i'll go ahead and admit it i am a laker hater and i am just thoroughly giddy about their recent 6 game skid that has all but shut them out of the playoffs this year. Kobe has successfully destroyed what was once a proud franchise and they have no real wiggle room when it comes to cap space with the contracts of kobe,grant and odom unless one gets traded. grant doesnt expire till 07 so he isnt tempting this season and odom has shown that he is an underachiever. they may get a decent pick in the 12-14 range but its hard to see them get anyone real good that low that will contribute right away. I dont see how they will get out of this mess within the next 2 years and kobe is slowly starting to understand how much toll the game takes on him when he has to play a full 48 mins on both ends of the court. sure i may be drinking a gallon of haterade right now, but damn it sure tastes good
I'm glad rudy is gone, so I can hate the lakers without reservation. I can also say that they were well in the playoff picture before he resigned.
Watching the Lakers is like Roman history, with Magic & Careem fighting & winning the punic wars against Hannibal (aka Bird), Shaq being Caesar who conquers Gaul by dunking on them all and Kobe takiing the combined roles of Nero and Caligula, burning the whole thing down and doing generally stupid and appalling stuff. Now we just have to wait for Attila and his Huns (aka Baron Davis and the Golden State Warriors) to run into Rome (Staples Center) and shred everything into pieces. After that, you just have to wait a few seasons and all those proud Romans turn into chaotic Italians (isn't Kobe semi-Italian or something?) , who can bake good pizza but won't ever conquer the world again. Their best chance may be to put on some Mussolini-style unis and install a Kobefascist triangle offense in which Il Duce Kobolino only passes the ball to himself after declaring himself to be every edge of the triangle. Err, maybe I should go to bed now...
Yes, a great post but technically speaking...... Attila never entered Rome, it was the Visigoths that sacked Rome.
I'm glad the Lakers are sucking hind t!t right now, but they do have some good trading pieces to improve. Lamar Odom might underachieve, but when you play with Show-bee(yotch) Bryant, you ain't gonna get the ball. I wouldn't be stunned if Lamar sees his fourth team sometime next season. Caron Butler might not be ALL THAT and a bag of chips, but he's a solid player, and could also bring in a solid player. So, unfortunately, between tradeable pieces and the fact that the league cannot afford an underachieving Lakers team, we won't have long to gloat about their predicament. But they won't rise to the same heights they had reached with Shaq. You don't trade a player like that. You just don't.
Soy-bean Fan-atic!!! Incredible analogy! I've always been rather indifferent to the Lakers. That said, over the past year I've gone from a Kobe fan to a Kobe hater. The guy is just a straight knucklehead. I say trade his @ss to the Clips (serve him right, poetic justice) for Brand this summer, along with clearing some cap room, make a run for a good all-star calibur guard, and re-hire the Zen Master. J
The Golden State Warriors are not Attila the Hun. Look closely and you'll see that it's really the Los Angeles Clippers. They are 2 games behind the Lakers in the Western Conference standings, and they have an easier schedule the rest of the way and no pressure to perform. It would be AWESOME if the Clippers finished with a better record than the Lakers this year. Kobe shouldn't have punk'd the Clips. He should have joined them and then maybe he'd have a realistic shot at the playoffs. Although, if he can reduce Lamar Odom to a mediocre player, then he would probably have done the same to Elton Brand and Corey Maggette. So just stay put Kobe.
