Ron Artest's 'Abused Women of Afghanistan Rap Video' No Picnic...

In what first appeared to be a set up for a perfect slam dunk of a parody rap video...comes a serious (yes, this is for real folks) piece from the only NBA player to fail his pre-draft mental evaluation, Ron-Ron has taken time out from his busy schedule of writing court order apology letters, applying for a job at Circuit City in order to get an employee discount, recording a country song with an elderly woman neighbor, showing up to practice in a bathrobe, smashing a 100k HD Camera, not feeding his dog, recording a Michael Jackson tribute song (yes this is real), and evidently picking #37 to grace his new Lakers jersey because of MJ's 'Thriller' (you can't make this stuff up), making nice-nice with Kobe, anyone remember this?, and being arrested for domestic abuse himself, to put together this high quality rap video for the abused women of Afghanistan.

In his rapping ode to “all his Afghani women,” the video intertwines clips of battered women from the war-torn country of Afghanistan juxtaposed with apparently a bunch of hand-held camcorder shots of a walk in the public park with Artest rapping while families enjoy, um... picnics in the background.

Michael Jordan allegedly commented on his charitable attempts as “not a very good way to make money for himself.” But Artest is not letting that get him down, he is always about doing it his way...whatever way that is. Thanks for showing us your sensitive side, Ron ('cuz you know he's all about the ladies) and for making this country proud...

Mbenga Off To A Great Start...

Mbenga, the Congolese 7-footer, had started just two games in his entire career, getting one start in each of his first two NBA seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. D.J. Mbenga made the most of a rare and first Lakers start tonight, with five points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in a win over the Grizzlies.

Other notes on tonight's game... The Lakers honored John Radcliffe, their longtime scorer, by presenting a championship ring to his wife, Carolyn. Radcliffe, who had held his job since 1961, died during the summer. ... Bryant is responsible for the three highest-scoring performances by an opponent in Grizzlies history, including a 60-point game in March 2007.

Lakers Win By 40!

What a great game, from start to finish. (reporting via mobile text)
The game started with an incredible rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by the most famous 'Pulgas' ever... incomparable Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's a difficult feat to name a notable bass player by name, let alone someone named Flea....but his unmistakable funkafied slamming on the bass' strings letting loose what could only be the work of the resounding and his unmistakable sound. It was quite fitting to have him break off a little funk, cuz that same rhythm was cancelled through the Lakers playing tonight.

All the way through to the diminishing minutes I started my section to start chanting for MBENGA to come in and play. I said in other posts and before this game that I was waiting for a little of Mbengas funk to be injected in this game, and as you know his funkified style of play is infectious.......thank you Phil for listening...great to see his first appereance in these playoffs.

final score: 118-78

let's end this Thursday nite.....


UPDATE: I think I saw Neil Diamond at the game in a fake moustache and disguise (no, I am not kidding!) if anyone has a picture please send it, I'm going to do story tomorrow.

Pre Game Ramble: Game 1 Round 2

Ok....here we go, reporting live from Staples to kick off this 2nd round Playoff Series, and the excitment is in the air.

STAPLES CENTER ADVANTAGE
Since moving to Staples prior to the 1999-2000 season, the Lakers have won 84% of their postseason games (56-11) . The Lakers have topped the century mark in over half of their preseason home game at Staples Center (37 of 67) while the oppostion has been eld under 100 poins in all but 18 of those games. In their last 30 home playoff games. the Lakers are 26-4.

NBA Playoff Preview Round 2: Los Angeles Lakers Vs. Houston Rockets

Round 1 Playoff Highlights...Getting ready for the Rockets in Round 2

Mitch Kupchak Exclusive Conference Call

Mitch Kupchak gives details about the Radmanovic Trade in a conference call to the media.

The Lakers Blog has the exclusive Here:




Mitch Kupchak Conference Call Transcript
Intro
"As the season wore on, it looked like Phil (Jackson) had settled into starting Luke (Walton) and bringing Trevor (Ariza) off the bench, and we are very pleased with both players. Vladi (Radmanovic) started the season (at small forward) and I thought he played well, but here it is early February and it looked like he wasn't going to play much. You can tell by just watching and talking to Vladi that he did want to play, and he didn't come here just to sit on the bench and collect a paycheck. So, part of the decision was to accommodate a player that wanted to play.

From our point of view we feel we pick up two players that are still young developing players (is valuable). As you know, Adam (Morrison) was their No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft and had an ACL injury against us last year. That injury takes more than a year (to recover from), so we think he would benefit from a situation that has less pressure, and our staff here in terms of our people downstairs medically and just a stable environment where he could progress and get back to where he was in college. Shannon Brown is a developing player as well - you may recall that he played really well against us in L.A. last week. So we picked up two players that have upside. If there was a third reason, we picked up some flexibility down the road with a shortened commitment versus Vladi's (financial) commitment."

