@JAMF - You've lost it a while ago

It's hard to feel too bad for Detroit, the contracts they gave Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva were just ridiculous. .
Posted by: phred | November 17, 2010 at 11:29 PM

yeah last couple years complete reversal of fortune for dumars and the ex GM of the year is now runnin that team to the ground... dont forget dumars also traded chauncy for AI... and some of his latest draft picks didnt exactly pan out or were traded... but what will always haunt them is the 2003 draft... took MILICIC over carmelo bosh and dwade... OUCH!

63 - LMAO - it's all good, bruh. Justa havin a little fun. BUT - thanks for the compliment - always much appreciated coming from such a great blogger as yourself! And no - not messin around with that - truly meant.

One of the many things I like about Kobe is it always feels he has something to motivate him:

"They beat me in... (pick a year)... now I must destroy them."
"They never beat me in... (pick a year)... now I must destroy them."
"That player (pick a player) said he was better than me... now I must destroy him."
"That player (pick a player) said he was a Kobe stopper... now I must destroy him."
"That rookie (pick a rookie) might someday challenge my GOAT standing... now I must destroy him."
"That TNT announcer (pick one) said I was getting old... now I must destroy him."
"That team (pick a team) is standing in the way of me getting another ring... NOW I MUST destroy them."

It's so great!

@MM - Great description of Kobe's competitiveness. To quote Lebron...yes, Kobe has spoiled us.

What you hope and pray is that the young adult that you care about grows up before anything bad happens. Sad. But, true.

PS: Believe me, I know. I teach High School Calculus and Physics, remember?

Posted by: FEARless | November 18, 2010 at 08:10 AM
---------------------

Well said. I know that only by the grace of God I'm I still here after some of the dumb things I did ...especially as a teen and in my early 20's.

Well said. I know that only by the grace of God I'm I still here after some of the dumb things I did ...especially as a teen and in my early 20's. Posted by: LRob | November 18, 2010 at 08:45 AM
*
AW HELL NAW!!! Not LROB!!! no, no, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mamba24,

Your first musical set included "Smiling Faces", by the Undisputed Truth?

OJ Simpson`s 1972 collection included "Back Stabbers", by {who else?}-the O`Jays!

RED - don't forget OJ's flipside on that one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIxNg9Fj7OY

Did I mention how happy I am for vick? What a great feel good comeback story!

Your first musical set included "Smiling Faces", by the Undisputed Truth? OJ Simpson`s 1972 collection included "Back Stabbers", by {who else?}-the O`Jays! Posted by: RED`S LOVE CHILD | November 18, 2010 at 08:56 AM
*
AW SWEET JESUS RED!!!!!!!! Damn you are on your game this morning sir! How are you Red! I like how your team is doing. A blow out last night, first place in the Eastern Conference!!! Damn Red don't tell me this rematch is really gone happen. This is OUT FREAKIN STANDING SIR!!!! What more could a Celtics or Lakers fan ask for. It's gonna be great Red!!! Just don't let Shaq get lazy on you now. I really believe you will have little trouble reaching the Finals. I'll be rooting for your team all the way until then. Of course once you reached the Finals the bottom will drop out. But Red, it's all about the ride, just enjoy the ride. I salute your team! Well done so far!!!!!!!

@RED'S LOVE CHILD, For you Red:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTeLePbB08&feature=related – Back Stabbers – Ojays

I think dude was also using 1989 as motivation, too. Kid was killing it last night. What a pleasure to watch. Greatness of this magnitude is a blessing from the basketball gods, and Jerry West's surgically-precise scouting instincts. Thank you, Kobe. Thank you, Logo.

I HEART Kobe devouring the souls of his opponents, leaving their empty carcass on the hardwood as he soldiers on to the next pack of victims, err, opponents.

If Vinnie Johnson was the "Microwave", then Kobe is the Large Hedron Collider: happily making big bangs since 1996.

DBDH!

I wouldn't be suprised if we skated by without a temp big. I think a trade move would be more in the order of a multi player combo...and it's so early, and we do need another big for the long haul....

funny how when teams don't hit 22 threes on ya, your chemistry appears better

As our boys learn the offense and each other, they will appear to gain quickness and speed....as the moments of hesitation, and thought are replaced by reflex and reaction.

a good day to all...

