With NCAA March Madness brackets out, I need to tell the SEC about the Midwest
Now that the NCAA men's basketball tournament bracket is revealed, there are the usual arguments over seeds and which conference is the best. With this, I don't care about opinions. I care about facts. Have any players ever won a high school state championship, a college championship, an NBA title and an Olympic gold medal? Is that heroic feat even possible? Only three men have accomplished this. Guess what? They are not from Indiana, Kentucky or North Carolina, the three states that seem to historically brag that they have the strongest basketball heritage and legacies. It pains me as a Wolverine and Wildcat to put a Buckeye, Hoosier and Spartan on this pedestal, but they so earned and deserve it.
Jerry Lucas: Middletown, Ohio, High School (1956 and 1957), Ohio State University (1960), New York Knicks (1973), Olympic gold (1960)
Quinn Buckner: Thornridge, Illinois, High School (1971 and 1972), Indiana University (1976), Boston Celtics (1984), Olympic gold (1976)
Earvin "Magic" Johnson: Lansing Everett, Michigan, High School (1977), Michigan State University (1979), Los Angeles Lakers (1980), Olympic gold (1992)
What do they have in common? They were boys of the midwest. They played for Big 10 universities. Draw a triangle from Dayton to Chicago to Lansing, 200 to 300 miles on each side. This is the holy ground of basketball. Drop the mic! The SEC and the rest of the country have no response.
Ann-Nora Hirami
Plymouth
Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print. If you have a differing view from a letter writer, please feel free to submit a letter of your own in response.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: With March Madness coming, I believe Midwest is best | Letters
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
38 minutes ago
- USA Today
JJ Redick saw Tyrese Haliburton's potential three years ago
JJ Redick saw Tyrese Haliburton's potential three years ago Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers has been a rising star for some time now, but over the last several weeks, he has become perhaps as dangerous a player as there is in the NBA. During the regular season, there were quite a few people who thought he was overrated, and he wasn't even named to this year's All-Star team. But he has exploded during the playoffs and hit a number of clutch and game-winning shots, including the dagger he nailed just before time expired in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick may have seen at least some of this coming. In February 2022, when the Sacramento Kings traded Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers along with Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday and Jeremy Lamb, Redick said point-blank that Haliburton was the best player on the Kings. "This is some form of malpractice on the Kings' part," Redick said of the trade. "... Tyrese Haliburton has been the best player on that team. ... He was determined to turn things around and be part of that rebuild in Sacramento. I know he's shocked right now, but they traded away their best player." The Kings took Haliburton with the No. 12 pick in the 2020 draft, and at the time, he was starting in their backcourt alongside De'Aaron Fox. Fox was putting up much better scoring numbers, and to this day, he has continued to average more points than Haliburton, but Haliburton has been the better 3-point shooter, passer and facilitator. Haliburton led the NBA in assists per game last season, and he now has Indiana just three wins away from an NBA championship. Meanwhile, Sacramento made the playoffs in 2023 as the third seed in the Western Conference but has failed to reach the playoffs in both of the last two seasons.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sixers draft history: Jahlil Okafor selected No. 3 overall in 2015
With the NBA draft right around the corner, now is the time to look at some past drafts and see what the Philadelphia 76ers have done in their history. The Sixers have selected some big-time players in the past who have become an important part of the fabric of the franchise's history. This edition focuses on the 2015 draft as the Sixers held the No. 3 pick as they looked to move forward. With that selection, Philadelphia took Duke big man Jahlil Okafor as there was not a Joel Embiid showing just yet. Advertisement Okafor was very good as a rookie as he averaged 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds on a Sixers team that went 10-72. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting and was able to show a lot of production and promise on the floor. Overall, he played 105 games across three seasons in Philadelphia before being sent to the Brooklyn Nets early in 2017-18 with the emergence of Embiid. Okafor played 26 games for the Nets before playing three years for the New Orleans Pelicans and a season with the Detroit Pistons in 2020-21. He was out of the league for three years before playing a game for the Indiana Pacers in the 2024-25 season. This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers draft history: Jahlil Okafor selected No. 3 overall in 2015
USA Today
43 minutes ago
- USA Today
Why are the San Antonio Spurs supposedly a team to watch in Jaylen Brown trade talks?
Why are the San Antonio Spurs supposedly a team to watch in Jaylen Brown trade talks? Why are the San Antonio Spurs supposedly a team to watch in Jaylen Brown trade talks for the Boston Celtics? With all the grans of salt taken in light of it being silly season (that time of year when reports about NBA teams are often coming from parties trying to bend things towards their interests), we have been hearing rumbles from trustworthy media that there might be a deal to be made for the Georgia native between Boston and San Antonio. If there is any proverbial fire to this smoke, what would such a deal look like to make sense for both parties? Would Brown be okay with decamping to Texas after all the roots he has put down in the local community over the last near-decade? Is this all just a distraction when it comes down to brass tacks? The folks behind the "WEEI Boston's Sports Original" YouTube channel put together a clip from their "Jones and Keefe" show that takes a deep dive into these rumors. Check it out below!
