Lakers Thread

[Valor]

About time they got rid of Yue. This news will make Sit very happy

Very I can't remember who they passed up on to get Yue in the Draft and I was pretty upset lol I guess it was all a ploy to gain exposure in China.

Well, they should have traded Yue instead of Marc Gasol to the Grizzlies, if i remember correctly, the Grizzlies were asking for EITHER Gasol or Yue in that Pau trade
Sun Yue is still a bench warmer while Marc Gasol is a solid starting center....

[Kbryant8]

Hmm, if i remember right they didn`t have Yue at the time!? if i`m wrong then that would`ve been sick to see Marc and Pau together on the same side.

[bee-boy]

Marc and Pau= spanish domination

[Valor]

Hmm, if i remember right they didn`t have Yue at the time!? if i`m wrong then that would`ve been sick to see Marc and Pau together on the same side.

they didn't have Marc either, the Grizzlies only wanted the rights to one of them

[Fresh8]

I think Yue was around right? plying his trade in the D-League?

[Valor]

I think Yue was around right? plying his trade in the D-League?

nope, he was still playing for the Beijing Aoshen Olympian of the ABA during that period of time while Marc Gasol was in Europe. The Lakers had both of their draft rights to trade.

[Fresh8]

Just read that Phil Jackson may be entertaining the idea of having a starting lineup of Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Artest, Bryant and move Fisher to the bench. Just speculation but wondering how well that would work.

On the contrary, I always felt that Jordan Farmar would become the starting PG if Fisher was ever to be moved to the bench. Obviosuly, his injury and form has taken a hit on him but looking for him to bounce back this season!

[Andrew]

That's an imposing looking starting five, but I'm not sure it'll be good for the bench. I would've thought he'd like to anchor his second unit with Odom or Artest, though with that lineup you'll probably be fine if someone gets into early foul trouble and whatnot.

[Fresh8]

That Shannon Brown dunk was just

[shadowgrin]

link plz.

[Fresh8]

Link

[shadowgrin]

Poor Mikki Moore.

[Fresh8]

I didn't realize he was still around until this game.

[Andrew]

Awesome dunk indeed.

[Fresh8]

And Lamar Odom off-the-ball action is funny as well.

[Cloudy]

But seeing him getting crossed by Monta is sad. I hate those young kids!

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[Abctest123]

But seeing him getting crossed by Monta is sad. I hate those young kids!

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Lol Lamar manages to take Kobe out of the play too .

[Fresh8]

But seeing him getting crossed by Monta is sad. I hate those young kids!

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Lol Lamar manages to take Kobe out of the play too .

Well, Lamar is a multi-talent freak and team player.

[Valor]

But seeing him getting crossed by Monta is sad. I hate those young kids!

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Lol Lamar manages to take Kobe out of the play too .

Well, Lamar is a multi-talent freak and team player.

Well said At 6'10" with point guard skills...he's also an awesome rebounder and an underrated defender...double double machine (when he eats candy for breakfast ) Lakers cant lose when he's playing well

[Al Ka Pwn]

Even laker's bench is looking dangerous.

[Jing]

Hopefully Gaffney manages to make the 12 man roster. If not D-fenders are fine.

[Fresh8]

Will Andrew Bynum ever not be injured?

[dare]

DJ Mbemga was a beast 13 rebs and 4 blocks

[Fresh8]

Artest nearly blew up against the Rockets last week. He came close to getting into an altercation with Trevor Ariza.

"I wanted to grab his throat because he hit me with an elbow, but I didn't," Artest told the New York Daily News. "It was a thought, you know, but then I thought about David Stern, and said 'OK, I'm not going to do this.' '

That made me laugh.

Lakers not doing too bad... lucky that 17 of the first 21 games are at home... hoping Pau and Bynum will be back soon.

[Fresh8]

Found this on LA Times website. Good read.

This article was originally published Feb. 15, 1998 and is part of the new book "Los Angeles Lakers: 50 Amazing Years in the City of Angels" by the Los Angeles Times sports staff. You can purchase the book online here.

You hear about Kobe Bryant, the Lakers' 19-year-old basketball whiz, and your first reaction is, the last time anyone this good appeared there was a star in the East. I mean, you want to say, "Come on, what are you trying to hand me? Nobody's this good!"

