THIS & THAT #17

AKA — THE GREEN GROPER

THE PAST HAS PASSED

In the 2014-15 National Basketball Association Championship, the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers four games to two, and won their first title since 1975.

FOR THE RECORDS

The following season, 2015-16, they seemed even more potent setting a record starting the season 24-0. They had just begun setting records, and set a new record winning an astonishing seventy-three regular season games.

FOR THE RECORD

The Warriors made it to the 2015-16 NBA title match once again, and were leading the Cavaliers three games to one, winning game four on Cleveland’s home court. If they won game five, they would repeat as champions, and people were talking about a Warriors’ dynasty. The Warriors were playing game five in the friendly confines of their home court, where they had amassed a 39-2 record at home during the regular season.

FOR THE WRECKER

Draymond Green 6’7”, 230-lb. man-child of twenty-five semi-mature years, had developed a bad habit on the basketball court. After too many plays, he would either kick his nearest opponent in the groin, or make a grab for that anatomical area.

Coach Steve Kerr and Warrior teammates dismissed it as being Green’s aggressive, winning style of playing. Unfortunately, the NBA and its referees did not agree.

NOT CHAMPIONSHIP FORM

As long the Warriors stayed focused and let nothing distract them, they were already planning another victory parade around Oakland’s Lake Merritt. However, Green’s crotch-kicking peccadillo was about to be recognized.

Green was suspended after receiving a flagrant foul 1 for his actions in Game 4. Green and Cleveland’s LeBron James got tangled and when Green fell to the court, he swung his arm and appeared to make contact with James' groin area.

That was Green’s fourth flagrant foul point of the playoffs, which carries an automatic suspension. He was docked a game paycheck, which cost him about $140,000. Earlier in the postseason, Green was assessed a flagrant 2 and fined $25,000 for kicking the Oklahoma City Thunder center between the legs.

THE MISSING CENTER

Not only did Green’s suspension throw the Warriors off track, but with their number one center Andrew Bogut injured and out of the lineup, his two replacements combined for only one point and one rebound in his absence.

NO SPLASHING

As if the Green hex had spread to the entire starting lineup, the potent splash brothers, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, hardly made a ripple with their shooting in game seven. Curry had averaged 30.1 points and Thompson 22.1 points during the regular season, but in the Warriors’ final game, Curry managed to score only seventeen points on six for nineteen shooting (.316), and Klay sunk just six of seventeen shots (.353), for fourteen points.

RESSURECTION, TOO LATE

The Warriors had been out of sync since Green’s fifth game suspension, although in game seven, he contributed mightily, albeit two games too late, amassing thirty-two points, fifteen rebounds and nine assists.

HE GO WITH EGO

Green’s salary for the 2016-17 season is $15,330,435, and in September 2015, he generously gave $3.1 million to his alma mater’s athletic department. As a Michigan State alum, Green was in his old college town, when in the early hours of July 10, he admitted to slapping a 185-lb. Spartan football cornerback. After the altercation, Green allegedly uttered, “Do you know who I am? I pay for ni**gas like you scholarships.” Afterwards, Green issued a statement saying, “As a public figure, I just can’t put myself in certain situations. It’s something I’ll learn from and just move on.” Hopefully “on” and not “up.”

NO PREFERENCE FOR ATHLETES?

Green agreed to a plea deal, where charges against him were reduced to a noise violation, which allowed him to avoid jail time. However, he was burdened with a $500 fine and a $60 restitution fee, which if you look at his salary, that is equivalent to a few minutes of his playing time salary. His attorney said that this is “akin to a parking ticket.”

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON?

At 3:55 am PST on December 22, 2016, Draymond Jamal Green Jr. was born, and it is rumored that he entered the world kicking and screaming. Time will tell whether he will carry on his father’s tradition, and for how long.

THE APPRENTICE

Apparently, the famed Duke University basketball team has at least one player who is trying to emulate Green’s activity. On December 21, Grayson Allen was suspended from the team, one day after deliberately tripping an opponent for the third time in a year. Allen was quoted as saying, 'There’s no excuse for it.” If he wants to make it in the pros, he will have to sets his sights higher.

REPEAT PERFORMANCE

In their first meeting since the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors on June 19, 2016 in Oakland to win the NBA Championship, the two teams met in Cleveland on Christmas Day.

Two-and-one-half minutes into the game, Green had thrown the ball away and fouled two Cleveland players while they were shooting. After his second foul, Green lost it, was given a technical foul, and was screaming as he headed toward the Warrior bench. He was grabbed by teammates trying to calm him and avoid a second technical, and an automatic ejection.

Kyrie Irving of the Cavs scored a point as he made the technical free throw.

That one point was the difference in the Warriors loss to the Cavs, 108-109.

When will he ever learn, when will he learn?  .....apologies to Pete Seeger.

THIS & THAT #2

FOUR JEWISH BOYS FROM "THE HOOD"

In 1950, the City of Detroit’s population was at its highest, with 1,849,568 people, and 83.68 percent were white.

By 1960, the population had dropped to 1,670,144, and it fell each year until it had plummeted to 713,777 in 2010. That year, the black population represented 82.69 percent of Detroit’s residents.

In the 1950s when I was in high school, inner-city Detroit basketball players reflected the population as a whole, and were mainly white.

Those who lived in Detroit’s Jewish neighborhoods were most likely to attend Detroit Central High, Cass Technical High, or Northwestern High. Each year, Jews moved further north, trying to escape the inevitable, and the upstart pink and blue Mumford High became the public school to attend. This was just before the Jewish exodus to the safety of the near suburbs and beyond.

Among those high school basketball players who happen to be Jewish, were the Four Gees.  Those of you from the Detroit area were sent an email letter with clues, and now we will make it easier for you by telling a story about each of them.

If you have any recollections of your own, send them our way. The winning entry will receive the admiration of all of the other Detroit-area recipients, along with a special prize — two tickets to the next Saturday matinee at either the Dexter or Avalon movie houses.

THE FOUR GEES

Ralph Goldstein played for Central High, and was a First Team PSL member. He was captain of the University of Detroit Titans in 1955-56. He died on June 30, 1988 at the age of 53.

Jerry Greenberg played for Central High from 1949-1952, and was a Third Team PSL selection in 1952. He was a member of the Wayne University Tartars (now the Warriors), who won 17 and lost only one game in the 1955-56 season. The team made it to the sweet sixteen before losing to the University of Kentucky.

Fred Goldberg was a varsity basketball and baseball player at Northwestern High, and was awarded a scholarship to Detroit Institute of Technology. He became a coach and an athletic director, and died in Arizona.

Walter Godfrey played basketball and baseball for Cass Tech, and was a Second Team All-State basketball selection in 1952.  He was a starting guard for Michigan State University from 1954-1956. He was also the starting pitcher on the Spartan's Big 10 championship baseball team in 1954.

Find my recent and semi-regular writings here on the new Ho-Ho-Kus Cogitator blog, and there are current essays here, on What I Have to Stay.

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When you want to relax, try the calming exercise movements while learning Yiddish, found in his book The Oy Way — Following the Path of Most Resistance, by going here. Then click on YOU TUBE on the left side, and you will begin to find di zakhtkayt — tranquility.