Despite having 3 players in recovery from surgery, the most important of whom, SHAQUILLE O’NEAL in serious pain after his first 20 minutes of play this season, the LAKERS could easily have a better year than the previous 2 championship years. The reason for the optimism is the impressive depth on the 2001-2001 squad, particularly at shooting guard. Management feels so good about the prospects that it cut DENNIS SCOTT Tuesday. SCOTT was recently signed to try out for the team, after being out of basketball for a couple of years. He was a 3-point shooter deluxe for the ORLANDO MAGIC (he holds the game and season records for 3-pointers!), and is one of SHAQ’S best friends. So for the LAKERS to say goodbye Mr. SCOTT, several weeks earlier than necessary, one would presume the shooting skills are locked and stocked.

And indeed they are. KOBE looks like he hasn’t missed a day since the championship series. He is coasting, making 50% of his shots, and hitting his average in a minimum of minutes. The projected other starting guard, LINDSEY HUNTER, is shooting just as well. And he is quick as a firefly. The LAKERS haven’t had a point guard with speed and scoring ability since the days of NORM NIXON! DEREK FISHER might find it harder to break back into the starting lineup, when he returns from his annual foot surgery, probably in December. HUNTER was drafted by the DETROIT PISTONS as the replacement for ISAIAH THOMAS, and he has the goods. Now, for the first time he has champion teammates. Look out!

First off the bench should be MITCH RITCHMOND, who can shoot, create, defend, and lead. Recall RITCHMOND was the player JERRY WEST was willing to trade EDDIE JONES to get. We now have him, along with the luxury of using him in spurts, as needed. That’s another weapon LA has not had since, say, MICHAEL COOPER of the 80’s. It’s amazing to think how good this team can be!

As for forwards, coach PHIL JACKSON has a bounty as well. SUMAKI WALKER is a young body-banger who scored 11 points in Bakersfield. He also hasn’t had the pleasure of playing with such a talented group, so his development could take off. SLAVA MEDVEDENKO, who started Tuesday for the first time, scored 13 points and looked impressive. ROBERT HORRY the likely starter opposite RICK FOX, could get his head into an entire season for a change. His 3-point shooting and defense are more than adequate. He could lead the team is scoring if he put his mind to it. DEVEAN GEORGE is being given one last chance to impress, and there are those on the LAKERS who still believe he could be a starting forward. The bottom line-the LAKERS will have a tough time getting their roster of 18 down to 12. That’s about all that will be tough.

The only question for the season appears to be O’NEAL who had to miss practice Wednesday as a result of his brief appearance against GOLDEN STATE. His toe surgery, and now sore ankle will no doubt leave him in less than top shape when the season starts, which if you recall, was the only problem with the team last year.

But SHAQ recognizes just how much better the LAKERS are this season, and that alone should motivate him to pull it together come opening day. "I’m very encouraged", SHAQ said Wednesday. "This is probably the best supporting cast I’ve ever played with. Just sitting on the bench watching guys like LINDSEY HUNTER and MITCH RITCHMOND shoot the ball, we could have a pretty good run."

No kidding!

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ
9.26.01

"I am returning as a player to the game I love." That statement made it official. No more what ifs and prognosticating, let the games begin and may the best man win. The best man, ESPN’s ATHLETE OF THE CENTURY, said he would give up minority ownership and his position as president of basketball operations for the WASHINGTON WIZARDS and return to the NBA for 2 years as a player for DC. He will earn one million dollars a year, with the first year’s salary donated to terrorist attack relief funds.

Elsewhere in professional basketball news, on Monday, September 24, the LOS ANGELES LAKERS held the 12th Annual Toyota Los Angeles Lakers Tip-Off Golf Tournament presented by Verizon Wireless at the Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine, California. Sports and entertainment celebrities, including the Lakers JERRY WEST, JAMES WORTHY and KURT RAMBIS, and executives from various sponsors for the Lakers rounded out the foursomes that raised money for the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation. Before the shotgun start some of the Lakers veterans predicted the upcoming season and discussed the return of 6-time NBA champion, 5-time league MVP and the greatest player to ever hit the hardwood courts.

