Spero Dedes Q&A

First off, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been extremely busy lately with multiple things going on at the same time, and I am way behind. Anyway, check out the good chat with Lakers radio play-by-play commentator Spero Dedes at this link. I will try to get updated on here when I get a chance.

Radio DJs Say Magic Johnson Is Faking AIDS

Radio DJs Chris Baker and Langdon Perry of Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station KTLK said during their radio show that they thought that former Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson is faking AIDS. When on the discussion of diseases, the conversation went like this:

Perry: “Like Magic with his faked AIDS. Magic faked AIDS.”
Baker: “You think Magic faked AIDS for sympathy?”
Perry: “I’m convinced that Magic faked AIDS.”
Baker: “Me too.”

Just a horrible accusation if you ask me. While Magic says that he doesn't want them fired, I believe that they need to be fired for what they said.

In other news, Dwyane Mitchell has been waived from the team.

Also, for those that didn't see the second preseason game Thursday night, here's the recap and box score.

Luke Walton Stalker Arrested

A female stalker, Stacy Beshear, was arrested for stalking Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers. She had been stalking Walton for a year, going so far as to park outside of his house and following him when he would leave. She also showed up at his basketball camp, sitting there watching for 4 days in a row. Walton had enough when Beshear stuck out her hand, making a gun gesture with her hand, and firing fake bullets. There is a November 6 court date.

In other Luke Walton news, he has posted his second NBA.com blog. He discusses topics including the restaurant that he owns, celebrities such as Larry Bird and the Grateful Dead coming to his house when he was a kid, an update on his ankle, and more. Check out Walton's second NBA.com blog here.

Also, for those that didn't see the first preseason game last night, here's the recap and box score.

Expectations High With Bynum Back

At the beginning of last season for the Los Angeles Lakers, fans never would have thought that the team would make it all the way to the NBA Finals. It looked like another early playoff exit for the Lakers. But Andrew Bynum exceeded everyone's expectations and was a major part of the great start of the season. Then Bynum went down with a knee injury in January to end his season.

The Lakers needed help at the center position with Bynum out, and general manager Mitch Kupchak pulled off one of the biggest steals in NBA history by trading Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol, and draft picks for Pau Gasol on the first day of February. Gasol would help the Lakers win 22 of 27 games with him in the lineup. The Lakers made it to the NBA Finals, but would fall short 4-2.

So with Bynum returning this season to pair up with Gasol to form a frontcourt that will be scary most teams to go against, the Lakers are the odds on favorites to win the 2009 championship. Bynum is excited to be back, even saying that he wants to make the All Star team. If Bynum is determined enough to make the All Star team, you know he will be a force to be reckoned with this season. And barring major injury to any Laker rotation players, the Lakers will be the 2009 NBA champions.

Los Angeles Lakers Training Camp News Roundup

Lots of news from the Los Angeles Lakers has happened in a span of a week, most of it having to do with training camp beginning. And you know what training camp means: the NBA season is right around the corner! Here's a news roundup of highlights from the Lakers.

A rundown of the Lakers' events and expectations for the 2008-09 season

Hoopsworld has 5 analysts preview this upcoming season's Lakers

What the options are for the Lakers regarding Lamar Odom

Phil Jackson Q&A part 1

Phil Jackson Q&A part 2

Phil Jackson Q&A part 3

Luke Walton debuts with his NBA.com blog

Sights from training camp

ESPN's forecast for the Lakers

Lakers Resign DJ Mbenga

The Lakers have resigned center DJ Mbenga today. Press release below:

"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."

Sun Yue Almost Sent To Memphis

In an interview with Los Angeles Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, he revealed that recently signed Chinese guard Sun Yue was almost part of the Memphis trade that brought Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Kupchak said, "Memphis also wanted Sun in the trade, but we wanted to keep at least one of those 2 guys so Memphis wanted Marc [Gasol] and we are happy that we were able to keep Sun Yue, because we liked him when we drafted him."

Other topics of the interview include how well Sun speaks English, his humor, another nickname, and the process that the Lakers had to go through to sign a player from China. It's an interesting read if you've ever wondered what NBA teams have had to go through to sign players like Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, and now Sun from China.

Read more about the interview here.

Assist By Ref

Here's a fun Laker video to watch until there's some new Laker news:

Lakers Sign C.J. Giles

The Lakers have signed forward C.J. Giles today. Press release below:

"The Los Angeles Lakers have signed free agent forward CJ Giles, it was announced today. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

Giles, a 6-11 forward who finished his collegiate career at Oregon State after playing two seasons at Kansas, averaged 6.3 points and 5.6 rebounds in ten games last season for the Beavers."

