The Perpetual NBA Thread

[theveed]

OMG Cambyman!!!!

13points, 23 rebounds, and the usual 3 blocks... In 23mins only...

[theveed]

There's no stopping this guy('s mouth - er fingers)

Prediction Time

Oh man, everybody is jumping on this Celtics band wagon. You know what? I was going to go prediction-free for the whole year, but I guess I’m going to break that now.

Now, if anybody remembers back when I got drafted, I got a report back that the reason I dropped so far in the draft was that Jim O’Brien of the Celtics said that I was too immature and that I wasn’t ready for the NBA. What really happened was that I had an Achilles injury and I went back to L.A. to go get it healed when I was supposed to have a two-day workout in Boston with O’Brien. He didn’t like that. So word came back to me that he was trashing me and it put this knife through my chest about the Boston Celtics.


Back in the day when I would day dream I thought that if I could score 100 points against any team it would be the Boston Celtics. Now, I knew it would never happen, but if I could do one thing in the NBA it would be to score 100 against Boston. So anyway, since everybody is back on the Boston bandwagon it brought back old memories. So listen here. On November 2nd, we’re going to go into that building, we’re opening up Boston.



Right now I’m telling the Boston fans: You guys are going to lose. It’s not going to be a victory for Boston. You might as well just cheer for me, because Boston isn’t winning in Boston for the season opener.



I’m sorry.

[Altis6453]

^ Lemme guess, Agent Zero? He made the same prediction vs. Phoenix and Portland last season.

[mazdamazda]

It's Hibashi time. :snob:

[tsupermario]

[SIZE="4"]Buss: Bryant isn't untouchable[/SIZE]
Lakers owner says he doesn't want to trade his star player, but he doesn't want to lose him and get nothing in return. He also defends Kupchak.
By Mike Bresnahan
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 11, 2007

HONOLULU -- Jerry Buss looked relaxed in a seashell-print shirt and khaki shorts as he sat down near lush hotel grounds of botanical gardens and koi ponds, a paradoxical setting for his frank discussion of the very real possibility that his star player might not be on the team in two years, if not sooner.

The owner of the Lakers spoke publicly for the first time since his team's off-season of disarray, providing details of his involvement and his deepest thoughts during several months' worth of distress signals emitted by Kobe Bryant.

The conversation Wednesday also steered in other directions, touching on his opinion of his front office, whether he would sell the team in coming years, and Coach Phil Jackson's unclear future with the franchise.

Buss, who has presided over eight championships and five other NBA Finals appearances in his 28 previous years of ownership, acknowledged considering offers for Bryant over the summer -- none of them deemed remotely good enough to act upon -- and also conceded that the gaping hole in Bryant's contract could make the nine-time All-Star an ex-Laker by 2009.

Buss, 74, also said Bryant was not necessarily off the table now that the new season had started. Offers will inevitably continue to trickle in, particularly if the Lakers struggle before the February trade deadline.

"I would certainly listen," Buss said. "At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody. It's just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit. You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it."

Bryant has four years and $88.6 million left on his contract, although he can end his Lakers career by terminating his deal in two years. Such a move by Bryant would leave $47.8 million of his money on the table, but would also leave the Lakers without one of the most dynamic players in their 60-year history.

"I tend not to think in basketball terms that many years down the road because things change so dramatically, but he could test the waters at that point," Buss said. "If he still is in that frame of mind, then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent. I would like to think that we win between now and then so that it doesn't come up."

This will be Bryant's 12th season with the Lakers, the former child prodigy now 29 and coming off an eminently vocal summer in which he requested to play for any other team, even if it meant being shipped to Pluto.

Buss tried to talk Bryant out of his mind-set at a June meeting in Barcelona, but Bryant continued to voice concerns about the direction of the franchise and reiterated his demand to be traded.

His unhappiness had steadily grown from the time the Lakers were eliminated by Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs, making it two consecutive first-round knockouts to go with a 121-125 regular-season mark since reaching the NBA Finals in 2004.

