Season Ticket Review – Awaiting a call-up

How much longer will Andre Brown be around?

Skyforce

Game 6: December 22nd, 2006

Austin Toros (0-9) at Sioux Falls Skyforce (6-5)

Last night, we watched two players that looked fully capable of rising above their D-League status and becoming NBA mainstays. One was Austin forward James White, an NBA player on assignment. The other was Sioux Falls forward Andre Brown, the best and most fundamental player I’ve seen in my three years as a Skyforce fan.

Brown, who had 28 points and 14 rebounds last night against the completely-defeated, 0-10 Toros, is in the top five league-wide for points and rebounds this season. He’s got a wonderful lay-up touch, and can move his defender so far into the paint with a barrage of fancy footwork and low-post moves that he never needs to take more than a five foot shot. He’s a very good player, at least on this minor league, big-fish-in-little-pond environment.

Which begs the question – how long until he’s called up to the NBA? How long until the Detroit Pistons or Minnesota Timberwolves stick this guy at the end of the bench?

For now, he’s with us. And thankfully so – the Toros came into the game looking like a team that hadn’t won a game. Their defense was horrible and their jump shots were even worse. Unfortunately, the Skyforce played a horrible third quarter and allowed the Toros a faint glimmer of hope right up until the last two minutes of the game.

Why did the Skyforce allow them to stay in the game so long? Well, three problems kept hurting them throughout the game.

1. Turnovers – The Skyforce had 20 turnovers in this game. That’s a lot – even for an NBA D-league. Three players – Brown, Frank Williams, and Vincent Grier – combined for 13 of the 20. That’s bad.

2. Free throws – 58.8%. That’s it. Twenty of thirty-four from the charity stripe. That’s fourteen points, missed, in the easiest of places, with the least pressure and no one defending. That’s horrible. Just horrible.

3. Jared Reiner – our starting center had a miserable game. His hook shot wasn’t falling. He couldn’t grab a rebound to save his life. He ended up with four points on 2-9 shooting and just four rebounds. He also had three fouls in just 19 minutes of game play.

But, since we were playing the worst team in the league, we still managed to win by six points. It would have been more, but White (a San Antonio forward and Indiana Pacer draftee) swooshed around the court as if no one was guarding him. He was the only dependable jump shooter on the team. He looked like an NBA player. Unfortunately, he’s an NBA player that spends his time on a super-stacked Spurs team and can’t get any minutes. From one of the best teams in the league to the 0-10 Toros. Ouch.

Two more notes. First, don’t eat the pretzels at the Sioux Falls Arena. They are utterly horrible. The Arena needs an outside force in the concessions department. That way, when I buy a pretzel, I won’t get a hard ball of dough with tepid cheese. Ugh.

Secondly, we received our first comp merchandise (aside from our free Season Ticket Skyforce T-shirt, that is): a Kory Davis Rally Towel. To which I say just one thing:

Nine four, zero. Fifty-five, forty-four!! Kory, Davis. Kory Davis realtor!

Skyforce 106, Austin 100

In sad news, former Skyforce forward David Jackson was waived this past week from the Idaho Stampede.

This is sad because, as our friend Amy’s Hunky Skyforce Player during the Skyforce’s championship season, he was a source of inspiration for all of us that thought professional basketball players should look as good as they played. He was the Anti-Pippen – a hot basketball player for us to rally behind.

Well, he really wasn’t that hot. And now, apparently, he’s lost a lot of his basketball skills as well. Regardless, I always liked him. As far as I’m concerned, there’s always a spot at the end of the bench for David Jackson.

This was lovingly handwritten on December 23rd, 2006