I wouldn't be suprised if we skated by without a temp big. I think a trade move would be more in the order of a multi player combo...and it's so early, and we do need another big for the long haul....funny how when teams don't hit 22 threes on ya, your chemistry appears better As our boys learn the offense and each other, they will appear to gain quickness and speed....as the moments of hesitation, and thought are replaced by reflex and reaction. a good day to all... Posted by: I hearned that | November 18, 2010 at 09:16 AM
*
NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ 63,

Don't forget these:

"He (insert name here) didn't leggo my Eggo back in (insert year[s] here)... I must eat his brain."

###

"He (insert name here) should've had a V8. I will liquify him with 55 points tonight."

###

"I can't believe it's not butter! This team will perish!"

[dbdh]

63Footer

I know seriously... Take nothin for granted. But would love to see shannon back in the dunk contest.. He needs to redeem himself and we all know he can do it.

Laker Peace; I don't think we can include Pau in any trade, he and Kobe compliment in a priceless kinda way

Mamba 24: Just don't let Shaq get lazy on you now. (an understatement)

One of the similarities of West and Kobe: they do their talking on the court!!!!

Usually very clear and distinct.

Kobe Black Mamba Bryant...

The story is far from finished...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3RxGbeijwc

Lakers Dynasty - The Next Generation...

#17 Coming Up!!!

@LRob - great Seger selection...

DBDH - you win! No mas! No mas!

@RIC K... Hope your recovery is on schedule. It’s great to have you back again. You just need to take it easy and let other bloggers win the Friedman once in a while. :) I don’t see Drew’s speeding ticket as a problem. If you owned a Ferrari, I’m sure you would want to let her out of her cage once in a while. He was probably safer in that car at 110 mph than most drivers of cheap poorly maintained rice burners at 55 mph. While I don’t do it as often as I used to (primarily because there are too many cyclists on the road today), I have always loved driving fast and hitting the magic 100 mph is sort of like Kobe dropping 81.
......

TOM

One thing we know about Mitch, he's savvy at pulling headscratching trades for past their prime players along with under the radar upstarts...and the under the radar upstart becomes THE STAR once he's baptized in the fire of Laker Nation. Reference points: Trevor Ariza, Shannon Brown.

I suspect another such trade is in the works using Luke & Sasha as trade bait. It would not surprise me at all to see Minny being the team we trade from. Luke got waaaaaaaay too much playing time during that game. Looked more like an AUDITION to me.

justa - that was a great interview - I love Meadowlark - he da man! I was surprised by the Lamar choice, but when I think about Lamar if he were on the Globetrotters, with his range of talents and his attitude, I could see it.

Kobe? You're just speechifying the truth.

wow, it's back to fun after a morning session of sanctimonious posters...

i'd be surprised if there was a panic signing with Drew so close to returning. it's hard to imagine that there are many players available who could do any better than Caracter in the space of a couple of weeks. there's too much to learn to play the Lakers system and help the team. Caracter's kinda lost right now, and a newcomer would be too.

if Drew wasn't going to be ready, then....

Justa - Lamar is great and all, but I think bouncing the basketball off his head is finally catching up with Meadowlark.Posted by: htj | November 18, 2010 at 09:54 AM
*
LMAO!!!!!!!!

Yeah, it warmed the cockles of my heart when I heard Kobe respond to his motivation for playing so hard against the Pistons.
-
"2004"
-
The Pistons must suffer forever for that.
-
Jerks.
-
What do we play for? RINGS!!!
-
Lakers Today... Lakers Tomorrow... Lakers Forever.
-
GO LAKERS!!!!

@KOBEFAN IN CUPERTINO... Excellent points about the value of big men in the NBA. I feel sorry for the Blazers though as their luck with big men from Luke’s dad forward has been miserable. When you peruse the list, however, what jumps out at me is that there were a lot of big men picked #1 who have not lived up to the expectations of the team drafting them. Sort of like drafting wide receivers in the NFL.
...

