- The Lakers are satisfied with their championship last season. Former Laker Rick Fox told John Ireland that some teams don’t like being “the hunted.” And this may be what ails the Lakers. Last year they rose to the challenge because they had been humiliated in the Finals; this year, they know they are the champs no matter what the result on the floor is.

- The Lakers are burned out. Being the defending champion is no easy thing. That’s why it’s so hard to repeat. This Laker group has played a lot of games and maybe when they reach deep inside, there’s nothing there right now.

- These are the “as usual” Lakers. After all, last season even in the Playoffs against Houston, fans were panicking and the media was heaping abuse on the team for its lack of effort, focus, etc. Then, suddenly, everything clicked.

- The weak point is Pau, who has played too many games. Pau seemed to answer the questions about being “soft,” last season, but seems to be back to playing “soft” again. Two weeks before the Lakers played Boston on the road, Gasol was griping about not getting enough touches. So late in the game, when he gets the ball, what does he do? He tries to pass to Shannon Brown. Turnover. Game. He did the same thing against the Sixers, passing in the paint to someone else in the paint – only this time he got away with it. “Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” Vince Lombardi said. Hmmmm.

- The weak point is …Kobe. The Lakers looked pretty energetic in the five games that Kobe missed. On offense, they played the triangle offense perfectly, spacing themselves well and passing to the open man. On defense, the rotations were crisp. Kobe comes back and all of a sudden they look flat again. Could it be that they are tiring of Kobe pushing them so hard?

- It’s that time of year: everyone is tired and injured, and everyone is trying to conserve energy for the Playoffs.

- There’s nothing wrong. The fans and the media are just too impatient, too focused on perfection, too, well, fanatical. The Lakers have, after all, the best record in the East, second-best record in the league, the best closer in the league and a team that won it last year…

1. Can Ron Artest keep it real?

Anyone following Ron Artest the last few months has to wonder if he is all there or if, like Shaquille O’Neal, he is all about marketing. That is, about generating buzz by what he says and does. Artest has certainly said and done some strange things. Stories filtering out of Houston say that in one of his last Playoff games there he took the last bus to the game, the bus the media and staffers ride and which players never ride unless they are LATE, wearing nothing but his underwear. Is he plain loony and if so, will he be able to fit into the Laker team chemistry? On the other hand, there are signs that he may just be shrewdly playing the media. The good news for the Lakers is that Artest has also said if the Lakers do not repeat, the players and fans can blame him. Can he keep that focus?

2. Will Andrew Bynum stay healthy and contribute?

Bynum is frustrating to the Lakers. There are moments, brief flashes so far for the most part, where he reveals signs of potential greatness. Those flashes can take one’s breath away because of the vision of what could be. Then they disappear and Bynum is making the foolish mistakes of a young, unseasoned player or, worse, getting hurt. There is little doubt that being mentored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been good for him, but he has to step up now. He’s getting the contract big bucks – now he has to show that he deserves them. Can he do it?

3. Is Fisher still a factor at 35?

Every Laker fan loves Derek Fisher. He is the Southern California version of the “little Engine That Could.” He just keeps plugging away. Yes, at times he looks like his feet are in deep, thick mud against quicker point guards. And yet at key moments, especially during the Playoffs, he comes up big. It will be a sad day the day he has to step aside. The good thing is that he is egoless and could come off the bench without complaint if he has, in fact, lost another step.

4. Can the back-up point guards provide productive minutes?

The Fish that ate San Antonio lost some effectiveness late in the regular season last year because Phil Jackson was forced to overplay him because of injuries and some bench weaknesses. Like Bynum, the two Laker back-up point guards, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown, have shown some signs of being keepers. Farmar has changed his jersey number to number one, as symbolic a move as there is. In the past, he has balanced out some good moments with poor decision-making and weak defense. Has he matured? Is he ready? If he isn’t, he will be challenged as he was during the Playoffs last season by newcomer Shannon Brown who earned a permanent moment in replay heaven with a rocking slam dunk over Denver’s Chris Anderson in the Playoffs in May.

