day.

Arrive early

Stretch out

Take meaningful shots when warming up

Run the floor hard

Defend

Rebound

Communicate

Pay attention to the coaching staff

Challenge your teammates

Stay after practice and work on your offensive moves.

Get in extra shooting

Go out and have a good practice…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

IT’S ALL ABOUT BASKETBALL

How about the Brooklyn Nets?

WOW!

Fritz Massmann is in basketball heaven with a smile…

I didn’t see this success coming at all.

Matter of fact I’ll be honest, I thought they were going to be a mess. Which they were on November 1st when they were 2-6.

All the drama going on on Atlantic and Flatbush. TMZ had their vans and street hustlers outside Barclays looking for the latest gossip.

Steve Nash, Ben Simmons, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden’s comments about there being no structure. It was a basketball soap opera. A bad one at that.

Last night the Nets traveled to Ohio and beat the Cavaliers 125-117. Durant and Irving each dropped 32 points combining for 12 of 19 from distance. Brooklyn has now won 9 straight games.

Give Jacque Vaughn credit – he’s pulled them together.

“I am a simple person,” Vaughn said after Monday’s game. “And really try to keep things simple. And so really stressed what was going to be beneficial for our team. And whether that was the amount of time we spent in shoot-arounds, the amount of time we shaved [off] and kept our guys fresh, in order to give an extreme amount of effort when we play. And that was kind of the goal, we created a little momentum that way.

“We stripped our playbook down a little bit, we are simple in what we do … have our guys play extremely free of mind. I think there’s something important in that if you’re going to ask your guys to play hard.”

Simmons has been a huge lift. In the past four games he’s had 32 assists and just 5 turnovers. He’s a +65 the past three games.

“Basketball,” Vaughn said before the game. “We have not steered away from today is today. The most important part of today is we’re trying to win this ballgame. When we step into the gym every single day it’s about basketball. How we’re going to take care of each other on the floor, cover for each other on the floor, it’s about basketball.”

Nets visit Atlanta Wednesday night.

Top 3 Teams in the East: Celtics, Nets, 76ers

Top 3 Teams in the West: Nuggets, Pelicans and Grizzlies

Have a positive day and always play the right way…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

RECKLESS REACH INS

On Christmas I was able to watch the first four of five scheduled NBA games. When 10:00 PM rolled around and it was time for the final game of the night; Suns-Nuggets, I was fading so I shut it down. Woke up this morning to a text from my guy Joe Lee. “Did you see Aaron Gordon’s dunk?”

76ers 119 Knicks 112: First up at Noon from 33rd and 8th. New York was in control most of the game; that is until Philadelphia woke up and realized it was time to ball. Georges Niang hit four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to break it open for Philadelphia. He was a +17 on the day. Early in the game ABC announcer JJ Redick said, “I know people complain on NBA twitter,” really JJ? People actually complain on social media? Who cares what they have to say. And who are they anyway? That’s the problem with social media; we care too much about what strangers have to say. The NBA has been pushing all-star voting. Back in the day we would grab a stack of ballots and punch out the holes on who we wanted to start. NBA leading scorer Joel Embiid led the way with 35 points. James Harden had 29 and 13 assists. I laugh when announcers say, “it’s Joel Embiid’s team.” No it’s not, it’s everyone’s team. Julius Randle scored 35 for New York. Philadelphia has now won 8 straight. Knicks have lost 3 straight and they head to Texas for 3 games. Knicks had 30 assists and 11 turnovers.

Mavricks 124 Lakers 115: Best thing about this game? Hubie Brown was on the call. He’s 89 years-old. Funny to hear Hubie and his partner nitpick Luka Doncic; this time over his free-throw shooting. Luka is making 74% of his free-throws; today he was 12-16. He finished finished with 32 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists for a +24. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 15 of his 26 in the third quarter. Mavericks scored 51 points in the third. Christian Wood scored 30 points and had a career high 7 assists. Dallas made 18 3-pointers on the day. Lakers 9. LeBron James finished with 38 points. He’s now scored 30 or more seven straight games. Slowing down? Nope. He was 0-4 from distance and 12-12 from the free-throw line. Russell Westbrook was a -30. He scored 17 points on 7-16 shooting. Mavericks have won 3 straight. Lakers have lost 4 straight. “We talked about before the game just being ready to initiate, sustain and finish with energy, effort and competitiveness,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “We left it in the locker room at halftime.” Have to play 48 minutes.

