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A Lakers Blog. Thoughts, reflections, and the odd rant on the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA (even the Clippers).

We Built This City On Basketball?

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This week I’m on jury duty, actually impaneled on a jury in a civil case at the Redondo Beach courthouse. This means during the day I’m awarding old ladies who spill hot coffee millions doing my civic duty, and at night doing the day job, so if my posting lacks this week I apologize up front.

That said, let’s start with one piece of news: The Lakers signed Devin Green to a contract. While terms were not released, this is likely a non-guaranteed deal, much like Pinnock got. As we’ve said before when counting the numbers it may be a challenge for Green to make the squad, but he’s got an invite to camp and a chance.

And, just in case the “Just Say No” Lakers video was not enough of a reminder that everything the Lakers did in the 1980s was not great, there is this (also sent to me by the amazing J.E. Skeets of The Basketball Jones):


Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Kurt says

    One other thing, which I’ll tack on here, is an interesting Q&A with Kwame Brown done by the Daily News beat guy Ross Siler:

    Q: You also had to learn the triangle, which is never easy.

    A: The triangle was tough for me because as a post-up player, it bothers me with a lot of cutters around me when I’m posting up. Especially as a young post player, I don’t do well when there are a lot of cutters. That third cutter really bothered me because I want to go middle. Then you’ve got a guy coming up to the middle, so you’re nothing but a passer.

    Q: Do you like the new ball?

    A: I hate the new ball. Oh my God. The last ball, it would get a little play on the rim. This ball, if it touches the rim, it’s coming out. It’s squirting right off the rim.

    Q: What about handling the ball in the post?

    A: The only difference about the ball is you can grip the ball a little better when it’s dry. When it gets wet, it gets a little heavier and lot more slippery than the other ball.

  3. Xavier says

    i’ve been reading the Q&A Kurt posted in his last comment… i like the last part where Kwame talk about Phil

    Q: Laron Profit gave Phil a lot of credit for how he approached coaching you last season.

    A: I think because he knew my history, and I’d had so much negatitivity that he never made anything a negative. Even when I was playing bad, he could have went in the papers and said anything because my game was reflecting basically nothing.

    Even when the coaches said to me, `Maybe we’re playing you out of position,’ he was still positive in saying, `Just come in and give me what you can and play defense.’ He broke down the game in segments for me.

    `If you don’t feel comfortable scoring and doing all that, then run the court and get rebounds. Once you start doing that, let’s take another step.’

    He broke the game down for me and I think that helped. Even when I was getting down on myself, he said, `You know what, don’t worry about it. It takes some guys three to six months to learn this offense.’

    I’m like, `Wow, he’s still not killing me.’ It was crazy to see that approach. Most coaches, they can’t do that. This is a business. It would have been easy for him to say, `We’ve got this guy, he ain’t doing (anything), and that would have been it.’

    That’s the true meaning of a coach, when he can lift a player up. I’m not saying everybody should do that, but some guys need different stuff

  4. John R. says

    I have updated the Wikipedia entry for Los Angeles, CA disabusing it of erroneous accounts of the city’s founding and foundation to reflect this new information.

  8. Red 5 says

    1986… rayos.

    The song is a better remake than many I have heard
    in my career, cheezy though it be.

    I blame CBS and their “One Shining Moment”
    video velveeta for this.

    On the other hand, the highlights are goodies–
    – Riley, when the slickback was bangin’
    – Coop the real-life Nightcrawler with legs for days– Bamf!
    – Laker fans on their ##@!! feet and no ##@! cell phones
    – Da Forum at its Fabulous-est
    – Peter Gudmansen — what is UP, home cookie?

    – 5 –

  9. Paul says

    Did anybody read Steve Kerr’s western conference preseason rankings? He puts the Lakers at 5. Not bad.

  12. dan reines says

    Cripes, Kurt, that was bad, but at least the visuals were wonderful. And as AUH2O said, “Starship in the defense of Lakerdom is no vice.”