From USATODAY.com

"Anybody would love to play with Kobe," says the Denver Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony, the USA's leading scorer at the 2006 World Championships. "We love it, the way he is meshing with the other guys here. You never have to worry about what Kobe is going to bring to the table."

KL, why don't you put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Hal9000,
"" nybody would love to play with Kobe We love it, the way he is meshing with the other guys here.
You never have to worry about what Kobe is going to bring to the table."
KL, why don't you put that in your pipe and smoke it."

Fortunately Hal9000, Thanks to the WWKLD say bracelet that I have I can
predict what KL will say " What Kobe will bring to the table is ballHogging
as usuall" Damn G1 these bracelets really work.

I believe Fisher is gonna help bigger than we think. The knowledge of the traingle alone, veteran smarts and him being such a good team guy will help.
Glad he's back.

Also, I feel with this roster, we are ready to pull some realistic trades. Are we ready to make it pass the second round with this roster? Nope! (That's even if we are healthy)

Hopefully we can sign KG when/if he decides to walk in 2008. Looks like the Front Office can't pull a KG trade for this season. (Hope I'm wrong)

Charles

I tell you...Derek Fisher is one of the clasiest guys in the league. He is an inspiration and an example to all fathers and players. He'll be an asset to the Lakers once again. I wish I could be ther for the 1st Lakers game to welcome him back.

Obviously the Tim Donaghy story is very disturbing, but given the connection between sports and gambling, I can not say it is surprising. Black market crime is a huge industry throughout the world, and is often times over looked by political figures of today. The amount of money made by drugs, gambling, and theft is alarming, when considering our American Government spends a boatload of money trying to prevent these things, to no avail. Ultimately it is our responsibility as citizens to speak out about our outrage, and make sure that we elect people who can speak on our behalf's to what we believe is right and wrong. When it comes down to it, is it more important for Congress to spend time questioning Mark McGwire, or trying to find solutions to the war in Iraq, improving social security, finding cures for chronic ailments and terminal illness, getting universal health care, and finally figuring out how we as a world are going to stop killing the planet? For example, after leaving La Verne, CA at 5:00 AM this morning to get to work in Cypress, I was surrounded by millions of cars on the 210,605 and 405 freeways. And the problem is that I need to feed my family and have to go to work, I have no other options besides driving. Carpool and ride sharing aside, it is alarming that no plan has been conceived or even discussed that is viable to eliminate the amount of personal transit in LA, nor does their seem to be one in sight. It should worry everyone, that instead of building a decent, Bus, Train, Monorail, or subway system, that they continue to use tax money to widen, extend, and create new freeways. I hope I am not the only one who feels this way, as I love basketball and think it is the best sport in the world. But there are sometimes more important things, which the Fisher story shows all too well. I am not one to preach, sometime though, you have to stick your neck out and say things that people may have already heard, but willingly choose not listen.

Very good story about Derek Fisher.....

laker haters rejoice on another crappy article!

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=243512

DFISH I just opened the dictionary to look up the word class, and there you were.
Who said there are no hero's in sports? GOD bless you Brother and welcome back.

I'm still trying to figure out the TRUE meaning of this INCREDIBLE post by Jorema last night.

""The medicine that lebron is taking right now is the zip in his lips putted by Bryant"

I read that sentence... and... man... new truths are revealed to me every time. Lebron has a zip in his lips - thanks to Kobe. Lebron is taking medicine right now, that is the equivalent of the zip in his lips put there? by Kobe. Kobe is putting the zip in Lebron's lips. Kobe "putted" something in Lebron's lips which in some circles could be called "medicine"... and on and on...

This is could be the foundation of a new religion for all I know! HOW do I get that "zip in MY lips"? Is there some kind of book on this subject? WHERE do I go to get such information? Is "Jorema" some kind of prophet spewing forth the true secrets of humanity in little tidbits between rants about Kobe and idiotic conspiracy theories that Phil Jackson came back to PREVENT Kobe from ever winning the title again? I MUST discover the truth behind these hidden messages!!!

glad to have derek fisher back where he belongs.

as for shady refs and shaving points in the nba, that's old news!

repost

hobbit

"So here's my question to you: Why do you want a player with a poor work ethic on your team?"

of course i don't want someone with a poor work ethic on my team, but i care more about results rather than the means to the end. for example, i'm a manager of and i don't particularly care how my guys get their work done as long as it gets done on time and correctly. if i nit pick on how they do it (analogy of calling someone lazy or fat), they'll eventually get mad and leave (analogy for a trade demand). so i can win the battle and force my guys to do it my way, but will eventually lose the war when everyone leaves and nobody wanting to help me becuase i would have accumulated a bad rep. you get my perspective?