Celtics 139 Bucks 118: Something is going on with the Bucks. And it’s not good. I’m not happy with the way they are playing as of late. Giannis seems to be getting frustrated; for the second straight game he’s gotten into it with the opponent. The Greek Freak needs to keep a cool stool. Jayson Tatum scored 41 points and Jaylen Brown added 29. Tatum is averaging 30.9 points per game. He can be the first Celtic player in their history to score 30 PPG in a season. Larry Bird had 29.9 PPG in 1988. This was a match-up of the two best teams in the Eastern conference but it didn’t look that way. “I thought I was playing pretty physical defense, nothing dirty. It seemed like it was a clean play,” Brown said. “Maybe he was a little but frustrated. He got up and threw an elbow at me, for whatever reason.” Whatever you want to call it, Giannis needs to fix his response/reaction to physical play. He finished with 27 points and 9 rebounds. Milwaukee has lost 3 straight. No need to panic. There’s plenty of time. The Bucks are a very good team but right now they are not the second best team in the East. Bucks are playing without Khris Middleton who missed his fifth straight game. Tatum leads the league in plus/minus with a +249. His teammate Derrick White is a +194. Celtics made 19 3’s, Bucks 13. Celtics fans had the “MVP, MVP,” chant directed at Tatum when he stepped to the free-throw line. There was a small incident involving Bobby Portis and Grant Williams. ESPN showed the replay 9 times.

Warriors 123 Grizzlies 109: Jeff Van Gundy on the call for this one. JVG is always good for a few coaching and players nuggets. His partner Mark Jackson said, “Ja Morant doesn’t get enough credit.” HUH? Oh yes he does, Action Jackson. Jordan Poole scored 32 points in 29 minutes leading the Dubs to the win. But he was ejected with a little over nine minutes to go in the game. Dumb move. Klay Thompson added 24 points and 9 rebounds. Draymond Green had 13 rebounds and 13 assists. The Warriors are very good at home (13-2) Not so good on the road (3-16) Warriors put the “Hack-A-Adams” on Grizzlies big man Steven Adams. He’s shooting 32% on the season – tonight he was 2-2. Warriors made 18 3’s, Grizzlies 9. Desmond Bane was 0-7 from deep. Morant had 36 points on 15-29 shooting. But he was 2-10 from distance. Ty Jerome was a +23. The Warriors were slapped with 6 T’s. I don’t know the numbers but they have to lead the league, no? “When we’re locked in and we’re playing for each other we’re a damn good team,” Warriors guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “The big thing for us is when we’re tested with adversity.” That’s the key though, staying locked in. DiVencenzo scored 19 points. Steph Curry missed his fifth straight game. Andrew Wiggins missed his 10th straight. When those two guys get back, watch out for the Warriors. Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins wore his pajamas to the game. He should have coached in them.

Have a positive day and always play the right way…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

HOLIDAY HOOPS

Merry Christmas to you if you celebrate the birth of God’s son.

Five NBA games today starting at 12 noon going all the way to midnight.

There have been years where I watched every game from my couch.

In 1984 I attended the Knicks game on Christmas night at Madison Square Garden when Bernard King scored 60 points against the New Jersey Nets and what people don’t realize is the Nets won the game, 120-114. That’s right. My guy Micheal Ray Richardson scored 36 points for the Nets leading them to the win. Sugar played all 48 minutes and shot 10-22 from the field including 16-17 from the free-throw line, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Another memorable Christmas night game at the Garden I attended was in 1976, 76ers were in town. It was the first appearance in New York for Julius Erving as a Philadelphia 76er. Doc was sold by the New York Nets to the Sixers just two months earlier. And to think the Knicks could’ve had Erving…

My mother knew a guy who worked behind the scenes at MSG so he hooked me and my older brother up with two great seats. 76ers won 105-104 behind World Free’s 30 points.

The NBA schedule was blank on Christmas eve, watched a lot of football.