5. Will the players keep listening to Phil?

There were moments last season – the darkest and most depressing times – when the Lakers seemed to have shut coach Phil Jackson out. These were games when they played foolishly and without energy, basically giving away games. Every team has some of those games in the long 82-game season and the Lakers’ ability to rebound and win a championship suggests that it was nothing more than temporary bits of boredom or fatigue. Most coaches run into a stone wall after a while, where players get tired of their message. Jackson, along with Gregg Popovich and Jerry Sloan, has been one of a small handful who have yet to experience players rejecting their message. But Phil is getting up there in age, is missing his trusty aide Tex Winters, and is satisfied with thinking one year at a time with regard to his own status as the Lakers coach. In addition, Phil considered just coaching home games in order to avoid the rigors of the travel schedule – until GM Mitch Kupchak vetoed that idea. All this suggests Phil’s time as the coach may be winding down. The most important thing is for the Lakers to keep listening to Phil’s message. Will they?

6. Will Pau’s summer “vacation” tire him out?

Pau Gasol, the MVP of this summer’s Eurobasket tournament and a member of the team from Spain, which won its first Eurobasket title after six runner-up results, could be exhausted. The best thing for Gasol would be if Bynum is healthy and active, which would limit Pau’s minutes, at least in the early going. Pau did all right last season coming off the Olympics. Can he do it two years in a row?

7. Has The Machine been repaired?

Sasha Vujacic, aka The Machine, had an abysmal season last year and Jackson urged him to cut his hair as a way of regenerating himself for this season. Last season his long hair and a hair band that Sasha wore attracted a lot of attention. Phil, ever the sensitive Zen master paying attention to small details, appears to be making the hair cut a symbolic move for a change. The Lakers definitely need a three-ball threat off the bench. Will Sasha fill that role?

8. Can Adam Morrison make a contribution?

In the event that The Machine is still under repair, Adam Morrison could step forward and take that three-ball specialist spot. Like J.J. Redick, Morrison can shoot. The problem is that he is coming off a year-long injury and on top of that is dealing with what has to be some loss of confidence. Morrison has no pressure here. So can he step up?

9. Can Luke Walton continue to excel in a cameo role?

Laker haters and even some Laker fans like to snicker about Walton, a slow, can’t-jump, can’t shoot small forward for the Lakers. Why is he even on this team? Maybe it’s his genes, but Walton has a superb basketball IQ. He improves the Lakers’ triangle offense when he is in the game and manages to get key rebounds. The real question is: on a team this deep, can he even get some playing time?

10. Can Kobe keep this team together?

No one doubts Kobe’s preparation and motivation, the fiercest since Michael Jordan was still playing. Kobe knows by now that this is a team game and he needs his teammates to know he trusts them. He did that last season and they came through. This year, the delicate task of getting Ron Artest to fit into the mix falls largely on Kobe’s shoulders. He also needs to coax more out of Bynum and perhaps help rebuild Morrison’s confidence. Can he do it?

If the answer is “Yes” to six or more of these questions, opposing teams will have to watch out.

I’m sitting here with Millie Alspaugh and Ryan Arnold and Jonathan Merryman and Hannah So. They are all excellent students of media writing here in Blacksburg, Va. The classroom is cool. Literally. Temperature-controlled. 

I found a  new blues band, and this is no lie. It’s named Labron Lazenby and the LA 3 (not to be confused with my son’s band, Groova Scape).

How cool is that? Sadly, it wasn’t named after me.

On a side note, Ryan Arnold says this class is HPV free, for today.

Jonathan says he is celebrating one month on his beard.

Millie says she is celebrating her mom’s birthday today. Her mom is 35, Millie claims. Her mom’s name is Patricia Alspaugh. 

There really is a guy named Labron Lazenby. He lives in Tennessee. Great sounds.

Jonathan reminds the public, especially the drivers, to be careful at crosswalks.

In honor of Wilt Chamberlain’s 70th birthday this month, the following excerpt is from Roland Lazenby’s book The Show, The Inside Story Of The Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers In The Words Of Those Who Lived It.

