Hey folks, does anyone remember Kobe saying about two and a half years ago that Phil ASKED HIM to be more assertive in the offense? That having Kobe jack up all those shots wasn't just Kobe's idea so he could be the highest scorer in the NBA. I never hear folks saying that. And yet, if you had the team that the Lakers had then, a blind man in a dark room could see that Kobe one on three was a better option than Smush or Kwame. Add to that that Kobe was playing the best defense and Lamar is naturally more passive...really its a wonder he didn't blow up sooner.

Here is a senario for you. You are a salesman, your warehouse people are incompetent at filling orders, you are far and away the best selling at your company. Your bosses promise you to fix the problem and they hire more incompetents to work with who now have no experience. Every great sale you make is at risk because of their "contribution." Now, give yourself a fifteen year window to work. After about year three, you can hear the clock ticking very loudly, there are other companies that have competent management and workforce... The resume is readied and out you go.

Kobe is just like us, except perhaps he may be more patient than many on this blog.

Mark

I'm not going to try to say I think Smush and Kwame were what we needed but its worth remembering that we had no better options at that time.we just werent a great team.Smush had a decent enough first season for a guy that was essentially a rookie and was worth persevering with if you remember the team actually gelled quite well early on last year...from outset of his rein as the starter it was obvious the position needed to be upgraded eventually; whether it was Smush progressing,developing another player,or bringing someone in... but in reality for most of last year he was the best option at that position.His play fell away badly and the lakers got rid of him and improved...non issue really.Its just not that easy to go out and find a championship calibre point guard.Upgrading via a trade wouldnt have helped.it would have just meant a makeshift player in another position.

The Kwame gamble failed.It happens...literally its just what happens in the NBA -sometimes you deal with makeshift players or guys who dont live up to their promise or bad trades.Rather than chastising the front office for not getting it together sooner...the smush,Kwame era should be seen as a necessary step on what eventually became a remarkably short journey from dynasty...to the lottery to...mediocrity,...to contender...

just in case nobody saw...

MAILMAN COULD HAVE BEEN A JAILMAN
Posted by Mike Florio on May 1, 2008, 12:06 a.m.
In the weeks preceding the NFL draft, we heard rumors involving former NBA star Karl Malone, a son who would be entering the NFL, and a timeline suggesting that the child’s mother might have been a child herself at the time of conception.

But since we continue to place not getting sued slightly above informing the readership on the list of PFT priorities, we left it alone.

Now, however, the stories are gurgling to the surface regarding Bills rookie tackle Demetrius Bell. Writes Allen Wilson of the Buffalo News: “His mother, Gloria Bell, reportedly was only 13 years old and Malone a college sophomore at Louisiana Tech when Demetrius was born. Malone might have served jail time had her family asked the district attorney to file criminal charges.”

Malone had no involvement in the rearing of the child. They first met when Demetrius Bell was 18, and Malone reportedly said to him that it was too late to be his father, and that Bell would have to “earn his money on his own.”

Though we’re not quite sure why the decision of the family to not press charges kept Malone from spending what would have been his early years with the Utah Jazz doing the Jailhouse Rock, it appears that the man who wanted no involvement in the life of his son could have had a life that turned out extremely differently if the age-of-consent laws that routinely get applied to so many others had been applied to him.

Bynum is out partying at UCLA. What do we think?

http://www.bruinsnation.com/story/2008/4/29/174927/188

---huge drew guy myself...touch dissapointed he is pulling an oden when we could play san antonio and need him there

Thanks, Mamba.

'Then an hour later you say “EX you *&^&^%?”"

Would you mind talking to Mrs. Exhelodrvr? She never bothers using the &, ^, and %.

Good Morning Mamba24, Good Morning Charles, Good Morning Laker Nation!

Toad present and accounted for!

Mamba, Waiting for the Next Game IS Truly Hell! Can't we play tonight?

Good morning Mamba24, good morning Charles, Pig, Faith, LakerTom etc etc etc & the rest of this fabulous LAKER NATION!

