The Dirt On Fox
I'm never terribly confident about projects involving David Arquette (although thankfully, it sounds like the spazzy one will remain behind the camera), but I'd tune in to check out Rick Fox's work. Fox is that rare athlete-turned-thespian that can actually act his way into a puppet show. He did a nice job in a small "He Got Game" role and was absolutely terrific as prisoner Jackson Vayhue on "Oz". I have a few movie geek friends who are huge "Oz" fans and don't follow sports whatsoever. They assumed Fox was a professional actor who happens to be very tall. Considering how critical these guys are, thems are hard earned props. I talked with Fox a few times about acting when he was on the team and it's a skill he treats with respect. He took (and may still take) private instruction and wasn't satisfied simply cashing in on his famous name (the "Kazaam"-esque route most athletes use to get into film).
I imagine Fox's role on "Dirt" will be more demanding than Luke Walton's upcoming acting debut (which BK and I will review), but I'm open to being surprised. And who knows what dramatic layers Luke may add to his scenes playing one-on-one ball? All those years spent listening to drunken yahoos imitate Big Red may provide an internal fire the novice can bring to his performance. Until I see proof otherwise, I'm keeping Daytime Emmy hope alive.
Just out of curiosity, which current Laker would you peg as the best legit actor and why? You could obviously go a lot of ways with this question. If Kobe Bryant's ability to chew out a ref translates onto the big screen, he's perfectly capable of a dramatic scene. And he does have that "stare" going for him. Frankly, Kobe's oft been accused of acting since the moment he entered the NBA. Ronny Turiaf certainly has the requisite energy a performer needs and he's obviously not afraid to risk looking silly. Smush Parker spends much of his time poker faced, making him perhaps ideal for an undercover agent role ("Smush Brasco," anyone?). Jordan Farmar is an L.A. native who's barely left the city limits over the course of his lifetime. Hard to believe a little of "the industry" hasn't seeped into the kid. And you obviously can't discount the acting tips Lamar Odom may have picked up on set of "Van Wilder" while playing "Coolidge Chickadee Player."
But I'm gonna go out on a dark horse limb and declare Sasha Vujacic your winner. In his two years as a Laker, I've seen endless variations of "The Sasha Face" each time he's called for a foul. Just when I think it's not humanly possible for Sasha to pull out another version of his classic "What??? Me??? Why???" look after an obvious whistle, the guy finds a way to keep it fresh. So much conviction! So much expression! So much bewilderment as he can't understand how he managed to pick up that foul 30 feet from the action. And while actors often have trouble working in their second language, if Sasha's capable of channeling such emotion into a meaty supporting role, kid's got "Oscar" written all over him.
AK
Taliq,
I was going to reply with a long and detailed response but really you aren't worth the time to write it. Most of it goes right over your head anyway.
Posted by: JJ | August 18, 2006 at 12:28 PM
wiZo,
Mitch was running the show the last two years that the Lakers won the championship. If you recall, it was Mitch that announced and made the deal for Horace Grant in sending Rice away. We were praising the move but not the man that did it. Jerry said back then that he was letting Mitch do the work in order to prepare him to do it officially once he was gone.
What moves would you have classified as bad moves so far? WHAT trade would have pleased you in respect to us trading Shaq? There is no trade in the league that you woul dhave thought would have been good enough. You can say that we should have held out for Wade, but if Miami wasn't offering him, what choice did Mitch have? Could he have afforded to walk away from the trade, keep Shaq and watch Kobe go to the Clippers?
What do you use to guage the quality of a GM? I guess Jery Krause would be considered a great GM to you since he brought in MJ, Pippen, Phil and won those 6 titles. However, isn't he also the one that let them all leave in order to rebuild from scratch? He is a prime example that whereas 1 decision can make you be considered great, another one can tear you back down to size. I'd rather an even-tempered person like Mitch.
Plus, how do you or anyone else know what conditions and how tough it is to work for Mr. Buss? Jerry West left for a reason. Obviously it wasn't because he didn't want to be a GM again. Has any of you ever stopped to ask the question WHY DID HE LEAVE?
Maybe if you find out the answer to that it would shed some light on Mitch.
The bottomline is that no team wins a championship or even competes every year. Instead they have highs and lows. I'd rather the Lakers highs and lows because the highs normaly mean titles. When Mitch's tenure is over, then you judge the body of his work.
I could take a snap shot of Jerry's work from 1992 - 1999 and it wouldn't be that impressive either. Some would say that at that point it looked like he had lost his touch.
Even Pat Riley, as great as he is in the eyes of many, was being really criticized until this past year. Does 1 championship or championships in general erase all the negative? Think about all of that!
Posted by: JJ | August 18, 2006 at 12:41 PM
JJ,
Please name one move Jerry made that's remotely close to taking on Brian Grant's bad contract. It's funny how you've completely ignored one of cupcakes frutiest moves in all your analysis.
Also I'm beginning to wonder whether you even believe there's such a thing as a bad GM. Your whole argument seems to be one of those monk/bhuddist/zen or whatever else it can be called...love everyone philosophy. So please do name one bad gm, what in your opinion makes them bad, and what in your opinion makes mitch better than them. And no you can't use Isiah or the hawks gm "bicker whatever his name is" as examples.
