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Archive for June, 2008

Artest to make desicion about opting out tonight!

Published by Chris Manning on June 30, 2008 in 2008 Off-Season. 34 Comments

He will make up his mind tonight…

Sacramento Bee: Opting out makes little financial sense for Artest. The Lakers, for example, might be able to offer a shot at the title, but they would be restricted to a midlevel exception offer (approximately $6 million per season) for a contract - a plight shared by most of the league. Artest’s agent, Mark Stevens, said it was “obvious” opting out would result in a midlevel exception deal.

If Artest opts out, the Kings, who hold Artest’s Bird rights, could execute a sign-and-trade deal in which he can sign a sixyear deal rather than the maximum five with other teams.

In an e-mail to The Bee last week, Artest sounded as if the allure of joining a title contender was enough to lose money. “I never knew so many teams would be coming after me,” he wrote. “All I can say is I made a (big) turnaround.”

Lakers will aim to sign Vujacic, Turiaf

Published by Shane Bien on June 30, 2008 in 2008 Off-Season. 1 Comment

Will Sasha and Turiaf look for a better offer? Sound-off in the comments…

O.C. Register: Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak is expected to be on the phone shortly after 9 p.m. Monday when the NBA free agency period begins.

First he will call Sasha Vujacic’s agent. After getting some idea of which way the restricted free agent is leaning, Kupchak then will dial Ronny Turiaf’s agent.

Both players are restricted free agents, meaning the Lakers can match any offer sheet they sign with another team. Kupchak is hoping to avoid that scenario by re-signing the two.

“A lot of it’s going to depend on the progress we make with Sasha and Ronny” Kupchak said last week. “I think we feel if we can bring those two players back, and we get Trevor [Ariza]and Andrew [Bynum]back, we’d be happy going into training camp with that group. If we run into a roadblock … then we’ll have to look in other directions.

“But right now, based on the free-agent market that’s out there and our existing free agents, we think it’s in our best interest to sign back our free agents. It’s not a great group of players to choose from when you’re comparing them against Sasha or Ronny.”

The Lakers, who are well over the salary cap, will pay nearly $5 million in luxury taxes for last season and aren’t expected to look much into other options beyond Vujacic and Turiaf. The Lakers can only offer a free agent the mid-level exception between $5 million and $6 million.

Restricted free agents can talk with teams but cannot officially sign until July 9.

For Magic Johnson, the NBA was only halftime

Published by Shane Bien on June 30, 2008 in Articles. 2 Comments

L.A. Times: Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced his arrival as a businessman 13 years ago, when he took part in an unusual meeting with gang leaders from the Bloods and the Crips.

At the time, Johnson was building a movie theater in Baldwin Hills. Would the gang members, Johnson asked, be kind enough not to shoot it up?

“I just laid it out to them that I’m building this theater for the community,” Johnson, the former Lakers basketball standout, recalled from his seventh-floor office in Beverly Hills. “You can’t have anything happen at this theater because we’re going to hire your cousins, your mothers, your sons and daughters. You come in here and shoot up the place, it might be your own relatives inside.”

The theater stands peacefully to this day, largely untouched by violence. And these days, Johnson meets with corporate CEOs, institutional investors and elected officials nationwide who want a piece of his growing collection of businesses and properties in 21 states.

The orchestrator of the Lakers’ highflying “Showtime” teams in the 1980s, which netted five NBA championships, has crafted a second career by investing his time and, in many cases, other people’s money in long-ignored urban neighborhoods through his Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund.

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Lakers’ priority: Keep team together

Published by Shane Bien on June 29, 2008 in 2008 Off-Season. 43 Comments

Press Enterprise: This week the Lakers and Clippers will enter the free-agent market, both teams shopping for players and looking to improve.

The problem is that this year’s free-agent class is not considered strong. The only All-Star-caliber talent available is Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, both of the Washington Wizards, and they will be commanding the kind of money that the Lakers and Clippers aren’t expected to spend this summer.

