Lakers vs. Rockets - October 30, 2007

Can you imagine actually working with a person like Kobe? Imagine you at work, sitting in a meeting. Everyone’s around the conference table waiting for the meeting to start. And there’s one guy who’s griping about how he’s unhappy working there, wishes he worked somewhere else, beefin’ about how ‘management doesn’t know how to run this company’, and so on. Imagine then during the meeting you’re put on a project working closely with the same guy. That would suck, wouldn’t it? When Luke Walton dove for a ball during opening night against the Rockets and slid into the Lakers’ bench, about 4 or 5 teammates immediately jumped off the bench to go over to him and help him back up. If Kobe goes sprawling into the Lakers’ bench, does he get the same treatment? Probably not. Hopefully not. His philosophical differences with Lakers’ management have led to his teammates and us fans becoming victims in this whole circus. It’s no wonder he was booed before the game started. I loved his comment going into the locker room at halftime, responding to the question about being booed, explaining that the fans don’t really understand what’s going on. Really? We don’t know? I’m not taking Kobe’s side or the Lakers’ side in this whole debacle, but please don’t insult me by suggesting that I don’t understand what’s going on here. Jerry Buss has his own problems. He’s lost control of his franchise. Oh, and he’s an adolescent drunk. However, all Kobe has done is forced the Lakers to trade Shaq, getting cents on the dollar talent-wise in return, negotiated a contract that is incredibly favorable to him financially, handcuffing the Lakers from being able to spend the kind of money they need to in order to build a whiner…uh, excuse me, I mean a winner. He negotiated the only no-trade clause in the NBA into that contract and proceeds to use that no-trade clause, not to prevent a trade as the term would suggest, but rather to force yet another crappy trade for the Lakers for his own personal benefit, screwing the Lakers and their fans for years to come. Yeah, I guess I don’t really understand, Kobe….you ass-hole.

Anyway, opening day is always exciting, and here are a few observations from the game.

With 5:50 left in the 2nd Qtr, the camera shows Lamar Odom on the bench in street clothes. As GOD is my witness, I didn’t even notice that Lamar wasn’t in the game until they showed him at that point. I swear. Wonder how long it took his teammates to realize he wasn’t on the floor.

Kwame Brown showed that he’s in midseason form by allowing his very first dunk attempt of the 2007-08 campaign to slip right out of his fingers and end up in the 2nd row of seats. Kwame will do this twice a game this year. You can bet on it.

Yao Ming is a large, slow, man who appears to be in great pain and labor as he lumbers up and down the court. Yet, somehow, he beats 20-year old Andrew Bynum in that foot race each and every time.

During telecasts, Color Commentator Doug Collins must love using the phrase “You know, back when I coached Michael Jordan…..” Shouldn’t the phrase be “back when I coached a team and Michael Jordan was on it…”?

It’s nice to have Fish back. Aside from the obvious aforementioned prima donna, the Lakers do have a couple of really likeable, hard playing guys. Guys like Fisher, Walton, and Jordan Farmar. Their combined effort led to that unlikely comeback at the end of the game. By the way, the last 1:12 alone was worth the price of admission if you ask me. Hopefully, the heart and determination of a few of the role players on this team will prevent it from being dragged down this season by the selfishness of another. We’ll just have to wait and see.