Congratulations to Exhelodrvr for being today's honored legendary blogger - job well done! I know I always enjoy reading your posts, and Mamba24 is right about you dishing out those zingers! I truly hope I'll never be on the receiving end of one of those! LOL!

Mamba24 - can you please add me to the "Waiting for the Next Game Is Hell" BandWagon - cuz it really is. I don't know if I'll last......seriously......!

IMO - whoever said Smush & Kwame were basketball players was seriously disturbed.

I hope Houston wins tonight over Utah so they can beat up on each other a little more. I'd like the Lakers to pound what's left over into a pulp.

GO LAKERS!

The BEAN for MVP & FINALS MVP or NO PEACE!

NO CHAMPIONSHIP - NO PEACE!

Marty

"Just out of curiosity, as far as statistics go, how do Kobe's career assist stats match up to this year's. Does he have more this year than usual."

Kobe's assist numbers pretty much match up with those he's had in other years (except the years he didn't start). Partly, that's because he didn't dominate the ball as much as he has in the past and therefore had fewer opportunities, and partly because the triangle just isn't conducive to any one player accumulating a lot of assists. The most assists per game any player has ever averaged in a year in Phil Jackson's version(s) of the triangle has been 6.7 per game by Pippen. The most MJ ever managed in the triangle was 6.2 per game (he had more than 8 per game in one year before Phil became the Bulls coach). Kobe's best has been 6.0 per game; this year he had 5.4 per game.

BROWN NOSER BANDWAGON ROLL CALL:

mrbarneydangles --riding shot gun
PSLAKERFAN ---drifter
Jay Jay --- Boss Man
justanothermambafan --- hired gun
johnny - come lately

ALL TOGETHER NOW:
WE ARE THE FREAKIN LA LAKERS THE WINNERS OF 14 NBA TITLES.
THE TEAM WITH THE BEST WINNING PERCENTAGE IN NBA HISTORY.
THE ONLY TEAM WITH 2 HOF COACHES. THE TEAM WITH THE MOST
PLAYERS ON THE 50 GREATEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME LIST(6). THE
HOME OF WILT KAREEM, GEORGE MIKAN, SHAQ, MAGIC, KOBE,
ELGIN BAYLOR, THE LOGO(JERRY WEST), PAT RILEY, JAMES WORTHY,
BOB MCADOO, "BIG SHOT ROB HORRY" GAIL GOODRICH
THE LEGENDARY SPORTSCASTER CHICK HEARN
COACHED BY 9 TIME TITLE WINNER PHIL (9RINGS) JACKSON
& OWNED BY THE BEST D@MN OWNER IN SPORTS DR. JERRY BUSS
AND THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN EVER DEFEAT OR DIVIDE US IS US
LAKERS TODAY LAKERS TOMORROW LAKERS FOREVER

Humor to start the day off!!

Electronically signed
President
Brown Noser Club of America

dice8up:

WHAT TO YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO LONG?

Please do not lump "us" all by saying "we". Speak for yourself and admit it that you are challenged a wee bit brother, hahah!!

You wrote:

Clearly now WE understand that the things people say about KOBE in the last 2-3 years were unfairly said. He was unfairly judged on the basis of their love for SHAQ.

Posted by: dice8up | May 01, 2008 at 05:17 AM

Exhelodrvr:"Would you mind talking to Mrs. Exhelodrvr? She never bothers using the &, ^, and %."

No she just knocks the "&^&%&*" out of you. Good try EX.
but no can do.

I forgot to bring something up the other day when I was talking about going to the Lakers Nuggets games in Denver.

One thing I noticed was how well all the Lakers got along. In the warmup lines after someone shot the ball they would high five every other Laker in the line on their way to the back of the line. Nothing even close to that from the Nuggets. Also, right before tipoff Nuggets had a pretty weak little circle thing going while the Lakers looked super pumped up as they were bouncing around Lamar.

Anyways, I just thought that was really interesting how the two teams prepared for the game. I think this Laker team really enjoys playing together (they say so themselves all the time) and the chemistry is great. Hopefully everything equates into a championship.