The Lakers, who reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 2004, like their young team and aren’t expected to make big changes. Their top priority is to re-sign two of their key backups, guard Sasha Vujacic and forward Ronny Turiaf, and the Lakers’ course this summer largely “is going to depend on the progress we make with Sasha and Ronny,” said General Manager Mitch Kupchak, who will begin negotiations Monday at 9:01 p.m., the opening of the free-agent period. Teams can start signing players July 9.

Because both Vujacic and Turiaf are restricted free agents, the Lakers can retain them by matching any offers they get from other teams.

Vujacic, 24 and coming off a career year in which he averaged 8.8 points and was eighth in the league in three-point shooting (43.7 percent), might get offers from $4 million to $5 million per year. He might be seeking as much as $5.8 million.

Turiaf, who’s 25 and also had career highs in points (6.6) and rebounds (3.9), could command $3.5 million to $4 million.

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Kobe response to Shaq’s rap

Published by Shane Bien on June 28, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 26 Comments

To nobody’s surprise Kobe didn’t fuel the fire some more…

Canadian Press: Bryant had little to say about a rap video by former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal, who rapped that “Kobe couldn’t do without me.”

Asked how he took the video, Bryant shook his head and said, “I didn’t take it any kind of way whatsoever.”

Hoopsworld Power Rankings: Impact of the Draft

Published by Chris Manning on June 28, 2008 in 2008 Off-Season. 33 Comments

Hoopsworld’s Eric Pincus came up with a great power rankings list of the entire NBA (with draft choices and recent trades in the mix). Eric listed the Lakers as #2, behind the top-of-the-list Celtics…

Hoopsworld: #2 Lakers - The Lakers would have liked a pick higher than 58 but the first rounder was well spent in Memphis’ hands after the Pau Gasol trade. LA chose Joe Crawford - hoping to curry favor with his father, NBA official Joey Crawford (no, he’s not the referee’s son).

The best of Shaq vs. Kobe

Published by Chris Manning on June 28, 2008 in Articles. 7 Comments

Well it is the summer time, Shaq’s latest “Kobe rap” is still making its rounds in the media, and FoxSports has written up a pretty accurate article on these two history. Some moments still creep up to my memory and get me all riled up. Either way, check it out…

Fox Sports: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant have maintained one of the most childish personal rivalries in all of sports, going back and forth like teenage girls for most of this decade.

Their relationship started out well enough, with Shaq playing the big-brother role when Bryant arrived straight from high school in 1996. But as Kobe blossomed into a superstar, a massive rift formed.

The flare-ups have been memorable — and occasional lyrical, as we saw with Shaq’s rap performance Sunday, courtesy of the ever-vigilant TMZ.

Here are the top 10 highlights of this fabulous feud.

1. Two wills, one basketball
While winning three consecutive NBA titles in Los Angeles, O’Neal and Bryant kept their differences largely under control. But when the Lakers opened the 2002-03 season in a serious funk, the tension became palpable.

Bryant questioned Shaq’s commitment to conditioning given the big fella’s excessive weight and chronic foot injuries. In turn, O’Neal regarded Kobe as a shot hog.

“I’m just going to play within the flow of the game,” Bryant said at the time. “If people want to criticize that, they’re going to criticize that.”

(At least these two agreed on one thing that year: They weren’t to blame for the team’s demise. That fell on the team’s ineffective role players. Looking at you, Samaki Walker.)

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Nation Discussion: Bring back “Big Shot” Rob?

Published by Chris Manning on June 28, 2008 in Nation Discussion. 59 Comments

This is an interesting topic. Robert Horry recently came out and said some great things about his own career, how he wants to go out and when he wants to retire. Basically, he’s ready to give it another go and wants to contribute more than leaving his career on a playoff ‘DNP’ decision. And with that, Horry is set to become a free agent July 1.

There is no question the miles have added up over the years. In fact, no other player in NBA history has played in more NBA post-season games than Horry. However, Rob is indisputably the definition of clutch and most certainly is more than valued within the city of Angels. While I personally feel it shouldn’t be priority #1 for the Lakers, if potential-FA players like Posey and/or Artest get missed, why not?

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