I write for both thelakersnation.com, and glorifythepast.com, Lakers and Chargers respectfully.Each time I piublish a new article I will update this article page in order of relevance, please feel free to give me feedback by emailing me at dbricks33@gmail.com
Winning May Just Solve Everything
DAVID BRICKLEY - thelakersnation.com (November 17, 2007)
Bryant going 2-14 in the first half against the Detroit Pistons would usually mean the Lakers were down by at least double digits.
The Lakers as a whole shooting under 30% in the first half would mean that they were down by 20 or so.
But that didn’t happen because of Defense, taking care of the ball, and intensity.
Three things that the Los Angeles Lakers rarely if ever put all together in one game last season and this was against one of the top teams in the east.
I know Kobe answered the mannerisms questions last week with, “Some people just need to get a life. It’s Silly. They try too hard to read into things that just aren’t there.”
But, if you were watching that game there was definitely a sense of cohesiveness, a trust in each other, and a will to succeed as a group.
Instead of Kobe shooting himself out of a slump he helped the team in other ways, with his intense defense on Richard Hamilton. Lamar Odom and in stretches the second unit, took the scoring load and Kobe trusted his teammates on the offense end.
As far as reading into the mannerisms, I am sorry Kobe but I had too.
Kobe Bryant, diving on the floor for a loose ball and shaking his head vigorously with intensity on his face, Farmer and Kobe meeting at half court bumping each other’s chest. There was also the fast break with Farmar saving the ball out of bounce, Evans recovering it, and then lobbing it to Bynum for the slam dunk.
I think Kobe might have underestimated this team, and the progress each player has made has surprised him. Lamar coming back strong after surgery, Bynum looking bigger and stronger, a healthy Radmanovic, a talented Luke Walton, now the 6th man in a more deeper rotation, and of course the leadership of Derek Fisher.
Now the Lakers could lose the next 5 games in a row and this would all be irrelevant but the collectiveness I saw last night was the first time since the 2006 playoffs that I saw everybody picking each other up, everybody feeling they have a place on this team, and each player contributing noticeably.
The Lakers are 5-3, 6-2 if we would of won against Houston opening night which was a heartbreaking loss to say the least. All that being said we have had one of the most difficult schedules in the NBA.
They say that winning solves everything and hides the drama behind closed doors.
Winning camouflaged Kobe and Shaq’s problems for 5 years.
Winning may just solve our current problem as well.
Not too Early to Discuss:
Elton Brand in Purple and Gold?
DAVID BRICKLEY - thelakersnation.com (November 15, 2007)
The Lakers are looking decent through the first 7 games. Not too bad, and not too great either but average much like many experts have said, “A .500 type team.”
Sure as Laker fans we can see the improvement in players like Bynum, Farmer, and Radmanovic. We know the potential of guys like Jarvis, and see the improvement at point guard with a veteran savvy Derek Fisher.
However the question still remains about Kobe, as Laker fans we enjoy watching this season and try to keep our mind focused on the time at hand. But one must wonder what is the future of this fracnchise?
It seems at this point that Kobe most likely is staying put this season as a Los Angeles Laker, Mitch Kupchak doesn’t want to be known as the man that traded both Shaq and Kobe. Kobe as far as we know isn’t being too disruptive and most likely has somewhat backed off his severe trade demands.
But if the Lakers have a productive season and Kobe Bryant is there throughout to lead our team to the promise land then what’s next for this team.
That question needed answers so I went browsing.
This summer a lot of talented free agents come off the books. Or have player options to hear offers from other teams. Either way guys like Magette, Baron Davis, and Shawn Marion can listen to deals and go to any team that they please.
However, those names don’t matter because the big name on that list, and the guy I think would be a perfect fit for the Lakers is the guy that plays in the same arena…
Elton Brand.
That’s right can you imagine a lineup of Fisher or Farmer at the One, Kobe Bryant at SG, Lamar Odom at SF, Elton Brand at PF, and Andrew Bynum at C?
