Category — Lakers

Happy belated Father’s Day Kobe. Need a Dwight Howard chaser with that?

The Clippers and C’s are dancing in circles about a trade involving Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, DeAndre Jordan and a No. 1 pick but neither club has blinked. Paul Pierce would join Rivers and Garnett in L.A. Then there’s the 1 about Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe heading to the Lakers for Dwight Howard. Supposedly, Chris Paul is pushing all of the buttons so wake us when someone actually does a deal. Until then…
N.Y. Times

Did we mention the Heat are a 6-point favorite in Game 1? Didn’t think so.
We’ve already told you the 5-letter word on our betting slip in what could be an epic series. Here’s a link to the schedule too when you forget where yours is or too drunk to find it.
USA Today

It seems to be the only question out there when it comes to grading LeBron James now.
Is he better than Michael Jordan?
Clearly the best player in the game today, James can do a lot of things, even win a lot more rings, but it is different.
To me, he will never be Jordan for 1 main reason.
LeBron flops.
No, no longer in big games when a title is on the line. He has gotten past that now.
One ring shuts up a lot of folks.
But he flops on defense, when the smallest of players brush past. He admits to this. He calls it part of the game.
I can’t recall once Jordan flopping on the floor like a fish out of water just to get a call. Maybe James wants to be a part of the soccer revolution.
To his credit, James has never proclaimed he wanted to be like Mike, just wear his jersey number for most of his life until he took his talents to South Beach.
Who knew those talents were action skills as well.
Maybe this is a generation thing, because James is not alone in flopping. A good portion of NBA players do this and the league is even trying to make them pay with fines.
But the message is clear, players will pay to flop if it means getting the right call at the right time.
Crime might not pay but bad-act flopping sure does.

In Jordan’s NBA, flopping was looked upon as a weakness, a show you could not stand tall in the paint.
Jordan wouldn’t consider taking a step back let alone take a dive.
Nobody would. Not Magic, not Bird, not Barkley and surely none of the early Bad Boys from Detroit.
That seemed to change when the NBA went international. Maybe that was soccer’s influence.
I remember watching a young Laker center named Vlade Divac fall to the floor like he had been shot in the back because Kenny Smith ran into him. Smith was about 60 pounds lighter and 10 inches shorter, but Divac tumbled like a giant oak after being attacked by a chain saw.
His knees buckled and his body shivered as he dropped. Like a bad death scene in an old Western. Fit perfectly with the Hollywood crowd sitting courtside.
Magic Johnson looked stunned.
After getting the call, Divac jumped up and raced down court like a boy who just got away with stealing a piece of candy.
Flopping was suddenly the in thing.
Now it is James, a beast in shorts and a tank top, falling on demand.
He even complains when he is fouled hard in the playoffs going to the basket.
Has he not seen the video of the way Jordan was dismantled for years by the Detroit Pistons?
Jordan took it and then gave it out. Charles Barkley the same way.
Heck, James’ boss, Heat president Pat Riley, won with that style in New York before taking the monster to Miami. Now he says things are too rough, too.
Please.
The game has gotten softer on all levels. That is fine. But when you are playing for the highest of stakes winning is painful.
Jordan knew it, so did the rest of the guys back in the NBA’s heyday.
Now, it’s just an act they put on for us, a show that isn’t about to end.
Not when a flop can help lead you to a crown.
And another flopping crown might be fit for King James.

If Gregg Popovich leads the Spurs to their 5th title in the past 14 seasons, he will tie Pat Riley for rings at 5. Only Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach have more as coaches. Like Auerbach, Popovich also has shown a keen eye for talent. Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green are the latest examples. Having had the pleasure to watch Leonard several times at San Diego State, we knew Leonard would succeed in the NBA. Like we’ve said before, dude isn’t great at anything (give him time though), but he’s so good at everything, particularly defending. And as a Laker fan, I can tell you when the Spurs traded George Hill to Indiana for him I loudly let loose the ‘F’ word because I knew ‘Pop’ had a made another tremendous move.
Anyway, our good friends at The Sports Fan Journal tell a better Popovich story that we can. They elaborate on the grumpy one’s legacy and how conquering the Heat will elevate his status even more.
The Sports Fan Journal

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Vegas was a hot spot for partying during the Memorial Day weekend. On Friday, the “Kings of The Mic” tour graced The Joint’s stage, where LL Cool J headlined a show featuring De La Soul, Ice Cube and Public Enemy. The festivities continued Saturday with Robbie Rivera’s “Juicy Beach” party at Paradise Beach. Metta World Peace was among the folks attending. Rehab celebrated its 10-year anniversary Sunday with Diddy serving as MC. Later that night, Diddy hosted the “Rehab Official After Party” at Vanity Nightclub. Also in the house: Kevin Hart, Fabolous and Lil Wayne.
Images courtesy of Scott Harrison/Erik Kabik Photography

We wondered how long it would take for the cesspool that breeds scumbag sports agents would start bubbling over with envy and hate after Jay-Z entered the game. Didn’t take long at all.
We’ll withhold judgement until we see and read evidence he and his firm might have broken rules, but some of the things being written about Kimberly Miale, Jay Z’s new partner in crime, reeks with sexist overtones.
Paranoid?
“And if the NFLPA doesn’t look at the Jay-Z/(Geno) Smith relationship closely, what’s to stop (Drew) Rosenhaus from partnering with, say, Miami rapper Rick Ross?” Ben Volin writes.
Who’s to say Rosenhaus hasn’t? Granted, many African American male athletes are drawn to rappers and hip-hop personalities but since when has anyone cared how the sleezy Rosenhaus preys on some of the misguided athletes? For every Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco there are more educated athletes who have passed on Rosenhaus’ tired act.
Plenty of black athletes prefer taking a page out of the playbook of say a Kevin Durant, Grant Hill, Tim Duncan, Derek Jeter, Torii Hunter or Larry Fitzgerald, just to name a few. We just don’t always hear more about them because they don’t generate the tabloid fodder clowns like Owens and Ochocinco frequently do.
We just find all the whining, and timing of it, about Jay-Z curious, particularly after he added the lovely Skylar Diggins and Jets QB Geno Smith after his initial signing of Yankees star Robinson Cano.
Never heard writers and other agents jumping up to defend agents like Eugene Parker and the Goodwin brothers when Rosenhaus was slandering them years ago (and still could be for all we know) with blatant stereotypes and other nonsense. But it just doesn’t work that way, huh?

His name probably doesn’t ring a bell with many but Robinson was a key piece of 1 of the greatest teams of all time, the 1971-72 Lakers, who not only won the NBA title that season but captured a still standing record 33 games in a row. Robinson passed Thursday from multiple myeloma. He was 72.
N.Y. Times

Of course we would have picked Wilt, but that’s not the point here.
Phil Jackson has said plenty of things lately. He’s promoting a book. Still, we’ve always been fond of Phil’s commentary (and what he’s reading since his list of recommended books is always awesome). We can only imagine why the Lakers’ Jim Buss, a former horse trainer, and his henchmen aren’t.
But as much as he’s promoting his new book, Phil made some interesting observations over the past week. The latest 1 being that if he had to start a team he would take Bill Russell instead of Michael Jordan. Imagine that.
SI.com

Floyd Mayweather Jr. tops Sports Illustrated’s list of the athletes who have bagged the most coin over the past year. And Mayweather has earned his estimated $90 million without a single commercial endorsement.
SI.com