[:: LAKERS 2014 THREAD | POLL: Who Should Coach Next Year? ::]

[pmatic]

Take your time Kobe, take your time.

 

[CP1708]

I whiffed on the last page.

He's
Getting
Healthy

Was right there in front of me. I gotta be better.

 

[blacklion23]

So you're saying Kobe is on steroids?

 

[CP1708]

Do you see me saying that somewhere?

 

[blacklion23]

Do you see me saying that somewhere?

Sort of.....

HGH

He's
Getting
Healthy

 

[Maximus Meridius]

Do what you gotta do 24.

Kareem went on First Take earlier and basically went in on Dwight. The gist: He said he doesn't have the basketball IQ to be as good as he could be, when mixed with his talent. He does speak well though and when he was prepping Gasol and Bynum for the Finals, he told them guarding him would be an "easy job."

Kareem is probably defending himself first and foremost - Dwight recently said Olajuwon would be better for his game or some **** - but he's also defending the Lakers in the process. Love ya Cap.

He really was speaking the truth though. Dwight has been in the league for a long time now and he still has no post game.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Kobe probably gonna get more blood shot into his knee.

 

[grandtheftbike]

Do you see me saying that somewhere?

haters gonna hate

 

[CP1708]

Well, technically, HGH can't be considered steroids, can it?

So in that regard, I am not saying that Kobe is on steroids, at all.

But "other" things???? Yeah, boy on somethin. And has been, for a long while.

Baseball learned me, don't be romantic thinkin about all your favorite players. They aren't robots. Human bodies don't heal like this without something else goin on. That goes for AP, Peyton Manning, Lance, Bonds, Kobe, etc. Peyton had neck FUSION surgery, and is playing NFL football like it was just a scratch on his thumb.

Again, baseball is not the only dirty sport on the planet. Millions and millions of dollars flowing, guys are going to do what it takes.

 

[senorroboto2k5]

He really was speaking the truth though. Dwight has been in the league for a long time now and he still has no post game.

Yeah. Kareem is 100% right. I don't want people to think it's just Kareem getting defensive about what Dwight's been saying.

I guess Dwight fed some BS about working with Olajuwon suits his game, while Kareem wouldn't.

YOU HAVE NO POST GAME, you can take any help you can get dude...

 

[CP1708]

Kobe probably gonna have more blood get shot into his knee.

In another country....


LEGAL!!

 

[pmatic]

Kobe probably gonna have more blood get shot into his knee.

In another country....


LEGAL!!

The FDA is shut down, so Kobe should've just got the work done in the good ol US of A.

 

[blacklion23]

Didn't Howard work with Hakeem some years back during the offseason while with the Magic? If I recall, for the first ten games or so it looked as if the sessions had helped Howard's offensive game, only to show it didn't soon afterwards.

 

[vindeezy]

^^he is who he is and will be for the rest of his career. And when the athleticism declines and the knick knack injuries compile with age........................

 

[Maximus Meridius]

He really was speaking the truth though. Dwight has been in the league for a long time now and he still has no post game.

Yeah. Kareem is 100% right. I don't want people to think it's just Kareem getting defensive about what Dwight's been saying.

I guess Dwight fed some BS about working with Olajuwon suits his game, while Kareem wouldn't.

YOU HAVE NO POST GAME, you can take any help you can get dude...

The only person that can help his post game is Shaq but Shaq can't stand his ***.


Kareem and Olajuwon can help guys like Bynum or Hibbert cuz they have the right skill set. I'm not saying they're better than Dwight, he just doesn't have that type of skill set. You can't just work with Olajuwon and all of sudden you're a different type of player.

 

[vindeezy]

Shaq at least had 2 "go to" moves. ..turnaround 7 footer on baseline. Jumphook in lane from 5 feet. Oh yeah,And just overpowering folks in the restricted area.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Kobe probably gonna have more blood get shot into his knee.

In another country....


LEGAL!!

In Germany, where the doctor who does the procedure, just like time.

So yes, legal

 

[senorroboto2k5]

Dave McMenamin ‏@mcten 15s

Two solid No. 4s coming back to the Lakers: Byron Scott and Luke Walton are joining @TWCSportsNet as analysts

View media item 601605

 

[essential1]

He really was speaking the truth though. Dwight has been in the league for a long time now and he still has no post game.

