You’ve heard many times throughout the year that teams have been upset with officiating. Well it’s come to the point in the PBL where teams aren’t going to take it any more and have decided to just leave the league leave the league.
The Halifax Rainmen, coached by former NBA head man in Denver and one time Raptor assistant, Mike Evans, decided that it’s not worth it to play in a league where one team gets preferential treatment. President and CEO Andre Livingston pulled his team out of the league and his squad wasn’t the only one as a couple of teams followed suit. He spoke about the entire situation on Sportsnet Radio The FAN 590.
This could be the start of something big in Canada. It has long been my assertion that Canada needs to have a domestic professional league to help development. College and university players that are 22 or 23 years old see their careers end far too quickly. If there was somewhere to play, it would be far easier to develop players in Canada. Presently, our Canadians have to go and fight for jobs overseas and they don’t always find them.
Start a Canadian league similar to the CFL where imports are limited and you would see an increase in the quality of basketball in this country. There are logistics and challenges but its time that we get something going here in Canada. Call on the expertise of men like Livingston in Halifax and recruit the St. John’s team that is also looking for a place to play and start it up.
No it won’t be the NBA but it will provide a place to play at home. The players may not be able to make a living entirely off playing in the six or eight team league and might have to hold down off-season jobs but you know what, it would be a start.
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The Los Angeles Lakers have evened their series with the New Orleans Hornets and it was done despite the lowest playoff output in 11 years from Kobe Bryant.
The latest win was about two things that were missing in Game 1, namely contributions from other players and hard-nosed defence. Unlike the first game where the Hornets shot 55 per cent from the floor, they managed only 39 per cent and Chris Paul was not able to get into the lane and break the Lakers defence down as easily as he did in the first game. So Los Angeles fans need to lower their stress levels and just chill. The Lakers are the better team and will eventually prevail.
Portland is down 2-0 in their series with Dallas and can’t be happy about Brandon Roy’s latest complaints over playing time. That being said, he is a guy who is used to leading this team and is struggling with his new role coming off the bench. But it’s the old adage that says when you are losing, everyone has the answer.
In truth, the best thing for him to do now is to play his role off the bench and earn key minutes at the end of the game by winning head coach Nate McMillan’s trust. Roy did eventually speak to the media and apologize for his remarks.