Marcus Jordan Wear His Dad's Shoes, UCF Loses $3 Million Adidas Shoe Contract

How is this for odd news. Michael Jordan's son causes the University of Central Florida to lose a $3 million exclusive basketball contract from Adidas, simply because Jordan's son insisted on wearing a pair of his father's Nike shoes. That's interesting.

Marcus, 18-year-old son of the NBA legend, says UCF had promised when recruiting him to the school that he could wear the famous Jordan brand shoe. So he decided he would honor his father by wearing his shoes. I get it if Marcus was any good, but he's about one million jump shots away from being even a moderate player. You know basketball is a team sport and the rest of his teammates had no problems wearing their Adidas shoes, but Sir Marcus had a problem with it.

Perhaps Michael paid the $3 million to the school for compensation. It is not beyond the realm of possibility. What a contribution Marcus made check out these stats. 23 minutes played, 1 point, on 3-3 shooting from the floor, and 1 for 2 at the free throw line, 1 personal foul, 1 assist, 3 steals. By the way UCF played St. Leo and won 84-65.

Jerry West - One Of The Greatest Players To Ever Play The Game

There are so many accolades you can give Jerry West, and it would take a number of years to complete. West was one of the all time great Guards in the History of the game. He is known as the Logo. The Logo of NBA basketball is in fact a silhouette Of "Mr Clutch himself, Jerry West. You could also call him Mr. Laker. Jerry West could light it up from all over the court.

He was a tough as nails guard, who could post you up, take the pull up jumper to perfection, or shoot the long range jumper, or come off the screen and connect with elegance. Jerry West came to work and you know he would give you a lunch bucket mentality for each and every game. He was player. A respected one at that.

But West did not get there without hard work, he dug in and became a student of the game, leading West Virginia to the final Four and the NCAA finals in 1959. Losing to Pete Newell's California team 71-70. West earned Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. West led all players in points scored in the tournament; 160, He had the highest scoring average; 32 point per game. He was second in most points in a game; 38, first in Most Free Throws in the Tournament; 45, first in most attempted free throws, and first in total rebounds for the tournament. California also disposed of Cincinnati, led by Oscar Robertson. This tournament included two of the best players in NBA history, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson. But it was West who made his mark in the NBA by leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a Championship in 1972.

West's career was stellar, He played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was voted 12 times to the All NBA team. he was elected to the NBA All Star Team 14 times. He was Most Valuable Player in the 1972 NBA All Star Game, and led the Los Angeles Lakers to his only NBA Championship, that same year in 1972.

He became General manager of the Lakers where he orchestrated 7 NBA Championships. West served as general manager with the Memphis Grizzlies as well. The accolades continued for West, but he is definitely on my list of the 5 greatest NBA players. If not the greatest Basketball player at all levels of all time.

Chuck Taylor' s The One And Only Basketball Shoe

Forget the Air Jordan, The Pumas, Adidas, Nike, all the high tech tennis shoes of today. When I came along, there was only one shoes, that anyone who played the game of basketball wanted, we called them "Chucks", short for Chuck Taylor Tennis Shoes, everyone had them either the standard All White pair or the Black pair. I still remember the smell of new Chuck Taylors.

Basketball in the sixties and seventies, Chuck Taylor's were the in thing. You either wore them with white shoe strings or some would wear twin strings with their school colors. You did not want to be caught wearing Keds, or any other off brand. Chuck Taylor's were the shoe of choice. Now Chucks are relegated to part of a fashion ensemble. I believe Converse sold the company, but I wish someone would bring the original Chuck Taylor back as a basketball shoe. That will never happen, because of the shoe contracts that Nike, Reebok and Adidas have with nearly every college coach.

If you have Chuck Taylor memories, leave a comment, I'd like to hear your story.

