No list of “big winners” from the Beijing Olympics is complete unless it has the name “Kobe Bean Bryant” near the top of the list. Olympic gold usually isn’t something that defines an NBA player’s career. Since the pros began showing up at the Summer Games, in 1992, a gold medal was assumed, and having […]

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Gee, we hate to make a habit of praising the management of local pro sports teams, but we have to express approval at the Lakers’ coming to terms with Sasha “The Machine” Vujacic. Sasha will get $15 million over three years, which sounds about right. Vujacic had threatened to jump to Europe, a la Josh […]

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Just came across this while clearing out some e-mail. It’s from the guys at bodog.com … one of those online gambling services that would like to take your money. I don’t advocate sports gambling. I never do it myself. But odds do, in fact, make for some interesting conversations. My only question here is … […]

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Interesting bit of silly drama. Shaquille O’Neal can say what he wants about Kobe Bryant. I have no problem with that. If he wants to stand up at what amounts to “open mike” night at a club in New York, well, get busy. (And you can read the news story and watch the bleeped-over video […]

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Are we all Lakered-out? Probably not. As I may have mentioned somewhere else, I realized 6-7 years ago that there is no such thing as “too much Lakers news.” Anyway, the other day, I got into an off-the-blog discussion with a former colleague, Damian Secore, about where the team should go next. Think of it […]

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You saw it. It was a trainwreck. The Lakers played about 1.25 good games in the NBA Finals, if you cobble together a quarter in Game 2, a half in Game 4, a quarter in Game 5 … It concluded with Boston winning the best-of-seven series in six games, the last in an embarrassing 131-92 […]

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Let’s say Andrew Bynum comes back and looks like a real center. That pushes Pau Gasol to the power forward position and puts Lamar Odom … where? If the Lakers need another dependable scorer, and they do, and Odom can’t really play the small-forward spot and doesn’t have a perimeter game of any dependability … […]

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OK, sure, a game that ended up with a 39-point margin … probably wasn’t ever going to be the Lakers’ night. But watching the replay, I noted where the Celtics took over. When my sense of a long night for the Lakers became a conviction. It was 32-29 Boston. The Lakers had just gotten a […]

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“Quit” is the ugliest word in sports, but I don’t know how else you describe the Lakers’ pathetic “effort” in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. They quit. Mailed it in when it got tough. Folded the tents and started watching the clock wind down. If they could have left at halftime, I imagine they […]

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The Celtics wrap things up. The Lakers don’t have a quick start, fall behind, never catch up … and we have to suffer through a Celtics celebration. Final score: Boston 91, Lakers 79.

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