"He was very, very respectful," Buss said. "I told him when I walked in that I was going to try to talk him out of it. And he said, 'I'll listen carefully.' And he did.

"He listened very carefully for 30, 45 minutes. I tried to explain to him how much the city of Los Angeles loved him, and that to leave 10 million sweethearts for unknown territory might not be the right thing to do. But when I was finished, he said he basically felt the same way. And I said, 'OK. With that, I will proceed to see what's available.' "

Declining to give specifics, Buss said he might have pulled the trigger on a trade offer that was "within reason."

"You have to get comparable value when you make a trade," he said. "It's very hard to trade somebody like him because people who have enough material to make it worthwhile are usually contenders and they don't want to make the trade.

"What was offered was not ever under consideration. And I told Kobe that. I told him I would try my best to accommodate his wishes, but that I could not afford to let him go unless we got comparable talent, if there is such a thing. . . . I even told him occasionally what I was offered and I said, 'You have to know that this is not in favor of the Lakers. This would just be terrible to do.' And he said, 'I understand.' "

Buss said he never saw the amateur video in which Bryant referred to him as "an idiot." Nor did he read a late-May website entry in which Bryant suggested he had been misled by Buss, who in the summer of 2004, Bryant wrote, "promised me that the Lakers would do everything to build a contender NOW."

"I heard it second- or third-hand," Buss said. "In that we haven't been winning, the criticism of me, I think, is natural. . . . Quite honestly, since I did not read any of those other comments, I was a little surprised at him because certainly he's never said anything to me like that. Always very respectful."

Buss also addressed the fact that he might be losing his coach, something he would rather not experience.

Jackson, 62, is in the final season of a three-year, $30-million contract and has repeatedly said he would wait to sign an extension until properly gauging his health while recovering from a second hip-replacement surgery in a year.

"If he feels up to it, then he will sign an extension," Buss said. "And hopefully, that's what's going to happen. I'm very fond of him. . . . If he feels up to it, I think he would probably declare himself for a couple of years."

Jackson appeared to side with Bryant during the off-season, granting a series of interviews last month in which he tweaked the Lakers' front office for not making big changes.

Buss acknowledged frustration at losing out to old rivals in Boston for Kevin Garnett's services -- "I personally feel that we made a better offer than the people who were successful," he said -- and also gave a vote of confidence to his often-criticized front office, specifically his son, Jim -- the team's vice president of player personnel -- and General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

"I think Mitch does a terrific job because I'm right there and I know what's happening," Buss said. "Mitch has done everything humanly possible. Our team does not have a lot of tradable players. Hopefully we will have some in time, but currently we do not.

"We've got two or three players that people would like to have, but they want them giving us not comparable returns. I am aware of every single trade that he has tried to make. What we had to offer just wasn't sufficient for them.

"One of the big problems we had was that Kwame [Brown] and Lamar [Odom] were both injured at the end of the year so that nobody knew how they would come back. The other guy that was good was [Andrew] Bynum and nobody knew, 'How good is he?' Nobody knows yet, really."

Buss also defended his son, crediting him for insisting on drafting Ronny Turiaf; casting an important vote in favor of drafting Bynum; and, more recently, bringing sharpshooting undrafted rookie Coby Karl to training camp.

"Jim, I think, is in the same boat as Mitch," Buss said. "I think he is criticized for everything and I'm not so sure what any of us have done [wrong]."

Near the end of the 38-minute interview, Buss temporarily shrugged off the summer of discord and all the questions surrounding the upcoming season.

He said he thought the Lakers would win "50-plus games" if the roster were healthy, and he relayed a big-picture message. Despite the soap opera that his franchise can become on a moment's notice, he is not selling the team any time soon. The plan is still to turn it over to his daughter, Jeanie, and Jim.