Lakers Sign Brandon Heath

The Lakers have signed guard Brandon Heath today. Press release below:

"The Los Angeles Lakers signed free agent guard Brandon Heath on Wednesday.

Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

A 6-3 guard who played collegiately at San Diego State, Heath spent last season playing in France for Entente Orleans 45, where he averaged 12.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 25 games.

Heath had an impressive career with the Aztecs, graduating as the school and Mountain West Conference’s all-time leader in scoring with 2,189 points."

No Surgery For Kobe Bryant

Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant announced today that he is not getting surgery on his right pinkie. Bryant originally injured his finger on February 5 while trying to steal the ball from Jason Kidd.

Bryant said he visited many hand specialists, and decided not to have surgery after hearing that he could be out for 12 weeks to recover. He had originally planned to have surgery after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but has decided against it.

Read more about it here.

Andrew Bynum Is Ready To Play

Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum is ready to play after his breakout season was shortened by a knee injury which caused the need for arthroscopic surgery after averaging a double double with 13.1 points and 10.1 rebounds. The Lakers training camp begins September 30, and Bynum says he'll be better than ever.

"The knee's good. Everything's ready to go, 100 percent. I've been training, getting stronger. I can't wait, man," Bynum said. "I think I'm the only guy who wants the season to start, like, tomorrow, you know what I mean? But I just can't wait to play with the fellows."

Bynum, as well as all Lakers fans, are anxiously waiting his teaming with Pau Gasol. Gasol will shift to power forward, making a scary combo up front for other teams to deal with.

Kobe Bryant Vs. LeBron James

You know it's the dead of summer when there's absolutely no new Laker news. Haha. Anyway, there's a debate on Hoopsworld about who's better between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and I'd like to put my input on it out there.

The writer arguing LeBron's side, of course mentions the thing that you always hear when saying he's better: he's stronger and bigger. Oooh wow, size and strength automatically makes you better? If anything, that's another point for Kobe being better since he's working with less size and strength than LeBron.

Another mention is that LeBron has a higher scoring average, and more specifically, more points scored in the beginning of his career than Kobe does. Well, let's see, Kobe had high scoring teammates already like Shaq, Nick Van Exel, and Eddie Jones, so he obviously didn't get the playing time or have as much of a scoring responsibility as LeBron did at the beginning of his career. Let's take the top 4 scorers from each team (other than Kobe or LeBron) from their rookie seasons. For the Lakers in Kobe's rookie season (1996-97), we have Shaq with 26.2 points, Jones with 17.2, Van Exel with 15.3, and Elden Campbell with 14.9 for a total of 73.6 points. For the Cavaliers in LeBron's rookie season (2003-04), we have Carlos Boozer with 15.5 points, Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 15.3, Jeff McInnis with 11.7, and Eric Williams with 9.4 for a total of 51.9 points. Their sophomore seasons tell the same story, with the Lakers' top 4 (other than Kobe) scoring 71, and the Cavs' top 4 (other than LeBron) scoring 50.

Basically, what I'm trying to get across in the above paragraph is that of course LeBron is going to score more in his early seasons, LeBron didn't have as much talent on his team than Kobe did, so he had to score more and got more opportunities to score more than Kobe. Put Kobe on a team with less talent when he was in his early seasons, and he would have done the same. Which brings me to a related point. The LeBron supporters in the debate point to the fact that he started more games early in his career than Kobe did. LeBron started 79 games his rookie season and 80 his sophomore season. Kobe started 6 games his rookie season and 1 his sophomore season. Again, the reason Kobe's numbers are so low is because of all the talent that he had on his team, not the talent of Kobe himself.

There's no doubt in my mind that LeBron is talented (can you believe LeBron is only 23 years old?!), but it seems like the majority of the reasons given why he's better than Kobe have an asterisk by that given reason. LeBron will be better than Kobe someday in the future, but until LeBron wins the NBA Championship, improves his defense, and becomes more of a clutch shooter with a killer instinct, Kobe Bryant is a better player than LeBron James.

Lakers Sign Joe Crawford

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Joe Crawford. Crawford is the Lakers 2008 second round draft pick who went 58th overall. The official press release is below, from Lakers.com:

"The Los Angeles Lakers have signed guard Joe Crawford, it was announced today. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

Selected by the Lakers with the 58th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Crawford, a 22 year-old native of Detroit, Michigan, played four seasons at the University of Kentucky, averaging 11.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 127 games (76 starts).

