OFFICIAL LAKERS 2009/2010 (57-25) 2009-2010 CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

[westcoastsfinest]

Originally Posted by SCOfoshO

Any word on Jerry Stackhouse? We should sign him to the veterans minimum to come off the bench. Push vujaBic, walton, and white mamba (morrison) further down the bench.

this..

 

[grimey]

@ white mamba

 

[moneymike9]

yo that new SLAM will be copped

SLAM been coming through with nice covers the past few months.

Looking forward to the game later on. I hope it's not as close as the last time we played those guys.

 

[jcollector]

It's been awhile since I've been on here, but being a Laker/Kobe fan and watching so many of their games over the last several years has prompted me toask, has anyone noticed how Kobe always yells "Hey!" whenever he drives to the hoop? I know it just can't be me that has noticed this. Sometimeshe even does it when no one touches him. Now I see guys like Wade and even Lebron do it now!

Just a light-hearted question that I've been wanting to ask for awhile but nevergot around to it!

 

[kb8sandiego]

Originally Posted by jcollector

It's been awhile since I've been on here, but being a Laker/Kobe fan and watching so many of their games over the last several years has prompted me to ask, has anyone noticed how Kobe always yells "Hey!" whenever he drives to the hoop? I know it just can't be me that has noticed this. Sometimes he even does it when no one touches him. Now I see guys like Wade and even Lebron do it now!

Just a light-hearted question that I've been wanting to ask for awhile but never got around to it!

Fam, it's a running joke on here.

Probably the most annoying thing that bugs me about Kobe.

 

[th0mas cr0wn]

they are giving out jerseys to everyone at Staples with HEARN and a microphone on the back


very cool

 

[infyrno23]

is it safe to say... minus an injury Andrew Bynum will be the starting Center for the west in the All-Star game?
No Yao... i think its a lock, but he has to not get injured anymore until then

 

[notorious 858]

[h1]Lakers owner Jerry Buss honors the streak[/h1]

Without a doubt, life is smiling at Jerry Buss these days.

"Like all gamblers, we feel like we're on a run," the Lakers owner said while reclining in a black leather chair near his luxury suite Sunday at Staples Center.

The Lakers are five months removed from an NBA championship and favored to win another, leaving Buss in an upbeat mood as one day turns to another.

In a wide-ranging 30-minute interview, Buss revealed why he was willing to spend a league-high $112.7 million to satisfy the Lakers' soaring player payroll demands. Hint: The Boston Celtics might be part of it.

Although he acknowledged being somewhat uncomfortable about shelling out such a sum, Buss also touched on his desire to keep Kobe Bryant and Coach Phil Jackson in the fold for years to come. He also discussed the reasons for his absence last June at the title-clinching game in Orlando, Fla., not to mention the celebratory downtown parade a few days later.

First, the money.

The Lakers will spend $91.3 million in player salary this season and an additional $21.4 million in luxury taxes if their roster is still the same on the final day of the regular season, assuming they make no trades or minor free-agent acquisitions between now and then.

Buss, 76, said he thought the team had spent wisely, though the lump sum is undeniably large.

"It doesn't thrill me," he said. "I don't like to be singled out for that particular purpose, but I feel in this situation it was necessary. When it's necessary, we're going to do that."

And why is that? Why cut greatly into profit margins that, in Buss' words, came close to $30 million or $40 million last season when the Lakers won the championship with a total payroll of $86 million, including luxury taxes?

Apparently, the man likes to win.

"We want to win as many championships as we possibly can," Buss said. "We're still a few shy of our rival and our intention is to catch them. . . . My son Joey, when he picked up the trophy, he announced our clear-cut rival, and it's kind of obvious our whole family feels that way."

The Lakers have 15 championships, the Celtics have 17, a fact Joey Buss pointed out while accepting the championship trophy after the Lakers' clinching victory over Orlando in the Finals.

If Buss is seeking another dynasty, he probably wants to keep Bryant and Jackson in the mix.