"People I trust offer me incredible amounts of money -- far more than you'd imagine," Buss said. "These are credible people. I keep thinking, 'OK, [if] I sell it now, I pay the taxes, I put the money in the bank and now I've got to decide what to do. I ought to do something with all this money that would be a lot of fun. I'll buy the Lakers.' It always comes back to there's nothing I could do that would be more fun."

[pajerokid]

Uy ano yan, console or PC? May 2K sports games na for PC???

Sorry, OT din.

PS2 pare. Wala pa yng pang PC. NBA Live 08 for PS2 sucks. Iba ang experience sa PC.

[kimpOy]

ohohoy ps2...

[baiskee]

[SIZE="4"]Buss: Bryant isn't untouchable[/SIZE]
Lakers owner says he doesn't want to trade his star player, but he doesn't want to lose him and get nothing in return. He also defends Kupchak.
By Mike Bresnahan
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 11, 2007

HONOLULU -- Jerry Buss looked relaxed in a seashell-print shirt and khaki shorts as he sat down near lush hotel grounds of botanical gardens and koi ponds, a paradoxical setting for his frank discussion of the very real possibility that his star player might not be on the team in two years, if not sooner.

The owner of the Lakers spoke publicly for the first time since his team's off-season of disarray, providing details of his involvement and his deepest thoughts during several months' worth of distress signals emitted by Kobe Bryant.

The conversation Wednesday also steered in other directions, touching on his opinion of his front office, whether he would sell the team in coming years, and Coach Phil Jackson's unclear future with the franchise.

Buss, who has presided over eight championships and five other NBA Finals appearances in his 28 previous years of ownership, acknowledged considering offers for Bryant over the summer -- none of them deemed remotely good enough to act upon -- and also conceded that the gaping hole in Bryant's contract could make the nine-time All-Star an ex-Laker by 2009.

Buss, 74, also said Bryant was not necessarily off the table now that the new season had started. Offers will inevitably continue to trickle in, particularly if the Lakers struggle before the February trade deadline.

"I would certainly listen," Buss said. "At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody. It's just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit. You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it."

Bryant has four years and $88.6 million left on his contract, although he can end his Lakers career by terminating his deal in two years. Such a move by Bryant would leave $47.8 million of his money on the table, but would also leave the Lakers without one of the most dynamic players in their 60-year history.

"I tend not to think in basketball terms that many years down the road because things change so dramatically, but he could test the waters at that point," Buss said. "If he still is in that frame of mind, then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent. I would like to think that we win between now and then so that it doesn't come up."

This will be Bryant's 12th season with the Lakers, the former child prodigy now 29 and coming off an eminently vocal summer in which he requested to play for any other team, even if it meant being shipped to Pluto.

Buss tried to talk Bryant out of his mind-set at a June meeting in Barcelona, but Bryant continued to voice concerns about the direction of the franchise and reiterated his demand to be traded.

His unhappiness had steadily grown from the time the Lakers were eliminated by Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs, making it two consecutive first-round knockouts to go with a 121-125 regular-season mark since reaching the NBA Finals in 2004.

"He was very, very respectful," Buss said. "I told him when I walked in that I was going to try to talk him out of it. And he said, 'I'll listen carefully.' And he did.

"He listened very carefully for 30, 45 minutes. I tried to explain to him how much the city of Los Angeles loved him, and that to leave 10 million sweethearts for unknown territory might not be the right thing to do. But when I was finished, he said he basically felt the same way. And I said, 'OK. With that, I will proceed to see what's available.' "

Declining to give specifics, Buss said he might have pulled the trigger on a trade offer that was "within reason."

"You have to get comparable value when you make a trade," he said. "It's very hard to trade somebody like him because people who have enough material to make it worthwhile are usually contenders and they don't want to make the trade.

"What was offered was not ever under consideration. And I told Kobe that. I told him I would try my best to accommodate his wishes, but that I could not afford to let him go unless we got comparable talent, if there is such a thing. . . . I even told him occasionally what I was offered and I said, 'You have to know that this is not in favor of the Lakers. This would just be terrible to do.' And he said, 'I understand.' "

Buss said he never saw the amateur video in which Bryant referred to him as "an idiot." Nor did he read a late-May website entry in which Bryant suggested he had been misled by Buss, who in the summer of 2004, Bryant wrote, "promised me that the Lakers would do everything to build a contender NOW."

