Phil Jackson’s heading into what may be his final season coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. After more than a decade with the guy, do Lakers fans really know him? To aid in answering that question, I’ve included an excerpt here from my Jackson biography, Mindgames, published first in hardcover by McGraw-Hill in 2000. An updated [...]
Jeanie Buss comes clean now? It strains credulity.
I reported more than two months ago that there was some conflict within the Los Angeles Lakers, that Phil Jackson (Jeanie’s boyfriend) might not come back to coach the team next year because her father (Lakers owner Jerry Buss) might not want him back.
Jackson himself confirmed as much [...]
We owe so much to that daggone Tex Winter.
Take, for example, the use of the word “facilitator.”
In Winter’s complex triangle offense, you have to have someone who sort of pilots the machine, who gets the group into the offense, makes the key passes, helps the group through its reads and changes.
Someone who sets things up.
That’s [...]
Thirty minutes, 28 seconds.
Twelve rebounds.
Four blocks. Four blocks!
Thirteen points on six of 10 shooting.
Two fouls. Two fouls!
Then there’s the sheer size. Somehow you can never quite fit Andrew Bynum’s size into a box score. His long reach and anchoring presence were so obviously, stupendously important Sunday.
The big cat of a Lakers center came right off [...]
A reader named Brian left the following post/question today.
“Roland, I have a general NBA question that I would love to hear your opinion on. It seems most pundits this year feel that the Cavs are the favorite to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy. Their rationale is they have the best team and best player [...]
Yes, they don’t even tip their first round series off until Sunday afternoon, but Kevin Durant and his Oklahoma City Thunder have already lost round one to the Phil Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers. And even the $35,000 fine that the NBA levied against Jackson for his comments won’t blunt the effect.
That’s because Durant, [...]
Wow.
When Jerry Buss lays his cards on the table, you have little choice but to sit back in awe.
The Lakers owner has re-signed Kobe Bryant for Jordan-level money. MJ made $30 mil per season over his final campaigns with the Chicago Bulls.
Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports report that Bryant today signed for [...]
Of all the situations spawned by the internal division of the Los Angeles Lakers, the dealings with Andrew Bynum seem the weirdest.
That was Tex Winter’s description of the coaching staff’s relationship with Bynum. Not mine. And that was almost two years ago, well before Winter suffered a debilitating stroke.
At the time, the Lakers were nursing [...]
