Archive for the ‘Out of Bounds’ Category

Out of Bounds: The LeBron Mega-Column (Part I)

I want to make one thing very clear: In basketball, I am wrong more than I am right.

(Pausing for dramatic effect.)

Last season, before the Miami Heat started building emergency bandwagons to hold their bandwagons, I had Wade + eleven stuffed coffins slipping by the Celtics in Round 1 (0 for 1). I followed that blooper with a comment on Fox Sports Radio decisively picking the Cavaliers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals (0 for 2).

Shortly after, I got this email from a reader:

Jason,

I’m from Florida, but I live in L.A. and I like reading your stuff. Can you do me a favor and pick the Celtics to win? It would really help me feel a lot better about Orlando’s chances in this series.

Thanks,

Marcus

(How is Vince Carter working out for you in Orlando, Marcus?)

Speaking of Orlando, just before the Eastern Conference Finals began, I joined Rey Moralde on his podcast and declared the Magic to be the outright favorites to advance to the NBA Finals (0 for 3).
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Out of Bounds: The Final Chapter

I honestly thought this column would be easy – like cracking a joke about Glen Davis, who unashamedly tried to eat his own face during Game 4. I foolishly believed the right words would effortlessly splash on the page, perfectly illustrating the magnitude of an NBA Finals victory over the detestable Celtics.

In hindsight, I probably should have taken a queue from Paul Pierce about making premature assumptions.

It was a game that was instantly carved into history – one that produced a record smashing 3,085 tweets per second on Twitter and gave the NBA its best TV ratings since MJ was winning championships more than a decade ago.

For the younger fans, it was the physical manifestation of a historic rivalry only witnessed through the words of the NBA legends lucky enough to be a part of it. For the older fans, it was simply another gripping chapter in the lifelong story of Boston vs. Los Angeles. For every member of the Lakers Nation, it was a series, and a final game, that pushed us to the brink of devastation, only to leave us on the mountain top of exhilaration. +Continue Reading

Out of Bounds: A Series for the History Books

Somewhere between Doug Collins’ nightly reminder that he once coached a young Michael Jordan and Vince Carters not-so-magical transformation into an ice cream sandwich during the Eastern Conference Finals, an unprecedented shift took place between a pair of rival fan bases in the NBA.

Lakers and Celtics fans were… (gulp)… rooting for each other.

L.A. fans everywhere were redeeming temporary passes to ride the Celtics bandwagon through the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was a sacrilegious surprising move by the Lakers Nation – but before Red Auerbach starts bracing for an ice storm, it’s important to understand this wasn’t a hell-freezes-over moment in Lakers vs. Celtics history.

It was actually quite the opposite.
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Out of Bounds: Lunch with a Legend

The Forum. Showtime. The Lake Show.

Those are just a few of the words that helped define my childhood. In grade school, I was a skinny white kid with beachy blonde hair – hardly the prototype of a basketball junkie. I remember parading around school in a #32 Lakers jersey that was large enough for #32 to wear himself. It wasn’t until years later that I learned I would never be 6’9”, dashing my dreams of becoming the next Magic Johnson.

Some of my earliest memories are still replayed with Chick Hearn gracefully providing the soundtrack.

Magic in the front court, on the block to Worthy, back out to Scott, inside to Kareem, sky hook from twelve, good!

As an elementary school kid, two things about that broadcast stuck with me: Magic and Kareem. I would imagine the rest was forced out by years of mindless Van Damme flicks, Nirvana CD’s and anything with Jennifer Love Hewitt in it.

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Out of Bounds: We Were All Witnesses

Kobe v. Lebron, #24 v. #23, The Black Mamba v. King James… on and on we can go with clichéd comparisons between two exceptionally gifted NBA basketball players. One, a proven NBA champion; the other, a proven media champion.

Why write about Lebron on a Lakers website?

Simple.