When asked to discuss the idea of Jordan’s second comeback as a pro-basketball player, West said, "[Jordan’s ] truly an icon of the game and I think at times you don’t understand why people do things but Michael is a unique guy and he wouldn’t play if he didn’t think he could compete at a very high level and it’s going to be a plus for the NBA going forward." Although Jordan’s making a return, West’s not too enthusiastic about the idea of his own comeback. West said, "coming out of retirement for what (chuckle)? When you get older they put you out to pasture and so I’m out to pasture right now. It’s been a great year for me to just be away from it. It has really kind of rejuvenated me personally. But, more importantly, I think any decision I would make would be based on my desire to go back to work but I haven’t reached that anxiety point yet." Before he retired to a life of leisure Mr. Clutch was GM of the Lakers and a few seasons ago wanted to trade EDDIE JONES for MITCH RICHMOND only to have the deal fall through. Instead Jones was traded to Charlotte for GLEN RICE and Rice stayed for half of a lockout shortened season and a championship season. Now, MITCH KUPCHAK holds that top decision-making position and the Lakers finally got West’s choice veteran Richmond. Obviously West believes better late than never, he says, "they’ve helped themselves. This is not just a good role player, he’s a terrific player and the only issue will be himself", regarding the Lakers off-season acquisition. Additionally, the basketball wizard knows that as long as Shaq and Kobe remain healthy this team "will be the favorite to win again."

"Big-Game" James Worthy played on the NCAA championship team when Jordan hit the final shot in North Carolina’s victory over Georgetown in 1982 but made no mention of Jordan’s return as any competition for the Lakers this season. He said, "if the twin towers stay in tact in San Antonio that will be tough competition." Then, he added that, "Michael Jordan is an exceptional talent. But it’s going to be difficult competing against younger talent, like Kobe and Iverson, night in and night out, 82 games, 35 plus minutes per game. If he’s got some juice in his tank, it’s probably more than most guys in the league have." Worthy maintains that the Lakers of the eighties would find some way to dominate the new millennium Lakers and will only change his opinion after Shaq and Kobe’s team has won 5 championships. Worthy says, "zone changes and some new rules, the new additions (Richmond, Walker, LINDSAY HUNTER) will only enhance the Lakers possibilities to score especially from the outside." With the nucleus of Shaq, Kobe and Fisher and some trusty role players the current Lakers have a good chance of getting a ring for one hand full of fingers.

Kurt Rambis knows about hand jewelry from his Lakers days where he won 4 rings as a player. He has been in the organization in various coaching positions and has picked up 2 more rings as an advisor in 2000 and assistant general manager for the most recent championship. He has accepted the position as assistant coach for this season. He says, "[this year’s team] is an excellent group of ballplayers and…Richmond, Walker and Hunter are all gonna help out." The Lakers have re-signed Mike Penberthy and that will really help out if he gets some consistency with his outside shot. One of the challenges to repeat will be getting the newcomers on the same page and the Lakers will start the season with "a lot of optimism." Rambis is also optimistic about Jordan’s return and thinks it’s a good idea because "[Jordan] didn’t leave at the bottom of his game…he was still at the top. I think there’s a lot of competitiveness left in him. He may not be the top player in the league but he’s sure gonna be one of the top players in the league. He can help any ball club improve." Particularly when he joins the lowly Washington Wizards, no one will ever underestimate them again, especially, the Lakers who had a 19 game winning streak snapped by the Wizards during the 1999-2000 season.

In just over one month the 2001-2002 NBA season will tip-off and Michael Jordan is back. He’s back on a team that finished the season winning less than 25 percent of its games. He’s back without the person who was there with him for all six NBA championships, former CHICAGO BULLS head coach, PHIL JACKSON. Without Jordan, Jackson won back-to-back championships with the Lakers. Only time will tell what Jordan will do without Jackson.