Jimmy Braddock Was A Pure Shooter

Jimmy Braddock,of Chattanooga, was an exceptional high School Player from Baylor High School who graduated in 1979. He was a scorer, who could fill it up. Another long range shooter, who could regularly score from 25 feet or more. This before the three point rule was in existence. Braddock averaged 35.5 points a game during his senior season at Baylor and 28.8 points during his junior year. Braddock made the Chattanooga All City Team, four years in a role in high school and he was selected as a McDonald's All American his senior year at Baylor.

In one game against Soddy Daisey (TN) High School, Braddock scored 56 points. I saw Braddock play against Chattanooga Riverside and saw Braddock score over 30 points. He was a prolific high school player and a scorer. He was recruited by Roy Williams to play at the University of North Carolina, where he played off the bench his first three years and started as the teams point guard in his senior season. He was a member of the Tar Heels, 1982 Championship team, playing along with Micheal Jordon, James Worthy, Buzz Peterson.

Had Braddock chose to go to a lower status school in nearly any conference he would have been an All-American and for sure he would have went on to play professionally.
Braddock currently coaches at a private school in South Carolina

Rick Mount's Shooting Legacy

Rick Mount was a 6'-4' long range bomber from Indiana who took Purdue to the Final Four in 1969. Mount was a prolific scorer. He could flat out light it up. In those days the game of basketball was played with less attacking of the rim, minimal theatrics, and a huge dose of fundamentals.

It was not unusual for teams to employ stall tactics, because there was no shot clock, which made Mount's scoring accomplishments, all the more phenomenal. Mount was a shooting specialist whose Father made him shoot a tennis ball through a can in order to refine his shot. He routinely shot 500 to 700 shpt per day. Mount definitely knows a little about shooting. He was an All American averaging over 27 points a game for his career and went on to a good career in the American Basketball Association.

North Carolina Simply Reloads

Pre-season Preview

The Tar Heels lost a boatload of talent in Ty Lawson, and Tyler Hansbrough, but the Heels will be strong in the front court Deon Thompson and Ed Davis return and John Henson looks like one of the country's best freshman. Then their are Tyler Zeller, William Graves and David and Travis Wear, they are twins. The problem for most teams is that all these players are tall; the Wear twins are both 6-10, Zeller, Davis and Henson are all 6-10. This give the tar Heels a front court with NBA Potential.

Roy Williams could be smiling all the way to the Sweet sixteen.

Filling The Lane Launches Monthly PDF Newsletter

Dear Sports Executive


It's that time of year and college basketball is gearing up for yet another season. There were many coaching changes throughout the the college ranks. John Calipari is the new head coach at Kentucky, Sean Miller settles in at Arizona, Isaiah Thomas, enters the college coaching ranks at Florida International. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Memphis hiring Josh Pastner, a former John Calipari assistant as head coach.


Shooting guards will make a big impact this year as well, William Warren at Oklahoma, Terrico White at Mississippi, Scotty Reynolds at Villanova are a few of the Top 10 players expected to make an impact. Many pre-season polls are picking Kansas as the number one team in the nation, but it is safe to figure that prediction could change, as parity once again will rule college basketball.


John Jenkins,a prolific 43 points per game scorer signed with Kevin Stallings and the Vanderbilt Commodore.s Check out a U-tube video of this kid. He can flat fill it up. In High school he played against B level competition,so his production will go down. He was however a top 64 pick among high school seniors.


In any event I am excited about the season and what lies ahead. It goes without saying that I am equally excited about the launch of FillingTheLane2010 Newsletter, a monthly newsletter on College basketball with coverage on high school and professional level as well. My newsletter is distributed in PDF format and emailed each month. The price to receive twelve

issues of FillingTheLane in only $30 per year. It is easy to subscribe, simply visit the FillingThelane site at www. fillingthelane2008.blogspot.com/, there you can pay via secured Pay Pal credit card processing ( major credit cards are accepted) or send your check and money order to payable to Filling The Lane, P.O. Box 214, Henrietta, New York 14467-9998.



Thank you and we look forward to having you as a subscriber to our newsletter.


Thank You


Charles Jenkins