Bryant, 31, is under contract through next season but has yet to sign a three-year extension for up to $91 million that would keep him with the team through 2013-14.

When asked whether Bryant was an integral part of the Lakers' future, Buss answered definitively.

"We certainly hope so," he said. "We don't want to comment on specific negotiations. He's made it pretty clear he doesn't want that discussed. We'll respect that."

Jackson, meanwhile, is in the final year of a contract that pays him $12 million this season. Will he be back?

"He likes to wait until he sees physically how he is at the end of the season, so he doesn't know and I don't know whether he will or not," Buss said. "He is welcome, though. He did and has always done a marvelous job."

And if Jackson, 64, doesn't return?

"There is a group of people that I have a special fondness for, and for obvious reasons I'll leave it unsaid," Buss said. "Jimmy and I talk that over quite often, actually."

Buss conducted the interview while sitting next to his son Jim, the team's executive vice president of player personnel, who has picked up more and more of his father's personal day-to-day decision-making duties. Buss' daughter, Jeanie, oversees the business side of the Lakers.

"Jeanie's had the business responsibility for some time now," Buss said. "Jimmy, I would say started at about 10% or 20% many years ago [on the personnel side] and has gained about 10% a year. I think he's up around 90-something now."

Father and son agreed that nothing short of a championship would be acceptable this season.

"I think we're a better team than we were last year," Jim Buss said. "So if we won it last year, I guess that goes without saying that we should win it this year."

Both Busses lauded General Manager Mitch Kupchak after supporting him during several lean seasons in the wake of the Shaquille O'Neal trade.

"Mitch is a superb general manager and we work very well together," Jerry Buss said. "We stand behind him and will continue to do so."

Throughout the interview, Buss seemed relaxed as he wore a colorful "Team Pacquiao" jacket over a mango-colored shirt and blue jeans that had a hole near the left knee and were shredded at the bottom.

In fact, he made fun of his attire at one point while referring to the Lakers' immense player payroll.

"I'd rather take the $30 million or $40 million and put it in my pocket," he said of a dwindling profit margin compared with last season. "Look at my jeans. Do you think I don't have a big payroll?"

Buss also provided a reason why he wasn't at the last game of the NBA Finals, which ended in Orlando.

"I'm getting a little older and I guess during something like that I become very animated and use sometimes questionable language," Buss said. "In this particular case, I thought it was going to be a very tough tussle and I wanted to be kind of free to jump up and down and scream and kick things.

"I talked Jimmy into staying with me, and I had Jeanie with me. It became kind of a family affair in our room where we could all shout and holler without making a spectacle of ourselves. We didn't pop a [champagne] cork, but we sure danced around and held hands."

What about skipping the victory parade? Buss was photographed while sitting at a poker table in a casino, the parade being shown on a large TV in the background.

"I've been to a bunch of parades and the problem is you only see the part you're in," Buss said. "If you watch it on TV, you can see the whole thing, and it's really kind of fun. I watched the parade, as somebody can prove because they showed the TV in the picture of me playing poker."


Link:

http://www.latimes.com/sp...v23,0,7407964,full.story

All I have to say is Dr. Buss is the best sports owner in all of sports. Mark Cuban & Jerry Jones aren't even in the same league with him.

I still remember last summer after the victory parade a couple NT Laker fans on here were getting butt hurt over him not being at the parade while he wasplaying poker instead.

 

[presequel]

yeah buss usually never goes to the parades anyways. not a big deal.

good article.

 

[notorious 858]

[h1]Lakers finally have pizzazz[/h1]At long last, awe.

The Lakers won a title last season but missed the greatness predicted for them by a wide margin, as in their second-round series against Houston when ABC's Mark Jackson railed at their effort and swore he'd never pick them again, to which Kobe Bryant replied, "Mark's right."

Nor was anyone wowed by this season's start. The annual talk about the Chicago Bulls' record lasted two games, after which they were 1-1.