DFish is a class act and he'll really help the Laker's now and the future.

sonnybelfast;

such melodrama..

Guys, I don't know if it was already covered, butI searching any noteable Laker games in which that ref was officiating. I found that he was officiating game 3 of the 2006 playoffs. Nonetheless, the Lakers won that game and imo nothing was out of the ordinary... I'm still searching for more games..

Edwin,
". I just have to ask you a favor, please bring back Fatty"

Hey Edwin whatever I can do to bring Fatty back I will. So how do we do it?

"I'll put my chips on Kobe anytime."

but... would you let Kobe put the zip in your lips? LOL! Oh! That's terrible...

On this ref thing, I'm sure there are going to be tons of examples of strange calls but in the end, what can anyone do about it? So the Spurs victory was tainted, what are they going to do? You would have to have the same rosters and they would have to be in mid-season form to truly play the game over. All Stern can do is assure everyone going forward that everything is on the up and up. If Donaghey starts naming other refs or for crying out loud, PLAYERS! then the only real solution would be to remove ALL of the current refs, give them 2-3 years worth of salary or whatever and bring in a whole new crew, supervised by somebody outside of the league and invoke the special use of video replay for a season or 2 allowing coaches to challenge say 3 calls a game without penalty. I would think there would have to be another ref added to the crew to "oversee" and be able to overrule calls, like they do in tennis.

Whatever... I'm bored with this story already. Could Kobe go on another radio outburst to take this off the front pages? Thank you.

generic,

I believe it was games five and seven. Yea, I believe it directly cost us a championship. But wouldn't you be angry about it, and outcomes of other games; any NBA games? It's water under the bridge. What we as fans must do right now is insist, no, DEMAND that things (officiating and other nonsense) get a thorough re-evaluation, adjustment and cleaning where required. Could there be a better time than now? Even if the inquiry means a partial or complete disruption of a season, it is not as though we'd be breaking up current Kings or Lakers champpionship teams. Saavy? The long term results would be worth it.

Jessie,

"I'd like to think this idiot was acting alone"

Me too, but I worked in the gaming industry too long and know better. Thieves and cheats never act alone. Affecting even 1/2 of a point one way or another in the most inconsequential game can have such far reaching ramifications that even the most seasoned brokebacker's head would start spinning, or in Jorenema's case, stop spinning. It's is paramount that every lead is exhausted and then re-evaluated.

Beast,

I haven't read any correspondence between you and Tom which may have concerned me. I just don't have the time to get to it as I would like to. About a year and a half ago, I predicted that support for the Saint would slack off, and that (once silent) demands to trade him, by fellow Laker supporters, would pick up steam. I saw it as inevitable and believe that the polarity on the matter will only strenthen. It has become more of a family feud and we've got our own going on up here. I'll still take my shots now and then, after all, I am the natural enemy. Don't forget it.

And the irony remains. I think Kobe Dawg has got some serious problems and is not a good fit in Los Angeles, but I marvel at his play and believe he is doing the best he can, but therein lies the problem. It may be impossible for some of the donkey hybrids on this board to appreciate, but I look forward to the day that the Lakers once again play team ball.

Go Kings!
Go Niners!

Sonnybelfast

What we're spending money on players when all we had to do was buy a ref.? Another front office slip-up!

hey TaosHum, why don't you "zip" it? kidding.

"Me too, but I worked in the gaming industry too long and know better. Thieves and cheats never act alone."

Sonny,

I don't mean alone in the sense that he was working alone literally but without the involvement of other NBA officials, refs, or players. I'm sure people bet on every sport under the sun but once an "inside" person gets involved, it's a whole new ballgame.

There is mention amongst other refs in the league that they are afraid he'll attempt to "throw them under the bus"(for lack of a better term) during this investigation even if they had nothing to do with the gambling. An SI article points out the following quote:
"We know who we are dealing with,'' said a highly placed league source, who is "very concerned'' Donaghy would escalate such a case into a modern-day Salem witch trial.
"We always said if he goes down [for anything], he's going to take other people with him," said a member of Donaghy's former golf club.

Now, that would be really damaging to the league because it would just create the idea that no ref can be trusted. I mean, really, we may not always agree with their calls but acusing someone of committting a felony on the b-ball court would be taking it a little far.

