Punjab

The Hindu : Punjab ends its thirteen-year wait

It's been a while since I tracked Indian Basketball. I went yesterday to Nehru Indoor Stadium, a last minute decision to take the bike across town, to watch the finals of the National Basketball Championships (Nationals). For details of the result, please check the above link.

The court was a revelation: Great venue, air-conditioned indoor stadium. The venue itself was slightly far off city center so couldn't attract the crowd the tournament deserves (seen JJ, TNagar courts with similar crowd for club level tournaments).

It was after the first quarter by the time I reached (missed the women's match completely), and TN was trailing by 6+ points. Only during the late second quarter did TN men look like closing the gap, which was put off in the first few minutes of third quarter by Punjab.

A few players stood out with their game, for TN it was #14 (Rikin Pethani?) was a solid offensive contributor, highlight of the game for me was his floating left hook shot. There were not much variety in the rotation, so Punjab was let off relatively easy in that department.They did catch up to doubling him towards the later part of the game, so have to give Punjab credit for marking him too.

For Punjab, apart from the notable names mentioned in The Hindu article, there was the ball handler #9 (TJ Saini?), who was brilliant with his quickness, and had a fantastic first step which often left his defender flat footed. He was a bit iffy at long range though, missed a couple of open long range shots which would normally be expected of a guard. To his credit, he more than made up for his misses by crashing the boards, often challenging the taller TN players successfully.

Overall, it was a not so memorable final, as Punjab exposed many holes in TN's game, including notably rebounding (both defensive and offensive), fast break, and general ball rotation (keeping eye out for open man). In all these three aspects, there were little things missed by TN which could have swung the match to a closer fight rather than a tame affair.

Lock out

The last time I heard about Lock Out was the first time I heard about it. That was around the time I finished school end of 1998, and heard that the season was truncated. I remember some days at the beginning of the season where I used to get up to catch the early morning broadcast only to find skateboarding, or sailing or golf, and it was not a happy memory. With no instant information or news regarding the NBA, eventually I caught up with bits of basketball in that season. That season, however, was the season which lost its continuity on the timelines that I was used to following, and became the beginning of end of faithful viewing.
Reading up on the present day lock-out I understand a bit of the position of both sides and the reasons why they wish to protect their interest by walking out. However, people who follow this sport around the globe, and for sports bodies in general, people want to follow sports, not the lockout discussions.
While we are on the subject, is Indian Basketball federation taking any efforts to get a few NBA players to visit India, or arrange an exhibition game in the country? Read that the Vegas pickup league is picking up.

Jerry Sloan moves on...

Yes, this has nothing to do with Indian basketball. Well, it's been a year since my last basketball related blog, and since then have been steadily losing touch with NBA news or on Indian Basketball. When I read about Jerry Sloan retiring, and some of the comments on his timing, including Karl Malone's that Sloan's not a 'quitter', just irked me that some of these past legends have it tough.

I remember watching Sloan's Jazz being denied repeatedly by Jordan's Bulls, I remember the 'postman' Malone, and the combination of 'Stockton-Malone' pick'n'roll being repeatedly, and successfully used by Jazz. To be repeatedly denied at the pinnacle must hurt, yet they kept making it to the finals, year after year. Something about the way they play the game impressed not just the TV audience but also many of the wannabe's. Routine, grit, discipline - everything that seemed like plain ol' vanilla (like their home jersey), used to be something which I'd associate with Jazz. It was a team that I loved to hate at the beginning, playing old school basketball, having tough guys (Malone used to play so tough & look mean too... ! :-)) then a team which I paid more attention to later on. Respect, that's what Sloan commanded, and that's what he earned the team.

Jerry Slaon is a great coach that I was lucky enough to see on TV (thanks to repeated finals playoffs), and along with Stockton-Malone, were the people that I knew respected, and followed in Jazz.