This just in: Bulls' Record in Jeopardy Again.

Actually, it isn't, barring a 63-6 finish, but these are no longer last season's by-hook-or-crook champions, following Thursday's rout of the Bulls by crushing Oklahoma City's Prekocious Kids, 101-85, Sunday night to run their Awesome Streak to two.

The Thunder, which took the Lakers into overtime before losing their first meeting, trailed by 27 points in this one, learning an important lesson:

If this is Prime Time, they're not ready for it.

The Lakers' last two games, of course, coincide with Pau Gasol's return, but perennial All-Star that he is, he's not that good.

He is that important, though, like Chauncey Billups, whose arrival in Denver last season chilled out Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith, so it was like getting four players, not one.

With Gasol, Bryant immediately goes from I Must Carry Us Mode, to I'll Facilitate Too, and between them, that's a lot of facilitating.

"They have so many dynamic players and Pau is just another one," said Thunder Coach Scott Brooks, the former UC Irvine Anteaters great.

"Now Lamar [Odom] is off the bench. It's a special team. . . . They're a fun team to watch, but not when they're doing what they did to us tonight."

Making it even more fun, or agonizing, depending on your perspective, the Lakers finally have both Gasol and Andrew Bynum going, which hadn't happened often before.

Bynum was gone for the duration when Gasol arrived two seasons ago. They played together last season, but Bynum was a long way from where he is now.

Brooks was unhappy that his players didn't match the Lakers' "physicality," but their big mistake was being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Chicago's Joakim Noah said their game was like "the varsity against the JVs." This was like the varsity against the first five guys they found off the sidewalk.

The Lakers went up by 19 points in the first quarter as Bynum kept reaching over Etan Thomas like a grown-up reaching over a tot to get something off a high shelf.

Meanwhile, Bryant was lobbing one over the backboard after being pushed over the baseline . . . which dropped while he was asking the referee where the foul call was . . . and hitting a 17-foot left-handed bank shot at the buzzer to end the first quarter.

The spectacle never ends in Lakerdom. Good times are when it's on the court.

Owner Jerry Buss sat down with the beat writers before the game, noting again that he was turning over the team's day-to-day affairs to his son Jim.

Jim, of course, once zinged Phil Jackson on the radio, whereupon Jackson zinged him back on the radio, and Jeanie Buss, Jim's sister and Jackson's Significant Other, zinged her brother on the radio too.

"Oh, I never zinged Jim," Jackson said. "I think there was the perception he zinged our coaching staff."

The perception may have arisen after Jim said Jackson shouldn't rip his players publicly, and Jackson replied Jim hadn't delivered the players he promised.

"I forget things like that," Jackson said, laughing. "It's great to be my age, isn't it?

"That was the other thing about me [according to Jim], that we have coaches who don't know how to coach young players.

"I didn't have to go to my defense. My watchdog went after him."

Hard to beat on the court, unmatched off it. They don't make organizations like this anymore.

As H.I. says in "Raising Arizona," when his wife complains they don't have a proper home to raise the baby they kidnapped:

"Well, it ain't Ozzie and Harriet."


Link:

http://www.latimes.com/sp...09nov23,0,7065338.column

 

[moneymike9]

I LOVE the way we look since Gasol came back...granted, it was against fringe playoff teams, but we did what we were supposed to do (dominate) and didn'tlet up.

Now I'm hoping we can show this type of intesity against elite opponents.

 

[cedric ceballos 1995 lakers]

Originally Posted by Notorious 858

[h1]Lakers owner Jerry Buss honors the streak[/h1]

Without a doubt, life is smiling at Jerry Buss these days.

"Like all gamblers, we feel like we're on a run," the Lakers owner said while reclining in a black leather chair near his luxury suite Sunday at Staples Center.

The Lakers are five months removed from an NBA championship and favored to win another, leaving Buss in an upbeat mood as one day turns to another.

