Hey. Late night blog tonight. Just got back after hanging out at the 626 Reserve in Downtown with Daily News alum Gary Washburn, who covers the Sonics for the Post-Intelligencer, and my friend Jayda Evans, who writes for the Seattle Times. The Sonics just lost their 10th straight, so I figured Gary and Jayda could use some company before heading out to Salt Lake City for what’ll probably be loss No. 11.

Anyway, we all got to meet the Lakers’ newest player, Ira Newble before the game today. He should be a good veteran addition to the team. Newble’s a nice, even-keeled guy who has bounced around a bunch in his eight-years in the league. He’ll add a tough-guy defensive presence to the Lakers.

“I’ve bounced around a lot. I played in the CBA. I started like this so it’s familiar territory for me,” Newble said of his 10-day contract status. “It’s how I made my way into the league and I made the best of it.”

Now that he’s with the Lakers, Newble has the distinction of having played with both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. So we had to ask, in his humble opinion, which superstar is the best?

“I knew that was coming,” Newble joked. “You know what… Kobe’s better. If you ask LeBron that, he’ll tell you Kobe’s better too.

“One thing I noticed from playing against him (Kobe)… you can have a hand in his face and cover his eyes, but he shoots the ball like he’s in there by himself. That impressed me.”