Jermaine O’Neal is good, so is Marion but Elton Brand 100% healthy is the best power forward in the league behind Duncan and Garnett.
Logically is this something the Lakers can do? Yes it is, next year the Lakers will have 9.1 million off the books. AKA Kwame Brown. Yes the time has come where Brown is shown the door. Also guys like Evans, and Turiaf are free agents as well. Sasha Vujacic can also take a Qualifying offer from other teams.
Now im not saying get rid of great guys like Turiaf, or an athletic beast in Evans but with Browns salary off the books. This could be a possibility. Elton Brand will have a player option this summer. He currently makes 15.3 million. But, if the Lakers are willing to do one of two things. Either take the somewhat large contract in and pay the luxury tax. Or do a sign and trade with guys like Brian Cook then this could actually happen.
Would Kobe Bryant leave a team with longtime friend Fisher, his boy LO, and Elton Brand? I think not.
This team could compete with the most talented teams in the league. You think the Celtics look good? Brand can guard Garnett, Kobe would destroy Allen, and LO would post up Pierce all day. Also, don’t forget our depth. Turiaf, Walton, Farmer, Crittenton, Radmanovic, Mihm, that to me has a championship run written all over it.
Currently I’m proud of my Lakers and have seen some excellent improvement over last year. I am glad that the Kobe talks have died down, unless you’re in the United Center watching a Bulls game. But things are good right now for Laker fans. But if we could pull this thing off this summer… Things would be a lot better for us.
In 2008 we would all be making plans to meet up at staples center for the 2008 championship parade. It might be too soon to speculate but remember you heard it here first.
Uncertainty Weighing on Lakers
DAVID BRICKLEY - thelakersnation.com (October 31, 2007)
Something must happen. As Kobe Bryant has said, “Do something, and do it Now!”
However, now it’s a different sense of desperation. The facts are clear, what has to be done is obvious… Kobe needs to get traded, or needs to be a Laker for the rest of the season.
How should management go about this? I would have to agree with Magic Johnson that a decision has to be made within the next week, or as soon as possible. The Lakers need to make a decision, are we either going to keep Kobe, or decide to trade him as soon as possible.
Trying to get a precise comment out of the Buss family is nearly impossible, but somebody needs to step up and make a statement about the immediate future of this franchise.
Phil Jackson wants answers, the players want this resolved and the Lakers want to move ahead with the season without this dark cloud hanging over them.
There is no way this Laker team can be successful with this hanging over them the entire season. These trade talks aren’t like constant Shawn Marion talks, or how it used to be with Garnett in Minnesota. These trade talks are backed by sources, strong comments, and rumors coming out daily. This cannot go on. Kobe doesn’t want it to be a distraction. Of course he doesn’t, and either does Phil, Lamar, Magic or any other person that considers themselves a Laker.
But the bottom line is, this is a very strong distraction. The majority of the Opening Night TNT broadcast was all about the Kobe rumors. Pre-game, during the game, half-time, and post game.
It is no longer what this Laker team can do with Kobe firing on all cylinders. Now the question is basically the basic 5 W’s. Who? What? When? Where? and Why?
These change daily and it is a definite cause for concern. Management needs to publicly say what they are going to do and do it. There needs to be no grey area. Everything is up in the air and this Laker team needs to have stability and something they can know is true.
Almost every Laker has been rumored in trade rumors. Now, the man that is supposed to lead them to the promise land might not be there next month, next week, he might even get shipped out tomorrow.
Uncertainty is the one thing this young laker team cannot have. No superstar has had these strong of trade rumors and distraction during the course of a season in a long time. The fact of the matter is, the Lakers can’t focus on the season ahead until this current drama is resolved.
Buss has to make a decision. Kobe shut up no matter how much you want out we are not dealing with this, and you’re going to have to wait for the offseason. Or, Kobe you will be traded as soon as possible and are no longer in our plans for the future.
Either way as a fan you have to have an opinion. But at this point in the season stability is the main thing the Los Angeles Lakers need. After watching the first game of the season it is very evident that very few things are constant in La-La Land.
