September 2008 Archives

Whether he actually does become a sixth man is still way too early to determine, but here's what Lamar had to say about the idea raised by Lakers coach Phil Jackson last week:

``I don't think it will be a problem when you're playing together. It's too bad it has to be politics and business around the game, especially when you have a team like this. It's not right for me to be selfish at this time,'' Odom said.

``I walk into the locker room and I'm like, 'Damn, this team is going to win the championship.' I want to be a part of that. But ... It's definitely conflicted emotions. I might wake up today feeling one way and wake up tomorrow feeling another way. This is the team I want to be on. This is the coach I want to play for. These are the guys I want to be around.''

Those holding tickets to Lakers exhibition games would be wise to arrive early if they want to see Kobe Bryant.

Phil Jackson was asked whether he planned to limit Kobe and Pau Gasol during training camp, or the exhibition season, considering they barely had a month off after finishing Olympic competition.

``I was told not to say that I wasn't going to play Kobe in exhibition games. So I'm not going to say that Kobe's not going to play in this exhibition, but there's a chance he may not play in exhibition games,'' Jackson said with a smirk.

Knowing Bryant though, it'll be hard convince him to sit out entirely. More likely, Bryant would start, get some run in, then relax.

``We've been playing all summer, obviously we had a long season and Phil does a good job of making sure that we stay in condition, but he doesn't overexert us too much because of the long summer,'' Bryant said.

``I feel great, I could run all day. I'm in shape, I'm ready to go.''

So too, is his injured right pinkie. It still hurts when he bangs it on something, Bryant said, but after a summer of doing strengthening exercises, it's strong enough that Bryant doesn't even need to tape it anymore.

``Over the summer it's gotten really strong, I've done some exercises to build it up,'' he said. ``It's not something I need to watch out for anymore. I can pretty much do everything.''

Luke Walton, like most of the Lakers, was asked what he though of Phil Jackson's new clean-shaven look. No mustache, no soul-patch, no beard.

The question came in as:

``Do you think he looks less wise now that he's shaved the soul patch?''

To which Luke quickly quipped:

``I think I would be unwise if I answered that.''

Kobe Bryant on winning the gold medal with Team USA in China:
"What I tried to do is absorb the moment as much as I could, so I looked around at Pau (Gasol), and at the Americans singing the national anthem. You get goose bumps. You hear the national anthem every night when you play in the NBA, but on that stage it was complete different. It was just a different feeling. It was way more emotional. For all of us, because it was the end of a journey we started three years ago. We kind of grew up together, focused on our game together and rallied for one common goal and got the job done. So, we're just so excited to finally accomplish our mission."
(Bryant later added that he has his medal draped around the MVP trophy he won last spring.)

How worried are you about wear and tear in the upcoming season?
"Not at all. None. None. I feel great. I feel fantastic. In Beijing, we had a layup line and everyone was showing off. I did a windmill dunk and I got drug-tested right after the game. True story. ... (Reducing his per-game minutes) is always a goal going into a season. It was a goal last season, and I still played 40 minutes. My body feels great, whether it's 40 minutes or 43 minutes. The finger is fine."

On his state of mind heading into camp:
"I am happy. I have a lot to be happy about. I have a lot to be thankful for. We've got Andrew back healthy. We've got Pau here. We've got Lamar. D-Fish. Everybody's here. Everybody's ready to go. The key is to keep everybody healthy. If we can do that, then I'll be really happy."

On being favored to win the West:
"We're the favorites for a reason. One of the things I tell the guys, is that we're the favorites for a season. We've got all the tools here. We've got all the pieces to the puzzle. It's up to us to do the work. If we do the work, then we should win it. ... I'm excited. I can't wait to get started."

Here's some stuff Ramona picked up from Derek Fisher and Luke Walton.

Derek Fisher:
"We're more focused on our promise and our potential as opposed to our demise. But both sides of that coin can be dangerous. So now coming into this season, all the talk is about expectations, getting back to having an opportunity to win a championship, and actually winning it. There's some positives and negatives that come with that also."

On whether the pressure is a good thing:
"It can be a good thing. It can serve to put the team on notice right away. You're now in a situation where you're not just trying to get better or you're trying to get good, you're expected to be good. you always expect that from yourself, but sometimes in professional sports, it's not until everybody else starts to expect it that you think about it."

