From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: My only question is: Did Metta World Peace make the recommendation? In his quest to get over his free throw shooting woes this season — 49.2 percent — Howard admitted to T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times that he saw the team’s psychologist about it. “I have only one problem and it’s between my ears,” he said, while admitting he visited a Lakers’ psychiatrist. “I just think too much.” Howard has said that before — it’s not form, it’s in his mind. And you see when teams have gone to the hack-a-Howard strategy and just fouled him over and over he gets his rhythm going and starts to sink a respectable percentage of his free throws.
From Suki Thind, Lakers Nation: Well, here’s another edition of our weekly historic box scores selection. This week, we feature none other than Lakers great Wilt Chamberlain and his 100-point game. Wilt was actually with the Philadelphia Warriors when it happened back on March 2, 1962. A few weeks ago, we featured Kobe Bryant’s 81-point performances–the second highest point total in NBA history–so it’s only fitting that we also featured the highest points total by any single player, ever. Chamberlain was in just his third season at the time and was averaging a whopping 50.4 points per game.
From TheGreatMambino, Silver Screen & Roll: Of the myriad of questions floating around the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, there’s no front office issue that could shift from extremely impactful to borderline insignificant like the amnesty provision debate. For the uninitiated, the amnesty provision is a one-time opportunity for a team to waive any player who signed his contract before December 2011 and have his salary wiped from the team’s salary cap figure. In many cases, teams will use this provision to clear a player’s cap number off the books in order to fit another man’s contract onto the books. In the Lakers’ case, the amnesty cut would most likely be used to simply reduce steep luxury taxes that could potentially go into the eight or even nine figures. The only restrictions that a team faces when cutting a player via the amnesty is that the player would have to be with the same team since December 2011 (thus, he could not have been traded in that time). The Lakers will have four such players under contract that are eligible for the amnesty provision: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Steve Blake and Metta World Peace.
From T.J. Simers, LA Times: My daughter, Kelzer, is a mother now with three children, and it’s been more than a decade since she spent much time shooting a basketball. But I flew Kelzer in from Arizona to teach Dwight Howard how to shoot free throws because she still has to be better than he is. Who isn’t? We all met at UCLA, Howard was as friendly as always and relaxed after fishing trips to Lake Tahoe and Aspen. He posted Twitter pictures of the fish that had jumped in his boat or the ones he claimed he had caught. But they were the wrong kind of trophies for some Lakers fans. “You just can’t please people,” Howard said. “I catch fish and it’s a problem. People were upset I was out having fun; they thought I should be sitting in a room all upset because we lost. “I am upset, but I’m not going to stop living life. “I couldn’t watch the playoffs I was so ticked. Everywhere I went I saw a Tim Duncan jersey, and you know how much I hated that.”
From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: Kobe Bryant had a film session last week, only this time he found himself turning off Dr. James Naismith’s game to watch Dr. Seuss. “I tried watching a game,” Bryant told me Monday in a sit-down interview. “I tried watching Miami-Indiana, Game 3 maybe or Game 4, I can’t really remember, but I’m sitting in bed, I’m watching it. My kids jump in the bed, I’m sitting there watching the game and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want to watch ‘The Lorax.’ Can we watch ‘The Lorax’? I was like, ‘No, I’m watching the & Yeah, what the hell. Why not? Yeah, sure. What am I watching this for anyway? Yeah, let’s watch ‘The Lorax.'” Instead of tuning into LeBron James playing basketball with ease, Bryant chose to watch the little furry guy who speaks for the trees. Yup, this is as close to retirement that Bryant has ever been. And he seems to be just fine with that.
Hale says
I’ll be watching OneArmed Boxer vs The Flying Guillotine II instead of Heat v Spurs. I fully understand one leg Kobe vs The Lorax over a no-win situation.
Rusty Shackleford says
Master Of The Flying Guillotine was one of the best discoveries of my life.
rr says
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The Atlanta Hawks are expected to pursue Chris Paul and Dwight Howard when the NBA’s free-agency period begins next month.
But by specifically mentioning both Paul and Howard in a letter to potential ticket buyers, the Hawks may have violated the NBA’s tampering policy, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A member of the Hawks’ ticket sales department sent the letter via email, according to the Journal-Constitution, which obtained a copy of the letter. The letter names Paul and Howard, who both are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents on July 1, as players the Hawks will target this offseason.
But according to the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, teams are required to decline comment about potential free agents prior to the beginning of free agency. Paul, who has spent the past two seasons with the Clippers, and Howard, coming off a disappointing season with the Lakers, technically remain under contract with their respective teams until the July 1 deadline, according to the Journal-Constitution.
The Hawks’ letter was written on team letterhead and included the headline: “Hot New Player news: Chris Paul and Dwight Howard.”
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9342577/atlanta-hawks-tampered-chris-paul-dwight-howard-letter-fans-report-says
Robert says
Hawks: Trying so hard to get Howard that they risk being fined by the NBA for tampering.
Warriors: Willing to let multiple players go and willing to trade a good young player for peanuts to free space for Howard
Some Laker Fans: We can take him or leave him. If he leaves – we will be fine.
It is all about perspective: Perhaps we need a decade of austerity to allow our fan base to appreciate good ownership, good coaching, and the value of an NBA superstar.
Kevin_ says
I have stated as have many saying Rockets are a destination a prime center should look to play. They have young wings already and no state taxes. There strongest pitch has to be taxes, McHale’s & Hakeem’s post game and hope for a title run. Not much they can say about winning in recent years. They’ll probably tell him they’ve been on the brink and he’s the missing piece. Some strong nuggets in there. Dallas can say they have cap space this summer, no taxes and he’ll be the #1 option on offense. They won a title a few years ago but dismantled that team because of the luxury tax. Dwight just played for a team with a 100 million dollar payroll trying to go for the ring. Don’t think Dallas’s case will be to appealing. Atlanta is home but zero history of being anything other than a mediocre team recently. Cap space and that being his home state would likely be their pitch. The Lakers pitch will probably be we have 16 championships, every decade we accumulate elite talent trying to make a run, LA, the history and cap space next year. That puts them neck and neck with Houston.
Dwight said he wanted to see how teams planned on winning in the future. Two key words here planned and winning, I’m sure fun fits in their somewhere. Any of these GMs/owners can sell a dream, they most likely are in the position their in by selling a dream to someone who was willing to invest in their ideas. If his key focus is winning if/when he meets with the Lakers and they bring along rings and trophies sitting in a room telling him what their plan is, that’s as good a pitch as anybody. So there’s the team with a already established successful blueprint, a team banking on home being where the heart is, one who can make him the defacto #1 guy day one and a team who as of 6/4/2013 gives him the best chance of advancing past the 1st round. Lakers have the planning on their side. Houston as of today gives him the best chance to win.
rr says
Hey Robert, are you saying that Lakers fans are spoiled and entitled? 😉
rr says
Kevin,
I think Atlanta’s pitch is going to be “Come here and play with the best PG in the NBA.”
Robert says
Kevin: Nice post. We are like an long time, soap opera actress with many Emmy Awards on our Mantle. The other teams are new, hot, young actresses who are trying to entice our leading man away. Worse yet he has literally lived with us for the past year and it just wasn’t that great. The other opportunities are beckoning. And the Lakers are not responding as we are offering exactly the same experience as last year
Warren Wee Lim says
Perhaps they “heard” me when I made mention of the Hawks actually being a legitimate threat?
http://warrenweelim.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/the-case-for-dwight-howard/
Anyways, if it would be the Hawks, then I personally would accept their terms of offer, giving them a chance to go for a big 3 while getting some real value back for Dwight.