The Unthinkable is Becoming Reality
DAVID BRICKLEY - thelakersnation.com (October 16, 2007)
My job here at Laker Nation is to be the voice of the fans, thinking, debating, and dreaming of the best scenario for the Los Angeles Lakers. Explaining how we could get KG, how we could still go far in the playoffs, or how we can still acquire a big name. But now it’s time to be real and look at the facts and arrive at an educated guess of what will happen to the Lakers.
As hard as it is for me to say, a DIEHARD Kobe Bryant and Laker Fan. KOBE BRYANT will NOT finish his career as a Los Angeles Laker.
It all starts when talks first surfaced that someone from the front office said the Shaq trade was Kobe’s fault. After hearing this I first thought, “Here we go again, can Kobe or the Lakers ever shake the Shaq story?” After hearing Kobe’s trade demands, having him rescind those demands, demanding a trade again, talking to Buss in Spain, coming to training camp, and now Buss’s latest statements the answer to that question is No.
Kobe Bryant will never be able to stay in Los Angeles without having the “Shaq Shadow” haunt him until he wins another championship. Regardless if Shaq is on his last leg, or that Shaq’s Heat got swept by a young Chicago Bull team. Kobe and Shaq will always be linked together.
Kobe has always been blamed, and the front office especially Buss, never stepped up to the plate and said,” Yes, I traded Shaq because I wanted too, and I felt it was the right decision in the long run for this franchise, and NO Kobe Bryant had nothing to do with my decision nor did he say anything to me regarding O’Neal’s future!”
Buss never fully had Kobe’s back, and he let the media eat up the story that Kobe forced Shaq out because he wanted his own team. That frustration accumulated over the years for Kobe. However, he always brushed it off because it was from other meaningless sources.
However, when word got out this summer that someone officially from the precious Laker front office backed those vicious rumors, it made Kobe lose all faith in the Laker organization. The people he felt was on his side, now turned against him.
After all this it seemed that Phil Jackson, Buss, and other Laker management talked to Kobe and he was ready to put everything behind him and lead his troops back to the postseason. But once again we were all fooled.
The talk in Spain come to find out was unsuccessful. Buss talked till he was blue in the face why Kobe should stay and at the end Kobe basically said, “I feel you but umm, I still want out!”
The damage was already done and especially after realizing all the big time players that desperately wanted to become Lakers didn’t. The likes of Baron Davis, Jermaine O’neal, Ron Artest, and recently Jason Kidd all would have loved to play in LA with Kobe. But, the Lakers failed at that miserably.
It seems for the first time in the Buss regime that he is ready to rebuild and doesn’t really mind if they don’t win now!
After seeing all the facts this summer and following this story religiously. The recent Buss statements filled all Laker diehards into desperation of what will happen to this team we love so much. Looking at the entire situation, at this time in Kobe’s career and how much he wants to be a winner, there’s no doubt that if we were all in Kobe’s shoes we would want out too. The Laker purple and Gold is beautiful and the fans are indeed “sweethearts”, but sometimes the bad outweighs the good and you have to do what is best for you as an individual player, your family, and your legacy.
So from now until doomsday, Kobe will remain quiet so the Lakers can get a decent offer without other owners looking at the Lakers as a charity case much like what happened with Allen Iverson in Philadelphia.
It might not be in the near future, it might not happen until the February deadline, heck it might not be until this summer but as a diehard Laker fan it now seems that it is the inevitable.
The only plausible reason that I can see Kobe staying is if somehow we get an unbelievable trade that makes us an instant contender and leaving would just not be in his best interest. However, with Mitch Kupchack saying “He likes this team”, and grading the Lakers in the past it doesn’t seem like they’re even capable of pulling the trigger. That gun left when Jerry West did.
So for the Los Angeles Lakers, if this indeed happens, you have traded the most dominant center in NBA history, and arguably the closest thing to the best ever in Kobe Bryant all in a matter of 4 years.
Dr.Buss you’re not winning this hand of poker. Because you just folded pocket aces!
