Wrap it up

Congratulations to Jay Humphrey on his retirement from coaching, hopefully after the State 2A tournament in March. I’ve watched Jay coach on more than one occasion and he certainly had his passion for the game that he learned from his dad, Denny.

I have fond memories of Jay’s time as a Bronco shooting guard in the days before the 3-point line was established. Jay had a really nice shot and could make things miserable for his opponent.

Our paths crossed on several occasions, usually at a tournament and he was gracious in asking how things were going. Jay’s West Valley Eagles finished their league in second place but still have a shot at making the state tournament . Good Luck Jay!

This week LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul Jabbar as the all-time scoring leader in the NBA. I know there are a ton of LeBron fans out there but I think we should set the record straight on these two all-time greats. First, James was drafted out of high school, while Kareem (Lew Alcindor) played four years for UCLA. In his first year, at UCLA freshman weren’t allowed to play on varsity.

UCLA would win three National Championships and Kareem received his degree from UCLA before he was eligible to play in the NBA after his senior year. What impact would Kareem have had if he would have been able to play in the NBA as an 18 year old?

Certainly, no one would be able to definitively say how good he would have been early on. One thing is for sure, Jabbar had an outstanding mentor in Coach John Wooden.

So, how many more points would Jabbar have scored if he started NBA play four years earlier or if there had been a 3-point line? Not sure how many 3-pointers Jabbar would have attempted but I’m sure he would have only shot them as needed.

I see so many of today’s players talk about themselves as being the greatest of all time, but they need to acknowledge the players that ran the NBA courts before them. They played in the time when maybe only a couple of games a week were televised.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Jabbar say that he was the greatest of all time because the team’s success was more important.

And finally a great Super Bowl was played Sunday and the Kansas City Chiefs were victors over the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35.

Patrick Mahomes rallied the Chiefs in the second half from 10 points down on a bad ankle in what was a gutsy performance. The Chiefs had a chance to go up by a touchdown with less than 2 minutes left but decided to run the clock down and kick a field goal rather than give the Eagles a chance to get their hands on the ball.

On the Chiefs’ last drive there was a controversial defensive holding call against Philadelphia, which gave the Chiefs a first and goal from about the 5-yard line. One of the announcers was saying he didn’t think the hold should have been called but had he not held the receiver, the Chiefs may have scored a TD. Looking at the replay, it looked like the defensive back actually held him twice so it was a good call. Even the defensive back admitted that he held

There were two plays that KC scored on that led to the victory. It was blown coverage where the receiver in motion stopped and reversed and was wide open for an easy pitch and catch on both sides of the field. So Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy drew up one play and was able to use it.

It wasn’t the holding call that did in the Eagles, it was blown coverage. But KC pulled it off against a great Philadelphia team. All you have to do is win this game once. And that’s a wrap.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist

from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].