POINT TAKEN

They wear clean socks and lace their shoes tight. They're the first to practice and the last to leave. Their jersey is meticulously tucked into reasonably fitting, to slightly too short shorts and they have an eighty five to ninety five percent free throw accuracy. My point guard leads the team stretch sessions and sits towards the front of the bus on road trips. The point GOD. I'm talking about Bob Cousey and Pistol Pete vibes. I'm talking Oscar Robertson, Walt Frazier and Isiah Thomas bro. I'm talking Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Rod Strickland dawg. Steve Nash and Jason Kidd dude. The greats that defined the position, honored tradition and mentored generations through their leadership, preparedness and on ball defense. Wake Forest's Chris Paul is credited for the official title of "Point God", and for good reason. In recent years he's helped mentor SGA and Wemby. Before that this dude built lob city, scored, assisted and stole from the NBA like it owed him money. He was a twelve time all star, eleven time all NBA selection, seven time all defensive player and led the league in assists and steals multiple seasons. He journeyed the league in his waning years, chasing that elusive ring and eventually returned to LA only to be mistreated, exonerated and waived into early retirement by the Clippers; part way through his twenty-first year in the league. They did him dirty. Say what you will, but CP3 was nice, and possibly the last of his kind.

Call it the Jordan effect. Once MJ arrived on scene and commanded the leadership role at the two, the traditional point GOD role began to dissolve. The Jordan effect saw the likes of Kobe, Penny, TMac and DWade redistribute the leader role to shooting guard. Westbrook, Steph, and Harden absorbed that trend with the new look NBA point guard; and look where that look got us. Look, I love me some Cade, Luka and SGA, but their volume shooting, foul baiting, shoot first mentality brings stagnation to the deep traditions of the pure point guard. The NBA assist leader is currently a center! Shout out Jokic, dude can hoop but the game is turning upside down in front of our eyes. I get that change is the only constant and all things must morph but this one feels funny. Like putting on a sweaty shirt. It sucks. I'm likely just being a nostalgic old fool slowly fading out of touch from today's new fangled league play, but the state of the game has me genuinely wondering. What's the point?

Weekly Recap:

Knotted at 42 after twenty minutes of play, the Killer Bees were looking to pull off the unlikely upset over defending champions Santa Fe Style. But new acquisitions TJ Sanchez and Jayondre Leak had other ideas as they propelled the patchouli sniffers to a 68 point second half explosion. Sanchez ended with a game high 42 pts to complement 12 rebs, 8 assists, 2 steals and a Mutumbo, while Leak just missed his triple double on a line of 22 pts, 9 rips, 10 helpers and 2 thefts. On the other side of the ball the Bees were sharing the honey pot as all five Killers scored double figures led by Luis Alvarado's 23 pt, 13 reb effort. In the end Style 110, Bees 88.

Team Nuevo made the game look easy Tuesday night as they pounced on the Degenerates early and cruised to a 105-80 dub. The newbies were moving the ball and finding open teammates to the tune of 71%/43% shooting splits and 27 assists. Dom Baca had a game high 9 dimes to hot hands Josh Salazar (28 pts), Matt Brito (24 pts, 12 rebs) and Max Suazo (21 pts, 14 rebs) as they decayed the Degenerates to drought like dryness. "Super" Mario Archuleta (35 pts) was a mirage in the desert with his shine accounting for nearly half the team's points. Diego Trujillo soaked up 18 pts, but their fellow devolvers suffered serious dehydration from the field as they succumbed to the sun and sand.

There was a great shushing of slushy cheddar balls from the Silent Storm at about 8:15 pm MST in the southeast quadrant of Santa Fe Tuesday evening. Weather specialist, Wilford Troup worked a whimsical, windy, gusto performance of 24 pts, 6 reb, 5 dime and one swat to help shellac Medium Kings 72-61. Jordan Kemp continued the onslaught of sideways rain flurries to the tune of 19 pts and 2 swats. Mid King Josh Valdez shone through the clouds for 18 pts and Allen Loya swung a wild scepter and got to the foul line as he gathered 17 pts and 9 rebs.

