The Lakers 'Old' Center

Most people do not realize that in the midst of all the controversy surrounding their former Franchise Center's departure from Los Angeles, the Lakers did in fact make a contract offer to said player. The Center promptly turned down the offer. The Lakers made their offer in February, in June the Lakers lost the Finals to the Detroit Pistons. The Center's reasoning for turning down the Lakers' offer was because he felt as though his services were no longer needed. Keep in mind this was four months before he, the team's other franchise player, a Guard, and a lethargic Lakers team dragging Karl Malone and Gary Payton along as extra baggage were promptly thumped by the Pistons 4-1 in the championship round.



By the time the Finals had come around,the Franchise Guard, as well as the Lakers' Hall-of-Fame Coach, were indeed fed up with The Center's work ethic, or lack thereof, as well as Payton and Malone's pouting because The Coach's championship winning triangle offense didn't suit their huge egos.


So what happened in the off season, all three of the primary components of the Lakers title teams either left or tried to leave. The Lakers no longer willing to endure The Center's public quips about being disrespected promptly shipped him to Miami in a trade for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant , Caron Butler and a first round draft choice. The Guard shopped his services around the league, and the Hall-of-Fame Coach headed to Montana to write a book about his dysfunctional former team.

It wasn't the first time The Coach had abruptly departed the locker room of a storied franchise. Remember that same Coach had left the Bulls, after six titles, under similar tensions between himself, management and a key player (Scottie Pippen).

It certainly wasn't the first time that The Center had bailed out on a team and teammates which he played in the Finals with, choosing to abandon the Orlando Magic to head to Hollywood after being abused in the Finals by Hakeem Olajuwon.

Yet the individual who received the lion's share in the blame for the drama unfolding in Hollywood was none other than The "I should be the leader of this team" Guard.

The Lakers, to their credit, did in fact recognize that The Guard was the supreme talent in the league and ponied up enough money to keep him from playing in the same gym for a different team. How good is The Guard? In Colorado, the state where he was facing rape allegation charges, the home team offered him a $130 million dollar contract, while he was in court!

The Lakers increased their basketball I.Q. by bringing back The Coach after realizing that if you have the best player in the league on your team, you might want to hire the best coach as well. So, after it was all said and done, the Lakers organization put the future of the franchise before any one player, any one coach and most importantly before any member of management's ego.

Fast forward to the summer of '07 and the Lakers' front office is being tested again. The Guard is griping about the fact that he cannot win a championship with guys like Smush Parker and Kwame Brown as starters on his team and that the Lakers either needed to significantly upgrade the talent of the team or trade him.

The Coach, pretty much takes The Guard's side in this affair, because he too knows that there is no title to be had with the Lakers' current roster. Over the summer, the Lakers refuse to trade The Guard and resign his former teammate from his championship years, Derek Fisher.

As the season begins, The Guard takes The Coach's advice and despite having not been traded finds solace in the fact that at least Smush Parker will not be his starting point guard, and starts the season with a renewed vigor, as much as a display for teams that may be interested in his services as a reminder to Lakers fans of the caliber of player management could be letting go.

The Guard's teammates, who he threw under the bus in the off-season, decide to be the anti-Smushes, and step up their games to compliment The Guard or at least prove him wrong.

The Lakers immediately rise to the top of the Western Conference, again, as the roster feels the pressure of being under the microscope every game as sportswriters and pundits worldwide scrutinize teammates of The Guard to see if his claims had any merit. Then, after their starting center (you know, the one they got with the draft pick they received in the trade for their Old Center) went down with an injury, Lakers management pulled a coup and traded Kwame Brown (who they got in a trade for Caron Butler, who was only a Laker because of the trade for their Old Center) to Memphis for All-Star forward Pau Gasol and instantly the Lakers were favorite's to win their 15th
NBA Championship. Oh yeah, The Guard was named the league's Most Valuable Player.
















The Guard - The MVP







The Lakers dominated what was considered one of the greatest and ultra competitive conferences in league history during the post season and now find themselves back in the NBA Finals for the 30th time, almost half of the total of NBA Finals ever, without their starting center.







The Lakers - 30th trip to the NBA Finals

So as we watch historical clips of the Lakers and their Finals opponents the Celtics being run up, down and sideways for the next week leading up to the start of game on on Thursday, pay attention to the faces that flash across the screen. Bird, Magic, McHale, Parrish, Kareem, Worthy, Cooper, Dennis Johnson, K.C. Jones, Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, Jerry West, The Coach and from henceforth...The Guard.