On dealing with the Finals loss:
"When it's first over, it's so abrupt, you feel like you want to step away for a short period of time. But after a week or two, you start wondering what happened. Why didn't we win? So you pull out the film and you start seeing what mistakes were made, a lot of the things we didn't do. Boston deserves to be the champion. They were the best team in the series. But I think when you watch games, you can see things that had nothing to do with your opponent, just concentration, just focus, effort and all the things you can control. If you focus on those things, you're opponent sometimes doesn't matter."

Luke Walton

On what he did this summer:
"I had a fun little ankle surgery, I was on crutches. I had a lot of downtime. It was the first offseason I had to do something like this, so it was a little down, but hopefully it'll pay off during the season."

So, what's your status?
"For the full 5-on-5, probably a couple of weeks. I've been stepping it up a little the last couple of weeks on the track, but now we've got to get to the cutting and jumping and all that."

What's the feeling of the team going into camp?
"It's way different. Last year was like, even the players were looking around like, 'Is Kobe coming? Where's Kobe?' It's better this way. Hopefully now we have guys that have worked hard all summer to compete, because we have a very deep team, and I think training camp will be pretty interesting.

`` We know what we have to work on now, and a lot of it is defense. We know we can score points, but the thing we need to do to make sure we achieve our goals is defense."

Luke Walton said that he needs another ``couple of weeks'' before his surgically repaired right ankle is ready for full, 5-on-5 games, but that he'll be working on his conditioning and agility in the meantime. ... Sun Yue (mononucleosis) did not attend media day. His fever was still too high, and he did not see the doctor today. An update on his condition will be given Tuesday after he sees Dr. John Moe. ...Kobe Bryant addressed the issue of whether he intends to play in Europe, an issue that was sparked by an off-hand comment he made to a reporter at the Olympics in Beijing. Bryant laughed about the situation, saying he was cracking a joke, and downplayed the story. ...The Lakers begin training camp Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

Today is media day. Check back this afternoon for complete coverage of Kobe, Phil, Andrew, D-Fish, L.O. and the rest of the Lakers. Ramona and I will have all the news on the eve of the opening of training camp.

Here's the last of Phil Jackson's interview:
Look for lots more next week. Media day is Monday, with loads of interviews. Training camp begins Tuesday.

Here's more from Phil Jackson's press conference today:

Phil Jackson met with reporters for almost 30 minutes this morning at the team's practice facility in El Segundo. Here's some of the question-and-answer session:

Lakers coach Phil Jackson will meet with reporters later today.
Check back this afternoon for full coverage.

Lakers rookie Sun Yue has been diagnosed with mononucleosis and will be out indefinitely. Yue, who arrived from China on Sunday, was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital on Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, Yue was introduced at a press conference at the team's El Segundo facility. Yue was the team's second-round draft pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.

The Lakers open training camp Tuesday morning.

UPDATE:

Elliott just had a chance to speak with Lakers spokesman John Black and Sun Yue's agent Charles Bonsignore.

Black said that Sun Yue is currently at his apartment, resting and that the major concern right now is reducing his fever. He'll be examined by the Lakers medical staff on Monday and an update on his condition will be given then.

Bonsignore said that, ``It’s been a long summer for him, traveling around. He'’s basically just got to rest. It could be a week, two weeks or three weeks. He just needs to rest.”''

Sun Yue revealed a few interesting details during his introductory press conference at Lakers HQ in beautiful downtown El Segundo on Wednesday.

Here's a bit of the Q-and-A session:

As expected, the Lakers have brought back power forward/center DJ Mbenga...

Here's the release:

LAKERS RE-SIGN DJ MBENGA

EL SEGUNDO - The Los Angeles Lakers have re-signed free agent center Didier "DJ" Ilunga-Mbenga, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Mbenga, a 7-foot, 255 pound native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Lakers last season on January 21 and February 1 before signing for the remainder of the year on February 11.

In 26 games with the Lakers, Mbenga averaged 2.0 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.62 blocked shots in 7.8 minutes while totaling four points and five rebounds in 10 minutes over seven postseason games.

Earlier in the season, Mbenga signed with the Golden State Warriors on November 17 after spending three seasons with the Dallas Mavericks prior to their request for waivers on him October 30. In 16 games with the Warriors prior to his release January 6, Mbenga averaged 1.2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.63 blocked shots in 8.1 minutes.