The whole ref scandal doesn't bring to light the corruption of sports and the NBA, it just confirms what fans have suspected and theorized for years, if not decades. As a Laker fan, it just makes me appreciate the Bling Dynasty run even more because that team could win 5 on 8, and I remember thinking that to myself many times when absurd calls were being made in close games. Nowadays, teams that are supposed to be good still get tripped up by controversial refereeing. Some examples I can think of off the top of my head:

- Mavs losing to Heat in the Finals. They had it in the bag until the refs wanted to extend the series, which turned into the Heat winning it all via the Dwayde free throw parade.
- Suns losing to Spurs after getting guys suspended. While the suspensions themselves were handed down from the league, the reason guys came off the bench was because things had escalated throughout (Nash's gash) and boiled over when Horry hip-checked Nash. Remember the Bling Dynasty team when calls went against them? They just dropped the ball, shook their head, and ran up the court to continue play. I can specifically remember Shaq, Kobe, Fox, and Fisher doing that many times.
- the Hall of Fame Lakers (Shaq, Kobe, Malone, GP) losing to the Pistons. Even THESE guys couldn't overcome the refs in the Finals against Detroit, where LINDSEY HUNTER pretty much stopped Kobe defensively since the refs swallowed their whistles. Of course, this team had serious ego issues too.

My short list of examples involve contenders, as lesser teams clearly can't overcome crappy refs on a regular basis, in fact (especially in the Leastern Conference) often rely on those refs' biases swinging their way to win. Tough as it is to say, the only other team that was/is unfazed by the refs are the Spurs, who only seem to fail when not entirely healthy, not out of some implosion from being unable to handle suspect refereeing. In fact, not only are they unfazed, but they almost embrace bad refs because they have the personnel to exploit them. With the Bling Dynasty, they just acted as if the refs weren't even there. Before you attack, haters, I will say that it took that first ring to learn that mindset, and by the third ring they barely scraped by, surviving the Queens who also did effectively ignore the refs but couldn't make a shot in game 7.

Mamba24/10

You said: Fortunately Hal9000, Thanks to the WWKLD say bracelet that I have I canpredict what KL will say " What Kobe will bring to the table is ballHogging
as usuall" Damn G1 these bracelets really work.

Nice!

KL,

You said: of course i don't want someone with a poor work ethic on my team, but i care more about results rather than the means to the end. for example, i'm a manager of and i don't particularly care how my guys get their work done as long as it gets done on time and correctly. if i nit pick on how they do it (analogy of calling someone lazy or fat), they'll eventually get mad and leave (analogy for a trade demand). so i can win the battle and force my guys to do it my way, but will eventually lose the war when everyone leaves and nobody wanting to help me becuase i would have accumulated a bad rep. you get my perspective?

I get your perspective. The follow up to the question is: How long do you
think someone with a poor work ethic will be able to generate "results"?
To go back to your analagy of someone being lazy or fat: Basketball is
a game of "hustle". Do you really think that someone who is fat or lazy
will be able to hustle for 82 games? If we look at the results of a certain
someone in Miami: The first year didn't go so well. The 2nd year he was
carried by D-wade and crooked refs. The 3rd year he got swept in the
first round. I don't believe he has played 80% of the games in any season
since *maybe* 2002. [ I could be wrong about that. ] I'm certain that he has
not played 80% since he moved to Miami. Do you really pay someone 20
million per year, so they can moonlight as a cop and star on reality TV show? He's being paid to play in the NBA, right?

Weave.Man,
We have to teach those casual/non fans why the NBA is such a great league,

Well said WeaveMan.

It would be relatively easy to use computer programs to go back through games for the past several years and look for the tendencies discussed in the article I linked in a previous post. If certain tendencies show up in games particular refs worked, then it would be simple to do checks on the financial records of those refs to see if there were irregularities.

If the NBA hasn't already been doing that, they certainly are now. And Las Vegas probably is, too, and probably several reporters who are digging for dirt for a story.

Backstories are great and all, but I'd much rather hear about the piece coming that we need to build a championship caliber team.

Ronny is neat and all high energy and his story is great. Fisher's obviously a totally stand-up guy (and I'm shocked that people could interpret his actions otherwise). Kobe is the continuously unfolding not always good news story...

Now that we're overflowing with backstory, it's time for JO AND Artest or KG. After all, it'd be really nice to hold onto the Kobester.