AK/BK or anyone else who may know,

Is that Alan Houston/Luxury Tax Waiver option still available to teams or was it a one time thing?

I'd like to see the front office consider it with either of the Cap Space Killers (prolly Luke since he's more worthless and has the longer contract).

And if it's out there, I can see the Suns dumping the big albatross and his $20 mil in luxury taxes. I don't see them getting much value for his expiring deal without taking back a bunch more bad contracts in return. By next season they'll be lottery bound and that small market mentality always moves towards saving $.

AK,

"On the overwhelming whole, Jon K's "censored" posts were threats of physical violence against other readers, which are obviously against the rules."

That's a complete load of crap and you know it!

Yes, I may have threatened physical violence against other readers a few times over the YEARS, but nearly every time it was meant tongue-in-cheek as a joke or as a humorously over the top comment. The fact is for the huge majority of these "violent" posts is that they were meant to be over-the-top as a means of poking fun at myself and my extreme passions for all-things-Lakers.

In fact, the VAST majority of the time I have been censored is simply because you thought my comments were in poor taste or because you felt my passions were too great in my expression and had NO expressions of violence whatsoever.

Don't give me this nonsense that triple digit number of posts which have been deleted over the years since the very beginning of this blog have been because I've been literally threatening other bloggers.

That is untrue and mischaracterization of myself and VERY uncool of you.

GO LAKERS!

thekobebryantblitz ???

Jerome James and Michael Olowokandi have both been shown to be mental midgets.

Kwame did, in fact improve when he was on the Lakers, there's no fixing his hands but Detroit certainly saw enough to make him a decent offer this summer. I don't think you can pin Kwame's bad hands on Kareem.

Bynum, it's fairly obvious how much Kareem's guidance has helped him. Look at his footwork. That's a lost art in the NBA. Bynum appears to be the ONLY ONE who realized the gift Kareem was offering him and actually took it and look what has happened. The one guy who listened to Kareem and put the work in has launched himself into a top 5 Center at the age of 20, I seriously doubt Bynum is anywhere near the player he is if somebody else is teaching him.

I don't see how you could possibly say CJ Miles is NOT a project. He sure isn't going to give us any useful minutes this year, that is by definition, a project. Most likely he'll be down in the DLeague or 15th man on the roster watching games in street clothes. Again, if that isn't a project, I don't know what is. When you talk about playing time for CJ Miles, you are skipping this season and talking about the next year. Again, what other definition of "project" do you need? and that's assuming he puts in the work that allows him to stick around.

Mbenga isn't really a project, he has no upside. He's somewhat of a wasted roster space if the choice is between keeping him or a CJ Miles. Why not go with the younger guy and see if he develops? The best test will be to see if he falls to his feet at the master KAJ. If this guy doesn't appreciate being taught by Kareem, I say cut him immediately, he's not going to make it.

Jon K,

"Yes, I may have threatened physical violence against other readers a few times over the YEARS, but nearly every time it was meant tongue-in-cheek as a joke or as a humorously over the top comment. The fact is for the huge majority of these "violent" posts is that they were meant to be over-the-top as a means of poking fun at myself and my extreme passions for all-things-Lakers.

In fact, the VAST majority of the time I have been censored is simply because you thought my comments were in poor taste or because you felt my passions were too great in my expression and had NO expressions of violence whatsoever.

Don't give me this nonsense that triple digit number of posts which have been deleted over the years since the very beginning of this blog have been because I've been literally threatening other bloggers. That is untrue and mischaracterization of myself and VERY uncool of you."

First things first, I apologize if you felt mischaracterized. That wasn't my intention, but rather to respond directly to an incorrect comparison Edwin was making off misinformation. But I definitely wasn't trying to make you look bad, so I'm sorry if it came off that way.

Having said that, you continue to exaggerate about a "triple digit" amount of posts deleted. BK and I have barely deleted 100+ posts since the blog's inception, much less that many from you. If 100+ posts of yours were that out of bounds, you'd have been banned by now. End of story.

And we've also explained that these posts, whether meant as "over the top jokes" or not, came off more threatening than you perhaps intended (and were often received that way by those reading them), which is why they weren't kosher. It's taken you quite a while to accept that notion, which has unfortunately led to posts being deleted. And I do think that more of those "poor taste" jokes contained a violent element than you're giving credit.

