This winter, with the national economy tanking and sports team owners taking hits on stock and real estate, the market for baseball players shriveled up. Bobby Abreu goes to the Angels for just $5 million. Consistent 40 home run guy Adam Dunn to the Nationals for just $10 million. Manny Ramirez still doesn’t’ have a […]
Buss Family
Preseason Game 2: Will They Talk About Anything But Kobe?
It’s blown up all over — Jerry Buss sat down with reporters in Hawaii and said he’d consider trading Kobe. He doesn’t want to, but he’ll consider it. There are plenty of people saying this “dumped gasoline on the almost extinguished fire,†but if Buss had come out and said “we will never trade Kobe†[…]
Sick and Tired
Power. It’s all about power. The last few days of the Lakers soap opera has been about power, the power to control the direction of the franchise. The power of trust. Kobe’s power as the star player. Jerry Buss’ power as the owner. Jim Buss’ power as the heir apparent. Mitch Kupchack’s power. Jeannie Buss’ […]
The Downward Spiral
In case you missed it — Kobe just asked to be traded. (Hat tip to Nate Jones.) I always wanted this blog to be a calm, thoughtful space in the swirling vortex of controversy that can be the Lakers, but I really lack a good big-picture view here. I have but one big question: Why […]
Kremlinology and the Lakers
Back decades ago, when the Soviet Union and the United States were embroiled in the cloak-and-dagger Cold War, there was something called Kremlinology. The simple definition is this — nobody really knew what was happening inside the very secretive Soviet government, so there were experts who tried to divine what was happening by reading subtle […]
Peeking into the future
The Lakers have always been somewhat shrouded in mystery — it may be the most prominent franchise in the NBA but it is run by just a few, a tight-knit family that rarely tips their hand in public (think the anti-Steinbrenners). So last week, when heir-apparent Jim Buss did a radio interview on 570 AM, […]