Straight Up Menace

Ronnie was way ahead of his time.

I took this picture from a suite at Staples center 45 min ago not knowing its significance in Laker history.

I understand that a lot of people don’t care about sports, and some do care but aren’t as attached.  But I grew up going to Laker games with my Dad since I was a toddler and the Lakers have always been a part of my life growing up in LA.  So when something tragic happens to the Lakers, like what happened tonight I’m naturally saddened.

Kobe Bryant doesn’t pay my bills, he’s never done anything significant to affect my life directly and he doesn’t care about me or my family, and I don’t care about his, I don’t know the guy.  But I respect his greatness as a basketball player and I’ve seen (either on TV or in person) 90% of the games he’s played since entering the league in ‘96 so seeing him get injured in the way that he did tonight pisses me the fuck off.

First of all there is one person and one person only that has to be held accountable for this and that is Mike D’antoni.  He is not a basketball coach, he’s a gimmick.  He doesn’t respect his players or the game.  Since when does a coach let a player dictate his own minutes?  I understand that the point is for games to be won and the Lakers best chance of winning is when Kobe is on the floor.  But he is 34 years old, which is 41 in dog/basketball/professional athlete years and that means that you have to be conservative with Kobe’s minutes.  But D’antoni was not capable of grasping this basic concept.  He had a somewhat successful run in Phoenix and people thought that he could take that and blindly apply his philosophies in New York first, and then LA.  Neither worked, both were epic failures and I strongly believe that he should never be employed in the NBA again.  Playing Kobe 48 minutes in back to back games, and ignoring basic tenets of managing a roster were not on his radar,  This was blatant NEGLIGENCE! D’antoni was just trying to save face in front of the media that was basically calling him what he is: a complete ass clown.

So Kobe tore his Achilles tendon tonight (or as Matt Barnes put it on Twitter “they ran him into the ground”) and yea, players recover from that injury and come back and have productive careers.  But not at age 34 with as many miles on the odometer as Kobe has.  He probably will play again but it won’t be the same.  That’s not just bad for the Lakers, its bad for basketball globally.  

I’ve never been this sad about anything involving sports but if there’s one thing that I know about Kobe Bean Bryant, it’s that he will NEVER give up.  So I’m confident that we will see him take the floor again, it just may be extremely difficult to watch (see Isaiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler and Dominique Wilikins all of whom suffered Achilles tendon injuries late in their careers and were never the same).

Back to the photo though.  That picture of Dwight shooting a freethrow in the final seconds of the game tonight is significant because it is symbolic of a new era in Laker basketball.  Assuming Dwight re-signs with the Lakers this summer for the league maximum, he is the future of the franchise and this is a sad thing.  Dwight is not dedicated to becoming a better player, he doesn’t respect the game and he is of low skill.  Everything appears to be a joke to him and he takes everything for granted.  He is a large spoiled child and I don’t respect him.  But he is the future of the Lakers and that’s it.

Fuck.  I’m a little drunk and I don’t know what else to say about this.  Sad, sad, sad day to be a Laker fan.

It’s still Lakers or die though.

Ron Ron bounced back from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in 12 days instead of 6 weeks because it was nothing to a boss!  

QUEENSBRIDGE!

Triple O.G. Isaiah Rider

Don’t you ever forget!

Peeler had the ill lefty J

(via rat-bone)