"I heard it second- or third-hand," Buss said. "In that we haven't been winning, the criticism of me, I think, is natural. . . . Quite honestly, since I did not read any of those other comments, I was a little surprised at him because certainly he's never said anything to me like that. Always very respectful."

Buss also addressed the fact that he might be losing his coach, something he would rather not experience.

Jackson, 62, is in the final season of a three-year, $30-million contract and has repeatedly said he would wait to sign an extension until properly gauging his health while recovering from a second hip-replacement surgery in a year.

"If he feels up to it, then he will sign an extension," Buss said. "And hopefully, that's what's going to happen. I'm very fond of him. . . . If he feels up to it, I think he would probably declare himself for a couple of years."

Jackson appeared to side with Bryant during the off-season, granting a series of interviews last month in which he tweaked the Lakers' front office for not making big changes.

Buss acknowledged frustration at losing out to old rivals in Boston for Kevin Garnett's services -- "I personally feel that we made a better offer than the people who were successful," he said -- and also gave a vote of confidence to his often-criticized front office, specifically his son, Jim -- the team's vice president of player personnel -- and General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

"I think Mitch does a terrific job because I'm right there and I know what's happening," Buss said. "Mitch has done everything humanly possible. Our team does not have a lot of tradable players. Hopefully we will have some in time, but currently we do not.

"We've got two or three players that people would like to have, but they want them giving us not comparable returns. I am aware of every single trade that he has tried to make. What we had to offer just wasn't sufficient for them.

"One of the big problems we had was that Kwame [Brown] and Lamar [Odom] were both injured at the end of the year so that nobody knew how they would come back. The other guy that was good was [Andrew] Bynum and nobody knew, 'How good is he?' Nobody knows yet, really."

Buss also defended his son, crediting him for insisting on drafting Ronny Turiaf; casting an important vote in favor of drafting Bynum; and, more recently, bringing sharpshooting undrafted rookie Coby Karl to training camp.

"Jim, I think, is in the same boat as Mitch," Buss said. "I think he is criticized for everything and I'm not so sure what any of us have done [wrong]."

Near the end of the 38-minute interview, Buss temporarily shrugged off the summer of discord and all the questions surrounding the upcoming season.

He said he thought the Lakers would win "50-plus games" if the roster were healthy, and he relayed a big-picture message. Despite the soap opera that his franchise can become on a moment's notice, he is not selling the team any time soon. The plan is still to turn it over to his daughter, Jeanie, and Jim.

"People I trust offer me incredible amounts of money -- far more than you'd imagine," Buss said. "These are credible people. I keep thinking, 'OK, [if] I sell it now, I pay the taxes, I put the money in the bank and now I've got to decide what to do. I ought to do something with all this money that would be a lot of fun. I'll buy the Lakers.' It always comes back to there's nothing I could do that would be more fun."

tama yan. pinapaalala lang nya kung sino sya in the organization. isang hamak na may-ari lang naman at sya nagpapasweldo sa mga players.

kinabahan na siguro si kobe. hehe

[empy]

Mang Pat, tawag na po kay Mr. Buss :phone:

"Shaq for Kobe, straight up!" :evillaugh

[theveed]

kobe for wade

[empy]

nagsimulate ako ng season sa NBA 2k8...Suns - Celtics daw sa finals.

Suns won in 6

[theveed]

Nice prediction, either case good enough for me :D

[empy]

guys, ever heard of SLAM Magazine? i used to subscribe to this magazine because it talked about upcoming stars and current b-ball stars and gave a glimpse into their lives. stopped buying it because it became too ghetto...

anyway, they have an archive page with features on some "kids" that are all grown up today

http://www.slamonline.com/online/?cat=66

[theveed]

If there's a recent NBA champ that we can call a fluke, Miami is it hahahaha

I'm a fan of Shaq, Wade and Zo, but Wade will have the same fate as LBJ hehe, no help and eventually just get worn down with lousy teammates.