History in the making, which of course the Lakers knew all along, they always have.

There are several bloggers who I regularly have give-and-take with here on FOX Sports. I think for the most part we write for each other's company since nobody at FOX seems to be paying any attention to us and I have'nt seen any inkling of another contest coming up anytime soon.

Nevertheless, we write and we write and we write, and we argue some, then we shout at each other, call each other morons and the cycle continues. Regardless, it gives those of us who actually enjoy writing and working on our craft an audience no matter how small and irrelevant.

I personally, love the blogging community. I think it's information exchange at it's finest and in several years as major news network anchors become more and more obsolete, people will simply choose which blogger they believe more and that is where they'll get their information from.

I have about 15 blogs and several podcast across the net under different names and subject matter. I'm like the blogging version of Prince (or rather the artist formerly known as Prince).

Lately, however, I see an increase in the number of people who have music on their blogs, a concept which I do not understand at all.

My personal favorite musicians or groups, in no particular order are, Kurt Cobain, The Aforementioned Artist who goes by different names, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jodeci, KRS ONE and yes the Allman Brothers. In fact, "Midnight Rider" barely lost out to
Redman's "I'll Be Dat" as my personal theme song (see 'I'm Gonna Get You ####a'). And yes all of those artists are in the MP3's of the Caddy and the Range right now.

Many of you probably do not like all if not any of those artists for all I know. So I will not burden you with having to endure my personal favorites when I'm priveledged (sic) enough to have you stop by my blog to pay attention to what I'm thinking at any given moment.

We meet up here for sports talk, this isn't MySpace!

So what gives with all of the musical pages. There are several things to consider when you decide to blast us with your musical faves on your sports blog:

#1. What if your reader happens to be at work or at home late at night while his/her family is sleeping and all of the sudden we click to your page and ...Mama don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys!!!!
What if your boss, who is in the office next door, actually likes Cowboys?
What if my wife doesn't like country music disturbing her sleep?
What if that's the song me and my ex broke up to?

Can you see the hysteria you may be causing?

#2. What if I pull into my driveway and my wife and daughter are on the front porch with a little bird they found in the front yard, and I spend the next hour online trying to figure out exactly what kind of bird it is and playing various bird sounds to see if I can get a reaction out of the bird when I shift gears, go to FOX Sports, click your blog and I get...Music makes you lose control!!!!

I guess I might be too old school for many of today's younger bloggers, judging by my musical tastes, that's probably a safe assumption, still, if you want me to hear your tracks, just give me a hyperlink to your MySpace or Facebook page and I will happily check them out.

As for the sports blogs, unless it's a vintage Cossell - Ali verbal sparring session, a classic Harry Carey or Billy Crystal 'take me out to the ballgame' rendition, or a hilarious Mike Tyson ear or children eating montage don't you think that we could find our own way to hot tunes?

Just my opinion.

There are several bloggers who I regularly have give-and-take with here on FOX Sports. I think for the most part we write for each other's company since nobody at FOX seems to be paying any attention to us and I have'nt seen any inkling of another contest coming up anytime soon.

Nevertheless, we write and we write and we write, and we argue some, then we shout at each other, call each other morons and the cycle continues. Regardless, it gives those of us who actually enjoy writing and working on our craft an audience no matter how small and irrelevant.

I personally, love the blogging community. I think it's information exchange at it's finest and in several years as major news network anchors become more and more obsolete, people will simply choose which blogger they believe more and that is where they'll get their information from.

I have about 15 blogs and several podcast across the net under different names and subject matter. I'm like the blogging version of Prince (or rather the artist formerly known as Prince).

Lately, however, I see an increase in the number of people who have music on their blogs, a concept which I do not understand at all.

My personal favorite musicians or groups, in no particular order are, Kurt Cobain, The Aforementioned Artist who goes by different names, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jodeci, KRS ONE and yes the Allman Brothers. In fact, "Midnight Rider" barely lost out to
Redman's "I'll Be Dat" as my personal theme song (see 'I'm Gonna Get You Sucka'). And yes all of those artists are in the MP3's of the Caddy and the Range right now.

