Considering I run a Lakers’ site, it’s probably a bit strange I write so little about Kobe Bryant. Sure, he gets mentioned in game previews and recaps (like Thursday night’s) or an occasional analysis piece, but singling him out for a long form post on whatever relevant topic isn’t something I do very often. Maybe […]
Kobe
Kobe Bryant’s Career Isn’t Over Yet
We can all see the finish line. It grows closer by the second, presenting itself as the end of an organizational epoch, the end of a relationship. The finish line’s visibility isn’t new, but only now is there a discernible level of tangibility, only now does it feel real. While it is tough to sway attention […]
Media Day Recap: Kobe Still At the Center of it All
(photo credit: NBC Los Angeles) As we wrote yesterday, media day is mostly a circus. And when you’re Kobe Bryant, heading into your 20th season, coming off three straight years of season ending injuries, and playing on a newly constructed team where as many as five players (by my count, at least) will be rookies, […]
Phil Jackson Talks Kobe Bryant in a Very Phil Jackson Way
I don’t know if it is like this for Bulls’ fans, but Phil Jackson will always be that dude for a lot of Lakers fans. His two stints as Lakers’ coach led to seven trips to the NBA Finals and five Larry O’Brien trophies. It’s not that the man can never do wrong, it’s just that, when […]
Byron Scott, Kobe Bryant, and Priorities Aligning
Byron Scott had a rough first year in his dream job. In the process of accumulating the most losses by any Lakers’ team ever, Scott took hits from fans and media alike for antiquated takes on analytics and general basketball philosophy. But there may not have been any topic in which Scott took more grief […]
Report: Kobe Bryant Cleared for All Basketball Activities
Last month, Kobe Bryant started shooting for the first time since surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff prematurely ended his season. Last week, Mitch Kupchak updated us that Kobe was on track to be ready for the start of training camp. Well, today, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding is telling us Kobe is, in […]
One Player, One Skill: Kobe Bryant’s Ability to Draw Fouls
Welcome to a new series at FB&G where we will take one player on the Lakers’ roster and discuss one specific skill they possess. Sometimes it will be something very subtle, others it will be more straight forward. We’ll try to shed some light on how this skill can help the team in the coming […]
Thursday Links: Clarkson’s Growth, Kobe-Shaq and… Artest!!
On Tuesday we shared Matt Moore’s piece on the awkward dynamic between coach Byron Scott and the team’s more modernly constructed roster. Today, we double up on the folks over at CBS, starting with a Lakers Offseason Report provided by Zach Harper, where he attempts to answer a few of the team’s more pressing questions […]
Watch: Kobe Bryant Dropping Dimes
If you haven’t listened to it already, I cannot recommend enough the recent Lowe Post podcast where Grantland’s Zach Lowe had Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck as a guest. The entire podcast focused on Beck’s time as a Lakers’ beat reporter when he worked for the LA Daily News from 1997 through 2004. Beck left the […]
Thursday Links: Huertas, Upshaw and Kobe/Shaq
To call the time between August-September a hotbed of NBA news would be a gross understatement (things like this are making headlines). Nevertheless, the Lakers continue to make minor roster additions as training camp nears and their most recent acquisition is 32-year old Brazlian point guard Marcelo Huertas. Darius covered the Huertas signing here, but as we did […]