This part of the book talks about Chamberlain’s upbringing and his rocking introduction to the Lakers.

Big Norman

His close friends called him “Big Norman. But to the basketball public, he was “Wilt the Stilt. He disliked that name, of course. He was a person, not a stilt. The name, as much as anything, defined his tenuous relationship with the fans and the writers. After all, he was a giant, and they expected giant things of him. That certainly was no more than he expected of himself. Unfortunately, the task was never up to him alone. Basketball is a five-man game. And that seemed to be the crux of the problem for Wilton Norman Chamberlain.

Wilt Chamberlain: “I felt that I was gifted enough to do some things on the basketball floor. I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do, because if that was the case, I’d have won every game.

As big and talented as he was, Chamberlain’s career progress had often been frustrated by the presence of Boston’s Bill Russell. Where Chamberlain struggled most of his career out of context, Russell always seemed to have the right coach, the right teammates, and they got the right results. On the other hand, Chamberlain’s career was a profound contradiction. For him, things were wonderfully easy and terribly difficult, all at the same time.

“The world is made up of Davids, he once explained, “and I am Goliath.

Bill Russell: “Wilt was my greatest opponent. It’s not even close.

Wilt Chamberlain: “Basketball is a team game, played by positions, played in different times. I was fortunate to come along at time that was great basketball, a different kind of a game, played a little bit more technically. I was a different breed of athlete at that particular time.

Jerry West: “The ironic thing about Wilt was that he never seemed to be relaxed and fun. I think after he got out of basketball, he became much more relaxed. Much of it had to do with the fact he was Wilt Chamberlain, and no one pulled for him. I think those things really bothered him all his life. There’s no question it was tough to be a giant.

As a 6-foot-11 ninth-grader in Philadelphia, he led his undefeated Overbrook High team against West Catholic High in the finals of the city championship, where a scenario developed that would become miserably familiar to Chamberlain over the years. West Catholic packed four players around him inside, but his teammates couldn’t make the open shots. Overbrook lost its only game of the season.

Over the next three years, his teams won 58 games and lost just 3, while Chamberlain averaged 36.9 points (he scored 90 in one game). His junior and senior years provided a study in dominance, with Overbrook claiming consecutive city titles.

The pro scouts knew Chamberlain was ready then, but NBA rules forbade the drafting of a high schooler. So he chose the University of Kansas, where the Jayhawks’ offense focused on his towering presence. Which meant that opposing defenses did the same.

Dick Harp, former Kansas coach: “That was always the problem when Wilt was playing. The defense was always going to concentrate on him. Teams would rig zone defenses around him with three and four men, making it impossible for him to move, particularly around the basket.

And defenders became quite physical with him.

Dick Harp: “It was difficult for the officials to be objective about Wilt. There were many opportunities for officials to call defensive fouls. Most of the time they didn’t. Wilt, though, always managed to keep his composure and managed to power through our opponents.

But, as Chamberlain himself noted, his frustrations led to errors in his method. When he rebounded, he liked to take the ball in one hand and slam it against the other, making a gunshot of a sound that startled the smaller players around him. What he should have been doing was whipping a quick outlet pass downcourt. When he blocked shots, he liked to smack the ball loudly and violently and usually out of play. As a result, opponents retained the ball and had another chance to score. This habit would later hurt him when he faced Russell, who always brush-blocked the ball, often creating a Celtics fast break.

Dick Harp: “Wilt understood the game of basketball. He had an opinion about the game and was bright about it. He wanted to use his size in close proximity to the basket. But he didn’t develop his skills beyond that. If he wanted to, he could have been a significant playmaker. Wilt had demonstrated he could have shot the ball and been an effective passer.

Jerry West: “One thing about him, he always thought he was the best at everything he did. That simply was not the case. If that was the case, he would have been an 80 percent free throw shooter.

Over his sophomore season, Chamberlain averaged 30 points, 19 rebounds, and 9 blocked shots. And Kansas was clearly the best team in college basketball. But in the finals of the NCAA tournament the Jayhawks lost in triple overtime to UNC, an outcome that set the cornerstone of Chamberlain’s frustrations. He returned to Kansas the next season, but the Jayhawks lost in postseason play to rival Kansas State, a team coached by Tex Winter.