LAKERS GET 2 VETERANS FOR A BARGAIN
7.26.2001


Despite the injuries to last season’s savior, DEREK FISHER, and sophomore power forward, MARK MADSEN, the LAKERS have made the moves to actively defend their back-to-back NBA championship. They acquired point guard LINDSAY HUNTER from the MILWAUKEE BUCKS to help run the triangle while Fisher recovers from his own back-to-back foot injury. Lakers GM MITCH KUPCHAK also hit the jackpot with the acquisition of veteran guard and 25th all-time leading NBA scorer (over 20,000 points), MITCH RICHMOND, of the WASHINGTON WIZARDS. He will back up Hunter and, at 6’5" , he fits in with coach PHIL JACKSON’S high regard for bigger players. Richmond averaged 16.2 points per game last season with the Wizards, almost the same average as the fastidious GLEN RICE who helped the Lakers win their 1999-2000 title.

Additionally, the Lakers signed former SAN ANTONIO SPURS power forward, SAMAKI WALKER, who seems ready for the challenge of starting for the defending World Champions. He brings youth and athleticism to a position played by champion veterans, AC GREEN and HORACE GRANT, in the last 2 championship seasons. Although only 25 years old, Walker has been in the league for 5 years so he has more experience than Mark Madsen, who would have a chance for the starting spot if not for a wrist injury. As a backup to superstar TIM DUNCAN, Walker has played on a team with a dominant big man and already has picked some open spots to shoot from when teams double team SHAQUILLE O’NEAL. During his first year in the league he played for the DALLAS MAVERICKS under then head coach, JIM CLEAMONS, so he already has been involved in the constant movement of the triangle offense.

Now that the Lakers have all the pieces to the puzzle they no longer have a need for the enigmatic ISAIAH "JR" RIDER. The Lakers gave the 8-year NBA veteran more than enough chances to secure a steady spot on the playing roster. Although the management left him off the playoff roster, he will receive a championship ring as if he made some sort of difference in the season’s success. The executives went further out on a limb for Rider by inviting him to play for the Lakers for a few hours a day, a couple of times a week in the Summer Pro League. Rider repaid these first class efforts by not showing up and not returning Kupchak’s phone calls. Even Fisher, with his injured right foot, went out to support the Lakers at the SPL. Well, I hope that’s it for Rider, he’s disappointed the Lakers and LA fans for the last time. Kupchak has made sure that we can do just fine without him.

In the past, the Lakers went after a few veteran players only to get rejected in favor of other teams that could offer wealthier and lengthier contracts. In order to prevent any further disappointment to the Lakers, Mitch Kupchak eluded media questions regarding his negotiations with the new players until the deals were finalized. By disregarding previous frustrations, Kupchak made another bid for veteran players at bargain rates and emerged with 3 great additions to the roster without losing much in the way of talent or dollars. With this recent off-season success, Kupchak has picked up where JERRY WEST left off and has become another front-office wizard for the Lakers. Obviously, an excellent teacher had a very apt pupil and the Lakers dynasty will continue.

IT WAS SO FUN IT’S KIND OF SAD TO SEE IT ALL END

Or has it only just begun? Ask the more than half a million fans that filled downtown LA to see their basketball heroes return from winning the 2001 NBA Championship in Philadelphia. Those 550,000 fans and all of Los Angeles had purple and gold running through their veins on June 18, 2001. The purple and gold was on the inside and on the outside. Angelenos proudly wore various Lakers jerseys, mostly numbers 8 and 34, caps, t-shirts, body art and wigs. They waved flags and home made banners. All this for their team that went 15 and 1 in the post-season, undefeated on the road. The record would have been perfect if not for the fatigue that results from a 10-day layoff between opponents. All of LA skipped school and called in sick to work to be a part of history and to see a dynasty in its infancy. On that day everyone is a member of this great and powerful family.

