Basketball Daily

The Orlando Magic led the game all the way up until under the 1 second mark in the third quarter when the rookie Marreese Speights sank a prayer at half court to give the 76ers a 1 point lead heading into the fourth.  Philadelphia maintained the lead most of the way until the Magic overtook them and finished with a 96 to 94 victory.  There was only 4 lead changes during the whole game.

The leader of blocked shots this year, Dwight Howard, averaging 4 a game was the high scorer for the Magic with 21 points.  The other starters contributed well with Rashard Lewis having 19 points and Hidayet Turkoglu with 12 points.  Off the bench, Tony Battie shot 100% field goal shooting and dropped in 20 points.  Orlando has now won 8 of their last 9 games.

In a very entertaining basketball game, the Oklahoma City Thunder fold down the stretch and let the Phoenix Suns take the victory with a ending score of 99 to 98.  The Thunder was in command the whole game, stretching the lead at one point to 16 points.  They were up by 11 points at the start of the fourth, but fell apart under the 2 minute mark.  Kevin Durant the Rookie of the Year last season had a great game with 29 points, but did not help the team that now fall to 1 win and 14 losses.

This was a “Rest Game” for Shaq to keep him fresh during the season and into the Playoffs.  He will be taking games off where the Suns coaches feel they can win without him.  It failed against the Chicago Bulls earlier and almost proved to be disastrous here.  Leading the pack of Suns was Amare Stoudemire with 22 points and close behind him was Steve Nash with 20 points.  Boris Diaw led the bench players with 11 points.

The ninth overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft produced the rugged and determined Charles Oakley.  This defensive minded brute was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers but his rights were traded immediately to the Chicago Bulls.  During his tenor in the NBA, Oakley played for 5 teams including the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, Houston Rockets and most notably with the New York Knicks.

Charles was a tenacious and determined Power Forward playing behind Patrick Ewing that developed into a one-two punch.  Oakley was a boxout master, placing in the Top 10 many years of his career for averaging many rebounds per game.  During his 10 year stint with New York he was finally honored by becoming an All Star in 1994.

Oakley’s 19 year professional career produced 9.7 points per game, 47% field goal shooting, 76% free throw shooting, 9.5 rebounds per game, 2.5 assists per game, 1.1 steals per game and 0.3 blocks per game.  All fine averages that really don’t say how valuable a player he was.

Overall, Charles Oakley was a leader and demanded his teammates give it their all, each and every night.  He was also a very savvy player that helped the young players on the team.  Actually he was traded to Toronto to bring veteran leadership to the young rookies on the team.

Charles finished his long NBA career in 2004 when he was 41 years old.  The 6′ 9″, strong 245 pound Virgina Union alumni was a great talent and an asset to the sport basketball.