As a senior, Crawford ranked fourth in the SEC in scoring with a team-high 17.9 points per game, scoring 20-plus points 13 times while topping 30 points on three occasions.

Earning Second Team All-SEC honors from league coaches as a senior, Crawford finished his collegiate career as Kentucky’s 19th all-time leading scorer with 1,438 points while ranking seventh all-time in three-point field goals made (186).

Additionally, the 6’5” Crawford started all six games for the Lakers Summer League entry in Las Vegas this past July, averaging 11.3 points including .455 (5-of-11) shooting from behind the arc, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 32.7 minutes."

2008-09 Laker Games To Look Forward To

With Olympic basketball done (Team USA won the gold today!), we can get back to focusing on the NBA's offseason, and of course, the ongoing events with our Los Angeles Lakers. We're slightly over 2 months away from the start of the NBA season, and with the schedule released, here are the Laker games to look forward to in the 2008-09 season:

• Oct. 28, Lakers vs. Portland - This of course is opening night in the NBA, and with it, we get a great matchup of Andrew Bynum against Greg Oden. Both players are coming off of injuries, but will be ready for the matchup of the 2 young centers.
• Nov. 9, Lakers vs. Houston - The Lakers get their first look at the trio of Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and the newly acquired Ron Artest. Artest was rumored to be heading to the Lakers, and he even thought that the team he was heading to when he heard about the trade was the Lakers. Expect a great game on this night.
• Nov. 30, Lakers. vs. Toronto - This offseason, the Raptors made a nice (and underrated, in my opinion) trade to acquire Jermaine O'Neal. O'Neal will pair up with Chris Bosh to make one of the best front lines in the NBA. Expect many blocked or altered shots when players try to drive into the paint.
• Dec. 3, Lakers @ Philadelphia - We'll see a lot of entertaining matchups for this game, as we'll see Kobe Bryant against Andre Iguodala, Pau Gasol against newly acquired Elton Brand, and Andrew Bynum against Samuel Dalembert.
• Dec. 25, Lakers vs. Boston - As we all expected, Lakers vs. Celtics is scheduled for Christmas. This is a rematch from the 2008 NBA finals, but with one big difference: Andrew Bynum will be playing. Bynum will need to show us what was missing from the finals matchup against the Celtics.
• Jan. 14, Lakers @ San Antonio - The Lakers meet the Spurs, who they knocked out of the playoffs in a surprisingly easy fashion in 5 games in the Western Conference finals. Though the Spurs are an old team, they are still one of the top teams in the NBA, and you can't underestimate them. The Lakers will need to play hard to win this game.
• Jan. 19, Lakers vs. Cleveland - As usual, this game will be heavily hyped. "Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James" is something that you will hear the announcers say plenty of times during this game, and you know that all eyes will be on them.
• Apr. 14, Lakers vs. Utah - This is a rematch of the Western Conference semifinals, which went to 6 games. Utah is a tough team to beat with the combination of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, but the Lakers have shown they can beat them. This is the last game of the season for the Lakers, which if this season is anything like last season, it could decide a higher (or lower) seeding in the playoffs.

This season will be an interesting one with the ultra-competitive Western Conference teams all fighting for the 8 playoff spots. The return of Andrew Bynum will make the Lakers an even better team than last season. We've been waiting to see the extremely tall frontcourt of Bynum, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom, and we will get our first look at them October 28 when the regular season starts.

I've listed games that I look forward to above, but do you have any others that you look forward to seeing this season? Sound off in the comments if there's a game that you are excited to see.

Lakers Sign Josh Powell

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed forward Josh Powell today. He won't even have to get used to a new arena or buy a new house since last season he played for the Los Angeles Clippers. Powell averaged 5.5 points and 5.2 rebounds last season with the Clippers. In three seasons, he has a career average of 4.2 points and 3.6 rebounds.

More on the signing here.

