I love Horry and respect his opinion, but I would have loved to have seen the fallout if Pop yelled at Jordan. After a loss. That would have been priceless. Or Shaq. Or Pippen, or Kobe, la-di-da. It's great if your star is Tim Duncan and will take crap from you. I'm sure Jordan would have come off the bench so that Bruce Bowen could start even though he was the best player on his team...And then would have respected being yelled at. Sure. Talent comes with a price in the NBA, and Pop, although a great, great coach, has been just as lucky personnel-wise as Phil (well, almost:)) in a different way. With the same talent and no egos, maybe the nod will go to Popovich. Whatever.

Good to hear about Trevor. Not really important though. He's not going to be a game changer any time too. We need to knuckle down and win our next two games.

GO LAKERS!

THE BANNER HOLDER YOU ARE BARKING AT THE WRONG TREE:

NO WONDER your prayers are not being answered. I noticed you have been praying to Rock. Is that ROCO, Rocky or the actor Rock? You are one very deluded and confused soul and the only I see salvation for you my son to STOP praying for the Lakers, pray for other human beings that are suffering. I also think that you should watch SUNDAY religion channel for rest of your life, touch that television son and ye shall be healed. I say heal or HEEl in your case!! and send MONEY..

In your prayers do beg that I don't turn Robyn into an UGLY BETTY and last but not least pray that I don't turn that good for nothing Charles into an ugly toad.

You wrote:
Charles:

When I pray, I pray to THE MAN HIMSELF. I don't believe in counterfeits, false gods, and dudes masquerading as THE MAN who are annoyed with my prayers. I go straight to The Rock.

Posted by: utzworld THE BANNER HOLDER

Happy trails!!
Jesus

ONE VEERY PARANOID AND NOSEY BLOGGER WITH ONE LINERS:

WWJWWD

J Walter sighting?

Posted by: Charles

ARE YOU A GIRLY GUY?

Awww. I am blushing.

Posted by: pslakerfan

I assume by looking at your name that you mean "Are you a girly guy TOO"?????

watching the Orlando-Detroit game, and Howard is dropping passes and losing the ball like crazy!!

I'm watching and going "theres no way Bynum would drop that"

never knew it, but aparently Dwight has small hands

pslakerfan

Me thinks you are already in the happy hour mode.

It was Moses who served in Pharoah's court.

Posted by: Fairweather Fatty | May 13, 2008 at 06:13 PM

margaritas actually, thanks for noticing...

By the way Jesus, I don't remember you around on the blog when Edwin and I were arguing. I don't suppose you go by another name now do you?????

Fire32
I was at work earlier and noticed the "we" also. I just couldn't reply from work. Go figure, you have access to the blog but can't post. Welcome aboard.

Colorado loves the Lakers!

You crack me up, Jesús!

Hello again LakerNation, I hope at the time this is posted all is going well.

To: HmrHed
Pre-congratulations to you and your wife's forthcoming new arrival sir! I wish all the best and health to you, your wife and the soon to be new child.

To: Zen
Great response post regarding the previous blogger's pro- Pop anti-Phil stance. I find it hilarious AND sad that persons still use the tired old argument that "Phil had this great player and that great player......" My response to that tired lame criticism of PJ's coaching winning teams in 9 of 10 NBA Finals appearances is still the same: Can you name even ONE NBA team that had what is considered a "Dynasty Run" of championships over a certain period of time with a coach that had NO legitimate superstars? I doubt it. If you don't beleive that look up NBA history. Pop's a great coach yes. But let's just remember this about Popovich: He was GM of the Spurs the year David Robinson, his best franchise player missed I beleive nearly the entire NBA Season due to a serious early season injury. Of course the Spurs regular season hopes of making the post season vanished with his loss. The Spurs went on to have something like a 20 and 62 1997-1998 regular season record which propelled them into the Draft Lottery for 1998. So what does GM Pop do when fortune smiles greatly on the Spurs franchise and they come away with the number one overall pick ensuring that Duncan would be theirs for at least 3 years? Pop fires the current coach and makes himself the coach knowing he's going to have Duncan AND a healthy David Robinson still in his prime to build a contender. Now I'm not bashing the guy for being a blatant oppurtunist, but let's just see if Popovich STAYS the head coach after Duncan retires (as he has said several times he will not, "when Duncan retires so will I..." Phil on the other hand, came back after the Lakers blew up his dynasty headlined by Shaq-Kobe to a young, (at the time) margianlly talented team at best except for Kobe and is again building this team into a contender. Oh yes, and remember when MJ retired for a season and 1/2 or however long it was? Didn't the Bulls STILL make the playoffs without Jordan?? Just my take on that.. and WAY TOO LONG as usual lol!!

For WWJWWD:

ON your take on the Ariza news, Agreed here. ALthough I too see it as positive news, let's not kid ourselves Laker faithful. The players and coaches themselves have said 100s of times I'm sure maybe 1000s of times since the 82 game NBA regular season became official that if a player misses 3 or more months of the regular season that even the best shaped players take about 10 regular season games minimum to get their wind and timing back. Of course knowing the potential Ariza has to help our defense with his size, underrated incredible athletic ability combined with Luke's uninspired defense and Farmar's of late, I'm hoping for the best and that he'll play tonight.

This is the shot in the arm we needed to propel us thru Utah and on to the finals.....Com'on Ariza !!!!!

Newble is not as good defensively as Ariza when Ariza is healthy; he is better defensively than Walton, Vujacic, and Rad, but not by a huge margin. And he is much worse offensively than them. So the overall effect of playing Newble, compared to playing one of the other three, would be negative.

[ How can you say he is not as good offensively when you have not seen him play? PJ has not played him so who knows how he will be. Remember how he refused to play Mbenga but when he did Mbenga contributed. I think Ira can contribute but is not savior. I say if he has talent then use those talent].

He was not signed with the intention of playing the same role that Ariza been playing, and with the intention of getting him a lot of playing time. He's not that good. He was signed as an insurance policy against additional injuries to the SG/SFs.

[He was signed for insurance policy and injury to Ariza is there. So why not cash in on that insurance policy, it paid for?]

Posted by: exhelodrvr | May 13, 2008 at 03:46 PM

JLF
==========================================
Charles,

When Ariza's activated, I'm guessing Coby Karl will go to the inactive list. Mihm's got size and experience, and while he hasn't played much at all, the odds of him either being needed or simply just stepping on the court under most circumstances would be higher than Karl's. Just my guess, but I'd be pretty surprised if it went in the other direction.

AK

Posted by: Andrew Kamenetzky | May 13, 2008 at 03:52 PM

Huh, Coby Karl is already on inactive list. The 3 on inactive are Bynum, Ariza and Coby. So if Ariza comes off then the player to go on inactive would be either Mihm or Newble since neither is getting PT].