No KG, No Problem:
The New Movement
DAVID BRICKLEY - thelakersnation.com (August 4, 2007)
Kevin Garnett is now a Celtic, something I think he will regret for the rest of his NBA career.
Kevin Garnett’s quote about the Lakers was, “I didn’t know the whole Kobe situation so…” That makes total sense; you couldn’t call Kobe and ask him? Even saying that you act like you had leverage in the trade.
You didn’t want to go to Boston and now that Ray Allen is there you love it? Amazing how a 30 year old with two bad ankles can make you do a total 180.
So to Garnett, good luck over there and when Kobe drops 60 on you in the Garden and they start chanting his name again like last year, I think you will then have realized that you choked and you should of demanded management to send you to beautiful Los Angeles, California — Rather than cold and muggy Boston, Massachusetts.
As an avid preacher of the movement, am I bitter that KG didn’t come to LA? No, I actually really don’t care as much as I thought I would. I think looking back at it logically the possibility of Kevin McHale, a man with Celtic pride in his blood ( I guess the phrase over there would be… bleeds green and white?), getting KG to LA was near impossible.
A guy that once close lined Kurt Rambis, he would of never sent KG to LA, and ill even take it one step further, McHale knew that Garnett had to be moved, and that they were going to re-build, so why not send them to your alma mater, in a sense?
There’s no doubt in my mind that McHales past with the Celtics factored in more than we might think when sending him to Boston.
It also goes both ways why he probably didn’t entertain offers from the Lakers or he wouldn’t really entertain a three team deal. No matter how much older he gets, or how professional he says he is. Deep down he still hates the Lakers and in return loves the Celtics with all his heart.
“Hey, I got a 10 time All-Star that I need to trade, hmmm… What team should I trade him too?” I might be over exaggerating but in sense that’s how it went down.
The “Get Garnett movement” was in no way something that was a waste of time, it was in no way something that never helped and was pointless. The fact of the matter is the “Get Garnett movement” will always be remembered for the idea that it instilled the passion, hard work, and determination for the diehard Laker fans.
The Nugget, posting relevant Laker news up to the minute, LD2K using the visual effect to let us envision a more promising future, hZm making the site looking ridiculously sick with his professional graphics. It was a site that was mentioned on both NBC and ABC, mentioned by Fred Roggin and Rob Fukuzaki. Was shouted out on the radio, LD2K was a guest on a radio show in Minnesota talking about the movement; people were emailing us from all over the world talking about the movement and the Lakers in general.
The “Get Garnett movement” was in NO way a failure, in no way something that we should be ashamed of. But now it’s time to make this site what it truly is, #1 in Lakers news, rumors, and articles. We no longer worship or hope and wish for one single player. We will not be known as the Get… Anyone. We will be known as getting the Lakers back to a championship level.
Phil Jackson said, “We’re only one piece away.” There are still options out there for us to look into and to upgrade our roster. The movement in a sense is still there but has just re-focused back to what it really was in the first place, a site for passionate Laker fans to speak their mind and hear about rumors and possibilities of making our roster better.
The users are still passionate and want to make a difference and want to be heard. All that being said, it is essential that we don’t forget what got us here; GetGarnett.com was not a failure nor was it something we should forget about. Now we move on continuing to report the Lakers in a professional setting for the FANS, the Laker Nation.
To say the movement is over is ridiculous, we just no longer worship some All-Star that rather be with Paul Pierce then Kobe Bryant.
So my personal opinion is we need to change the site name ASAP, we cannot forget where we came from, but we must move on in a more positive direction without the Garnett cloud hanging over us.
Till then we will still update the site with all relevant Laker news and rumors… Gasol, Jermaine, Artest, whoever!
We still have hope to upgrade our roster significantly and get Kobe in better spirits. Remember, most of the deals that go down don’t have too many rumors, so right when you least expect it we might make a move that catapults’ us to the NBA’s elite.
This quote still sums it all up and stays very relevant…
“The Power of the people will never be defeated”
- Fred Roggin, NBC
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