If you can’t teach height, then you can’t coach height, and so in that case you can see why the Celtics are in trouble. Remember how every Lakers fan claimed the ’08 Finals would have gone their way had Andrew Bynum been healthy, and every Boston fan responded by asking how their ass tastes? Last night we all saw what happens when L.A.’s big men are healthy and playing like they have some hair on their chests, before Kobe came in and delivered the fatal shots … Right off the bat L.A. looked to go inside, while Kobe looked to drive and put pressure on Boston’s defense. Read More »

Norm Nixon isn’t walking through this door. Elgin Baylor isn’t walking through this door. Silk Wilkes isn’t walking through this door.

I was born in 1982, and I didn’t begin to understand NBA basketball until sometime around 1988. So before I roll out a list of my all-time favorite Los Angeles Lakers, I should point out that I missed a lot of the “Showtime” era (though ESPN Classic has helped rectify that), and I never watched Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain when they wore purple and gold. Read More »

Two things stood out to me when Jerry West was being interviewed on NBA TV last night. Fielding questions about Kobe Bryant, whom earlier in the evening had passed West as the L.A. Lakers’ all-time leading scorer, Mr. Clutch admitted, “I don’t have contact with [Kobe] anymore,” in a spot where guys will usually at least fake it and say, “We talk every now and then.”

The other time was when West said Kobe will ultimately go down in history as the greatest Laker of all-time — even if a lot of L.A. fans are “mad or disappointed” to hear that.

Therein lies the most complicated part of Kobe’s enduring legacy. Read More »