In a wide-ranging 30-minute interview, Buss revealed why he was willing to spend a league-high $112.7 million to satisfy the Lakers' soaring player payroll demands. Hint: The Boston Celtics might be part of it.

Although he acknowledged being somewhat uncomfortable about shelling out such a sum, Buss also touched on his desire to keep Kobe Bryant and Coach Phil Jackson in the fold for years to come. He also discussed the reasons for his absence last June at the title-clinching game in Orlando, Fla., not to mention the celebratory downtown parade a few days later.

First, the money.

The Lakers will spend $91.3 million in player salary this season and an additional $21.4 million in luxury taxes if their roster is still the same on the final day of the regular season, assuming they make no trades or minor free-agent acquisitions between now and then.

Buss, 76, said he thought the team had spent wisely, though the lump sum is undeniably large.

"It doesn't thrill me," he said. "I don't like to be singled out for that particular purpose, but I feel in this situation it was necessary. When it's necessary, we're going to do that."

And why is that? Why cut greatly into profit margins that, in Buss' words, came close to $30 million or $40 million last season when the Lakers won the championship with a total payroll of $86 million, including luxury taxes?

Apparently, the man likes to win.

"We want to win as many championships as we possibly can," Buss said. "We're still a few shy of our rival and our intention is to catch them. . . . My son Joey, when he picked up the trophy, he announced our clear-cut rival, and it's kind of obvious our whole family feels that way."

The Lakers have 15 championships, the Celtics have 17, a fact Joey Buss pointed out while accepting the championship trophy after the Lakers' clinching victory over Orlando in the Finals.

If Buss is seeking another dynasty, he probably wants to keep Bryant and Jackson in the mix.

Bryant, 31, is under contract through next season but has yet to sign a three-year extension for up to $91 million that would keep him with the team through 2013-14.

When asked whether Bryant was an integral part of the Lakers' future, Buss answered definitively.

"We certainly hope so," he said. "We don't want to comment on specific negotiations. He's made it pretty clear he doesn't want that discussed. We'll respect that."

Jackson, meanwhile, is in the final year of a contract that pays him $12 million this season. Will he be back?

"He likes to wait until he sees physically how he is at the end of the season, so he doesn't know and I don't know whether he will or not," Buss said. "He is welcome, though. He did and has always done a marvelous job."

And if Jackson, 64, doesn't return?

"There is a group of people that I have a special fondness for, and for obvious reasons I'll leave it unsaid," Buss said. "Jimmy and I talk that over quite often, actually."

Buss conducted the interview while sitting next to his son Jim, the team's executive vice president of player personnel, who has picked up more and more of his father's personal day-to-day decision-making duties. Buss' daughter, Jeanie, oversees the business side of the Lakers.

"Jeanie's had the business responsibility for some time now," Buss said. "Jimmy, I would say started at about 10% or 20% many years ago [on the personnel side] and has gained about 10% a year. I think he's up around 90-something now."

Father and son agreed that nothing short of a championship would be acceptable this season.

"I think we're a better team than we were last year," Jim Buss said. "So if we won it last year, I guess that goes without saying that we should win it this year."

Both Busses lauded General Manager Mitch Kupchak after supporting him during several lean seasons in the wake of the Shaquille O'Neal trade.

"Mitch is a superb general manager and we work very well together," Jerry Buss said. "We stand behind him and will continue to do so."

Throughout the interview, Buss seemed relaxed as he wore a colorful "Team Pacquiao" jacket over a mango-colored shirt and blue jeans that had a hole near the left knee and were shredded at the bottom.

In fact, he made fun of his attire at one point while referring to the Lakers' immense player payroll.

"I'd rather take the $30 million or $40 million and put it in my pocket," he said of a dwindling profit margin compared with last season. "Look at my jeans. Do you think I don't have a big payroll?"

Buss also provided a reason why he wasn't at the last game of the NBA Finals, which ended in Orlando.