@FRMKT... “I honestly do not expect Bynum to return until next year and I have a feeling he's going the way of Oden & Yao.” I hope you are just having a bad day because this post seems to be over the edge for a blogger who usually is more positive. There is no reason whatsoever to think that Bynum is not going to return late this month or early next month. When the Lakers add Bynum to a team with a healthy Kobe, a resurgent Pau and Lamar, and the Killer B’s, the Lakers will become unstoppable. Drew will be even more of an unstoppable force in the low post what with how the Lakers perimeter shooting has improved.
...

TOM

@ LRob: I'm no Stephen Hawking, but I'm pretty sure Larry Brown was referring to the absolute DOMINATION of a "team" with a couple superstars by an actual team when he said the pistons WERE playing the right way. Just look at their opponents when they 3peated, and it's not too hard to understand. I can't speak for right now, but I didn't forget 04' either...when the Lakers received such a hard beating it took them 5 years to get back to the top, something an average 13-point regular season loss will never change.

'04

Surprised Deeetroit didn't put T Prince on Kobe last night, for old time's sake.

Would have been fun to watch him try to stop 24 without the '04 crew to zone him.

Minnie titles? What is this? The olden days?

Of course Minnie titles count, it was the Lakers wasn't it? Elg was on both teams, jeeze.

Good evening beloved Fam!

Thank you for your absolutely heart-melting get-well wishes... I'm still have minor fever but the fact I slept 11 hours this past night (clock for the game chat sounded, but I was all in Morpheus's caring and tighten up arms and I didn't hear a shuffle AT ALL...), and a few also during today, should assure me fever-less state tomorrow ;)

(PS: Tom, you know your comment made me the happiest???? Do you know no compliment can be surpassed in my book than this >

"Also, please add me to Zaira’s Get Well Bandwagon. Must be a hell of a fever to be able to keep Zaira down. That girl has a motor that never quits – very Kobe-esque in my mind.
………………………………..

TOM

Posted by: LakerTom | November 17, 2010 at 12:56 PM "

> do you man? Thank you from the totalness of my beating heart :) :) :) I feel senseful right now in a shimmering way ;)... )

What helped me re-balance my healthy state (beside YOUR cuteness) was the re-watch of our game during the afternoon.

I knew we had won because I saw a bit of tv and read twitter so from the feed the mystery about the game was never an option; someway this could have drawn my interest down (not really) but I was very curious, as I said yesterday, to see what we would have brought on the table and then I am glad to say and reckon we did everything truly well enough, for the state of trial we're still in.

Sure, Pistons nowadays are not that much of a challenge but truth is our only challenge ARE OURSELVES, so everything gotta be measured not up to our opponents, but to our way to make our potential an epiphany of realness on court.

That is our mission.

When/if we do that, I always say it... there's no one comparable; there's no one who can sustain our game... there's no one who can reach and touch us.

I obviously found my best satisfaction in Kobe, but this is just because I am an esthete and he's the beauty and perfection applied to bball when he plays like himself.
His flow... his flow makes my blood run richer.

Still he's never the only thing I watch, because bball is a wonderful team sport and it's in the team clockin up that I always find the greatest satisfaction.

This game just showed how much we can click-clock.

It's beautiful.

Still we have a long long way to run and as MM promptly noted, it's not really that we can feel in the position to whistle bells right now.

I am still appalled at the new referee power trick.

I expect armageddons out of it; I totally believe it's a rule made and fit to excruciate our confidence and stress us out when it will count; I see it as a vapid horrible backside thought of Stern-er and I just despise it.

But we will grow that out and win nonetheless.

We're the light, they're the dark, and I believe in happy endings.