I won't be surprised if he cries "trade" in a few years ehee
Shaq injured in Heat's preseason loss to Bobcats

BY MICHAEL WALLACE
The preseason setbacks are now coming in twos for the Heat, which fell to 0-4 after Friday's loss to the Charlotte Bobcats at Greensboro Coliseum.But of far greater significance than the game's 92-76 outcome was the player it claimed. Heat center Shaquille O'Neal left in the first quarter shortly after he sustained a left quadriceps contusion.


O'Neal immediately grabbed his hip and grimaced after a collision with Bobcats center Emeka Okafor just five minutes into the game.
O'Neal had attempted a hook shot in the lane. Okafor jumped to block the shot, but caught O'Neal with a knee.


O'Neal remained in the game for several minutes before he was replaced. He re-entered late in the first quarter but was noticeably limping and soon came out for good. He stayed in the locker room for the second half as the Heat was blown out for the third time in four games.


After the game, O'Neal said he didn't believe the injury was serious. He seemed more frustrated that he had another ''freak injury'' despite his wearing padded protection.


''The crazy thing about it is, I've got pads,'' O'Neal said. ``I've got knee pads. I've got quad pads. I've got shin pads. And the place it's not padded, [Okafor] got me.''


O'Neal's status for the final three exhibition games is uncertain. The Heat's next game is Friday in Biloxi, Miss., against New Orleans.


With guard Dwyane Wade expected to be out through late November as he recovers from knee and shoulder surgeries, the Heat could least afford to lose O'Neal for an extended time.


Heat coach Pat Riley had intended to use the preseason to get several new players on the roster accustomed to playing with O'Neal. But the injuries seemed to have piled up in the preseason as quickly as the losses.


''We're not accomplishing one thing,'' Riley said. ``So, we get to start over again Monday. The one thing we are accomplishing is that I see the younger players feeling better about themselves.


``But we haven't gotten anything from [many of] our veterans, whether they're hurt or out of shape or they don't know the system yet. So the whole process is just trying to get the team together.''
It's not the first time someone's knee did damage to O'Neal, who was injured twice early last season when he banged knees with opposing

players. O'Neal eventually had knee surgery and missed 34 games.


The Heat was already thin on post players before Saturday's game. Backup center Michael Doleac missed his second consecutive game after injuring his hip and knee in Wednesday's loss to Atlanta. Reserve forward Wayne Simien has had complications with his surgically repaired right knee and stayed in Miami for treatment.


The Heat was also without point guard Jason Williams, who missed his second game in a row with a shin injury and guard Penny Hardaway.
The injury absences forced Riley to play young players in the second half. Daequan Cook, the Heat's first-round draft pick, was its lone player in double figures with 10 points.


''It's tough because these are guys who play huge roles on the team,'' forward Udonis Haslem said. ``It's tough to get into any rhythm.''
Gerald Wallace led Charlotte with 18 points.

[empy]

si veed gumaganti sa paninira ko sa Celtics :hihihi:

i wouldn't necessarily call the Heat championship a fluke - but it was certainly built with a win-now mentality, and without a good continuity plan. a bunch of aging vets and talented-but-flawed players that Pat Riley was able to get for discounts, and motivate enough to cover up their flaws...and D-Wade both stayed healthy and kind of caught everyone by surprise with how good he is. that won't happen again, and now the team is stuck with old guys and bad contracts.

but it was worth it to get the championship - if you have a great chance to win now, you go for it and worry about the future after you take delivery of your jewel-encrusted rings. exactly what the Celtics are doing now and the Lakers did in the early 00's.

i hope Miami can make a move to get younger and get draft picks or young talent. Daequan Cook is a talented but inconsistent scorer, who knows how to feed off a dynamic PG and a dominant C (he was Conley and Oden's teammate at OSU), and Riley is a great judge of draft talent, so i'm cautiously optimistic there. Dorell Wright has all the tools but it's frustrating how long it's taking him to develop.

