Jim Buss is in over his head. Of course, with the Lakers’ predicament, Jerry Buss, his father, would be in over his head, too. Actually, that remains to be seen. But it goes back to their last time at such a crossroads, after trading Shaquille O’Neal to keep Kobe Bryant, when I wrote, “Mitch Kupchak is in over his head,” adding, “Jerry West would be in over his head, too.” Amazingly, Kupchak and the Buss family tunneled out of that one and were
Arf. Thankfully, with compressed seasons, we get fewer Dog Days, the period between the trade deadline and the NCAA Finals when few people who aren’t in the NBA, covering the NBA or saddled with season tickets, pay any attention to the NBA. With this season’s trade deadline 18 days after the All-Star Game instead of the usual four, the league has reaped the unintended benefit of cutting two weeks of Dog Days, which will be filled with trade rumors centering on Dwight
All-Star Weekend in the Land of 1,000 Theme Parks, or be careful what you wish for, is upon us. As David Stern noted recently, the All-Star Game will withstand anything Dwight Howard has to say about bailing on the Magic and the host city, Orlando. “We’ll have the usual media experiences like the one I’m enduring now,” said Stern, “but the great thing is the game is going to start and then there’s going to be all this spectacular basketball playing, and
Let’s see, what happened before Jeremy Lin? It’s hard to remember that far back. I think there was a lockout, after which New Orleans traded Chris Paul to the Clippers, who then began eclipsing the Lakers with some highlight dunk that Blake Griffin fired in over the heads of the Thunder. Meanwhile, in the East, the Bulls got off to a great start, before Derrick Rose started getting back spasms. Then came Jeremy…. No, this isn’t another one of those stories gushing about him,
From http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/
It seems like only yesterday when we were wondering if there would be a season. Now it’s almost half over. Doesn’t time fly? Actually, it can’t fly fast enough. If the truth be known, NBA seasons are largely rehearsals for the real deal in spring. With this one starting so abruptly and so late and proceeding so sloppily, we’re not talking about one of the more memorable regular seasons, assuming there is such a thing. OK, there is, if it’s one with Wilt Chamberlain scoring
Rebuilding the Lakers and Celtics…. Good luck. As the announcers say, It’s Always Special When These Two Teams Meet—at least, if one hasn’t fallen off the world, as the Celtics had in 2007 when Laker fans got “MVP!” chants going for Kobe Bryant in the Derek Jeter Center or FleetCenter or whatever they called it then. It’s still special going into Thursday night’s game in the—uh, TD Banknorth Garden–even if both are old and they’re trying to gum each other to death. If all
I have to put someone No. 1, so … why not the Heat? Like it means anything. Given the fact they have a post-season tournament, where you stand at the 25-game mark has never been all-important. It may be all the more irrelevant in this compressed 66-game, 123-day season, 2011-12 season, with all the good teams young and all the old powers struggling. Oh, right, the Spurs. Well, they were so old for so long, they brought in enough kids to be young again! The