Rest In Peace, Joe Bryant

Joe “Jellybean” Bryant died earlier this week.  Despite having an eight-year career in the NBA along with a nine-year career playing basketball overseas in addition to a coaching career that spanned all or part of twenty-one seasons, Joe Bryant is best known as “Kobe Bryant’s father.”  The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that he died of a “massive stroke”; Joe Bryant was 69 years old.

Rest in peace, Joe Bryant.

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Wilt Chamberlain had a game where he collected 55 rebounds, and that record has stood for more than 50 years.  As if on cue, I received an email from the “reader in Houston” expounding on rebounding stats in the NBA.  So let me present this augmentation of “rebounds in a single game” over the NBA’s history:

• The 25 highest rebound totals in a single game in NBA history range from 55 (by Wilt Chamberlain) to 39 (by Bill Russell).
• It is appropriate that those two men bracket the top-25 list here because Chamberlain and Russell accounted for 23 of the top 25 rebounding games in NBA history,
• Chamberlain’s name is on the list 14 times.
• Russell’s name is on the list 9 times.
• Nate Thurmond’s name is on the list once (42 rebounds in a game in 1965).
• Jerry Lucas’ name is on the list once (40 rebounds in a game in 1964).

Thanks to the “reader in Houston” for this info…

Moving on …  Rumors abound that Skip Bayless will be leaving FS1 – – and his show Undisputed – – sometime this summer.  The NY Post referred to this reporting as “bombshell news”; I don’t know that I would go that far.  However, it is fair to say that FS1 does not have anyone currently on the air who can step in immediately for Bayless and maintain any sort of “command presence” in that time slot.  Recognize that Undisputed does not draw nearly the audience that ESPN’s First Take commands, but the only other FS1 personality who could be a credible replacement is Colin Cowherd – – who already has a 3-hour program on FS1.  A long time ago, FS1 had Jason Whitlock and Marcellus Wiley on the air; those two could have been excellent replacements for Undisputed but both men are onto different pursuits these days.

Switching gears – – but staying with the general issue of sports commentators on TV …  I ran across this item from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“TV timeout: Now that Charles Barkley says he’ll retire from NBA broadcasts after next season, it’s an opportunity for one of the NFL networks or streaming services to think outside the box and make him the third man in the booth. Doesn’t matter how much Barkley knows about football — how much did Howard Cosell know? — he’s a worldwide personality with an audience.”

Indeed, that is “out of the box thinking” and I think it might just work.  If the personalities and the “chemistry” set up correctly in a three-man booth with Barkley joining two “certified football guys”, that might be very entertaining.  Barkley did a cameo on the Manningcast and was his normal jovial and extroverted self; I think this is a great idea and I wish I had been the one to think of it first.

Next up …  You all know the adage that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.  Well, here is another “statistical anomaly” that was in the communication from #2 son about sports oddities.

• Every football fan knows that it is a bad thing when your team’s QB throws multiple INTs in a game.
• Well, a QB named George Blanda played for the Houston Oilers in the AFL back in 1962.  He played and started all 14 games that season.
• The Oilers record in 1962 was 11-3.  The Oilers won the AFL East that year and lost in the AFL Championship Game to the Dallas Texans.
• Nevertheless, Blanda threw 42 INTs that year or 3 per game.
• In fact, Blanda attempted 418 passes that year meaning 10% of his pass attempts were intercepted.
• Wow!

Finally, let me close today with words of wisdom from Will rogers:

“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………