Many of you probably do not like all if not any of those artists for all I know. So I will not burden you with having to endure my personal favorites when I'm priveledged (sic) enough to have you stop by my blog to pay attention to what I'm thinking at any given moment.

We meet up here for sports talk, this isn't MySpace!

So what gives with all of the musical pages. There are several things to consider when you decide to blast us with your musical faves on your sports blog:

#1. What if your reader happens to be at work or at home late at night while his/her family is sleeping and all of the sudden we click to your page and ...Mama don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys!!!!
What if your boss, who is in the office next door, actually likes Cowboys?
What if my wife doesn't like country music disturbing her sleep?
What if that's the song me and my ex broke up to?

Can you see the hysteria you may be causing?

#2. What if I pull into my driveway and my wife and daughter are on the front porch with a little bird they found in the front yard, and I spend the next hour online trying to figure out exactly what kind of bird it is and playing various bird sounds to see if I can get a reaction out of the bird when I shift gears, go to FOX Sports, click your blog and I get...Music makes you lose control!!!!

I guess I might be too old school for many of today's younger bloggers, judging by my musical tastes, that's probably a safe assumption, still, if you want me to hear your tracks, just give me a hyperlink to your MySpace or Facebook page and I will happily check them out.

As for the sports blogs, unless it's a vintage Cossell - Ali verbal sparring session, a classic Harry Carey or Billy Crystal 'take me out to the ballgame' rendition, or a hilarious Mike Tyson ear or children eating montage don't you think that we could find our own way to hot tunes?

Just my opinion.

Of course we wanted to get either the #1 or #2 overall. But since we didn't, we don't have to make the mistake of drafting Jerryd Bayless, another shoot first PG (like we need anymore of them on our roster) or O.J. Mayo, who I think is the new Mike Dunleavey (decent but not good as you thought he would be and definately not worth a top five pick ).

Now the Knicks can keep their fingers crossed that three other teams will fall asleep at the wheel and not draft Danilo Gallinari  who aside from being the third most NBA ready player in the draft, fits right into D'Antoni's coaching style.

Brook Lopez is going to be a solid NBA player but will not have the impact worthy of a top three pick (see Andrew Bogut, Marvin Williams).

Eric Gordon...I don't think so.

Russell Westbrook...h**l no!

Kevin Love - yeah but not if Gallinari is still on the board.

Donte Greene is this year's sleeper in the lottery. I watched this kid quite a bit playing at Syracuse and if he gets coached right he will be a stud. Allowing him to only have to move right down the road from the Carrier Dome to MSG will help his cause as well.

But if the Italian Stallion is available we should get him before we over-think the pick

In about two seasons D Wade is going to pull a Kobe and start demanding to be traded. Where would he like to go? Home to Chicago of course. Which is why I suggested earlier that the Heat should not wait until that inevitable fiasco befalls them and make the trade to the Bulls of:

Wade - Marion to Chicago for

Gordon, Duhon, Thebolosha, Deng and Gooden.

Now that the Bulls have the #1 overall, if they made that trade and drafted Rose they would then have a starting five of:

Rose - Wade - Marion - Noah - Thomas [ Bench - Nocioni - Hinrich - Hughes]

Miami could then Draft Beasley and start:

Gordon - Davis - Deng - Beasley - Blount [ Bench - Jason Williams, Udonis Haslem - Cook, Wright].

If Miami doesn't leverage their current position and draft status, they will pay the price when Wade decides to go and they lose trade leverage.

If the Bulls do not make any trades, then they should draft Beasley and resign Gordon and Deng.

Hinrich - Gordon - Deng - Beasley - Thomas [Bench - Thebolosha - Nocioni - Noah - Duhon]

The Bulls lost most of their leverage to trade Deng and Gordon when they didn't pull the trigger on a trade for either Kobe, Garnett or Gasol. Why should they draft Rose when they have Hinrich, Gordon and Duhon on the team and no other NBA teams will give them a trade worth value because they know that Godon and Deng have already turned down contract extensions? Seems like a no brainer to me. Then again like Bill Simmons says...it's the No Balls Association.

Oh yeah, Danilo Gallinai
Hands down the third best player in the draft. Because nobody else seems to think so, the Knicks and D'Antoni might get lucky and he'll still be available at #6.

The big question is will teams draft for need or popularity?

Your thoughts?