Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:24 am
This speaks to D'Antoni's inability to cultivate an identity for these Lakers. Bryant wouldn't come right out and declare D'Antoni's system a failure, but he did speak to a need for the coach to find ways to flex everyone's strengths. D'Antoni has a long, stubborn history of forcing talent to fit into his system, and right now that is clearly playing a part in the unraveling of this season.
"We need to go back to basics," Bryant said. "We need to put guys in positions to do what they do best. We need to strip it down. Steve is best in pick-and-roll. Pau is best in the post. I'm best from the free-throw line extended down. Let's go back to basics.
Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:09 am
The worst part about it all is that no one is willing to admit any mistake has been made, and in turn, it's impossible to fix the broken team.
Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:37 am
He's also reinvented himself on Twitter and Facebook, given a few compelling interviews and established himself as the premier "I don't give a shit, I'm old, I'm gonna be gone soon, I'm just saying what I think" athlete in sports. Big year for Kobe. Going forward, it's going to be fascinating to see what matters to him more — retiring as a lifelong Laker with five rings and somewhere between 35,000 and 38,000 points, or chasing that sixth ring somewhere else (and matching Jordan).
I don't think he will win another ring with the Lakers, and here's why: They're an absolute mess behind the scenes. Jimmy Buss is like James Dolan 2.0 — it's like the Dolan Experience all over again, only if Dolan had even fewer credentials and couldn't stop feuding with other members of his family. You know why that Phil Jackson situation was handled so poorly last November? Because Jimmy Buss has an enormous complex about Phil and his sister Jeannie, that's why. For one thing, Jeannie is well respected around the NBA as a sharp thinker; people always assumed that Dr. Buss would turn the Lakers over to her. But apparently, Buss wanted one of his sons to assume control because of the always-frightening reason of Jeannie already has something for herself, I want one of my sons to have something, too.
That's how Jimmy Buss ended up in charge of the Lakers. You can't even find decent information about him on the Internet. Seriously, surf around online and try to figure out what Jimmy Buss has been doing since college, or even if he graduated from college. It's murky. He's not nearly as accomplished as his sister … and that's an understatement. Now he's running the Lakers instead of Jeanie, to the utter confusion of just about everyone. So what happened when his sister's boyfriend positioned himself as the savior of this year's Lakers team, and Lakers fans were clamoring for him to come back? Not only did Jimmy Buss swerve against the grain and pick a different coach, he had GM Mitch Kupchak call his sister's boyfriend late at night to drop that bomb on him … presumably as his sister was lying in bed next to him! This wasn't a coaching hire as much as a rejected plot from Parenthood.
Zach, I will leave you with this: If we've learned anything from professional sports over the years, it's that nobody can inflict more damage on a franchise than an incompetent owner. Just look at how the Maloofs destroyed basketball in Sacramento, or what James Dolan did to the Ewing era, or what Donald Sterling did for his first 25 years with the Clippers. There's a really good chance that Jimmy Buss might be THAT bad. And if that's the case, I guarantee Kobe is already coming up with an exit plan. We will see.
Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:22 pm
Several players spoke up, including Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, the 17-year veterans who make up the Lakers' backcourt. Bryant asked Dwight Howard if he was bothered by playing alongside him, according to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the meeting.
Bryant acknowledged he could be "hard to play with," according to the Times, and challenged Howard to speak up if he had a problem with it.
Howard was "despondent" and did not offer much of a reply to Bryant, according to a team source.
One example of the rocky relationship between the two Western Conference All-Star starters, according to a league source, was a game this season when Howard harped to a teammate about the disparity between his and Bryant's shots while sitting on the bench. The teammate called Bryant over so Howard could tell it to Bryant's face, but Howard refused to speak up.
D'Antoni said it's an issue of the entire team coming together.
"We've got an All-Star team out there," D'Antoni said. "Have you ever watched an All-Star Game? It's God-awful because everybody gets the ball, they go 1-on-1 and then they play no defense. That's our team. That's us. We're an All-Star team and we haven't learned there's a pecking order. There's the one guy, the two guy, the three guy and the four guy. It might not be the same guy every night, but somebody has got to accept being the fourth guy. If you've been the first guy all your life, that's hard to accept. That's what happens in All-Star (Games) and that's what happened with us. Like I said, with today's meeting, hopefully we've overcome a little bit of that. I hope. We'll see."
Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:52 pm
We've got an All-Star team out there," D'Antoni said. "Have you ever watched an All-Star Game? It's God-awful because everybody gets the ball, they go 1-on-1 and then they play no defense. That's our team.