Imagine Los Angeles’ family tree planted in rich soil thanks to Grandfather Jerry Buss and nurtured for many years by Uncle Jerry West. With his own big-man in the middle, the late WILT CHAMBERLAIN, young #44 won a record 33 consecutive games, on his way to an NBA title during 1971-72 season. His family ties strengthened during the boom years of the 80’s because he stuck to that same wisdom that got him his ring. He placed MAGIC JOHNSON in his guard role and KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR in the big shoes. When that all ended and the Lakers hadn’t won in 8 straight seasons. Then, the rebuilding began with the historic $120 million signing of the Orlando Magic’s superstar SHAQUILLE O’NEAL and the sly acquisition of young, high school stand out KOBE BRYANT. Thus, ensuring Laker success for generations to come.

But these 2 superstars couldn’t do it alone they needed a coach and a third scorer. So West used the Lakers 24th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft to acquire the now well-developed Derek Fisher. That team, along with role players, Rick Fox and Robert Horry, got swept out of the playoffs in one way or another 2 years in a row. So, sage ol’ West brought in 6-time champion Chicago Bull coach, Phil Jackson in 1999 and he mixed in some legendary Bulls, Tex Winter, Horace Grant and Ron Harper, and not even dynamite can knock down this new millennium tree.

Here’s how the Los Angeles Lakers branches held firm on the battlefield of the 2001 NBA Playoffs:

Shaquille O’Neal – Record breaker, face-breaker, most dominant ever to play this basketball game. Writer, rapper, actor, back to back Finals MVP.

Kobe Bryant – Young knight that has saved the Lakers from the evil dragons on many occasions. Paid homage to the king of LA, JERRY WEST by wearing his #44 jersey.

Derek Fisher – after being a casualty of war for the first 62 games of the season he restored the Lakers charge to victory

Rick Fox – secret weapon that had the highest number of playoff steals, free-throw percentage, second most assists and third in rebounds for the Lakers

Horace Grant – brought in because of his medals with that great team of the 1990’s did his job against RASHEED WALLACE, CHRIS WEBBER and TIM DUNCAN

Tyronn Lue – held his own against NBA MVP Allen Iverson, ‘nuff said.

Ron Harper – this year’s player-coach using the "nothing but love" method that includes a hug for each guard before every game.

Robert Horry – 2 back to back championships with 2 different teams. 3 point specialist

Brian Shaw – the best lobber in the biz, followed up Rick Fox’s stork pick-up with a special arrival of his own, the birth of baby-girl, Bianca during this year’s Finals against Philadelphia

Phil Jackson – Zen Master, master-mind, master manipulator, master winner, head master, master conductor, master coach

Chick Hearn – the Great Grand voice of it all, good, bad and indifferent, he calls it as he sees it.

As good as it gets, the Lakers won’t rest until they do it again and the get another ring for their finger and their family tree.

CODE RED FOR THE 76ERS

The PHILADELPHIA 76ERS need a heart transplant. They’ve been to a specialist and he hasn’t felt a pulse in 3 games because the LOS ANGELES LAKERS have methodically removed their little hearts and stomped on it. That rag-tag bunch of players are as good as dead on the emergency room table from heart failure while the nation can hear the Los Angeles Lakers ticker dub-dubbing as if a stethoscope was placed inside of First Union Center.

Undoubtedly, the Sixers entered this series with a big heart but after 4 games the diagnosis is that the Lakers entire cardiovascular system is functioning at a super human rate. So good, in fact, that the Sixers heart can’t pump enough blood to its extremities to sustain any worthy effort to win a game even in its own arena.

The Lakers 2000 championship bench, ROBERT HORRY, TYRONN LUE, BRIAN SHAW, RICK FOX and RON HARPER, once thought to be a heart murmur, came out to twist the dagger that Shaq and Kobe placed in the hearts of the Sixers by each connecting on at least one three pointer each in game 4 of the Finals match-up. The Lakers finished the game by connecting on 10 of 19 from long distance.

