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Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports had an interesting story today concerning the living arrangements of Reggie Bush's immediate family. When I was searching early this afternoon, no one else had any hint of it as far as Google news was concerned (and Yahoo! news couldn't even find their own article, what's that all about?) That's changed now. I noticed that it was spreading this evening via headline on LA Observed.
The sports media are going to have a feast with this. The local TV news folks are already featuring it.
Normally this is the week (right before the draft this coming Saturday) for the biographies about the lower echelon players available. Local media companies feature articles about local players or the prospects available to the nearest teams. The national machines try to focus on the NBA playoffs. It's been funny watching them all scurry to find something new to talk about for the last month (Brett Favre anyone?) but this is too juicy to ignore.
A chum slick has been established, the sharks are circling and now it gets hard for Bush (can he duck reporters all week?) and his handlers.
If you made a real bet that the Lakers would make the playoffs back before November of 2005, my hat's off to you. Wow. Or maybe we need to get you some help.
I thought they had a chance to make the playoffs last year until Rudy Tomjanovich unraveled like he'd had some weird chance encounter with Kermit Washington. Everything went downhill from there.
The draft and roster moves last spring and summer were, umm, interesting. Mix in the return of Phil (it's all about the family connections) and anything could have happened.
Somehow, the Zen approach got an overhaul and hundreds of other little things have the Lakers playing like an actual team as they head to the post season. That's the real shock and the reason they'll be playing for a bit longer.
Everyone knows about Kobe and most think he's a ball hogging hot dog. He became the basketball version of Barry Bonds after the trial in Colorado and Shaq's departure (unlike many, I wasn't sad to see the big quote leave — his new commitment to fitness was good for Miami and for Mr. O'Neil, but it also proved what was being asserted by voices around the Lakers for some time, Shaq had settled in and wasn't worth $30 million per year). Bryant is a phenomenal basketball player. The best in the league? I don't know so I'll leave that to others. I believe he's a year behind Michael Jordan's development at this point (but he's got three more 'pro' years on his wheels). Michael, Scottie, Phil and the rest (I remembered Horace Grant and Bill Cartright, but forgot Paxson, Perdue, King, et al), won their first title when MJ was a few months older than Kobe is now. If he could learn to make the kind of crisp passes that have people swooning over LeBron, he'd have it all.
Smush Parker has been consistent from the start, in a way that was unpredictable.
Lamar Odum is playing really well, even better than his last season in Miami. Lately, he's been doing it all.
There have even been a series of (Kwame) Brown and Walton sightings lately. A couple things here. First, the Kwame trade was the most bizarre pickup of the summer. Even out doing the draft of Andrew Bynum. It was like compounding a problem. Mihm, Odum, Walton, Brown, Bynum, Medvedenko and Cook all at once? The solution to the problem was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Oft ignored around town and once dissed by the immensely talented (no not really) Michael Olowokandi, Kareem seems to have been able to teach the kids something. They're just better somehow. Where do you think Magic learned his baby hook? The second part is about a transition. Somehow the youngsters have become part of a team where they play a big (if occasional) part.
The team is still deeply flawed, but it's going to be fun to watch. Anything could happen.
Next year could be a lot better.
Add another point guard and a sniper (I'd make a bet that there were bedroom conversions about the Fisher trade this year) and Phil can let Bryant swing between SG and SF if he'll pass it often enough. Kobe does need a statistics course. He's just too talented for his own good and needs to learn that there can be better options. He's not superman and neither was Shaq, despite the noise. Hopefully, it's sinking in. This year was all about letting Kobe's team mates learn to find him, but from here on out, he'll need to find people to work off of. The future of the team really is in his hands.
I wrote most of this the night they clinched and have since stumbled on Bill Simmons declaration that Bryant should be the MVP. Now that's shocking.
I was talking to Jon about the middle ages on Saturday night and couldn't remember exactly when it was. I figured it ran from about 1000 (ce) to 1500, maybe 1450. I've finally got around to checking... ooops, not quite. Losing track of 700 years (the article puts the middle ages from 300 to 1500) was pretty big but I still can't quite believe that the dark ages were part of the middle ages.
The pluralization is tucked in there pretty well, lurking for all who don't think about its meaning. Can you imagine the committee meeting where they decided to just shuffle off the whole dark ages and hide them in the basement of the middle ages? Look we have to do something to get the dark ages out of everyones way, they were awful, we can't have people thinking about those bad times. How about we slide the dark ages into the front end of the middle ages and drop the whole name. A hundred years from now, who'll know?
When I was telling Jon about it tonight, I managed to work in some discussion about the renaissance, but I hadn't read about it lately. I was interested to see that some date the end of the middle ages to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
I wound up stubbing my toe again when I started running through a bunch of people from the renaissance and tossed Frédéric Chopin into the list of classical musicians. Of course, he had to stop me on Chopin. We don't have any of his music, so he's never heard of him. I remember liking Chopin, that's why he came to mind so easily... I can't explain not having a standout recording. That's something to fix while working on remembering that he was a 19th century composer, not quite a renaissance type of guy. Too bad.
Dang, still haven't posted. I've been listening and kicking myself a bit. How the hell did I let Mr. Chopin fall out of my life like that?