After signing with Dallas as a rookie free agent in 2004, Mbenga, 27, played 79 games over three seasons with the Mavericks, totaling 106 points, 75 rebounds and 35 blocked shots in 374 minutes. In his rookie year of 2004-05, he averaged 4.10 blocks per 48 minutes played while improving to 5.00 blocks per 48 minutes in 2005-06. In 2006-07 he was limited to just 21 games after missing the first 16 games of the year with a left foot tendon strain and suffering a torn right ACL 2/7/07 vs. Memphis.

In 121 career games including two starts, Mbenga is averaging 1.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.50 blocked shots in 5.8 minutes.

The Lakers preseason roster now stands at 19.

If you want to see the NBA's top teams at Staples Center, be prepared to pay top dollar. The Lakers, following the lead of a number of other teams in other sports, announced that they have instituted a new variable ticket pricing policy for the upcoming season.
Tickets in various sections will have three different prices for 2008-09.
No. 1, a regular individual game price.
No. 2, a discounted season ticket price.
No. 3, a premium price for seven so-called premium games.
The seven games are: Dec. 25 against Boston, Jan. 19 against Cleveland, Jan. 25 against San Antonio, Feb. 20 against New Orleans, Feb. 26 against Phoenix, March 15 against Dallas and April 3 against Houston.
Individual game tickets will go on sale Oct. 4 at Ticketmaster locations, at ticketmaster.com and by calling (800) 4NBATIX. There are roughly 1,000 seats available for each home game this season, the team said in a press release.

The Lakers signed C.J. Giles, a 6-foot-11 free agent forward who finished his collegiate career at Oregon State after spending two years at Kansas. Giles averaged 6.3 points and 5.6 rebounds in 10 games last season for the Beavers.
Mitch Kupchak, the Lakers' general manager, said earlier in the week that he hoped to have 18 or 19 players on the training camp roster. Giles' signing brings the total to 18, so he could be the final name added to the roster. Training camp starts Sept. 30.

The Lakers signed guard Brandon Heath, who played last season in France for the club team Entente Orleans 45 and averaged 12 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 25 games. He played with the Clippers summer league team in Las Vegas and averaged 5.6 points in five games. He was a standout at San Diego State before joining the pro ranks.
Heath isn't expected to make the team, but will probably get a good look during training camp, which starts Sept. 30 in El Segundo.

Kobe Bryant has announced that he won't have surgery on his damaged right pinkie, deciding that the 12-week recovery period was too long for him and the Lakers. Bryant said Tuesday on his Web site, kb24.com, that he did not wish to miss any days at training camp.
He also said, "I have always felt that I can still focus and play at a high level even through various injuries. That's really just part of the game. When the doctors told me recovery from a procedure could be 12 weeks, I just decided now was not the time to have surgery. What it really came down to for me is that I just didn't want to miss any time 'punching the clock' for the Lakers, given all we are trying to accomplish as a team this NBA season. I am just really excited and looking forward to being there with the guys when camp opens in a few weeks. That is a real bonding process and if I can avoid being on the sidelines for that, God willing, I will."
Bryant injured his finger in a Feb. 5 game against the New Jersey Nets, jamming it against the body of Jason Kidd. He jammed it several times over the course of the rest of the season, but it did not stop him from earning his first NBA MVP award and leading the Lakers to the NBA Finals.
His original plan was to delay surgery until after the Beijing Olympics. After consulting "numerous doctors" he decided against having surgery, however. The Lakers' training camp begins Sept. 30 in El Segundo and their season starts Oct. 28 at home against Portland.

Our friends at ESPN.com are reporting that Kobe Bryant will announce Monday on his Web site, kb24.com, when and where he is having surgery to fix his damaged right pinkie. Nothing on the site so far, and no word from the Lakers either.
Bryant hurt his finger in a Feb. 5 game against the New Jersey Nets, but delayed surgery until after the Beijing Olympics last month. The Lakers said two weeks ago that he would take some time to decide when or if to have the surgery.
Meanwhile, Bryant is scheduled to be on Oprah on Monday afternoon (along with other Olympic stars). Then he's doing the Jimmy Kimmel show on Tuesday night. Both are on Channel 7. (If you're reading this and you're not in L.A., then check your local listings).
Meanwhile, check back for further updates. Real ones, hopefully.

Andrew Bynum spoke with reporters for about 10 minutes Friday.
Here's the bulk of the question-and-answer session:

Andrew Bynum will meet with reporters Friday morning in El Segundo to give an update on his physical condition and his recovery from knee surgery in June. He's expected to say everything is set for his full participation in training camp, which starts Sept. 30. Check back Friday afternoon for more on Bynum's progress.