Tag Archives: Los Angeles Lakers

The Poor Decisions of the Los Angeles Lakers

Leave a reply

By Kia Tyus

Kelly Dwyer wrote a compelling article about the Los Angeles Lakers recent poor decisions in recent years; most notably their signing of Kobe Bryant to a two-year $48.5 million.

Dwyer brought on the point that just about everyone thought that the Lakers made a ridiculously poor decision. Everyone except the Buss family and Bryant has a firm understanding that Bryant is by no means able to play at the level of a $48.5 million contract.

Dwyer also points out that the Lakers organization is very careless with their money because they know that they have the money to spend.

On of the best comparisons that was made in the article was how Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki took pay cuts to make sure that there respective organizations had money to spend on free agency without going over the luxury tax. Dwyer also noted that Duncan and Nowitzki respective teams got a good bargain with their recent contract extinctions.

The Lakers are clearly in a different market that most National Basketball Association teams. I like how Dwyer stated facts like the San Antonio Spurs aren’t getting $2 billion dollar TV deals. And that even with Bryant’s recent contract the Lakers still have plenty of cap space to sign free agents.

Which brings Dwyer’s next point in the recent Laker’s poor spending habits. The Lakers should have never hired Mike Brown. The Lakers were looking at whom Brown was coaching instead of his actual coaching ability. Second, the Lakers spent a large sum of money when they acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. This was a huge waist of money because Howard lasted a year and played terribly and Nash has yet to have a healthy season with the Lakers.

Dwyer also helped his claim when he stated that they shouldn’t have hired Mike D’Antoni because they didn’t have the offensive weapons to run a D’Antoni offense and Byrant under his new contract has yet to play a full season and is in is 19th NBA season coming off of two major injuries on both legs.

Dwyer wrote a great article about the Lakers poor choices over the last few years. He stated multiple facts and gave great examples about how their poor choices have done nothing but harm the team. In fact, the Lakers have started the 2014-15 season 1-7.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

“You can’t worry about failure” – Bryant Makes All-time NBA Mark for Missed Field Goals

Leave a reply

By Ellen Chlumecky

On Tuesday in Memphis, Kobe Bryant made history by setting the NBA record for missed field goals. The Los Angeles Lakers played the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday and Bryant set the mark with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter of a 107-102 loss. He missed a 14-foot fade away jumper from the left side. This miss gave him his 13, 418 career missed field goal. He made history by becoming the player with the most missed field goals by beating Boston Celtics John Havlicek by one shot. Also, in this same game, Bryant scored a game high of 28 points on 10-of-26 shooting.

After the game, Bryant was asked if he knew about the record. Kobe Bryant let it roll off his shoulders and commented on how he did not follow records or statistics like that. When asked how he managed to make the mark, he laughed and said, “Well, I’m a shooting guard that’s played 19 years – ‘shooting’ guard, 19th year.” Bryant said, “I don’t care about it, to be honest with you. It is what it is. I remember when I was a kid and I watched Michael shoot 49 times in an NBA Finals game. Can you imagine if I did that and lost? Puts thing in perspective.”

Kobe Bryant did not seem to be concerned about the major milestone in his career. He is among the ranks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Elvin Hayes, Karl Malone, and other greats of the NBA. All of these players worked their butts off every game to become greats.

ESPN, The New York Daily News, and NBC Sports all seemed to press on Bryant, asking him if he knew about the record and what he thought and if it bothered him. Even after all these people kept pushing to get some sort of anger or regret from him, Kobe Bryant chose to rise above it. He said, “You’ve got to step up and play, man. You can’t worry about criticism. You can’t worry about failure. You really can’t worry about that stuff.”

“You can’t worry about failure.” While I am not the biggest fan of Kobe Bryant, I have utter respect for him for understanding that this landmark in NBA history isn’t a failure. It is just a moment showing that Kobe Bryant has been working his butt off every game this season and every game of previous seasons as well. While most reporters are looking for a reason to tear him down, Bryant consistently tries to improve himself by working harder every day in every game.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

 

NBA announcers focus on ‘same faces, new places’

Leave a reply

BY LOREN BRANCH

Championship caliber teams, rookies, injuries, Kobe, and LeBron … These are all popular subjects during the beginning of every NBA season.

However, this year the various moves and trades seem to be the topic of discussion around the league. From the pre and post-game shows of the opening night games to the daily ESPN shows, anywhere the NBA is being talked about, all the offseason moves are leading the discussions.

The nationally televised opening night games were: Boston Celtics vs. Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks vs. Los Angeles Lakers. All four of these teams made some big personnel changes prior to the beginning of the season so both broadcasts were full of conversations and comments on that topic.

During both pre-game shows, analysts spent a lot of time discussing how the new players were going to fit in with their new teams and how they got there. Specifically before the Celtics vs. Heat game, they commented on how strange it was to see former Celtic Ray Allen playing in a Heat jersey against the team he just left in free agency.

Because the games were back-to-back on TNT, they shared a post-game show centered on analyzing how the teams looked in their first game together. A good portion of the discussion about the Mavericks vs. Lakers game focused on how the Lakers didn’t seem to be gelling together with their new team and offensive scheme. This conversation overshadowed how well the Mavericks played without their best player in Dirk Nowitzki, which was only mentioned very briefly.

In the two days since those opening games, NBA conversations continue to revolve around “same faces, new places.” Whether it’s discussing the playoff hopes James Harden has brought to the Houston Rockets or how well Deron Williams and Joe Johnson will play together in Brooklyn, every single one of the non sport-specific ESPN shows have been discussing NBA roster changes.  Pardon the Interruption, SportsCenter, and First Take all discussed the Lakers disappointing 0-2 start and made suggestions as to what they need to do to get their new all-star cast to work together.