Superstitions

"Not for basketball bruh! Don't Believe the Hype!"

When I was a kid we were brainwashed to believe all kinds of superstitions or old wise tales. Remember, "step on a crack break ya momma's back!" If you break a mirror you'll have 7 years bad luck! If you cut a baby's hair before they're a year old it will make them stutter. If a black cat crosses your path it's bad luck.  On New Years Day you had to eat black eyed peas because it'll give you good luck! You can't split the pole if you're walking down the street with your friends and if someone did everybody would stop and make them go back. It was ridiculous that we even believed any of that and the sad thing is, some folks still do.

One of the most ridiculous superstitions or old wise tales ever told was that New York is the Mecca of Basketball! You heard so many people saying it that you just assumed that it was true. After all, we've been told that Madison Square Garden was the Cathedral of Hoops. You heard it and it was the law. All the best ballers come from New York City! Nobody plays basketball better than they do in NYC! C'mon bruh, take that off of the menu because that isn't available any more and real talk it never was.

Let's keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! Indiana is the Mecca of Basketball! The Hoosier state has produced 150 NBA players all-time with 15 current players in the league. While New York state has produced 296 players with 18 current players in the league. Now you'll say, "NY is running things because we've got more all-time and more players currently than Indiana does in the league.

Bruh, according to the latest census New York has 19.4 million people in the state! They should have more NBA players all-time than any other state and have more players in the league because of the population alone. Indiana only has 6.5 million people in the state and you've only got 3 more players in the league than we do. I'm not asking you to be a wizard but I hope you could count. If you've got darn near 3 times the amount of people you should have at least 4 to 6 times the amount of players if you're the mecca bruh! That means you should have at least 45 current players in the league and 450 players all-time just to be equal to Indiana bruh! This isn't Algebra it's basic math.

Indiana's Assembly Hall

How is Madison Square Garden the Cathedral and the Knicks haven't won a title in darn near 40 years? The last title that was won in NYC was 1973 bruh! None of the New York colleges or universities have EVER won a national title with the exception of Syracuse(2003)! Whereas, my alma mater Indiana University has 5 banners swaying in the breeze down in Bloomington or B-Town as we so affectionately call it. Get you some Mother Bears Pizza or shoot over to Nicks for some of those fire stromboli's if you're ever in town. Tell them that Jay sent you. They'll still charge you but tell them I sent you.

So how do you fix your mouth to claim the Mecca of Basketball when you aren't producing results or players at a higher rate? The Rucker doesn't count bruh! They don't keep stats on that outside of NYC. That's nothing more than playing in the projects for kicks anywhere else in America. They call those cats Playground All-Americans where I'm from. That's code for "didn't go to class, couldn't go to college and play so here I am holding the hood down type cat!" Unfortunately, you can't claim that on the basketball 1040EZ bruh!

I would throw Kentucky into this argument because the University of Kentucky has won 8 national titles including the joint this year but very few of those guys that played there are from Kentucky. As a matter of fact, only one of the starting five this year was from Kentucky. So that doesn't count bruh! Holla at me later! Virginia has 22 cats in the league but 75% of those guys went to Oak Hill. Kids come from all over the country to play there. That's like the little league dad that stacks the squad and brags about winning the title.

Just in the last 4 years in Indianapolis(pop. just over 800K) alone we've seen, Greg Oden, Mike Conley, Rodney Carney, Josh McRoberts, Eric Gordon, Juan Johnson, Gordon Hayward, George Hill, Chris Hunter, Courtney Lee, Jeff Teague get drafted not to mention Etwan Moore(East Chicago) and Luke Harangody(Merrillville)! So I don't know what they're drinking or smoking in New York but whatever it is it's deadly because according to the real numbers New York ain't even close to being the Mecca of Basketball bruh!

 We'll let ya'll keep the street ball because that's all for Giggles & Kicks and the only cats gettin' paid off of that is the apparel companies using boyz up and throwing them off of the bus. We're straight on that! In the famous words of my man Stevie Wonder, "When you believe in things that you don't understand then you suffer! Superstitions ain't the way!"

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Follow me on Twitter: @jaygravesreport