"I'm getting a little older and I guess during something like that I become very animated and use sometimes questionable language," Buss said. "In this particular case, I thought it was going to be a very tough tussle and I wanted to be kind of free to jump up and down and scream and kick things.

"I talked Jimmy into staying with me, and I had Jeanie with me. It became kind of a family affair in our room where we could all shout and holler without making a spectacle of ourselves. We didn't pop a [champagne] cork, but we sure danced around and held hands."

What about skipping the victory parade? Buss was photographed while sitting at a poker table in a casino, the parade being shown on a large TV in the background.

"I've been to a bunch of parades and the problem is you only see the part you're in," Buss said. "If you watch it on TV, you can see the whole thing, and it's really kind of fun. I watched the parade, as somebody can prove because they showed the TV in the picture of me playing poker."

Link:

http://www.latimes.com/sp...v23,0,7407964,full.story

All I have to say is Dr. Buss is the best sports owner in all of sports. Mark Cuban & Jerry Jones aren't even in the same league with him.

I still remember last summer after the victory parade a couple NT Laker fans on here were getting butt hurt over him not being at the parade while he was playing poker instead.

i agree with that, buss is appreciated indeed, but i've always liked what cuban has done with dallas. i can't stand the mans whinningbut he is a damn good owner.

 

[westcoastsfinest]

jerry buss is the best owner...he didnt lie to us about being back

 

[CP1708]

The more I see Bynum play, the more I smile.

You don't trade 20 year old 7 footer for old point guards. You do not do it. Ever.

I did not ever think Bynum would be this good right now, I don't deny that, but I figured if he could get 20 and 10 at 25-26 as the leading man, sweet. Instead he's getting 20 and 10 as the 4th name on the marquee.

Keep workin young fella, keep workin.......



And don't get injured you soft @#$ pansy. Be a man damn it.

 

[jbone2308]

Originally Posted by KB8sandiego

Originally Posted by jcollector

It's been awhile since I've been on here, but being a Laker/Kobe fan and watching so many of their games over the last several years has prompted me to ask, has anyone noticed how Kobe always yells "Hey!" whenever he drives to the hoop? I know it just can't be me that has noticed this. Sometimes he even does it when no one touches him. Now I see guys like Wade and even Lebron do it now!

Just a light-hearted question that I've been wanting to ask for awhile but never got around to it!

Fam, it's a running joke on here.

Probably the most annoying thing that bugs me about Kobe.

He got Bynum doing it and it gets the whistle.

Others notice this. Though Bron and Wade don't need to say a peep let alone move to get the whistle.

 

[darthska]

jbone2308:

---

Bron and Wade don't need to say a peep let alone move to get the whistle.
Exactly! They get plenty of calls without...

... wait, what? Are you saying they don't say a peep? LeBron and Wade?

Are there multiple LeBrons and Wades in the league? *checks NBA player list*

The only LeBron I know is LeBron James, and the only Wade I'm familiar with is Dwyane.

And that LeBron and that Wade are definitely whiners.

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by Notorious 858

Anyone find & cop the new issue of SLAM:

After I got done playing ball today. I checked my local Barnes & Noble, Borders, and a Alberstons and no luck in finding the new issue of SLAM.

I'll be looking for this..........

 

[wings90]

Sweet cover. Actually seems like an interesting issue overall too.

 

[frenchblue23]

Adande is a fool

Updated: November 23, 2009, 11:28 AM ET

Comment Email



[h4]1. Bynum, Lakers Making It Look Easy[/h4]

By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com

Since apparently mini-concerts are now part of Lakers' games, what with Will.i.am grabbing a silver microphone and performing "I Gotta Feeling" during a fourth-quarter timeout Sunday night, next time they should bring out the Wu-Tang Clan for a rendition of "Can It Be All So Simple."

Shouldn't there be a longer adjustment period when it comes to bringing a starter back with an eighth of the season already gone? Shouldn't Andrew Bynumget thrown out of whack now that he no longer has the paint all to himself? Can anyone get within 10 points of the Lakers again now that Pau Gasol has returned from his hamstring injury and the Lakers have their starting lineup intact?