Oh, they don't claim he can heal the sick, raise the dead or make water into wine. They're not blasphemous. But they do insist that anything that can be done with a basketball, he can do it. Michael Jordan, my foot.

It gets to the point where, when you meet him the first time, you want to ask him what he did with the halo. Did he fly in -- or just walk across Santa Monica Bay? You don't know whether to get his autograph or his blessing. Or just touch the hem of his warmup suit. You feel inadequate interviewing someone so perfect. It's a job for Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, not a mere sportswriter.

He's not 9 feet tall, as you might expect. He looks perfectly ordinary. Of course, he's single, lives with his parents. But he wasn't born in a stable. Or even a log cabin. He was raised partly in Italy, where his father played basketball. He speaks better Italian than the pope.

He has a nice sense of humor. He laughs a lot, keeps it light. Everyone likes him. He's not at all arrogant about his talent, just grateful for it. To a man, the New York media loved him at the recent All-Star game there. And that's the toughest media in the world. They couldn't believe their good luck in finding a superstar this approachable. As for Kobe, he was having the time of his life. Bryant is no shrinking violet. If there's one attribute that sticks out all over him, it's confidence. Optimism. Accentuate the positive.

He eliminates the negative, all right. So, he missed the most crucial shot of the year last year, the one that would have beaten Utah and kept the Lakers in the playoffs had it gone in. Kobe didn't go home to perch on a ledge or go off to join the French Foreign Legion. He doesn't do sackcloth and ashes. He just shrugged and told himself that, the next time this happened, he wouldn't miss. "My time will come," he said.

He didn't come cheap. The Lakers had to give up Vlade Divac to get him. And Divac was a 12-point-a-night, 800-rebounds-a-year, 7-foot-1 center.

Kobe's role on the Lakers? "My job is to spread havoc in the enemy, kind of a spark plug," he tells you. The idea is to get the other guys trying to look over both shoulders at once for him. He's a disrupter, "I figure out what the team needs and try to supply it," he tells you. "get the ball to Nick (Van Excel), get open, set up, win."

Technically, he's what they call a "sixth man." He is meant to come off the bench at key moments and spark a turnaround in the team's fortunes. It's a role pioneered by the Celtics' John Havlicek.

He plays to rave notices. Says Hall of Fame broadcaster Chick Hearn, who has been known to restrain his enthusiasm for the modern player on occasion: "Kobe is a 28-year-old in a 19-year-old body. The things he does with no college experience is beyond belief. He has total confidence. He'd walk up to Michael Jordan or a backup guard with the same degree of skill and enthusiasm and expectations of success. He's a star on and off the court. I've seen lots of them come and go but none with the potential of Kobe Bryant. Someday, we'll be able to brag, 'We knew him when!' "

You see what I mean? He comes into focus to the sound or organ music and the smell of incense.

You can see why you don't know whether to genuflect or buy him a lollipop when you first meet him.

Even rival coach P.J. Carlesimo of Golden State bows, "He's scary. Then you realize he should be a sophomore in college, and it's real scary. He's their sixth man, but he's not a complementary player. He plays a big role on a great team and makes it greater."

He has had his doubting Thomases. To the prediction he had a chance to become the next Michael Jordan, they retort, "In 10 years he has a chance to be the next Kobe Bryant."

Lots of people think Michael Jordan is from outer space. Nobody human could do those things he does with a basketball. Fly, for instance. And Michael's debut outshone Kobe's. Michael threw in a league-leading 2,313 points in his first year. Kobe topped out at 539 his first year. But Jordan played 3,144 minutes. Kobe played 1,103. Jordan was a ripe 21. Kobe was a downy-cheeked 18. Kobe's role was partly Get-the-ball-to- Shaquille O'Neal-and-get-out-of-his-way. Michael's role was Go-get-me-the-ball-and-get-out-of-my-way.

Any way you look at it, you might want to get his autograph before he ascends into hoops heaven. He won't be hard to find. He'll be the one walking through doors without opening them. Michael Jordan may be Air Jordan but Kobe is Heir Jordan.