Kobe Bryant played a key role in his Lakers winning the 2000 NBA championship. He played brilliantly against the Indiana Pacers in overtime of Game 4 of the NBA Finals and used an open court look, set up by his coaches, to win the game.
It’s been 10 years since Bryant and Phil Jackson embarked on [...]
It would seem that much has changed since the Celtics and Lakers met in the 2008 NBA championship series. Now the two teams meet again in the 2010 NBA Finals, and a lot of folks think the Lakers are ready to win a second straight title.
On the good side for the Lakers, they’re older and [...]
It’s official now.
LeBron James’ management team, led by his former teammate Maverick Carter, has officially announced that his decision on which team he picks as a free agent this summer will be based entirely on the opportunity to win championships.
Money will not be an issue for LeBron James. Repeat, money will not be an issue.
That [...]
Yes, we all know that Phil Jackson is the smartest basketball coach in the known universe. So it stands to reason that, with his prodigious memory, lofty IQ and exquisite deductive powers, Jackson just doesn’t screw up very often.
Yet when he does make a mistake, it’s often a real lulu, a stupendous boner.
For example, there [...]
All fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and West Virginia Mountaineers know just how much the spectre of Jerry West looms over their teams. The source of his great competitiveness West drew from his mother Cecile. In honor of Mother’s Day, I offer this excerpt from my book, “Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