So, after a long, well-paced playoff run the LOS ANGELES LAKERS can see the finish line and have already stepped over their opponents limp, broken bodies lying on the dirty, hot Philadelphia asphalt after suffering their 3rd heart attack in the series. Call 911 these guys need some Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation.

Unfortunately, not even the entire emergency medical staff at Philly General Hospital can prevent the flatline sure to appear on the heart machine Friday night. No team has ever come back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to win the NBA Finals. While the Lakers heart beat to the tune of 7-0 on the road in the 2001 NBA playoffs the Philly ER frantically juices up the heart paddles to keep the Sixers alive for one more zap in game 5.

HORRY REDEMPTION
6.10.01
Memo Menos

ROBERT HORRY got his chance to redeem his silly offensive foul with 2:40 to go in game 1, with the LAKERS up 99-94 in overtime. HORRY had been upset at DIKEMBE MUTOMBO for a no-call on a previous play, and so with the LAKERS in surprise possession of the ball off a steal, HORRY forgot that he was playing for the championship. He forgot that the LAKERS had been smoked for most of regulation, and they were lucky to climb themselves into an overtime period. He forgot that there were only 2 minutes or so left, and his team had the ball and a 5-point lead. He forgot the old adage that the team in overtime that scores back to back baskets usually wins. He forgot, too, that he was the only offensive player down court, and more importantly, that DIKEMBE MUTOMBO gets more shakes from the referees in the NBA than MICHAEL JORDAN and MOSES MALONE combined. So, when he ran through MUTOMBO as a personal vindication, he also forgot he had a responsibility to a whole team of LAKERS, and a whole city of fans. He forgot, and the LAKERS gave away game 1.

The city was in a funk for 2 days because of HORRY’S failing. Friday’s weak hold of serve did little to right the ship. But in PHILLY on Sunday HORRY redeemed himself for game 1, and then some.

HORRY was magnificent in the 4th quarter of another critical game 3. The LAKERS had coasted through all the others. PORTLAND, SACRAMENTO and SAN ANTONIO put up little resistance in the other game 3’s. And in this one, things seemed to be going the same. The LAKERS were up by 13 in the second quarter; a quarter where KOBE found his game, hitting 8 straight shots for 16 points. The LAKERS led throughout the second half, but with little over 2 minutes to play, the refs must have got the word from DAVID STERN to tighten things up a bit. They proceeded to foul SHAQUILLE O’NEAL and DEREK FISHER out on questionable calls. The 76’ers closed the gap to 2 points, and no SHAQ DADDY!

The refs continued to make things interesting, giving PHILADELPHIA every benefit of the doubt on calls. On one sequence, they got the ball back 3 times despite what looked like PHILLY players knocking the ball out of bounds. The culmination of that possession was a phantom foul called on TYRON LUE, for supposedly hitting IVERSON on a shot from 3-point land. All this at 89-88 with a minute or so to play. And no SHAQ DADDY!

The stage couldn’t have been set more perfectly for ROBERT HORRY to clean up. MEL BROOKS and company didn’t have it this easy at the TONY’S. HORRY proceeds to swish a 3-point shot from the side. He was wide open, and the shot went down! 92-88. IVERSON made his 3 free shots, but then missed a lay-in, committed a turnover, and ROBERT HORRY sank 4 straight clutch free throws, and just like that, the frog turned into a prince and the LAKERS regained home court advantage, bragging rights, MR. MO, and all the rest. HORRY finished with 15 critical points, and no more monkeys.

The worst that can happen now is that the LAKERS will be coming home to STAPLES on Sunday down 3-2. That’s as bad as it gets. In all likelihood, things could go better. Much better! We could get a few more shots of a defeated ALAN IVERSON whining on the sidelines, all trash-talked out. That sure was fun!

Sound off: Send us your comments/complaints!