the rest of the youngsters belong in the D-league :bwahaha:

[tsupermario]

imho the 04-05 finals would have been a spurs vs. heat affair if not for wades injury

[tsupermario]

Forget Plan A, go get Kobe
Paxson, Skiles have Bulls on a nice growth track, but to move up to banner level, they need a megastar, and Lakers' Bryant is available

October 14, 2007
BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist

It's all very cute and likeable, this lab experiment by John Paxson. Big Ben Wallace gets to wear a headband despite his coach's no-headband rule. Joakim Noah, cartoon character, fetches doughnuts for veterans and tries to improve an ugly shot by strapping a paddle to his hand. Ben Gordon did Pilates over the summer, Kirk Hinrich got married. Andres Nocioni hustles, Luol Deng flows.

But I also know that Kevin Garnett ended up in Boston, not in the United Center. Which means the Bulls won't be reaching the NBA Finals for the 10th straight year, after going there and winning six of the previous eight years.

This is not to agonize over a nice, efficient, 50-win team that probably will make the Eastern Conference semifinals again and lose again. All I'm saying is that when the next-closest facsimile to Michael Jordan demands a trade, then tells everyone from close friends to homemade-Internet-video geeks that he'd like to play for the Bulls -- then hears the other day that his owner indeed will consider trading him -- well, I've got one message for Paxson.

Kobe Bryant is available. And he wants to come to Chicago.

Go get him, boy.

The Bulls want us to believe they're on an incremental journey toward an NBA title. Hate to break the news, but they're not. They are what they are, a feisty team with an old-school coach, a budding All-Star in Deng, a continuing project in Ty Thomas, a $60 million disappointment in Wallace, a lot of hustlers and bangers and two small guards who sometimes make their jumpers and often miss them. That's all very nice -- but not very exhilarating in the shadow of title banners and Grant Park parties.

What is exhilarating is the continuing possibility that Bryant will be traded by the Los Angeles Lakers, with owner Jerry Buss now acknowledging that he ''will certainly listen'' to trade offers for the sport's most exciting and frustrated player. ''At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody,'' Buss said. ''It's just part of the game. You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it.''
The door is open wide

This is what's called unlocking a deadbolt and cracking open the door to one of the biggest deals in sports history. Bryant spent the summer making ultimatums, demanding a trade if the Lakers didn't dramatically improve a mediocre team that hasn't won a playoff series since Shaquille O'Neal was traded. When Garnett went to the Celtics and Jermaine O'Neal stayed in Indiana, Bryant had his empty answer from management. He also received surprising public support from his former nemesis and critic, coach Phil Jackson, who said Kobe was right to demand more talent. But none of that mattered until Buss agreed to hear trade offers.

Now, the L.A. media is convinced Bryant is on the trade market. Wrote columnist Bill Plaschke in the Times: ''What Buss said ... about Kobe Bryant was breathtakingly clear. He said goodbye.'' And in a league where few teams have the pieces to make a deal that would appease Buss, which club has a ready-made package? That would be the Bulls, who could ship Thomas and Gordon as centerpieces and, for the Lakers' sake, keep Bryant out of the Western Conference. More important, Kobe has made no secret of telling people, repeatedly, that his first option is Chicago. We laughed a few years ago when he took a recruiting trip here as a free agent, searching for real estate on the North Shore before re-upping with the Lakers. But since then, Bryant frequently has voiced his respect for Paxson and convinced us his interest is real. And if you don't believe that, how about the infamous video at a southern California shopping mall?

Fan: ''Please tell us you're staying!''

Kobe: ''Get a Bulls uniform, fellas.''

Fan: ''Are you serious?''

Kobe: ''Yep.''

Fan: ''It's not worth it, Kobe. You got to stay.''

Kobe: ''Dr. Buss is an idiot.''

