BIG Suns Draft night, Marte heckler led me to Robin Ficker, Roch Cholowsky stars, more…

No matter what the Suns did in Wednesday nights NBA Draft, I was going to take the stance of, “we shall see”. I thought Arizona’s  Carter Bryant would make sense on several fronts, but instead Planet Orange can now root for Khaman Maluach out of Duke. Heck, I’ll root for him to succeed. He doesn’t turn 19 until mid-September. You can’t teach height(he’s 7’2) and has a frame that is far from filling out at 250lbs. His off-the-court story is what should make fans attach to him in short order. Devin Booker now has a big man that is a rim protector, on offense a threat over the top for the lob. He’s only going to get better. On the other side of the coin, Rich Paul is agent of Maluach. Paul of course represents Lebron James. Just keep that one in your back pocket. You never know. Adding Mark Williams from Charlotte via trade, sounds good, but as long as Bradley Beal is on the Phoenix roster, I’m not going to be satisfied. Easy to say “he’s going to be traded or bought out”, make it happen. Also, the window of the Booker era in Phoenix isn’t going to stay open forever. Past mistakes and misfires on players and  coaches can’t be corrected in late June…

Why do some people turn off their brains when attending a sporting event? Am I supposed to rant about how inappropriate and unacceptable a customer was toward Ketel Marte Tuesday night in Chicago? If you agree that “I can say whatever I want at a sporting event, including something about a player’s dead mother,” you and I are not on the same street, city, or state. Hecklers have been around games forever. Ever heard of Robin Ficker? He was the Michael Jordan of heckling, but did it smartly.

 

The White Sox reported on Wednesday that the fan, who was 22 years old, was “very apologetic and remorseful after the fact and admitted to being very inappropriate and stupid with his comments.” He’s been banned indefinitely from all major league stadiums. On the field, Marte is in the midst of a terrific season; he deserves to be the starting second baseman for the National League at the All-Star Game in Atlanta. He deserves a thunderous ovation when he’s home beginning on Friday night against Miami. I hear too often, “Maybe something good will come of this.” I feel like asking for fan etiquette is out of reach for some. Today in our society, poor behavior is excused. Name-calling is normal. There’s nothing acceptable about what happened Tuesday night in Chicago…

By the way, if you want to donate in memory of Ketel Marte’s mother, many fans are going here to do so.

https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/community/foundation/donate

I see no reason to break up the Diamondbacks, though I’d certainly listen to teams asking about Zac Gallen. Please get back to me around July 8th after a stretch against the Giants and Padres is complete.  I like the grit of this group even as the injuries have multiplied. They rally for their manager and are in the thick of the Wild Card race in late June. I’ll take that…

Collusion on player contracts among sports owners is a thing? Stunning, not stunning…

If we’re talking about great athletes that have come out of Arizona in the last five years, Roch Cholowsky of Hamilton would have to be on the list.

We did several stories on Roch when he was a football player at Hamilton, including a deep dive from our own Eric Sorenson in 2022.

Zone Read: School’s Out for Summer

Tommy Fleetwood’s putt hitting something on the way to the hole at Sunday’s Travelers left me gasping for air. Hard to do in this day and age…