We want to pass along our healing thoughts and prayers for Goon Squad's Luis Burrola who went down with a devastating, non-contact, lower leg injury Wednesday night. Through the somber energy the Goonies managed to stay the course and compete behind Andres Lovato's 21 pts and 10 rebs. It wasn't enough to get the win but it was a valiant effort in the face of some real adversity and a dominating 38 pts and 11 rebs from Blakes Lottabuckets' Isaac Shanley. It was a low scoring affair that found Blakes on top after forty minutes, 66-44. Sometimes the outcome is about competing in the face of adversity and not about the final numbers. Shout out to the Goon Squad and we want to wish Luis a speedy, healthy recovery.

505 Unit is combining their existing stellar team chemistry with some exciting young talent and the result is working folks. Lukas Turner once again turned out a smooth 28 pt, 10 reb performance to lead the Units but had plenty of help from Juan Ortiz (19 pts) and Angel Parra (15 pts). IPS was giving their usual hardnose, acronymic efforts behind 21 pts and 7 rips from Alex Gutierrez and Co. but the area codes' fast break game had IPS going, Instead.Please.Stop. Units 99, IPS 71.

Sometimes a single game is a tale of two halfs like our 8 o'clock affair Wednesday night. Mob came out firing on all choreographed cylinders as they flash danced their way to an early 46-27 lead to close out the first twenty. But Prime Time went full Amazon on Black Friday in the second stanza, as they matched Mob's output and kept this contest tighter than a next day delivery window. Kamron Tiedeman was a spring loaded scoring machine as he went for 26 pts, 19 rebs and 2 swats while teammate Anthony Salcido was dialed in from deep and delivered five cheddar balls on time to the tune of 25 pts. For the flash Mob Eric Martinez, Andrew Ellsworth and Ben Ellsworth were in unison as they each scored 19 pts to thwart the late night delivery schedule and pull out a timely victory 80-73.

Bust out the walking canes and prune juice cause the 35+ league was in action Thursday night as they wind down the regular season. Nothing But Net made quick work of FAZO getting hot from deep behind Patrick Trujillo's 24 pts, 12 rebs, 5 dimes and 3 thefts. FAZO forgot to put on the subtitles as they seemed disoriented by the gameplay and unable to get on the same page as leading scorer Matt Brito and his 34 pt, 16 reb, 3 theft effort. NBN 81, FAZO 62.

In the battle of the Elite's one must go home as plebeian for the week. Matt Valdez was making sure his parcheesi game was dialed and fake teammate strategy was honed as he scurried around the three point line all game amassing eight cheddar balls and finishing with 24 pts and game high honors. Mike Rivera creaked around the court to get 12 pts and 10 rebs for a double double. For this night's plebs, Luke Wakefield was the only bright spot as he tallied 13 pts, 6 rebs, 3 dimes a steal and a swat. Zia Elite 70, Santa Fe Elite 54.

In forfeits we find friendlies for our last contest of the week. 505 Unit got the scheduled win as Mob couldn't field a team earlier in the season and the Units failed to find the numbers for this week's reschedule but took the dub on a technicality. Mob was eager to get a game anyway and IPS complied with the request and wanted a rematch from last week's loss. The outcome was the same as Mob won 78-56 behind Andrew Ellsworth's 24 pts, 5 rebs, 7 dimes and 2 steals. But IPS showed superior gamesmanship, playing inspired ball behind David "Spider" Jaramillo's 20 piece. The old timers shook hands, exchanged smiles and showed us what competition is all about. It's less about getting the win and more about getting the run in. How else do we avoid the inevitable force of gravity pressing down on these old bones until knees and backs give way to father time's undefeated record?

Thanks for another super week of Swish competition everyone. We are trying to add Thursday pick ups in the coming weeks so be on the lookout for that! Keep up with us at our website www.santafeswish.com where you can see all box scores and stats from this week and ones past.

Respect the game, Santa Fe Swish