Get a Bulls uniform, fellas? He didn't say Knicks, Heat or Sixers. He said Bulls. In a major market that deserves marquee athletes in every franchise, it would behoove Paxson to fall out of his love with his youth brigade and make Bryant his obsession. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of looking at the Jordan statue and reminiscing about the dynasty. There never will be another MJ, but to see Bryant succeed him almost a decade a later in his building would be a precious experience in American sports. And the crazy thing is, it's do-able, as long as Paxson can reconcile abandoning his five-year reconstruction project.
A must for top rung

He has done a fine, methodical job in cleaning up the mess of Jerry Krause. But without Garnett or a low-post scorer such as Pau Gasol, this team won't become appreciably better despite noise from Vegas and a few publications that the Bulls can win the East. Paxson is optimistic about progress, saying, ''We've kept our core together. Some have said it's not the right thing to do, but we've done it. Continuity was always something I was comfortable with when I played. It has value. But it's not the be-all and end-all -- I understand that, too.''

On my hoops planet, the championship is the be-all and end-all. Paxson wants it, too, but how about trying it with Bryant instead of an erratic Gordon, a raw Thomas and other pieces? Yes, Kobe will demand a long-term fortune. But the Bulls still can have a hell of a supporting cast by keeping some combination of Deng, Hinrich, Noah, Wallace, Nocioni, Thabo Sefalosha and Joe Smith. As currently constituted, they can't beat Boston, Detroit and LeBron James, much less win an NBA title. With Kobe, they become the marquee team in basketball, the way it used to be around here.

''If he's still in that frame of mind,'' Buss said of his sulking superstar, ''then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent.''

That needs no translation. It's just a matter of whether Paxson wants to do it his way -- old-school T-E-A-M -- or the quick-grab, razzmatazz, Kobe way. What ol' Johnny Jumpshot needs to understand is that the big picture is about more than basketball; it's about buzz, sizzle, show business.

So get a Bulls uniform, fellas. That'd be No. 24, or 23 plus one.

[empy]

ugh. the Bulls have a lot of good players, but no marquee superstar. and the City of Angels demands a marquee superstar (or two or three ) from its sports teams. take it from me, i grew up there.

LA has so many entertainment options - i hope Mang Jerry is smart enough not to trade the best player in the L for a bunch of (young and talented) nobodies. the town will drop the Lakers like a hot potato, like what happened in the late 90's when our team was headlined by Cedric Ceballos and Vlade Divac

Kobe would definitely accept a trade to the Bulls. MJ is not just his idol and his role model - he wants to BE MJ. his playing style, his choice of number (23+1), he even copied MJ's tongue-hanging-out moves....now to have the chance to take over the house that MJ built and be beloved by his same fans?

but the Lakers will be completely destroyed. and they don't even have Jerry West in charge of the rebuilding....and we all have seen what idiot Mitch has done with his trades and his draft picks...

[baiskee]

kobe will go down if he moves out in LA.

may spare pa naman ang lakers eh. COBY! :bwahaha:

[Eismann]

si veed gumaganti sa paninira ko sa Celtics :hihihi:

i wouldn't necessarily call the Heat championship a fluke - but it was certainly built with a win-now mentality, and without a good continuity plan. a bunch of aging vets and talented-but-flawed players that Pat Riley was able to get for discounts, and motivate enough to cover up their flaws...and D-Wade both stayed healthy and kind of caught everyone by surprise with how good he is. that won't happen again, and now the team is stuck with old guys and bad contracts.

but it was worth it to get the championship - if you have a great chance to win now, you go for it and worry about the future after you take delivery of your jewel-encrusted rings. exactly what the Celtics are doing now and the Lakers did in the early 00's. :bwahaha:

reaction: The Lakers' 3 titles is not a win now, 'twas a dynasty that came to an abrupt end....if the trade that brought Shaq to Miami did not happen, there's a good chance to add 2 more to those 3 rings that consequently may have earned the mailman a ring or two already. he-he