Los Angeles Lakers Rumors
The first game-worn jerseys from the NBA’s restart in Orlando have hit the auction block. NBA Auctions has launched a group of 58 jerseys from the league’s first few games in the “bubble” including those donned by LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Zion Williamson. Jerseys worn by members of the Lakers, Pelicans, Spurs and Nets are the first to reach the auction block from games played after the league stopped play in March due to COVID-19. Most of the jerseys are game-worn while a few were made for players who didn’t see action.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ voting-rights group has partnered with the Los Angeles Dodgers to make Dodger Stadium a polling place for the November general election, marking the first time a Major League Baseball team has offered its facility as a voting center.
The initiative, which was announced Thursday afternoon, came together after More Than a Vote, the group James created in late June to combat voter suppression, teamed with the Dodgers, who have used the stadium as a site for coronavirus testing and food distribution in recent months.
“Dodger Stadium is part of the fabric of Los Angeles, and we’re proud to continue to partner with the County to make the property available for the benefit of the community at large,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a news release. “Voting is all of our civic duty, and we’re excited to work with More than a Vote to do anything we can to help get out the vote by making this process as easy, accessible and safe for all Angelenos.”
Justin Kubatko: LeBron James has scored at least 1,500 points in each of his 17 seasons, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the longest such streak in NBA history. No other player in NBA history has such a streak longer than 13 seasons, and no other active player has one longer than eight seasons.
Rajon Rondo in the bubble
Ryan Ward: Rajon Rondo is now officially in the NBA bubble. He’ll begin his quarantine ahead of the playoffs.
Upper Deck and the LeBron James Family Foundation are teaming up on the sale of the NBA superstar’s game-worn shoes. Nearly 100 pairs of Nike sneakers are now available for purchase on upperdeckstore.com. Styles range from a white LeBron 12 shoe he wore against the Pistons in 2015 for $15,000 to a wine LeBron 13 Elite shoe he wore for Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals for $30,000. Shoes James used during the 2017 NBA Finals and a Christmas Day game against the Warriors later that year are also up for sale.
Kyle Goon: Kyle Kuzma on awaiting the arrival of player guests: “Can’t wait. Can’t wait.” Says that the NBA has done a great job overall, but that the players are only human and want to be around the people they love.
Andy Bernstein: Yeah. I was with you in Maui (when you took the job with the Clippers). Why did you do it? You never really said why you took that job. Jerry West: First of all, Steve Ballmer, if you’re around him, he’s infectious, OK? He’s the most straightforward guy. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He’s just there. OK? And I’m just too competitive even to this day to sit around. I just am too competitive. And obviously, you know, when someone wants you that feels pretty good. They still feel that you have something to give. And obviously, I wasn’t wanted in some other places. It was just a good feeling. And this place has got a lot of basketball people there. This is one of the most formulative teams in basketball, by far. I wouldn’t trade our top 10 guys for any team member. Not one. I just think we’re that deep.
Some of the things that have been done there in a short period of time are pretty remarkable. There are probably five years left here for this team to be really good because all of these players are going to be in their prime. And when I look at other teams aging, their players, look at the age of players, we should be here for a while in Los Angeles.
And how fun would it be for the Clippers and Lakers to play? Would it be for bragging rights of the city? It might be bragging rights for a season if the Clippers would win, but the Lakers’ history and the people they’ve had playing here, that’s never going to go away. But from now on when (the Clippers) have a new building here, they’re going to have their own group of fans. They’re going to be completely different than the Laker fans. And that’s what I think makes life so interesting. Let’s hope the best team wins, and I think we have the best team.
Nick DePaula: Nike’s Kobe plan: “Nike will continue to release Kobe Protro shoes, allowing the millions of fans he inspired around the world to keep Bryant’s legacy going. Nike will also continue to work with the NBA to release limited quantities of Bryant’s iconic Los Angeles Lakers jersey.” pic.twitter.com/xC3DyNjoZw
Sean Cunningham: Kings vs. Lakers Thursday in season finale for Sacramento. Kings: De’Aaron Fox, Kent Bazemore & Richaun Holmes are out Lakers: LeBron James (groin) probable, Anthony Davis (knee) questionable, Alex Caruso (neck spasms), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (foot) & Rajon Rondo are out.
NBA Central: David Fizdale reveals what DWade said about LeBron after the 2011 Finals: “I’m gonna tell this dude that it’s his team, because he obviously doesn’t see that it is his. And so I think he needs to hear it from me, cause I think he’s giving me too much respect.” (Knuckle Heads) pic.twitter.com/l9cFyJvL01
NBA Central: Kevin Durant responds to LeBron James being called the greatest player of all time “That’s crazy.” (🎥 @Coolkicksla ) pic.twitter.com/1dkIHJApSN
While there’s been speculation regarding Harrell’s bubble debut, teammate Lou Williams says regardless of when he plays, opposing players should stay out of his way. “He’s back ready to work,” Williams said on Tuesday, via Zoom conference. “Obviously Trez is a high-energy guy. He’s a guy that plays at a high level, extremely physical player, extremely emotional player. With some things on his mind, I feel sorry for the other guys on the other team.”
Anthony Davis’ hotel room has unexpectedly been utilized as the Los Angeles Lakers’ gathering spot for special events, sources told Yahoo Sports. The team has gathered there to watch the popular “Verzuz” rap battles between Snoop Dogg and DMX, and 2 Chainz and Rick Ross, and to hold its Madden tournament.
