What is going on with the L.A. Lakers? Jeremy Lin is now officially the second best player on the team! Let's hope the change of scenery helps Lin and that the Lakers get the NY Knicks Lin and not the Houston Rockets Lin. At least I can say Lin plays hard. What I don't understand is the Laker's buying 4 more years of Swaggy P. Nick Young, aka Swaggy P, is the polar opposite of everything Kobe believes in. Denis Rodman had his antics, but you could accept him because he was a great rebounder and played his role. Don't get me wrong Swaggy P has talent, but he is loved more for his mistakes than actual talent.
You need role players who complement your star player. Nick Young makes Kobe Bryant's job even harder when it comes to winning games. Then you have Steve Nash who admitted that he would retire, but he hasn't because he doesn't want to lose out on his 10 million dollar free check next season. I'm not making this stuff up. He admits he is just it in for the millions, not winning or anything like that. I want to put my finger on the moment when everything went wrong.
The big sign was when Dwight Howard wanted no part in returning to the Lakers. He took less money, not to walk but run away from the Lakers. I thought he was crazy, but maybe there is something serious going on with the Lakers that no one knows about. No good player seems to want to play with Kobe. The Lakers have to make a trade to get players to come. Management doesn't listen to what Kobe thinks. How many coaches have they signed that don't get along with the Mamba that is Kobe?
Just what in the world happened to the Lakers? Jerry Buss dying is what happened (RIP)! He was the owner with a businessman mentality. He knew how to negotiate and knew what it took to put ego's aside and make deals. He wanted Phil Jackson he got Phil Jackson. He wanted Shaq he got Shaq.
The Lakers of today are just using the 16 NBA Titles and 9 retired jersey's as tactics to get players to sign. It just seems like they have no idea what they are doing. I don't care what anybody says, Jerry Buss would never sign Swaggy P! Jerry Buss would have showed Dwight the attention he needed and gotten him to stay. Everybody left: from Jerry Buss to Jerry West to Phil Jackson. Nobody knows who is running the team. I can't remember a Lakers team with this many bad players. They didn't make the playoffs, and they have no sense of urgency to even climb back to the top. I want to call them and say:
"Hey Laker's Management, do you know your center is Robert Sacre?"
"How can you let Pau Gasol leave?!"
I'm not saying Pau is great, but compared to Sacre, Pau is Wilt Chamberlain. Who is your Plan A to replace Pau? Who has that answer Lakers people? Jerry Buss wouldn't let this madness happen.
Kobe is how old? And he missed the whole season with what kind of injury? And you followed that by paying him again how much? Don't worry I will answer your thoughts right now. Kobe is 35, and he had his season cut short the last TWO years with injuries. The first injury was two years ago, a torn achilles tendon. This was followed by torn knee ligaments last season. The Lakers gave him a two year deal for 48.5 million dollars! Giving that kind of money to Kobe, I can see why Sacre is Plan A and is all they can afford at center. Nope, this is very wrong. Then they executed Plan B, which was giving Jordan Hill a two year contract for 9 million a year. Again, I'm not making this stuff up.
The Lakers never built a team just to make the playoffs. They have always been purple and gold contenders, and they are a storied franchise. Under Jerry Buss it was Championship or bust every year. When they lost without a Championship they used it as motivation and spent the offseason reloading. The Lakers of today are doing more subtracting then adding of good players.
What happened to the Lakers: Jeremy Lin the second best player on the team, Swaggy P and his no desire to win basketball games, Robert Sacre the starting center?! Did I mention that they haven't even hired a coach yet? Somewhere in L.A. Jerry Buss is turning over in his grave.
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