Either way, the point of my response wasn't to paint you as a problem, but to explain to Edwin why his comparison wasn't merited. Your inclusion, at least from my perspective, was more incidental than my particular focus. But if you felt singled out, I apologize.

AK

Elle - he's also taken up pole dancing recently. Not something I want to picture but y'know, we don't make this stuff up, we just report it, right?

AK,

I appreciate your apology, but, man, what you've said just isn't true.

And, yes, I have had over 100 posts deleted over the years. You may not remember it as such because it's been over a pretty long time and you have deal with a LOT more posts than mine alone from a plethora of bloggers, but I remember it.

It hasn't been a problem for about a year. By my estimation I've only had about 10-12 posts deleted over the last year, but it was a real problem before, particularly when there was a lot of bad blood between BK and I. There were occasions where I had five posts deleted in a day for what I felt was questionable logic. And that really would piss me off and would lead to a lot more posts getting deleted.

Believe me. I've had well over 100+ posts deleted over the years. I'm not making that up or saying that because I feel I'm being "persecuted" or anything like that. I'm saying that because I've had a hell of a lot of posts deleted--some deservedly so--but from my perspective the large majority of these deleted posts should not have been deleted.

So, please don't characterize me as literally threatening other bloggers with physical violence. Passionate trash talk and bizarre, sometimes over-the-top humor? Sure. Actually threatening bloggers with violence? Absolutely not.

I think you should know better than to use me as a scapegoat to defend your position.

GO LAKERS!

AK,

Don't you think Jon K's threat was also satire on threats of harm and injury? How can he physically injure someone by blogging? How about this troll guy talking about his injury in the golf links, If someone get pissed off, don't you think that anger is not a form of harm as well? If you allow those kind of posts, then people here will talk of their mother-in-law, their dogs, their neighbor and anything under the sun etc. as long as they don't make any physical threats or insults. Is that the whole purpose of Lakers Blog? Talk of anything as long as it is not politics, harm, injury and your name is not on the watch list.

Jon,

>>>>>How do you think there will be drama this year?
>>>>>Is C.J. Giles the guy to bring the drama?

It’s just the nature of the franchise, Jon, what with being in LA and having the game’s most controversial and polarizing super star in Kobe Bryant, its most impressive up-and-coming super star center in Andrew Bynum, its most revered or hated coach in Phil Jackson, and its most divisive and soap operatic ownership family in the Busses.

Every player on the team, from the Machine to the Monkey King, has a story that needs and will be told. Every NBA reporter, player, blogger, or fan has a story to tell, point to make, or ax to grind when it comes to the Lakers, Kobe, Phil, Jerry, Jim, or Jeanie. Writers cannot publish an article about pro basketball without somehow finding a way to include the Lakers in the story so that they will attract additional readers and attention.

Type “Lakers” into Google and you will get two to three times the links you would typing in any other pro basketball team name, including the “Celtics.” The Lakers Blog probably has 10 times the posters and readers of any NBA based blog in the blogosphere. Anyway, you want to look at it, the Lakers are the story, the engine that drives the NBA, and I don’t see that stopping soon.

We got Kobe’s opt out possibility at the end of this year, Drew’s critical extension that needs to be signed before October 31, Jim Buss’ eventual ascension to CEO of the Lakers down the road, and the issue of who coaches after Phil Jackson. Will Phil marry Jeanie and sign an extension? Will Drew provide the toughness and inside dominance the Lakers need? Will Kobe’s pinky be OK? Can Lamar play small forward? Will the Machine shoot as well as last year? Will the Monkey King win some playing time? Can Luke or Chris come back from injuries?

The Lakers are nothing but drama and there is no reason to expect that to change.

Tom

Edwin Gueco,

"Don't you think Jon K's threat was also satire on threats of harm and injury? How can he physically injure someone by blogging?"

A) No, they didn't read like a "satire" on threats. B) We have no idea if the person the threat was lobbied actually lives close enough to Jon that something real could come of it and C) None of this even matters, because it's not up to us to try to get inside Jon's head and figure out whether this is "real," "satirical" or whatever. For a variety of reasons, those kind of posts aren't good for the blog's atmosphere. Thus, we've made it clear we don't want it.

"How about this troll guy talking about his injury in the golf links, If someone get pissed off, don't you think that anger is not a form of harm as well?"