Approached about the assemblies and why his room was chosen as the designated setting, Davis explained. “I’m one of the few who has a suite and I’m the tech guy of the team who knows how to set up all the devices and connect them to the TV,” the star forward told Yahoo Sports. “LeBron [James] is a big Snoop Dogg fan and actually a big DMX fan, and so my room made sense. It started with that and then we just kept it going from there.”
Executive of the Year award: Rob Pelinka getting no love
Among the voting constituents sampled, there seemed to be little support for the candidacy of Los Angeles GM Rob Pelinka, who helped a massive turnaround to vault the Lakers into the top seed in the West. In back-to-back years, Pelinka landed top-10 players in James and then Davis. He cleared out cap space and pivoted fast to get key supporting players such as Danny Green and Avery Bradley after holding out for days waiting to see if Leonard would sign with the Lakers. And he helped hold the team together after the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, who was one of Pelinka’s closest friends.
But some of his peers, many of whom had a history of dealing with Pelinka as an agent, seem to not want to pass much credit his way. Some cited the role of Rich Paul, the agent for James and Davis, in putting the team together. Others pointed to the Lakers being accused and fined for tampering for recent years.
Kyle Kuzma wins game for Lakers
Kyle Kuzma was the hero as the Los Angeles Lakers trumped the Denver Nuggets 124-121 in the NBA on Monday. Kuzma nailed a three-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining to see the Lakers past Western Conference rivals the Nuggets at Walt Disney World Resort. The Lakers forward finished with 25 points in Orlando, while LeBron James put up a double-double of 29 points and 12 assists as Anthony Davis contributed 27 points.
Kyle Goon: Kyle Kuzma with the quote of the night when asked what went through his mind as rangy Bol Bol tan toward him: “I think Jesus could be in front of me and I’d probably still shoot.”
StatMuse: Kyle Kuzma this season Before the bubble: 12.5 PPG 29.7 3P% In the bubble: 15.4 PPG 44.4 3P%
Mike Trudell: * @Kyle Kuzma said he told rookie @Talen Horton-Tucker that he was “calling game” in the huddle before the final play in which he caught the ball from @Anthony Davis after slipping a screen and buried the open 3, a play they’d worked on in practice.
A month in the NBA bubble has presented the Lakers with some mental hurdles, causing them to get what center JaVale McGee described as “a little cabin fever.” But that is a small price to pay, McGee said, because the goal is to win the Lakers’ 17th NBA championship even while going through some unique circumstances. “It definitely adds up over time. You get a little cabin fever,” McGee said on a videoconference call Sunday. “I feel like just being in the same place doing the same things every day with no variation … But it’s necessary for the goal in hand, which is to win an NBA championship. We all knew what we were getting ourselves into. “It’s actually more things to do than we actually anticipated, so it’s not horrible. Of course, we’d rather be playing our games in front of our fans and our crowd and in our own homes, but it just is what it is right now.”
In six games in the bubble, the Lakers are last in scoring (100.8), field-goal percentage (41.1%), three-point shooting (25.4%), assists (19.3), and next-to-last in free-throw shooting (73%) and plus-minus (-7.5). Though they have clinched the best record in the Western Conference for the top seed, things have gone awry. “I don’t think mentally anyone figured out we had the one seed and then was like, ‘OK, I’m going to lighten up a little bit,’” McGee said. “I just feel like we’ve had a lot of dinks … I mean, not injuries, but people just getting hurt a little bit, so the lineups have been different and different guys been playing with different guys. So, it’s just slightly different. I think that once everybody’s 100% and hopefully we’ll have that for the first game of the playoffs, we should be good.”
“The buy in from everyone, especially players, is pretty amazing,” says a league executive. He’s talking by phone, from the NBA’s campus in Orlando where players like LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard are wearing masks and using hand sanitizer. “To watch a whole team, with superstars, walk by and swipe their Magic Bands and have them flash green, which means they filled out symptom surveys that morning, is awesome.” Anyone who has been to Disney knows a Magic Band is a dystopian digital tracking device with a Mickey Mouse logo that you can’t throw away because it is also your room key. Today, it’s a lynch pin of the NBA’s coronavirus strategy, which involves the kind of invasive oversight teams have long sought, andt the Players Association accepts in a pandemic.
Nothing in terms of amenities offered at the more remote, five-story Yacht Club quite compares to the Gran Destino’s 123-foot water slide recently tested by the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma and JaVale McGee or the Grand Floridian’s lakefront dining and clear view of the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle. JJ Redick of the New Orleans Pelicans called the Yacht Club a “wonderful resort,” but he also acknowledged, “We’re missing out on a few things.”
And then, a couple hours later in the same Disney gym, the Lakers lost for the fourth time in six tries down here, this one to the Pacers. They are out of sync, lacking a rotation, and can’t get LeBron James and Anthony Davis playing well together. They are vulnerable to a Blazers’ blitz, but Portland has to get to the playoffs first. “Nobody is safe in this environment, period,” one Western Conference executive said. “Everyone can be beaten.”
“I am getting more and more used to being out there. It’s a very weird dynamic. I haven’t played in an empty gym in a very, very long time,” James said following the Lakers’ 116-111 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday. “It’s been a very long time since no one has been watching me play the game. I’m just trying to find that rhythm and lock in.” So long that the 35-year-old James believes he has not played in an empty gym since before starring his freshman year at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in 1999-2000. James soon then became a prep phenom before jumping straight to the NBA when the Cleveland Cavaliers selected him No. 1 in the 2003 draft. Therefore, James recalled, “I don’t think I played in an empty gym for a game that really counted.”
