The Lakers Nation

Forum Blue & Gold: There is no doubt that this title meant as much to Kobe, and to the public’s perception of his legacy, than perhaps any title has meant to any player in recent memory. In that spirit, we have been showered with stories praising Kobe, dissecting his relief, evaluating his transformation, figuring his place in history, analyzing his relationship with Phil and his teammates, etc., etc., ad nauseam. This has been fun, even if much of it is puffy, revisionist, or based on somewhat distorted generalizations about the facts (both statistical and otherwise).

But we’ve also seen something of a Kobe backlash. This must be the case with Kobe, who polarizes and divides the sports world in strange ways usually associated only with religious/political figures. When you watch Kobe, you care. You don’t lukewarmly clap as you do with Lebron, Wade, Paul, Duncan, or even Jordan. You follow with whole-souled loyalty and love or unbreakable hatred and opposition. No matter where you stand, you care about Kobe; you are interested in him; and you watch him with real emotional investment. Accordingly, having Kobe push through the finals every year is a boon for the league. No one stands at the water cooler debating Spurs-Pistons, or even something seemingly epic like Celtics-Cavs.

Continue reading ‘FB&G: Deconstructing Kobe’

Forum Blue & Gold: Acquiring players and building a roster can be a tricky equation.  Teams are constantly trying to balance the draft, free agency, and trades all while dealing with the salary cap.  Teams are always looking for an edge in how to acquire more talent.  And in recent seasons, quality organizations have found a way to add this talent and do it cheaply.  Their method is the practice of signing players that have been let go by their respective teams late in the season.  Seemingly every year, there are a few veteran players that are bought out of their contracts or released and sent packing by their team.  And every year those players are tabbed and snatched up by a contending team looking for that one extra piece that can help them get over the top.  The attraction between these players and teams occurs for obvious reasons.  These newly freed players are normally veteran guys that are looking for a chance to win a championship after rarely playing for more than a different slot in the lottery.   And the contending team is usually one or two veterans short in their rotation and looking to fill that void with a player that can come in, play smart basketball, and not need his hand held through every detail of their team and system.  Sometimes it works to perfection (the obvious example is the Celtics signing Sam Cassell and with PJ Brown and winning the title with the help of their contributions) and sometimes it doesn’t (like last season when the Spurs picked up Damon Stoudamire and he had little impact in the post season).  This year the trend continues as several teams either already have or are looking to add some pretty good players that have been released and become free agents.

Continue reading ‘FB&G: You Do the Math’

Forum Blue & Gold: This winter, with the national economy tanking and sports team owners taking hits on stock and real estate, the market for baseball players shriveled up. Bobby Abreu goes to the Angels for just $5 million. Consistent 40 home run guy Adam Dunn to the Nationals for just $10 million. Manny Ramirez still doesn’t’ have a deal.

Except in the Bronx. There, the Yankees spent money like it was 2005, throwing out by far the three largest deals of the off-season.

How did they do that in this economy? CNBC’s Darren Rovell explains:

Think about all the other owners who have gotten pounded this year in the sector of the economy that they might still have their money in.

Think about the New York Mets, whose owners not only lost money from the Madoff mess, but also are in the real estate investment business. So too is Theodore Lerner, the owner of the Washington Nationals, who were hoping to land Teixeira. The Chicago Cubs are being sold by an entity that is bankrupt.

Go down the list and you can see that there’s a lot of people that lost money this year in other businesses. I have no idea where the Yankees are investing their personal money, but the bottom line is that their business is only the New York Yankees.

What does that mean? It means that as long as the Steinbrenners believe that the business of the Yankees will be good, they are not as affected as the others are. Will people still go to games? If not, will they watch the YES Network. It’s a pretty simple equation.

Continue reading ‘FB&G: The Economy and the Lakers’

Forum Blue & Gold: With 4:21 left and the score tied 83-83, I hit pause in the DVR and decided right then and there to do a detailed breakdown of the final minutes of the game. It was bound to be instructive and exciting, right?

Well, it was exciting. But I’m not sure how much we learned and I didn’t do the overtimes. Still, the breakdown is below.

When a game goes to overtime, let alone double overtime, there are a thousand little things that could have gone one way or another and determined a win. Credit to the Bobcats, who out hustled the Lakers and wanted it more all night. Maybe the Lakers looked past the Bobcats, who knows, but they just got ground down into the kind of game the Bobcats wanted to play. The Lakers did not dictate the style of game, and to me that was the biggest mistake

Also (and most importantly), we wish Wallace and Ariza a speedy recovery.

Here’s the breakdown…

Continue reading ‘FB&G: Breaking Down The End of Lakers/Bobcats’