Friday night James Harden handed out 21 assists for the 76ers leading them to a 119-114 win over the Clippers. He became the third player in Sixers history to put up 20 assists and 20 points in one game (Wilt Chamberlain and Mo Cheeks). Harden is only the 9th player in the history of the league to post those digits, along with a triple double (he had 11 rebounds) Magic Johnson and Oscar Roberston did it 3 times. Wilt, Isiah Thomas, Rod Strickland, Guy Rodgers and Luka Doncic have all done it once. Sixers are rolling, they swept their 7 game home stand.

The Chicago Bulls came up with a big win Friday night over the Knicks at the Garden 118-117. After Jalen Brunson missed two free-throws with :06 left in the game, Knicks holding on to a one-point lead, DeMar DeRozan made a mid-range pull-up from the right elbow with :00.4 left giving the Bulls the win. Why didn’t New York bring a double-team over to guard DeRozan? RJ Barrett scored 44. After losing twice to the Knicks last week, Chicago has won 3 straight.

Across the river the Brooklyn Nets beat the Milwaukee Bucks Friday night 118-100. Brooklyn has won 8 straight. It wasn’t much of a game actually. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving went off. KD had 24 points and 6 assists. Irving 18 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. See what happens when you leave the drama outside? Just do your thing and play ball. Ben Simmons showed up and played; he scored 12 points on 6-9 field goals with 11 rebounds, 8 assists and committed just one turnover. Giannis had 26 on 9-13 shooting from the floor, 13 rebounds and 7 assists. He turned the ball over 7 times. Jevon Carter of the Bucks struggled from the field; 2-10 shooting including 0-6 from deep. He’s 3 for his last 18 from 3. Bucks have lost two straight.

Luka Doncic dropped 50 in a 112-106 over Houston. He also handed out 10 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds.

How about Tyrese Haliburton? He made 10 3’s against the Miami Heat, including the game winner with :04 to play leading the Pacers to a 111-108 win. He finished with 43 points on 10-16 from deep. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle called him “an artist.” The league leader in assists (10.5) also managed to dish out 7. The “fake-wannabe all-star” looked real to me. The 22 year-old from Iowa State is averaging 20 points per game and shooting 48% from the field.

The Orlando Magic have won 8 of their last 9. Franz Wagner was a +36 in a recent win over San Antonio.

Anger management: Did you see Juwan Howard and Hubert Davis display full-blown anger at the officials in the Michigan-North Carolina game? Yikes…

Here’s the Christmas schedule in the NBA:

12 Noon 76ers at Knicks

2:30 Lakers at Mavericks

5:00 Bucks at Celtics

8:00 Grizzlies at Warriors

10:30 Suns at Nuggets

Merry Christmas everyone…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

“I have never been able to find peace like I found on the basketball court…a mystical place, heaven and earth between those lines.”

-John Merz

Back in the day we didn’t have a gym in my neighborhood where we could go and play ball.

If you wanted to play pick-up ball or work on your game, you went to the schoolyard at Holy Name Grammar School; it was our “paved paradise.”

Howard Place and Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, New York was the place to be.

In the winter when it snowed we shoveled the court in order to play. Wonder if kids still do that today?

Thursday night I did a little research on the plus-minus stat in the NBA. Jayson Tatum leads the NBA with a +220. Nikola Jokic is second at +218.

Nets and Bucks tonight at 7:30. Two of the best teams in the NBA. I’m always interested in who sits out. Hope everyone suits up. Nets have won 7 straight and 11 of their last 12. They are 20-12. Bucks have the best record in the league at 22-9. Giannis and company are coming off a 114-106 loss to the Cavaliers. Watch out for Cleveland, they’ve won 5 straight.

Mike Malone has the Nuggets tied for the best record in the West at 19-11. Helped by a guy named “The Joker.”

How about Pascal Siakim dropping 52 on the Knicks at the Garden Wednesday night? It was a career high. Raptors got the win 113-106 breaking a 6-game losing streak. Knicks loss broke an 8-game winning streak. Siakim is having a great season; 26.2 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 6.2 APG. Good thing about NBA League Pass is that you can choose which announcing team you listen to; my choice that night was the Raptors side with Brooklyn’s own, Jack Armstrong. He’s the best in the business.

“It’s cool,” Siakam said of posting his first 50-point game at Madison Square Garden. “I’m not a super basketball historian. I didn’t start basketball until a little late, but I know how special this building is, and I think that for me the most important thing is that my team needed every bucket for us to win, which is the most important thing to me.”