Their 101-85 victory over Oklahoma City made it seem like there's nothing to it.

"It's easy," Kobe Bryant said. "Because they're both good passers and have good touch outside. It's pretty seamless. We just plug 'em in and off we go."

Phil Jackson thought it would be enough of a challenge that he changed up the schedule and held practice the day after Gasol first played against the Bulls Thursday. Except Bynum missed both that and Saturday's practice with a "jammed" right ankle.

On top of that, Bynum was injured when the Lakers first traded for Gasol in 2008, and he played only 50 games last year. He should still be in the adjustment stage. How's this for an adjustment: 25 points on 9-for-11 shooting (along with nine rebounds and two blocked shots)? And this is basically big man training camp for Bynum.

"It's a good learning experience for me because we're able to go out there, we're able to play together on the offensive side of the ball," Bynum said. "On defense, we're both pretty long, we're both pretty athletic, we're able to change a lot of shots."

The Lakers took control of the game from the outset, with a 24-10 first-quarter advantage in points in the paint, a category they won 60-44 on the night.

"They protect the rim, they protect the paint, they make you play to the weakside, and it's tough to get over there," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said.

Offense was supposed to be the bigger adjustment, but Bynum has already figured out what works.

"[Gasol] can just stand at the free-throw line," Bynum said, "and they can pass me the ball in the post, and his guy can't drop off of him, because I can throw the ball out to him and it's an easy jump shot. If they don't double, then I'm able to take my time and do what I do with the ball."

An effective Bynum is what can make the Lakers better than last season, even if the Ron Artest-Trevor Arizaswap is a wash. The Lakers won with Bynum as a non-factor in the playoffs last season. Now he's averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds and shooting 59 percent. So if Gasol's numbers aren't special, as they were on a 15-point, 7-rebound Sunday (oh, with six assists), the Lakers can still win easily.

"As the season goes on, both of us are going to do better together," Bynum said. "The numbers will go down a little bit. But I think we'll be a stronger team, because everybody will be scoring. We'll be able to get more assists, a lot less double teaming."

Sunday's game in which the Thunder shot 37 percent, with double-digit missed shots from Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, was a laugher. Most of the entertainment came from Bryant's circus shots, such as an over-the-backboard jumper and a lefty bank at the first-quarter buzzer, Shannon Brown dunks and the mini-concert.

Will.i.am and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, along with Alex Rodriguez, took courtside seats after partaking in the American Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre across the street from Staples Center. Celebs at a Laker game? Nothing new. Until Will.i.am. started singing as the group's hit song played over the loudspeakers. Then they all gathered for a picture with B. Real of Cypress Hill.

As Bynum said, perhaps unintentionally quoting the song, "It was a good night tonight."

From the looks of things, one of many to come.

 

[westcoastsfinest]

i gotta feeling

 

[VinMillerHearn58]

Originally Posted by I NaSmatic I

http://www.youtube.com/v/tLp0Q35eO2A&hl=en_US&fs=1&http://www.youtube.com/v/tLp0Q35eO2A&hl=en_US&fs=1&

His ups are

 

[jordanfanatic23]

that $!!@ don't make no sense

 

[guttagetsbusy]

I hope we keep up this momentum...

I wanna see the Knicks get spanked like they stayed out until the street lights came on

 

[sundizzle]

Originally Posted by jordanfanatic23



that $!!@ don't make no sense

The sad thing about this dunk contest is Lebron won it (High School 2003 i think if im not wrong).� He didn't even do anything nice...he justjumped realllllllllly high and they flipped out.� I don't take anything away from Lebron...what he did was incredible but more like Olympic athleteincredible than dunking incredible

 

[kb8sandiego]

So Kobe makes it onto this month's Dime Mag also. Unfortunately, it's the same computer generated picture from the 2K10 ad.