Disgusted, Chamberlain decided to leave the University of Kansas. Because his class had not graduated, he was still ineligible for the NBA draft. So he played a barnstorming season with the Harlem Globetrotters, made a good sum of money, and waited his turn. That arrived the following season, 1959{-}60, when he made a heralded return to Philadelphia to play for the Warriors. His presence had an immediate impact on the league’s statistical races. He led the NBA in scoring (37.6 points per game) and rebounding (27 per game). The next season, he became the first player in league history to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor. For the 1961{-}62 season, Chamberlain maximized man’s potential for 48 minutes of basketball by averaging 50.4 points per game.

Bill Russell: “For accumulating numbers, there’s not anybody to even come close to that. I’ll just say that he played 49 minutes a game or something like that. I think that’s absolutely incredible. And we won the Eastern Conference by eight games that season.

The next season, Chamberlain scored a mere 44.8 points per game and won the league rebounding title for the fourth straight season. He made each season his statistical fiefdom, and yet they all ended in bitter disappointment. The reason, of course, was the Boston Celtics. Quite often Chamberlain would dominate Russell statistically, but he could never vanquish the Boston center and his teammates in the big games. Chamberlain was actually taller than his listed height of seven-foot-one and towered over the six-foot-nine Russell, which caused the public to marvel at the smaller man’s success.

Bill Russell: “Most people couldn’t relate to what an imposing physical thing Wilt was. The first time you see him, it’s like you’re standing in his shadow. He’s so big. Then he was really smart and a great athlete. The only saving thing is that he was not me. He was not me.

Bob Cousy: “A lot of people over the years have said that Bill Russell had more heart and desire than Wilt. That wasn’t it. Russ was simply quicker than Wilt, and he knew how to use that quickness. That was obvious from the first time I ever saw the two of them on the court together. This is a tremendous advantage Russell had on Wilt. He didn’t give him the offensive position he wanted. Russell kept him from overpowering him and going to the basket. Russell had better speed and quickness, so he could always beat Wilt to the spot. He pushed Chamberlain out a little further from the basket, forcing him to put the ball on the floor once or twice. We always felt Russell could handle him one-on-one.

As a result, Chamberlain was forced to develop and shoot a fallaway jumper that was far less effective than his dunks and short bank shot. His critics, meanwhile, saw Chamberlain as a giant fascinated by his own statistics.

Jerry West: “I’ve always felt that that part of him people misinterpreted. They would say, ‘He’s a selfish guy, he doesn’t care, he’s not a team player.’ That’s simply not the truth. It bothered him all the negative publicity he received, which frankly was not justified. It was really pretty ugly. He’s like all of us. No athlete wants to fail. Chamberlain certainly didn’t want to.

The Warriors moved to San Francisco for 1963{-}64, and Chamberlain again led the league in scoring. He also broadened the scope of his game by finishing fifth in assists. It didn’t matter. The Warriors lost in the NBA Finals that year to Russell and the Celtics.

San Francisco traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers in the middle of the next season. “Chamberlain is not an easy man to love, Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli later said of the trade. “I don’t mean that I personally dislike him. He’s a good friend of mine. But the fans in San Francisco never learned to love him. I guess most fans are for the little man and the underdog, and Wilt is neither. He’s easy to hate, and we were the best draw in the NBA on the road, when people came to see him lose.

Chamberlain quickly made the 76ers into a title contender, but that spring they lost a seven-game series to the Celtics again. The following year, Philadelphia actually beat out Boston for the Eastern Division’s regular-season crown but got caught flat-footed in the Eastern playoffs and lost to the Celtics 4{-}1.

Chamberlain’s frustrations were no deeper than those felt by West, Baylor, and the Lakers. Bill Russell had simply built a wall around the NBA title. He had made it his personal property, or so it seemed until 1967, when Chamberlain finally led the 76ers to a 68{-}13 record and the league title, leading many observers to call them the greatest team of all time.