No, because that person wasn't directing this anger at anyone in particular on the blog. There's a huge and obvious difference. Otherwise, we wouldn't even allow readers to post anger over a loss. The distinction is pretty simple.

"If you allow those kind of posts, then people here will talk of their mother-in-law, their dogs, their neighbor and anything under the sun etc. as long as they don't make any physical threats or insults. Is that the whole purpose of Lakers Blog? Talk of anything as long as it is not politics, harm, injury and your name is not on the watch list."

Again, I don't know how to make this more clear. Let BK and I worry about what goes live and what doesn't. I'm not trying to be dismissive, but this is one of those areas where we make decisions, you don't and that's that. The rules aren't terribly restrictive to begin with, so there really shouldn't be a problem.

AK

AK,

Or just leave that duty up to us- as it's our job- and don't worry about it. But either way, spreading misinformation creates a false impression that BK and I don't need to be correcting.

~~ That's also the problem with you. You are a hot headed moderator. You are being accuse of being unfair and here you try to paint someone as creating false impressions. You always put yourself on the supreme and superior over and above other bloggers like us, cannot receive stirring rebukes, cannot complain on blog rules, w/c you also violate once in a while. Read your rules and ask yourself if you are perfect and never violated them.

Jon K,

"And, yes, I have had over 100 posts deleted over the years. You may not remember it as such because it's been over a pretty long time and you have deal with a LOT more posts than mine alone from a plethora of bloggers, but I remember it.

Respectfully, Jon, you have a tendency towards both over the top reactions and never letting go of an opinion once you've made up your mind. I'm pretty confident I'm correct about this total in question. But if you want to agree to disagree, then fine. Either way, as you've acknowledged, it's mostly from way back and isn't an issue anymore. At least not on our end.

"So, please don't characterize me as literally threatening other bloggers with physical violence. Passionate trash talk and bizarre, sometimes over-the-top humor? Sure. Actually threatening bloggers with violence? Absolutely not."

Look you already said earlier that you occasionally meant this stuff. But beyond that, it's not up to BK and I to try and figure out if these posts were "over the top humor," "bizarre," or real anger coming through. Whatever the case, they typically came off as serious anger being lobbied at somebody and always helped create an atmosphere that we repeatedly said we didn't want. That you would continually ignore this requests makes you the culpable party for the posts being deleted, not us.

"I think you should know better than to use me as a scapegoat to defend your position."

As I said, I wasn't trying to scapegoat you to defend my position. Edwin improperly used you as an example and I was simply trying to draw a distinction in clarifying the issue. I didn't consider you to be the point of discussion at all, nor was I trying to make you look bad.

AK

You know, if you've managed to keep count of the hundreds of posts that have been deleted maybe you should take that as a sign that you should get out the basement more often.

Pig,

What do you mean by anti-blog old guard?

Posted by: Edwin Gueco | September 13, 2008 at 08:20 AM

Edwin,

See: Marc Cuban.

Tom - that was eric, not me that posted that. I'm as liberal as they get.

>>>Long time Laker Fan,
>>>I sent an email can you confirm you got it?

I don't think I have. Or maybe it was picked up by one of
my spam filters. Could you send another one? And I'll make
sure to check the spam folder.

dave,

Sorry about that. Got my dave m’s and eric m’s mixed up. Anyway, we’re all OK. Even eric and ex, who I know are McCain fans. Glad to hear you are on the “right” side, though. Bottom line, we are ALL loyal Lakers fans and Americans. LOL.

Tom

"Irony alert! As Abbott noted, one year ago, the Lakers might have been this poll's leading votegetter and are now considered among the more stable franchises. What a difference a string of W's make."

Very true.

Winning solves everything in professional sports.

Laker Tom,

I don't know if you saw my post to you, but I wanted to know about your feeling on our Niners team this year. I enjoyed your analysist a couple of seasons ago, and I wondered what you think about this year. I don't want to turn this into a football thread, but may I just get a brief breakdown??

Thanks.

dan

For the record, I'm not asking AK to get out of the basement, I'm asking Jon K.