More Details
# The Lakers were looking for a new defensive look off the bench that "Maybe Shannon Brown could come in and give us something we don't have." The former Michigan State standout is a solid 6-4, 211 pounds, and can body up on both shooting guards and small forwards.
# To Kupchak, it didn't make any sense to keep a player "who was highly compensated on the bench and not playing at all, especially if he was not happy." So shipping Radmanovic seemed to be a good option regardless; getting two young players with potential surely sweetened the deal.
# When asked if he felt the Lakers were taking a risk in making the deal in terms of chemistry, Kupchak replied that since Radmanovic wasn't playing, that shouldn't be an issue. Vladi was "well liked," but the feeling was if Vladi continued not to play, he would have been more and more unhappy: "Then maybe the chemistry side doesn't look as good."
# It was obvious to GMs around the league that the Lakers had an overabundance of small forwards. In short, Radmanovic, Walton and Ariza had to duke it out for playing time, and even though Vladi played well as a starter, Jackson opted for Walton due to his understanding of the offense and ability to move the ball, while Ariza's minutes couldn't be diminished in the interest of the team. As such, Vladi became expendable, and opposing front offices knew that. It just "Took a little time to see whom Phil was going to settle on," explained Kupchak.
# Neither player has previous experience with the triangle offense, but Kupchak doesn't see learning it as a problem. "We're not going to expect either player to come in and produce right away, although if they earn it, they could."
# The deal started to take shape in the middle of this past week, according to Kupchak. A second conversation followed on Thursday, and the deal was done Friday.
# Kupchak thinks Vladi, at worst, improves Charlotte's relatively thin bench, adding that he might in fact start with Gerald Wallace on the bench due to the injury suffered against the Lakers last Tuesday.
# When asked if the Lakers were done on the trade front before the February 19 deadline, Kupchak responded in turn: "I wouldn't say that I'm making a lot of calls. We have the best record in the league right now, we just had a great road trip and hopefully we can end it really strong tomorrow. The news on Andrew (Bynum) was not good, but it looks like he'll have a better chance to return this year than he did last year, so I'm not sure we want to address anything more than continuing to win as many games as possible and hope to get Andrew back.
# More pointedly: "I don't think there's a deal out there that can make this a better team than the one we have or the one we potentially have."
# Kupchak doesn't think there are any big men that are better than Chris Mihm or D.J. Mbenga that wouldn't command equal value on the trade market. "I don't know why we'd do that."

Finally, a business note: Both Morrison and Brown have to pass physicals before playing for the Lakers, and neither will be with the team on Sunday in Cleveland. Instead, both players will fly to Los Angeles to take their physicals on Sunday and are expected to practice with the Lakers on Monday.

Phil Jackson Discusses Radmanovic Trade

Lakers Trade Radmanovic

Official Press Release:
Feb 27, 2009

The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired forward Adam Morrison and guard Shannon Brown from the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for Vladimir Radmanovic, it was announced today.

Morrison, currently in his 3rd NBA season out of Gonzaga, was selected third overall by the Bobcats in the 2006 NBA Draft after earning unanimous First Team All-America honors and garnering multiple National Player of the Year awards his senior year. Named to the All-Rookie Second Team following the 2006-07 season, Morrison appeared in 78 games as rookie including 23 starts, averaging 11.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 29.8 minutes while earning T-Mobile Rookie of the Month honors for November 2006.

Missing the entire 2007-08 season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in an October 20 preseason game against the Lakers, Morrison has played in 44 games this season including five starts, averaging 4.5 points and 1.6 rebounds in 15.2 minutes with a high-game of 16 points November 11 vs. Denver.

In 122 career games (23 starts), Morrison is averaging 9.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 24.5 minutes.

Brown, also in his 3rd NBA season out of Michigan State, was originally selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 25th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. Traded to the Chicago Bulls as part of the Ben Wallace deal in February of 2008, Brown signed with Charlotte as a free agent this past August. In 30 games with the Bobcats this season, Brown is averaging 4.8 points in 11.4 minutes with a season-highs in points (16), steals (4) and minutes (26) coming November 3 vs. Detroit.

In 74 career games (9 starts), Brown is averaging 4.5 points in 10.6 minutes.

Lakers (31-7) vs Magic (31-8)

The Lakers trail this season's series with the Magic 1-0 after splitting last season's series 1-1. The Lakers have never lost a season series to the Magic, but have split on 9 occasions. The Lakers are 16-4 against the Magic in the last 20 meetings and 7-3 @n their last 10 overall beeatch. At the Staples Central es Lakers es oucho y uno todos jugando de Magic....perro ellos diaz jugando en casa...okay nuff espanol, just seeing if y'all are paying attentiones....10 winning streak come to an end with Orlandos 104-97 victory last seasonin La La Land. Last season on Nov 20 2007, the Lakers aquired Trevor Ariza from Orlando in exchange for veterans Brian Cook A Maurice Evans....think this was a good trade thus far? weigh-in below and tell me what you think....let's hope we win tonight, compadre, and bring home some free tacos! Go Lakers!

Lakers vs Magic All-Time
HOME: 16-3 ROAD:14-7 OVERALL: 30-10