Yeah. Kareem is 100% right. I don't want people to think it's just Kareem getting defensive about what Dwight's been saying.

I guess Dwight fed some BS about working with Olajuwon suits his game, while Kareem wouldn't.

YOU HAVE NO POST GAME, you can take any help you can get dude...

The only person that can help his post game is Shaq but Shaq can't stand his ***.


Kareem and Olajuwon can help guys like Bynum or Hibbert cuz they have the right skill set. I'm not saying they're better than Dwight, he just doesn't have that type of skill set. You can't just work with Olajuwon and all of sudden you're a different type of player.

Bynum never wanted their help.

 

[Maximus Meridius]

I know. My point was using his skill set as an example.

 

[pmatic]

Damn, I thought Puke had another year or two left in him.

 

[essential1]

In honor of Luke. The highlight of his career... Having a stalker.

Lakers' Walton reveals year-long stalking nightmare

By KEVIN DING / The Orange County Register

EL SEGUNDO She thinks she loves him. She thinks they are meant to be together.


According to Walton, she sat in her car outside his house too many times to count - sometimes staying there when he left the house during the day, sometimes staying there when he went to sleep at night. She marked up his car with a Sharpie one time when he was too busy to sign an autograph. She tried to make him jealous with a tall tale that Jordan Farmar thought she was pretty and wanted to date her.

She morphed into a race-car driver anytime Walton tried to elude her. She eyed him from the bleachers as he ran his basketball camp - sitting there for four consecutive days, seven hours per day. She even dared to approach his girlfriend.

Then a week and a half ago, she contorted her face in anger, stuck her arm out her car window, curled her hand to make it look like a gun and shot make-believe bullets at him.

He finally knew what to think: She was stalking him, and it had to stop.

ARREST MADE

Stacy Beshear, 34, of El Segundo was arrested - triggering a temporary restraining order to keep her away from Walton. There is a Nov. 6 court date, and if she is found guilty of stalking, at the very least that restraining order figures to become permanent.

For Walton, it would finally mean relief.

"It's bananas," he said in an exclusive interview with The Register. "I'll be going to sleep at night and just randomly look out the window. Just to check. Just because. She has been out there at 12:30, 1:30 in the morning. She would park outside my house for hours and hours.

"I would drive out, and I would see her peeking through. It would suck, because I know I'm leaving my home, and I know she's still there. What am I supposed to do? Is she planning on breaking in? Am I going to come home one day and she's sleeping in my bed? Is she going to steal my dog?

"You try not to think about it. But every time I see a black Honda now, I'm like, 'Is that her?' I'll slow down and look. It's like every day. There are a billion of these cars. Since I've noticed her, I've noticed these cars are everywhere. It's like I'm going paranoid like some movie character."

An effort to contact Beshear for comment through her family was declined. Walton said he hasn't seen her since Sept. 25, the day her hand became that imaginary weapon and she "crossed the line." He said she had tracked him back to Farmar's house after the Lakers teammates had a morning workout, and she made that threatening gesture as Walton was driving back to his Manhattan Beach home.

"When she pulled up to my house and started yelling at me after she fired a fake gun at me, I couldn't help but to start yelling back at her," Walton said. "She was in my driveway. But when we were interacting, I could tell by the stuff she was saying that she's not all there in the head - which makes me feel bad for her. At the same time, most people who go on killing sprees are people who aren't all there in the head."

Walton said the gist of their conversation was her unrequited love.

"She told me that we belong together," Walton said. "And then she started flipping out about all sorts of stuff. She said she wanted to move to San Diego, but people wouldn't let her. I was like, 'What people?' She's like, 'The people! The people in the universe! They won't let me move, because they say you and I are supposed to be together.' I was like, 'Oh, wow. She's crazy.' "

The other extended conversation Walton had with Beshear came after he filed his first complaint with Manhattan Beach police. An officer left Walton's home after taking Walton's statement and immediately spotted the aforementioned black Honda parked down the block. When Walton went to identify her, he found Beshear in handcuffs - and in tears - by the side of the road.

Said Walton: "I explained to her, 'I don't want this to come to this. I want you to enjoy your life and do what you want to do, but you've got to leave me alone. She was like, 'I understand. I just can't help it. I'll stop. I didn't know I was making you feel unsafe.'