GO LAKERS

I am not buying into the "Bynum hold out until the Playoffs." There are no guarantees, we still have a series ahead of us that needs to be accounted for. Plus, with the "win now" mentality we have, I cannot see us holding him out if he was able to play and get reacclimated to the offense alongside Pau and the rest of the team.

But on the flip, if PJ and staff have decided to keep Bynum on the low and then break him out, that would be such a shock to everyone, hell, just hand them the trophy they might say!! LOL

Honestly, I saw that we seem our team in full bore next season....

GO Lakers!

Mamba25, how come our names Me and Charles are not on that brown noser bandwagon. We really have a brown nose(currently suffering from pollen attacks)!

Dear Mr. President.
I am honored to be included on the BROWN NOSER BANDWAGON ROLL CALL:
jusanothermambafan --- hired gun

I'd like to thank you and all the little people that made this possible. Please keep me in mind if you need any help with anything - I'm always available to assist - whatever you need - I'd love to help.

Your friend,

DEEP THOUGHTS posted:

"Now, if I see this kid at a party during playoffs and risking injury, just like Radmonvich too was having fun skiing then I certainly question Bynum’s frame of mind and work ethics."

House party is not the same as snowboarding. If he was doing keg stands, and jumping off the roof into a pool, I can see where your coming from. Until that comes out, your way off base.

The Gasol Trade

You know Memphis was nearly as bad with Gasol (28% winning percentage) as they were without him (25% winning percentage). Makes you wonder whether it was actually that bad a trade from the Grizzlies point of view (it obviously was a great trade for the Lakers). Memphis got cap space, Crittenton, 2 first round draft choices, and little Gasol. Two years down the road I bet they win
at least 45% of their games.

*__________________*
Waiting for Next Game
Is Hell BandWagon
*__________________*
01 Mamba24 – Driver & Owner
02 Jon K. -- Staring at the Clock Doesn't Seem to Make It Move More Quickly
03 JustAnotherMambaFan – So Bored looking at reruns with Kwame playing
04 Toad – Broke out in cold sweat at thought the season was just a dream
05 FairWeather Fatty – Will not admit the Denver series is over. Keeps
Wondering why Iverson is not attending practice.
06 Edwin Gueco - forced to read the gospels of the 5th Evangelist - LakerTom

I think when PJ mentioned talks about Gasol the year before and not pulling the trigger, the package we would have had to send would have been of the LO-Bynum variety. Remember, at the time Memphis was turning down packages that were A LOT better than what they got from us.

There situation changed, our changed, and voila, a deal was done.

Robyn,

You and Benjamin seem to have made some very good points. Kobe probably did drop the rock off to Kwame just to show the front office what it was they traded Butler for.

I'm also sure that PJ told Kobe to give him the ball for two reasons:

1) He was also frustrated by that particular move and wanted everyone to know just how bad it was,

2) Kobe would do as he said, so his plan would work.

Good posts.

F the Celtics!

--Fearless

MarkyTheArky:"Or, I am and ER and you are an ED when is come to the Brown nose."
I'm sorry Marky but ED does not even begin to describre
my Brown Nose affliction. The Docs. told me it's incurable.
OH MOTHER OF GOD CAN THIS BE THE END OF RICO?
Oh yeah I forgot again.... I'm African American.....NEVER MIND.

Posted by: Mamba24 | May 01, 2008 at 08:24 AM

There is something strange going on on the blog today. I think we've got a strange confluence of ideas that point to some hidden blog subject matter.

First: the Karl Malone child molestation story.
Second: Mamba's nose. It's brown and the Dr's told him he's stuck with it cause He's African American.

Let's see,
African American
Brown Nose that Dr's changed to different color
Child Molestation

Look at the first letter of each of those lines: ABC.

I'd say it's easy as you and me. Today is Michael Jackson day on the blog.

Oh, and another thing, the gangster wannabe posts from recent threads. Anybody see the BAD video. What a gangster!

On a lighter note, Mamba, I'm sure that you don't even have to have a nose if you don't want one. Check on line for bad plastic surgery photos.