Thu Jan 24, 2013 4:43 pm
Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:22 pm
We're an All-Star team and we haven't learned there's a pecking order. There's the one guy, the two guy, the three guy and the four guy. It might not be the same guy every night, but somebody has got to accept being the fourth guy. If you've been the first guy all your life, that's hard to accept. That's what happens in All-Star (Games) and that's what happened with us. Like I said, with today's meeting, hopefully we've overcome a little bit of that. I hope. We'll see."
Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:01 pm
benji wrote:http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8875019/los-angeles-lakers-hold-team-meeting-air-grievances
Jamison: "Let's just have fun, man, and enjoy this journey and just pull for each other and realize that this is a special team. The first half of this season has been an embarrassment. We've been the laughingstock of the NBA. So, let's turn that embarrassment into one of the best stories in sports history and turn things around."
Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:27 pm
Jamison: "Let's just have fun, man, and enjoy this journey and just pull for each other and realize that this is a special team. The first half of this season has been an embarrassment. We've been the laughingstock of the NBA. So, let's turn that embarrassment into one of the best stories in sports history and turn things around."
That's something you'd probably want to hear from the leaders of the team but probably it's easier for him to say since less is at stake for him.
Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:33 pm
Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:41 pm
Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:17 pm
Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:32 am
Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:19 am
- Buss passed on the Lakers' glorious championship legacy to attach his franchise to the desert mirage of D'Antoni and Nash, a reunion tour born of a one-dimensional, gimmick offense and a point guard pushing 39 years old.
- This 106-93 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday at FedEx Forum was one more installment in a debacle of a season that the mere presence of D'Antoni worsens every day.
- Under Jackson, the Lakers would've played through Gasol, Howard and Bryant in the post, would've dictated terms through the strengths of the franchise's Hall of Fame players. Under Jackson, the Lakers would've had a leader of men to gather them out of this rubble.
- Buss doubled down on the wrong coach, and wrong player. D'Antoni and Nash are busts, unable to bring the systematic and connective threads to a lineup that they were charged to regenerate.
- The Lakers haven't won a game outside of Staples Center in a month. These Lakers resemble D'Antoni in every way: Mumbling, soft and shrouded in marketed mythology.
- D'Antoni is far stronger with the glib quotes than he is substantive solutions.
- Howard needs Bryant to play that part, because D'Antoni has forever been part passive-aggressive and fully non-confrontational.
- As the New York Knicks' coach, D'Antoni issued a clear stance in organizational discussions on a possible pursuit of Howard: He wasn't a fan. He told Knicks front-office staff stories about how the elders of USA Basketball preferred Tyson Chandler to Howard, and that the Knicks would be wise to adopt that thinking, a source with knowledge of the conversations told Yahoo! Sports.
- In so many ways, Nash made D'Antoni, but he can't bail him out anymore. The Lakers are burying themselves, deeper and deeper, and the coach doesn't have the stomach, nor the brass, to elevate them out of the mess. His system is flawed for this franchise, and beyond that, he brings nothing to a basketball team.
- Somehow, the Los Angeles Lakers doubled down on the washed-up, banner-less legacy of the Phoenix Suns, and yet somehow they still wonder how everything could've unraveled this way. Mike D'Antoni was never the return of Showtime, but merely a mirage that came out of the desert and ultimately will blow out of Los Angeles like tumbleweed.
Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:26 am
As the New York Knicks' coach, D'Antoni issued a clear stance in organizational discussions on a possible pursuit of Howard: He wasn't a fan. He told Knicks front-office staff stories about how the elders of USA Basketball preferred Tyson Chandler to Howard, and that the Knicks would be wise to adopt that thinking, a source with knowledge of the conversations told Yahoo! Sports.
Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:30 am
Sun Jan 27, 2013 1:29 am
Sun Jan 27, 2013 5:45 am
Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:59 am
Mon Jan 28, 2013 1:52 pm
Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:43 pm
Mon Jan 28, 2013 3:42 pm
Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:13 pm
Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:21 pm
Jackal wrote:Dwight needs to seriously stop getting stripped, that's one thing I loved about Bynum, he kept the ball high and had good hands.
Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:06 am
Pau Gasol: "I don't know if we are playing D'Antoni's system much right now; we are kind of running our own system a bit, with a slower pace, putting the ball in Kobe Bryant's hands a lot, setting picks from the low post and distributing the ball from there very well. We'll see if we can continue like this."