Jack Ramsay, former 76er general manager: “I think Wilt’s best season was in {’}67 when the Sixers won it and Alex Hannum was his coach. He became more of a team player that year than ever before. Wilt was very stats conscious. He wanted to lead the league in scoring, rebounding; lead the league in everything. And he was capable of doing that.

But Boston’s comeback victory over the Sixers in the 1968 Eastern Finals soon quieted all the “greatest team ever talk, and Wilt decided he wanted out of Philadelphia. Jack Kent Cooke was only happy to help him find a ticket.

Jack Ramsay: “Wilt demanded a trade and we gave in to him, which is how he got to the Lakers. A powerhouse guy. Could do everything. Shoot, rebound, block shots, passes. He led the league in assists one year. That’s the incredible stat. No center’s ever done that.

Jack Kent Cooke: “We held our talks in June in the library of my Bel Air mansion. Things got off to a very good start. We talked about the fact that we each owned a 1962 Bentley Continental. We talked about antique furniture, art, even the English language.

Finally they talked about money, a five-year deal at $250,000 per season, making Chamberlain what was believed to be the highest paid athlete in any pro sport. The Lakers shipped Archie Clark, Darrell Imhoff, and Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia for Chamberlain. The deal was announced in early July, setting off immediate speculation about Chamberlain, West, and Baylor on the same team. Could they share one ball?

“We’ll simply have the best team in basketball history, Chamberlain replied.

Seeing an opportunity to tweak the Lakers, Red Auerbach told reporters, “I wonder if Jerry West and Elgin Baylor are going to be willing to be underlings to Wilt Chamberlain?

Cooke and Chamberlain were infuriated. “A statement like that is typical of Mr. Genius, Cooke shot back. “It’s preposterous.

Bill Bertka: “Butch van Breda Kolff was at a party at my house in Santa Barbara when he heard that Chamberlain was being traded. He was upset. Butch didn’t have anything against Chamberlain or his effectiveness. But you had to have Chamberlain in the post, and that dictated a style of offense that Butch didn’t particularly like. He’d rather have all five men moving, all five men interchangeable and sharing the ball. Van Breda Kolff had had the great Princeton team. Schaus coached fast-break basketball. When Van Breda Kolff came in, he had a great first year, the second year was even better, and then they acquired Wilt. He wasn’t an admirer of Wilt’s game and how he could fit in.

Within hours, the trouble started. First Chamberlain read in news accounts that van Breda Kolff said he “could handle his new center, who’d make a great rebounder for the Lakers. Who needs “handling? Chamberlain wondered. Then at the Maurice Stokes Game that summer at Kutsher’s Club, van Breda Kolff asked Chamberlain to don a Lakers T-shirt and pose with him for a photo. When Chamberlain refused, the coach fumed.

In training camp, the tension increased a notch. Van Breda Kolff thought the center gave him one good day’s practice, then began slacking off. Chamberlain thought the coach was trying to run a pro team with college rules.

Then came a season-opening loss to the 76ers where Chamberlain concentrated on defense and rebounding. The next game, Chamberlain scored big points and they beat New York. “Tell the coach, Wilt told the writers afterward when they asked about the difference in the two games.

A few games later, van Breda Kolff angrily benched Chamberlain when rookie Wes Unseld of the Washington Bullets out-rebounded him, 27 to 21. The newspapers enjoyed the proceedings immensely, questioning Chamberlain’s $250,000 salary and his sinking scoring average (20.5 points per game). “There are certain deficiencies with every club, Chamberlain replied. “Here with the Lakers I’ve tried to blend in, lend myself to the deficiencies, try to help overcome them. Here with the likes of Jerry and Elgin we have people who can score. So I’ve simply tried to get the rebounds, get the ball to one of them so we can score.

The questions about Chamberlain’s salary were pointless, Hawks general manager Marty Blake told reporters. “There’s no athlete in the world worth $250,000, or even $200,000, unless you can take it in at the gate. In L.A., they take it in at the gate.

