There is no question Dallas and the Nuggets have their eye on the slumping Lakers. In fact, J.R. Smith had a lot to talk about on his twitter regarding Kobe Bryant. I don’t know about you, but when/if the Lakers and Nuggets meet again for the third straight year in the post-season, it is going to be war.
This is pretty interesting news.
O.C. Register: Lakers owner Jerry Buss, a USC alum, paid Lane Kiffin’s $800,000 buyout from Tennessee, according to the Heisman Pundit Web site.
By the way the Pundit, a well-established blogger, is not at all in favor of Kiffin’s hiring. The headline of his analysis: “USC COMMITS SUICIDE.”
Shannon Brown has a good spirit after a funny moment the other night…
O.C. Register: Shannon Brown was standing in his underwear, about to change into his game shorts Saturday night in the Arco Arena visiting locker room, and he paused.
“Any cameras in here?” he asked over his shoulder.
Brown got a little more exposure than he wanted Tuesday night when Fox Sports caught a shot from the side and rear — pun intended — of Brown pulling his underpants on in front of his locker while their camera panned into a postgame interview with Derek Fisher. Unfortunately for Brown, this is the YouTube generation, too.
After Brown was dressed and putting on his sneakers Saturday night, he noticed teammate Lamar Odom on the other side of the locker room … not wearing any pants as he dressed and giving us the L.O. moon.
“See, L … that’s the way it happens,” Brown said.
Phil likes the idea, as does LeBron, of retiring #23.
NBA.COM: Phil Jackson likes LeBron James’ idea of NBA players giving up No. 23 to honor Michael Jordan.
The Los Angeles Lakers coach who won six titles with Jordan in Chicago compared the idea to the NHL’s retirement of No. 99 to honor hockey great Wayne Gretzky in 2000.
Jackson said Jordan changed the NBA much as Gretzky did hockey.
Asked about the issue before his Los Angeles Lakers played the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, Jackson said the only potential pitfall he sees with retiring No. 23 league-wide is it might be “a little step on the toes for a guy like Magic [Johnson] or [Larry] Bird.”
We here at TheLakersNation wish everyone a very happy and safe Halloween. Be smart, be safe. If you have cool Lakers costumes, pumpkins or anything else Lakers related, send them in to us. We’ll start by posting this sick pumpkin by Jordan M.
Bad news for Clippers fans. I was looking forward to competing against a healthy Clippers squad tomorrow.
Hoopsworld: The Los Angeles Clippers announced on Monday that rookie forward Blake Griffin has suffered a stress facture of the left patella. He’ll be out up to six weeks.
We know Gasol will miss, unfortunately, Griffin may miss the opener as well.
Yahoo! Sports: According to the L.A. Times, Griffin did not practice Sunday and is expected to be examined by team doctors on Monday. And knowing the Clippers’ questionable medical staff, he’ll likely miss the entire 2009-10 regular season after a team doctor accidentally blinds the kid with his pen flashlight.
Brilliant article on ex-Laker Isaiah Rider…
Yahoo! Sports: The old NBA player walked into the high school gymnasium for his first day of work Monday night wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers’ long-sleeved T-shirt and practice shorts. The gym at Trimble Tech High in Fort Worth, Texas, hardly resembled the packed 18,000-seat arenas in which he used to play. On this night he wouldn’t be matched up with Kobe Bryant(notes) or Michael Jordan – only unheralded former small-college stars. No more charter flights or Four Seasons suites. These days, it’s Best Westerns and long bus rides.
This is where 38-year-old Isaiah “J.R.” Rider now finds himself, preparing for his first season with the North Texas Fresh, one of more than 50 teams in the American Basketball Association. Sixteen years ago, Rider was the fifth overall pick of the NBA draft, a promising rookie for the Minnesota Timberwolves who would go on to win the All-Star dunk contest. Nearly two decades of self-inflicted drama and personal pain – including several arrests and a 3½-month stay in jail – have now dropped Rider to the low minor leagues, desperate to revive his career and rewrite a different ending to his troubled story.
“I still have it in me,” Rider told Yahoo! Sports. “I still have something left in the tank. It’s still in my blood. My juices still flow.
“I know I can still ball.”
No one ever doubted Rider could play. He showed flashes of being a dynamic scorer and his acrobatic dunks brought crowds to their feet. During his nine-year stay in the NBA, he averaged 16.8 points while making stops in Minnesota, Portland, Atlanta, Los Angeles (Lakers) and Denver.
Continue reading ‘Hard fall leaves Rider with long climb up’
Now this is something every Laker fan can get behind…
Forum Blue & Gold: I’ve been lucky. Growing up in Los Angeles I got to go to the occasional Lakers game because the company seats where my mom worked would fall to her once or twice a season. As I got older and had a little disposable income, shares of season tickets and purchases for individual games were within my reach.
But with the price of Lakers tickets, for a lot of the team’s young fans seeing the Lakers play in person is a nearly impossible dream.
That’s where Kids in Seats comes in. The new company gets season ticket holders — both personal and corporate — to donate their unused season tickets to them, and that donation is tax deductible. In turn they pass those tickets off to organizations that work with underprivileged youth, and that kid also gets a hot dog and a drink. Basically, the ticket that nobody at a law firm can use instead goes to a needy kid for whom a trip to see the Lakers play Sacramento on a Tuesday night is a cherished childhood memory. KIS also does this for Dodgers and other sporting events in town.
It’s a great cause, the kind Forum Blue & Gold supports.
And you can support too — Kids in Seats is doing a Twitter fundraiser starting tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 15) and running for 10 days. They are asking people to make a small donation for each new twitter follower they pick up starting Saturday. One little thing you can do is log on and become a follower of theirs on Twitter. Or, you can donate for each new twitter follower they pick up.
Continue reading ‘Kids In Seats, Making The Dream Of Seeing The Lakers A Reality’
A 5-time NBA Champion, 3-time league MVP, Olympic gold medalist and one of the biggest stars ever to play the game of basketball, Earvin “Magic” Johnson now celebrates another milestone – his 50th birthday.
NBATV pays tribute to Magic with a series of countdowns, adding up to the 50 top moments of his career. Assists, Showtime highlights, All-access clips, Clutch plays and his top ten “Magic Moments” are all included, reaching deep into the NBA Entertainment library for exclusive footage not seen in a long while.
“Magic’s 50!”…tune in on his birthday, August 14th at 6 p.m. ET on NBATV.
Please click on the link below to view a rough cut preview of “Magic’s 50!”
http://dmmx2.nba.com:8080/nbae/specials/specials_decker_magic_largerthanlife_and_clutch_1500.wmv
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