The Lakers 2008-09 Schedule Breakdown

As I had posted on this post, the full 2008-09 schedule for the Los Angeles Lakers is available, and I wanted to take a look in detail about it, so here's a breakdown of the schedule:

• Oct./Nov. : 10 home, 5 away. A home-heavy schedule for the beginning of the season, including one away game against the Clippers. Only 3 back-to-backs. A moderate difficulty level in terms of the competition played.
• Dec. : 7 home, 8 away. Just about even between home and away games. 4 back-to-backs. An easy month against the competition.
• Jan. : 10 home, 6 away. Another home-heavy month, including an away game against the Clippers. 4 back-to-backs. Fairly tough month against the competition.
• Feb. : 4 home, 9 away. Here's the first road-heavy month for the Lakers. 4 back-to-backs. Another fairly tough month in difficulty.
• Mar. : 5 home, 10 away. The second straight road-heavy month for Los Angeles. Only 2 back-to-backs (plus first half of one leading into April). Very tough competition this month.
• Apr. : 5 home, 3 away. Slightly more home games at the end of the regular season. Only 1 back-to-back (plus the second half of the back-to-back starting at the end of March). Fairly easy month against the competition.

The Lakers have a total of 19 back-to-back games this season. We don't have that many big breaks, which is good since teams are usually cold after not playing for a while. We have 3 times where we have 3 straight games off, all in November, 4 straight games off between December and January, and 5 straight games off for the All Star break in February.

As Laker fans know, Tuesdays are always a common day for Laker games, and this season is no exception. Tuesday leads the Laker season with 20 games. Sunday and Friday each have 16 games. Wednesday is next with 13 games this season. 9 Thursdays have Laker games. Mondays and Saturdays have the least amount of Laker games with only 4 each.

Lakers Sign Sun Yue

The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to terms on a two year contract with Sun Yue of China, the Lakers' second round pick in 2007. Sun, a 6'9" guard, is known as the Chinese Magic because of how his flashy play and size is similar to Magic Johnson. Sun will play with China's team against Kobe and Team USA in the first game of the Olympics for both teams on Sunday, so Laker fans will get to see Sun in action against a soon-to-be teammate.

More on the signing here.

Full Los Angeles Lakers 2008-09 Schedule

The NBA released the full schedule today for all 30 teams for the 2008-09 season, including the Los Angeles Lakers schedule. In the coming days, I will be posting a more detailed look at the schedule, so stay tuned. For now, here is the full Lakers schedule below (all times are Pacific time zone):

October

Tue 28 vs Portland 7:30pm
Wed 29 @ LA Clippers 7:30pm

November

Sat 01 @ Denver 6:00pm
Wed 05 vs LA Clippers 7:30pm
Sun 09 vs Houston 6:30pm
Tue 11 @ Dallas 5:30pm
Wed 12 @ New Orleans 5:00pm
Fri 14 vs Detroit 7:30pm
Tue 18 vs Chicago 7:30pm
Thu 20 @ Phoenix 7:30pm
Fri 21 vs Denver 7:30pm
Sun 23 vs Sacramento 6:30pm
Tue 25 vs New Jersey 7:30pm
Fri 28 vs Dallas 7:30pm
Sun 30 vs Toronto 6:30pm

December

Tue 02 @ Indiana 4:00pm
Wed 03 @ Philadelphia 4:00pm
Fri 05 @ Washington 4:00pm
Sun 07 vs Milwaukee 6:30pm
Tue 09 @ Sacramento 7:00pm
Wed 10 vs Phoenix 7:30pm
Fri 12 vs Sacramento 7:30pm
Sun 14 vs Minnesota 6:30pm
Tue 16 vs New York 7:30pm
Fri 19 @ Miami 5:00pm
Sat 20 @ Orlando 4:00pm
Mon 22 @ Memphis 5:00pm
Tue 23 @ New Orleans 5:00pm
Thu 25 vs Boston 2:00pm
Sun 28 vs Golden State 6:30pm

January

Fri 02 vs Utah 7:30pm
Sun 04 vs Portland 6:30pm
Tue 06 vs New Orleans 7:30pm
Wed 07 @ Golden State 7:30pm
Fri 09 vs Indiana 7:30pm
Sun 11 vs Miami 6:30pm
Tue 13 @ Houston 5:30pm
Wed 14 @ San Antonio 6:00pm
Fri 16 vs Orlando 7:30pm
Mon 19 vs Cleveland 7:30pm
Wed 21 @ LA Clippers 7:30pm
Thu 22 vs Washington 7:30pm
Sun 25 vs San Antonio 12:30pm
Tue 27 vs Charlotte 7:30pm
Fri 30 @ Minnesota 5:00pm
Sat 31 @ Memphis 5:00pm