Mark

giantsquid,

Excellent response but I still disagree although it’s hard to contest your position when you bring up MJ and Kobe, the current and next greatest players in the NBA. Of course, if you eliminate players who played in the Triangle Offense, which does not require either a dominant center or true point guard, your argument loses a little of its weight. In fact, MJ and Kobe dominate the ball so much for their teams that they fulfill the “point guard” responsibilities in the Triangle Offense.

So leaving out MJ and Kobe, I cannot not think of another NBA player current OR retired whom I would select (including LeBron James) before any of the following centers and point guards if I were starting an NBA franchise:

Magic Johnson
Oscar Robertson
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Wilt Chamberlain
Shaquille O’Neal
Bill Russell
Bill Walton
Hakeem Olajuwon

And if we were talking about players playing right now, my pick would be Andrew Bynum over even LeBron James or even Kobe (but only due to age).

The overall argument as to which positions are more valuable is really interesting because great players can obviously transcend their position. What does seem clearly proven by history, however, is that centers and guards are far more important than forwards in winning NBA championships. Without fellow 50-Greatest NBA Players Parrish and McHale, Bird might not have fared as well as he did. And the records are littered with the names of great forwards who never won a title.

Looking forward to your response. Good discussion!

Tom

LakerTom

I think that Elgin, Bird, Duncan and possibly Garnett (I wouldn't include Malone though) all deserve to be on your list (along with MJ and Kobe of course who I don't believe qualify as points guards. Pippen was the facilitator in Chicago and Kobe filled that role 2 or 3 years at best for the Lakers). As it is you only have 2 point guards on your list.

I just scanned the list of 50 greatest NBA players. Of those, I would classify only 7 as definitely being point guard although there were a few that were difficult to classify. I definitely don't think that MJ was a point guard. I'm not sure whether Monroe or Frazier was the Knicks point guard during the 70's and I'd consider both Hal Greer and Dave Bing to be shooting guards, but those are close calls.

There were 7 guards who I would say were definitely point guards and 7 I would consider off (or shooting) guards. There were 5 guards whose position seems somewhat ambiguous to me. That's nineteen guards and seventeen forwards (although Dave Cowens, who played center for the Celtics, actually played forward in college. That leaves 14 centers.

In any case, I was actually referring to basketball as it's played today. The era of the dominant center ended with Hakeem. Howard, Oden, and Bynum may all end up being dominant centers, but only Howard has proven himself to me at this point. The players who dominate today are Garnett, Duncan, LeBron, and Paul. Up and comers include D. Williams, Josh Smith, Howard, Stoudemire, and Bynum. Other players that deserve consideration include consideration are T. Parker, Bosh, Ginobilli, Durant, Horford, Wade, Anthony, West, Nowitzki, Jefferson and Butler. Of these only Howard, Bynum and Oden are true centers and only Paul, Williams and Parker are true point guards.

Nash and Kidd are washed up.

Perhaps you might want to add or subtract from this list, but in my opinion centers and point guards are no longer the dominant players in the league.

I wonder what Hollinger thinks. (KIDDING!)

Tsphere and Kiwi

Its so kind of you to assist.

Been to London a few times when my daughter was young so it severely limited our pub partaking.

On our last visit, some of the pubs would permit family during meal time and in 'proper sections'. We tried one and it was a real treat.

Right across from Whitehall. As we finished our meal, upon coming outside, we were introduced to a company of Gerka soldiers marching down a street, followed by several Rolls Royce.

My wife said, "My God, the Queen!" So we followed the small parade down the lane to a statue that was being dedicated to the Gerka soldiers.

In close quarters with the royal Family, what a treat! We waived and they waived back!

That night, at our friends home in Red Hook, we told them our experience. She exclaimed, she'd never seen the Queen up close like that.

On the news in the evening, they showed the dedication and easy to see in the small crowd, were the Fatty's. She said, "You Americans are always getting the best treatment, its not fair!" lol

Now my daughter is older and we can visit as many pubs as we are able to. Which is why I asked for your recommendation.

Thank you again for your kind reply.

The most important position(s) is separate from who the best players on the team are.

It deals more with the structure/flow of the way a team plays a game than with the actual result of the individual plays/sequences of plays.

In baseball, the most important position would be the catcher, but pretty rarely is he the "best" player on the team.