The NBA season starts tommorow, and that little team we like to call the Los Angeles Lakers is setting up to have one of the most surreal seasons in sports history. who in the hell needs reality tv when you can just follow the Lakers season...
--You have 4 first ballot hall of famers in Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, all having to share the ball.
--You have Shaq and Kobe, who've never had the greatest of relationships... trading shots at the other's expense in the media...
--and then of course you have that other little matter of Kobe Bryant's sexual assault trial in Eagle County, Colorado. No one really knows how much time kobe will miss with the trial, but he will deffinetly miss some time. the issues of the case aside, there's the issues of how it will effect his play on the court, how will it effect the lakers as a whole, and how will visiting teams react to kobe. i imagine those trips to philly, new york and boston could get particularly interesting... and then there's the case it's self, which is setting it's self up to be the biggest trial this side of O.J.
when you combine all these factors together... phil jackson is probably yearning for the days when his biggest problem was wether or not dennis rodman was gonna show up to practice wearing a dress.
--You have 4 first ballot hall of famers in Shaq, Kobe, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, all having to share the ball.
--You have Shaq and Kobe, who've never had the greatest of relationships... trading shots at the other's expense in the media...
"kobe should probably look to be more of a passer until he gets his legs strong."
-shaq
"I definitely don't need advice on how to play my game. Definitely not. I know how to play my guard spot. He can worry about the low post, and I'll worry about the [perimeter]."
-kobe responds
"As we start this new season, we want shit done right. If you don't like it, then you can opt out next year. As long as it's my team, then I'll voice my opinion. If you don't like it, then opt out. (a reference to Bryant's plan to exercise an option in his contract at season's end and test the free-agent market next summer). Everybody knows that. You [media] guys may give it to [Bryant] like you've given him everything else his whole lifetime, but this is the Diesel's ship. So ... if you ain't right [physically], don't be trying to go out there and get right on our expense. Use the people out there, then when you get right you [can] do what you do. Just ask Karl and Gary why they came here. One person, not two. One. Period. ... I'm not telling [Bryant] how to play his position. I'm telling him how to play team ball."
-shaq responds once again.
--and then of course you have that other little matter of Kobe Bryant's sexual assault trial in Eagle County, Colorado. No one really knows how much time kobe will miss with the trial, but he will deffinetly miss some time. the issues of the case aside, there's the issues of how it will effect his play on the court, how will it effect the lakers as a whole, and how will visiting teams react to kobe. i imagine those trips to philly, new york and boston could get particularly interesting... and then there's the case it's self, which is setting it's self up to be the biggest trial this side of O.J.
when you combine all these factors together... phil jackson is probably yearning for the days when his biggest problem was wether or not dennis rodman was gonna show up to practice wearing a dress.