Amid the turmoil, Chamberlain still managed to impress.

Bill Walton: “The first time I met Wilt I was in high school, and Wilt had just come to the Lakers. Our high school team played the preliminary game to a Lakers/San Diego Rocket game in the San Diego Sports Arena. I’m 16 years old and stuttered so badly that I was painfully shy. I’m walking off the court with my head down, and the Lakers are standing there ready to go onto the court. As I walk by, Wilt reaches out his arm and stops me. He steps out of their line and stands in front of me and puts his hand out and says, ‘Hey, Bill, I’m Wilt. You’re doing really well. Keep it up.’ I was like blown away.

Bill Bertka: “Wilt was always the villain. Wherever Wilt went in those days he was always booed and unappreciated. But, in tribute to the Lakers fans, from the day he stepped on the Forum floor he was never booed, never shown disrespect. He was only appreciated. But it took him about a year here to realize that.

Some observers, however, questioned whether Chamberlain’s presence hadn’t weakened the team. He often set up on the left low post, dead smack in the way of Baylor’s drives.

Bill Bertka: “Wilt was in the post, so it shut the lane down. That somewhat affected West’s game, too, although West was one of the greatest pull-up shooters to ever play the game. Elgin liked to take it all the way to the basket, so it affected Baylor more than West or Goodrich. It certainly didn’t affect their scoring. If Wilt was never acquired, the Lakers wouldn’t have won that {’}72 world championship.

Van Breda Kolff sought to move the center to a high post, but Chamberlain figured that only took him away from rebounding. Privately, Chamberlain told friends that the coach favored West and Baylor and blamed him for the losses.

Fred Schaus: “I finally had to call the two of them in for a peacemaking session, and I tried to lay down some new rules. No more bashing each other in the press. Van Breda Kolff is the boss. I like both of them, but those two guys just couldn’t agree on anything. Six weeks later, I had to fly to Atlanta for another meeting. After that meeting, I told the players to have their own meeting. Baylor was the captain, so he ran it. Wilt was told to stop frowning at his teammates on the court when things went wrong. The players told him to stop being so aloof, that he needed to socialize more.

That helped, but after a February 3 loss to Seattle, van Breda Kolff and Chamberlain screamed at each other for 20 minutes and would have come to blows in the locker room if Baylor hadn’t stepped in. “It was embarrassing for everyone to hear them screaming like animals, one Laker confided to a writer. “It was ridiculous. The guys wanted to hide.

Bill Bertka: “Wilt being the dominant personality that he was and Bill being the dominant personality that he was, there were sparks. Wilt had definite opinions about how the game should be played and how he should be used. So did Butch. Yet they both wanted to win in the worst possible way.

Fred Schaus: “After that Seattle blowup, we had yet another meeting and another truce. Wilt asked Butch, ‘What do you want me to do?’ Butch told him, ‘Play defense and rebound.’

Chamberlain complied, and the Lakers won the conference title.

{I}Jack Ramsay: “Wilt’s skills had diminished by the time he got to L.A. They were on the downside. By that time, I don’t think he was capable of scoring at the same level that he once did.

By the 1969 playoffs, the Lakers were a picture of team defense, giving up just 94.7 points a game. Baylor, Chamberlain, and West were the heart of the lineup. But there was more. There was Keith Erickson out of UCLA, recently acquired from Chicago, as sixth man. There were John Egan, the veteran guard, to boost the backcourt, and Mel Counts, the seven-footer and former Celtic, to do the same up front. With Counts playing alongside Chamberlain, Los Angeles could close the lane and make opponents live off of jump shots.

On the strength of their defense, the Lakers advanced to the most disappointing of their Finals meetings with the Celtics. L.A. had taken the top seed in the Western with a 55{-}27 record and thus had home-court advantage for the Finals with the Celtics, who had finished fourth in the Eastern.

Jerry West:Most of the years we played they were better than we were. But in {’}69 they were not better. Period. I don’t care how many times we played it; they weren’t better. We were better. Period. And we didn’t win. And that was the toughest one.