Anyhooo, I agree with you we are having a bad case of cabin fever, we need basketball now! I say we continue to make fun of the Celtics till October. Can we fun of Posey? Oh man the fun we could have coming up with names for his website, heehee.

dan,

My apologies. I did see your earlier post but forgot to respond, probably because of how disappointed I am in our Niners. Even more so than my Yankees. I loved Mike Nolan when he was hired and only had one worry, which was that he was not an offensive guru who could continue the Niners great legacy at quarterback and on offense. I could not believe how things fell apart last year, especially the total ineffectiveness of the offense. And I thought Nolan’s handling of the Alex Smith situation was disastrous. Now Smith is gone and we’re out $20M+.

Bottom line, I would almost prefer this to be a disastrous season where we get a very high draft pick because we need a quarterback. I think the team will do better because Mike Martz knows how to score points. My biggest fear is to be trapped in mediocrity with no hope of playoffs but a good enough record to eliminate a chance to get a high draft pick. The only way out is if Brent Jones, Steve Young, and Larry Ellison buy the Niners from the Yorks. Otherwise, we’re in for a long and painful few years stuck with a terrible stadium and owner.

Thank God for the Lakers. Both baseball and football seasons are essentially over for me. How about you?

Tom

LTLF & elle - so Pierce's new BFF is Satan? I just knew that dark forces were behind all this Vegas carousing and what-not. An epic battle awaits us. We have to be strong.

AK,

"As I said, I wasn't trying to scapegoat you to defend my position. Edwin improperly used you as an example and I was simply trying to draw a distinction in clarifying the issue"

Here's where you've got it wrong. Edwin Guerco did not use me improperly as an example. You improperly categorized my deleted emails as being honest threats of violence when they are not.

Here's the thing, AK. I know it's yours and BK's job to run this blog and as a result you two seem to feel the need to express an "alpha" role in your discussions with bloggers.

I get it. You guys are in charge. But it would be nice if we could have some imput as to how things run as a blog and discuss these matters.

You've often stated that the rules are clear and I'm not going to argue with you on that. The rules have become "relatively" clear over time, but they have not always been so. There's a reason why a lot of bloggers seem to overstep their bounds. It's not that we are challenging you guys, so much as we don't always know where the line is OR because you guys are so overwhelmed by posts that you can't take the time to read into the implied meaning of certain posts.

Whatever. I'm sorry to keep bringing this point up. I guess I've just been rubbed the wrong way by having so many posts deleted over time and being inappropriately used as a scapegoat today.

As long as I don't get any posts unreasonably deleted in the future I'll be fine. And I'll try to respect your sensitivities, despite myself.

GO LAKERS!

AK/BK,
pls do us a favor and don't let Buttler posts anymore!!! he is just too annoying and getting ridiculous by the minute...his posts are just outrageous and we don't need that here....pls let Laker fans enjoy this blog!!

Sometimes I slip in something political, too.

Funny list on who will implode. I would've thrown Cleveland on that list, too. I think after the Olympics LeBron is not going to settle for his team's lacadasical defense for too long. Big Z is winding down, his best years fading behind him. Delonte West? Please. Gibson? Same thing, these guys are all streaky shooters, which in and of itself isn't bad. But compound that with a lack of defensive intensity and you have a recipe for disaster in the beefed up East. They have no legit power forward, just a strange mish-mash of role players that need to be complemented by other guys on the court in order to maximize their effeciveness. They could definitely use a Lamr Odom type of player. A guy who creates his own niche by doing best what other do not. Same with Sasha and Luke and Ariza. They might not always have the stroke going, but they will stay in front of their men and rebound and in Luke's case he is similar in style of play to Lamar. He does his best to fill gaps.

Cleveland is geared to have the ball in one man's hands and to rebound. They are slow or risky defenders to a man and don't shoot well enough as a group to free LeBron up to the degree that Kobe is able to.

Because of the triangle.

Who's you're HOF coach now, PJ haters?

Peace.

The ESPN writers voting the Lakers as the 2009 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP favorites is just a way for all those haters to build up the Lakers for a mighty fall.

I don't wanna hear about the Lakers being the favorites with no Ronny Turiaf to spell Bynum and Gasol minutes in order to keep them from wearing down and/or getting injured in the long grind of an 82 game season.

Boston bullied dogged the Lakers.

We need to be humble, hungry and deflect all attention to Boston since they the champs or LeBron since he took the Celtics 7 games.

We need career yrs out of one of the guys we don't expect to play well.

Luke Walton, Jordan Farmar, Vlad Radmono, or Chris what a waste Mihm.