February

Mon 02 @ New York 4:30pm
Wed 04 @ Toronto 4:00pm
Thu 05 @ Boston 5:00pm
Sun 08 @ Cleveland 12:30pm
Tue 10 vs Oklahoma City 7:30pm
Wed 11 @ Utah 6:00pm
Tue 17 vs Atlanta 7:30pm
Wed 18 @ Golden State 7:30pm
Fri 20 vs New Orleans 7:30pm
Sun 22 @ Minnesota 4:00pm
Tue 24 @ Oklahoma City 5:00pm
Thu 26 vs Phoenix 7:30pm
Fri 27 @ Denver 6:00pm

March

Sun 01 @ Phoenix 12:30pm
Tue 03 vs Memphis 7:30pm
Fri 06 vs Minnesota 7:30pm
Mon 09 @ Portland 7:00pm
Wed 11 @ Houston 5:30pm
Thu 12 @ San Antonio 5:00pm
Sun 15 vs Dallas 12:30pm
Tue 17 vs Philadelphia 7:30pm
Thu 19 vs Golden State 7:30pm
Sat 21 @ Chicago 5:30pm
Tue 24 @ Oklahoma City 5:00pm
Thu 26 @ Detroit 4:30pm
Fri 27 @ New Jersey 4:30pm
Sun 29 @ Atlanta 12:30pm
Tue 31 @ Charlotte 4:00pm

April

Wed 01 @ Milwaukee 5:00pm
Fri 03 vs Houston 7:30pm
Sun 05 vs LA Clippers 6:30pm
Tue 07 @ Sacramento 7:00pm
Thu 09 vs Denver 7:30pm
Fri 10 @ Portland 7:00pm
Sun 12 vs Memphis 6:30pm
Tue 14 vs Utah 7:30pm

Lakers Sign Dwayne Mitchell

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed guard Dwayne Mitchell, a participant on the Lakers summer league team. He averaged 6.7 points and 61.9% shooting in 15 minutes a game with the summer league.

More on the signing here.

Lakers Will Play FC Barcelona In Preseason Game

Three Euroleague teams will be playing in the NBA preseason this year, including the Los Angeles Lakers playing a game against FC Barcelona. The game between the Lakers and FC Barcelona will take place on October 18 at the Staples Center.

FC Barcelona, which is the major basketball team in Spain, will see a familiar face on the Lakers. Pau Gasol played for FC Barcelona before he came to the NBA in 2001. This will be the first game FC Barcelona has ever played in the United States.

Click here for the full article...

Lakers Resign Sasha Vujacic

The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to terms with guard Sasha Vujacic for 3 years, $15 million earlier today. Vujacic busted out last season, averaging a career high 8.8 points a game, and was one of the top three point shooters in the league. The Lakers set their sights on resigning Vujacic after losing restricted free agent forward Ronny Turiaf to the Warriors. The signing will officially be announced on Monday at a press conference at the team headquarters.

Walton Surgery Successful, Turiaf Headed To Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers forward Luke Walton had successful surgery on his right ankle Friday. Walton had bone spurs and scar tissue removed as well as pieces of cartilage being cleaned up. Rehab will take about six weeks, and Walton is expected to be ready for training camp.

In other news, the Lakers did not match the Golden State Warriors' offer for forward Ronny Turiaf in the 7 days given to match the offer, meaning that Turiaf will be heading to the Warriors. The Lakers and Mitch Kupchak had wanted to match the offer, however, they are already way over the salary cap, and with the team already having Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Vladimir Radmanovic, Luke Walton, Trevor Ariza, and Chris Mihm in the frontcourt, Turiaf probably wouldn't have gotten much playing time. Laker fans will definitely miss Ronny Turiaf's energy, shotblocking, and of course, his dancing.

Get To Know Lakers Draft Pick Crawford

Joe Crawford, the second round draft pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, debuted in the summer league Friday scoring 9 points in a loss to the Detroit Pistons. Lakers.com has a video interview with Crawford on his whole experience with the Lakers so far.

Lakers Interested In Garbajosa

Former Toronto Raptor forward Jorge Garbajosa has gotten an offer from the Los Angeles Lakers according to MARCA (note: site is in Spanish). For the Lakers to get Garbajosa, they would have to work a sign and trade since they are over the salary cap. Rumored players involved in the sign and trade are Vladimir Radmanovic and Lamar Odom. Garbajosa is good friends with Pau Gasol, another Spainard, and they both play on Spain's national team. Will they get to team up together on the Lakers?

Lakers Summer League Starts Today

The Las Vegas Summer League starts today at 5pm, and the Lakers will be playing their first game of the summer league against the Detroit Pistons. We'll get our first look at Joe Crawford, the Lakers second round draft pick. See the Lakers summer league roster here.

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