We followed Lebron James almost as closely as we did our beloved Lakers. We scoffed when he had monster games. We candidly rejoiced when he struggled. We spent hour’s texting, tweeting and talking about why Kobe > Lebron would always be the accurate portrayal of that equation. We hid behind the Mamba’s rings, the game winners, the notorious finger…

Why spend so much time thinking about Lebron James – a player who has won the same number of NBA Finals games as you and I have? Why root against him so passionately, even when it meant that we support our most hated rivals, the Boston Celtics? Why pay so much attention to what happens in a rather glum NBA city over 2,300 miles from Los Angeles? +Continue Reading

Out of Bounds: Game 3, As Told by Twitter

For those of you who are wondering what this is all about, click here for a brief explanation. For the rest of you, I present to you Game 3 of the Lakers, Thunder series, exclusively told by Twitter.

FIRST QUARTER:

Contrary to what many of us expected, the Lakers began the game in ’91 Mike Tyson form, mercilessly bulldozing the stunned Thunder.

ukuga OKC audio team about to cue Elton John. “I’m still standing!”

therealbenpete Lakers 6/6 so far. These OKC fans wasted their check on these tickets… Unless they are Laker fans.

DavidjBrickley Everybody involved early for the Lakers, 7 straight FG’s to start game. All starters have scored.

SportsFanPJ Kobe hasn’t taken a shot and we’re up 12-3, perfect from the field.

RamneetKB24 An amazing start by the Lakers; I guess the blue shirts aren’t fazing them.

kobethegod Lakers are in championship form… hitting from all angles. +Continue Reading

Game 3, As Told by Twitter

Just in case you have been living in 2008, Twitter is the new Facebook… which, by the way, was totally the new MySpace… I mean, dialing a phone number is so last decade.

Instead of writing a column with my observations from tonight’s game 3 vs. Oak City, I want you guys to write it, via Twitter.

Here’s how it works:

• Follow me on Twitter – Okay, you don’t technically have to… but you want to. You do.
• During tonight’s game, Tweet your thoughts and observations (or jokes) with one (or both) of the following hash tags: #TLN or #OOB.
• In tomorrow’s Out of Bounds column, I will recap Game 3, by quarter, exclusively using the best of your Tweets to tell the whole story.

You will, of course, get credit in the column. Sounds fun, right? I think so.

Help me spread the word! The more tweets, the better the column will be.

Out of Bounds: A Question of Greatness

For as much as we talk about greatness around here, we sure do complain an awful lot when we’re presented with the rare opportunity for it.

The idea of greatness is subjective, but is most commonly expressed about an individual – or in this case a team – when factual critics are silenced, long odds are overcome and the seeming impossible is achieved.

We don’t witness greatness very often because of those very things.

Long odds become stacked up based on accurate data. Critics boast their opinions around real-life observations. The impossible seems impossible because it demands something invisible; and when it comes to logical thinking, evidence is everything.
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Out of Bounds: A Date with History?

Years before Pau Gasol breathed life back into the Lakers organization, Derek Fisher cemented his crunch-time legacy and Kobe surged into the GOAT conversation… they were there.

Pinched between generational periods of Boston sport-hate, disgust for the overconfident Denver Nuggets and the hushed arrogance of NBA poster boy Kobe East (Lebron James)… they were there.

From dunk-on-you Kobe to step-back jumper Kobe; young-Phil to aged-Phil and all the championship parades in-between… the San Antonio Spurs have always been there, methodically providing the Lakers with a legitimate rival – one who has been able to do something that none of the Lakers’ pretend western conference challengers have…

Beat a championship caliber Lakers’ team when it matters. (’99, ’03)

The San Antonio Spurs have always given me that nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach – you know, the one Kendrick Perkins feels when he accidentally glances at a mirror.
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Out of Bounds: The Switch

The Lakers Nation is such a spoiled and self-important fan base – and if you’re offended by that, you’re really just proving my point. In all fairness, we have inherited our egotism from the franchise we passionately support – so why shouldn’t we feel a certain sense of entitlement?

15 NBA Titles, arguably 3 of the 5 greatest players of all-time (Kareem, Magic and Kobe), defending NBA champions…

You get the point.

With success comes swagger – a word we like to use in place of arrogance because it sounds better… even though it really means the same thing. The dark side of the Lakers superiority complex is their tendency to approach the latter part of the regular season with the enthusiasm of an IHOP waitress serving a group of drunken college kids at 3am.
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