Sunday, April 19, 2015

Greg Crawford On Basketball, For April 19th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- on twitter @wchoops @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz

NBA Attendance---- The final attendance figures are in for the 2014-15 NBA regular season and it was a record setting year.

21,926,548 fans attended games during the regular season, which broke the previous all time high attendance mark of 21,841,488 set in the 2006-07 season. This year's attendance was up 2.4 percent from the 2013-14 season.

There were 700 sellouts in the regular season, breaking also the old high sellout mark, which was surprisingly set in the 1994-95 season when 626 games sold out.

Average attendance for all league games this year was 17,826, which is close to 94 percent of capacity. The Thunder, Rockets, Spurs, Clippers, Warriors, Heat, Knicks, Cavs, Mavericks and Bulls were the teams which sold out every game. The Bulls led the league in attendance with an average of 21,343 and the 76ers finished last in NBA attendance with an average of 13,940 fans attending each game. The biggest draw on the road this season were of course the Cavaliers, at 18,915.

Notre Dame----This week Notre Dame made history, when their women's basketball coaching position was the first women coacning job in the country to become endowed, thanks to a generous $5 million donation from Karen and Kevin Keyes. Karen played for Notre Dame, under present coach Muffet McGraw.

Earlier this year Notre Dame's athletic department encouraged donors and alumni to support endowments for all coaching positions at the school. For the record, the current tuition at Notre Dame is just over $45,000.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com (golf and sports biz combo)

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Greg Crawford On Basketball, For April 18th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Crawford's NBA Power Rankings----- Before the great start of the playoffs, here is my final NBA power rankings for the 2014-15 season. We will be back next year with our now world famous power rankings and always keep in mind, we do things in 9s, out of the great respect for the game of golf.

9. Dallas
8. Chicago
7. San Antonio
6. Memphis
5. Houston
4. Clippers
3. Atlanta
2. Cleveland
1. Golden State

Crawford's NBA Playoff Predictions-----It will be an interesting playoffs this year in the NBA, with what in my mind, no clear favorite to win the title. When the season started, I predicted that Chicago would beat Portland in the NBA Finals. I was obviously wrong on that one, it is not going to happen. But not backing off, how about this, my finals prediction is that Houston will beat Cleveland in 7 games.  Now it is your turn to make your choices. Here is my opening round picks, which also have a chance to be special.

Golden State beats New Orleand, in 5 games
Houston wins over Dallas, in 6 games
Clippers beat the Spurs in 6 games
Portland upsets Memphis in 6 games
Atlanta wins over Brooklyn in 5 games
Cleveland beats Boston in 5 games
Chicago wins over Milwaukee in 6 games
Washington upsets Toronto in 7 games

Kevin Love---- As I reported on Rip City Radio 620 earlier this week, with breaking news, there is pretty much zero chance that Kevin Love will return to Cleveland next year. Top to contenders for him to join in order, Boston, followed by the Lakers.

Note: We are back with Greg Crawford On Basketball, for hopefully a long time to come, as technical issues prevented us from posting the past couple of weeks. So follow us everyday but Monday, as we cover the great world of college basketball on all levels, the NBA, D-League and NBA Draft.

more of Gregory's blogs---- http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com (golf and sports biz combo)