I'm glad to see wes's back :)
I hope troy isn't serious when he says that he'd like us to lose more so the chat can be more battling ;) and I'm here also to congratulate again Justa on a further RCOTD.
She's like Beyoncé with Grammies, at this point ;) Hopefully with a less tacky fashion sense though... ;)

I'm sorry for Oden... injuries are painful but I wouldn't really pair Oden with Bynum: look at Greg's leg's shape and overall body shape (beside his... erm... well know intimate jewels...) he's very thin boned.
Drew's not like that, you can tell it by a simple look at their bodies.
There's not reallya similar problem: Drew's injuries came from play... Greg practically never had ways to test his NBA play, did he?
Andrew will be fine and once back in rotation, you will see how much we will improve.
The option for opponents about who they will have to guard will span, and this will result in an obvious richer play from us.

Look at the Meat (who are still so predictable, overrated, and playing really not well): when they play, people gotta guard three people.
When Drew will be back, our opponents will have to guard 4 or 5.
Constantly.

Nobody can, of course.

So there you go.

In the maintime, Shannon is gaining all my attention and praise and I'm happy Kobe's patronizing worked first on his mindset, before anything else.
Kid is full of good will and THAT makes him a team player whose resources are gonna be precious and flourishing more and more game after game.
I'm extremely pleased about this.

I'd call him SHANIMATOR, because kid is like a bunch of blossoming flowers opening, an happy firework up high lightening the sky, and makes everything more lively with his energy.

My song for today comes from The Avalanches, "Since I Left You":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpqm-05R2Jk

Then some India.Arie, "Brown Skin":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kMTnObZcM

and to close, in my ongoing Beatles trip, take "Michelle"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWVKQoRXhk

;) Have all a great day Fam.
Thank you so much for being so heart-warming :)

LLL, Z :)

utz - I was further illustrating, as I know you know that I know that you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf7fwxJPtbA

@FRMKT... “I honestly do not expect Bynum to return until next year and I have a feeling he's going the way of Oden & Yao.” I hope you are just having a bad day because this post seems to be over the edge for a blogger who usually is more positive. There is no reason whatsoever to think that Bynum is not going to return late this month or early next month. When the Lakers add Bynum to a team with a healthy Kobe, a resurgent Pau and Lamar, and the Killer B’s, the Lakers will become unstoppable. Drew will be even more of an unstoppable force in the low post what with how the Lakers perimeter shooting has improved.
...

TOM

Posted by: LakerTom | November 18, 2010 at 10:03 AM
======

The very nature of Oden's and Yao's injuries are more concerning than Bynum's, not that we shouldn't be concerned. The last thing that any Lakers fan could possibly want is for Andrew to come back at anything less than 100%, especially considering that 20 of the first 28 games are against teams that didn't make the playoffs last season and 12 of those games are already behind us. Game 28 is on December 19th against Toronto, the last game of a 7 game road trip. While it would be nice if he was playing again before then, it certainly isn't imperative.

The reality is that Andrew's injuries are MAGNIFIED because he plays under a microscope on the Lakers and Lakers fans are very demanding. The last thing we should be is impatient; the first thing we should be is appreciative for the sacrifices he made to help the team win back-to-back championships, something that Tim Duncan did NOT do in 2000 (which shouldn't be held against him either). The arguments slice both ways on this issue and both arguments have validity, but in the end what do we play for?

1-2-3 RING! #17 coming up STRONG!!

utz - sorry - a little Delaney & Bonnie for ya.

Z - The Avalanches! I haven't listened to that in years! Funny frickin' video - forgot all about them.

utzworld: You seem to be the expert, so I won't challenge your knowledge in troll-logic and so-called minnie whatnots....but of course 16>3, I passed grade school math. I've never been a Kobe hater either, the guy has mad-skills, and the pro swagger to go with it, unlike LeQueen James. But a true team with emphasis on defensive prowess that was foolishly written off as lucky to enter a finals against a 3-peat proven superstar-duo led team, only to swiftly bludgeon them with no mercy will forever stand alone as an absolute classic.

"...and then there was SILENCE. For six years. And counting. That team we bludgeoned picked up 2 more rings while DEEEEETROIT BASKEBALL did ABSOLUUUUUUTELY NOTHINGGGGGGGG!"

utz, much like Kobe, is taking this personally.

04' is not Kobe's motivation; those were Ireland's words but if you listened to Kobe, it was more about VENGEANCE
for The Black Mamba for that loss with "Shaquilla" by his side!