"I said, 'That's fine. Just end it. That's it. I don't want to see you anymore.' Then she disappeared for like a month. … And then she started showing up again."

WHY WALTON?

Obsessed fans are not uncommon in sports. With one of the most famous people in the world on the team in Kobe Bryant, the Lakers have to deal with major security challenges on a regular basis. It is an extreme rarity, however, that all mediation and police warnings fail and an arrest warrant for stalking has to be issued.

So why it is Walton who gets swallowed up in this vortex? Consider that two recent cases of athletes being stalked involved men hounding Anna Kournikova and Serena Williams, who draw attention for more than their tennis. Walton, 28, has a career average of 5.8 points per game, but he's an All-Star in the eyes of many female fans.

Here are a couple posts from an Internet message board about Walton:

From Karin: "I LOVE LUKEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! HE IZ THE SEXXIEST MAN ALIVE !!!!!!!!! I WANT HIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....... OMG IF I DONT HAVE LUKE I WILL KILL MYSELF!!!! I LOVE U LUKE."

From Luke'sgirl4ever: "wow those eyes that adorable smile. every time i see Luke dribble down that court i totally melt. i have been a Luke Walton fan for a while now and i want to meet him so bad and go on a date w/ him. we would be perfect together."

"Normally I'm not worried; I can take care of myself," said Walton, who fended off tabloid reports a year ago that he was dating Britney Spears. "But if you've got a lady who for some reason is sitting in front of your house all day and is now pointing a fake gun at you, you've got to think, 'Maybe I did something to piss her off to the point where she's really planning on shooting me.' "

STAYING OPEN

Walton is a pass-first, team-oriented player; he's the same way as a person. He is a San Diego native and is extremely active in the Southern California community. He co-owns Joey's Smokin' BBQ restaurants in Manhattan Beach and Tustin and regularly socializes with fans there. Despite the stalking situation going on, he did a popular "Life with Luke" series on Fox Sports Net's Lakers pregame show last season, basically throwing open the front door to his off-court life. He is sharing more this season in a blog he's writing for NBA.com.

Beshear did succeed in one sense: making herself a part of Walton's life. Walton is determined that she will not change the way he lives that life, however. He will still joke around with those diehard fans who show up at every one of his public appearances. There will be no gate or surveillance cameras installed at his home.

"My dad (NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton) was always the same way: He was always out in the community and doing things," Walton said. "And that's the way I like to live. I like knowing all my neighbors; I like being out there, being involved and spending time with the fans. I definitely don't think this will change anything. Hopefully it doesn't happen again."

It's unreal to think that it has happened already. But consider it a reminder about celebrity. Walton's world doesn't begin and end with people chanting "Luuuke" at Staples Center. Amid the myriad of positive perks, that public eye can become a bull's-eye.

Even as he endeavors to move on, this 6-foot-8 target still wonders whether a pretend gun is just imaginary to someone so certain her feelings are real.

"How far is she really willing to go?" Walton asked.

 

[vindeezy]

I remember when he first came out of u of a and played surprisingly in that 04 finals...they couldnt stop saying how "cerebral" he was....lololol..

get the rock at the high post.
Assume triple threat.
look for kobe.....

cerebral...

 

[00david00]

The Vegas line of Pelicans with 40 wins compared to the Lakers with 33.5...

Using those because they're both Western Conference teams... the Blazers are in the middle at 38.5, but I think that's about where they'll be.

Definitely would take those bets (under on Pelicans; over on Lakers). Lakers are definitely a playoff team if healthy... and under 33 wins can only happen if Kobe doesn't play 50 games (IMO).

where can i get in on this

 

[WhatisLove]

The Vegas line of Pelicans with 40 wins compared to the Lakers with 33.5...

Using those because they're both Western Conference teams... the Blazers are in the middle at 38.5, but I think that's about where they'll be.

Definitely would take those bets (under on Pelicans; over on Lakers). Lakers are definitely a playoff team if healthy... and under 33 wins can only happen if Kobe doesn't play 50 games (IMO).

where can i get in on this

The odds are from here:

Vegas has the Lakers over/under at 33.5

You'd have to bet at/with a sportsbook. A couple online seem to have similar odds (saw one with Lakers at a 34.5 over/under, so that's pretty close).