Steve Kerr on the Warriors struggles this season: “You are what your record says you are,” Kerr said. “It was a bad road trip. We are 15-18, so we’re a below-.500 team, and we’ve got to find a way to reverse that.” This season the Warriors are 3-16 on the road. They’ve lost 7 of their last 9 games.

Golden State did not do well on their recent trip to New York City; they were hammered by the Nets, 141-112 giving up 91 points in the first half. And the Knicks smacked them at the Garden 132-94. They should have scheduled the Terriers of St. Francis.

James Wiseman, who spent a few weeks in he G-League scored 30 points against the Nets. The third year center played 27 minutes and shot 12-14 from the floor.

“You have to have that understanding because you don’t want to overreact,” Draymond Green said. “In saying that, the most important thing is always playing right, as long as you’re not making effort-related mistakes you live with the results … we just have to understand where we are.”

Steph Curry has been out with a shoulder injury. He’ll miss the game Sunday on Christmas against the Grizzlies. The Warriors are 1-6 without him this season. He’s a +145 on the year.

Jose Alvarado of the New Orleans Pelicans is a +159.

I’m not sure why Knicks broadcaster Wally Sczzerbiak went after Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, calling him a “wannabe all-star?” Haliburton has a nice game. He leads the league in assists per game at 10.6 per game and averages 20 points per game.

“He had a lot to say about me and I was like really questioning like, first, who is this?” Haliburton said. “And why is he talking about me like this. I don’t know if I ever come out and said like, ‘I wanna be and All-Star this year. Please vote for me.’ I don’t think, I didn’t — I don’t think I’ve done that.

“I don’t know, I think he just was excited about a Knicks win and that got him going. But he’s just doing whatever he can to get attention and that’s just the media these days.”

One day later Wally apologized:

“I just want to address something I said about Tyrese Haliburton being a wannabe All-Sta. I want to apologize personally to Tyrese Haliburton. He’s a wonderful young player. He’s definitely in the All-Star conversation, along with guys like [Knicks forward] Julius Randle and [Knicks guard] Jalen Brunson. It’s going to be interesting to see who makes it and all those three players are wonderful players.”

I like the way Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan shoots his free-throws. He went 7-10 Thursday night against the Pelicans. He shoots it with just his right hand, leaving his guide hand off the ball. Think George McGinnis.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has an acronym when describing announcers who talk too much; “TTM.”

Stay warm and stay safe…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

Eskimos play basketball on a court of ice near snow covered mountains.

I LOVE THIS GAME

“Do it for love.” -Magic Johnson

There are many traits that go into making a good basketball player. One that gets overlooked is a love for the game.

This past week I spoke to two college basketball coaches and they both agreed that the love for the game is missing in many players these days.

Now I must say, it’s been that way for decades; not everyone who plays the game is going to have a passion for it. Someone once told me a story about a very good high school point guard from back in the day wasn’t too crazy about playing. But he did it anyway.

I’ve been in love with the game since 1970.

My mother gave me an orange, Voit basketball.

I went to the schoolyard and got up hundreds of shots on six different hoops.

The schoolyard was next to Holy Name church in Brooklyn, New York and with it being Christmas morning, they had Mass going on.

Eventually I would be kicked out of the yard and told to go home.

I was six.

But I would return every single day. Morning, noon and night. They could not keep me out of the yard.

It’s hard to tell if someone who plays the game loves it.

Some will say they do, but some will say they don’t.

I ask high school basketball players if they love the game or like it?

I firmly believe after studying the great players at every level, you truly need to have some sort of passion for the game if you want to excel.

I once read a quote from Kenneth Faried, a guy that spent 8 years in the NBA. He played hard and played with a lot of passion:

“I just love to play basketball. Every time I step on the basketball court, you never know, it could be your last game, so I like to play my hardest in every game. When you love the game like that, it tends to reward you back.”

Study the history of the game. Watch it. Be a gym rat. Show up early to practice. Put in extra work. Be a great teammate. Do what’s best for the team. Enjoy your time on the court…have a passion for the game.

Former basketball coach, the late Dick Harter once said, “To play real basketball, one must love the game.”

Do it for love…

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com