In Kobe we Trust,
Go Lakers
Posted by: Taliq | August 18, 2006 at 01:09 PM
JJ,
Just saw your 12.28 response, umm cant really argue against it. Your girl has that same complaint about me.
In Kobe we Trust,
Go Lakers
Posted by: Taliq | August 18, 2006 at 01:11 PM
JJ,
Oh its on now...
My bad on bringing up defense, if all you were trying to say is Lamar doesn't need to score more. I'll conced that, however I'd like to see him stay aggressive. If he gives the same effort he did in the latter half of the season + playoffs, I'm kewl and he'll be an all star. Also like you said everyone on the team needs to get better defensively.
Now on to the part where we put a boot up ya a$$,
You accused me off getting off track on the defense topic...yet you got pissed cuz we mentioned shaq brought karl and gp to LA, your response: [ no it wasnt just shaq, magic played a huge role in it too, i hate it when peoplee try to make shaq look like ... blah blah blah ]. Somehow you seem to have forgoten we mentioned that point in response to your mitch cupcake brought karl malone and gp here. So no one is trying to give kudos to shaq, we're just saying mitch didn't play a huge role in bringing those guys here.
Also you mentioned Jerry trading eddie jones for glen rice. What you forget is that freed up Kobe to start, and secondly he exchanged jones contract for rice's expiring contract. Hence we werent saddled with any bad contracts. See how a real gm works...now if only cupcake had been taking notes then, perharps he'd have hesitated to take on brian grant's contract. Seriously dude, do you not see how cupcake dropped the ball on that one.
In Kobe we Trust,
Go Lakers
Posted by: Taliq | August 18, 2006 at 01:27 PM
JJ,
LoL....ok ok...I just read your weak defense of cupcake on the brian grant thing. So it was jerry buss that told him to do it. WoW, makes you wonder what we even need a gm for. Perharps Jerry should just fire cupcake if he's the one making all the calls. Whatever happened to creative gms like west, that present their owners with meaningful deals for approvals, and their opinions are valued by the organization...such that if the owner goes i want to keep vlade...and jerry goes take kobe...then the owner listens.
Look I hear you on the whole we werent in the room thing. For all we know Phil has pictures of Jerry doing stuff with Cupcake and he's the mastermind behind all the laker moves, i mean how else would you explain being get paid 10 million dollars to date the owners daughter. But since we can all conjure up a trillion scenarios, how about we just lay the blame at the feet of the gm when it comes to what roster is out their on the floor....since on paper at least that's his responsibility.
In Kobe we Trust,
Go Lakers
Posted by: Taliq | August 18, 2006 at 01:35 PM
First off, You ain't stuck nothing no where, so you can leave that alone.
Next....I'm finished talking to you simply because you bore me.
Posted by: JJ | August 18, 2006 at 01:54 PM
Taliq,
If the trade w/ Miami was going to go down, we had to take B Grant and his monster contract. It was the only way the salaries could match up. We were pretty restricted in the possible teams we could trade with too, thanks to the Big Doufus.
Posted by: Ford | August 18, 2006 at 02:06 PM
JJ, Taliq, Guy, O., Wizo,
It's Okay, we said what we have to say about our GM, however we are all Laker fans trying to discuss these things amicably and relating back to history. Of course, all of us have different interpretations of the past moves but we can't redo it so we just have to move forward. It's not late for Mitch to recover the trust of the Laker fans who are critical to his managerial style, we're just in the 3rd quarter. We all have the same objectives to get the best players to play with Kobe and Phil as well as LO. We are not saying that the present breed cannot do it because we don't know what they are capable of doing as they play together under the tutelage of PJ. However, there are some calculated risks to take cuz' Father Time does not go back nor wait for the Lakers to succeed. Just like the past 6 years when we saw Kobe blossomed into a superstar, perhaps LO will follow, so why not give them the power players needed to compete for the big one not only the 2nd round or 3rd round or 55 wins during the season but go all the way as we're often feared by all teams in the League. So JJ, we have nothing to argue nor question your wisdom on how you look at things. We just have different opinions with our GM but when the season start we are all in the same page as Laker fans.
Posted by: Edwin Gueco | August 18, 2006 at 08:24 PM
Like 30 teenage girls, seven of them on their periods, stuck at camp inside a small cabin for weeks now, waiting for the boys to arrive.
Now girls, let's not fight.
73 days and a wake-up. Gettin' short.
Posted by: sonnybelfast | August 19, 2006 at 01:07 PM
Guys -
This is a blog, not a fighting place. We try to discuss between gentlemen. So don't be upset when some of us express opposite views. We're in the same family.
Let's appreciate each idea, each point of view. We work every day. This is a open window providing some fresh air on the lakers. Let's take care of the baby. Please, as i do, enjoy every moment here!
We love you all. We're in the laker family, right!
GO
Posted by: Guy Owanlele | August 19, 2006 at 01:42 PM