Dallas destroys the Lakers to move on to conference finals:

#91
Kobe also has a LONG history of cheap-shotting players with elbows, over and over again, among other things. It isn't an isolated incident. Yes, they play dirty.
If I'm remembering correctly he's done it twice in the playoffs. Not to the dramatic effect as the Bibby one reference but even the announcers even pointed it out.
 
#94
It's not a written rule per se, but if you're up 30 with 2 minutes left (example) n still playing hard then the players on the other team are gonna let you know about it. I've been on both sides of that fence and it's really disrespectful. With that being said...no, the Mavericks didn't run up the score. They held the ball until the shot clock was winding down and then were obviously forced to shoot. Those shots just happened to go in, and the Lakers shots didn't.
Personally, I'd take it as an insult if someone let up on me in a game just because I was too far behind. I get that some players don't see it that way and feel disrespected by it, though. I just think that the problem lies with their expectations. Expecting the other team to let off the accelerator just because they're creaming you just isn't very realistic in my opinion. To do so is in direct opposition of competitive spirit. Competitive spirit should be...we're going to kick your butts as hard as we can. Not...We're going to kicks your butts but we'll be sure and be nice so we don't kick your butts too bad.
 
Last edited:

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#95
First of all, you will notice that most of the Lakers fans on there had the same disdain for the conspiracy crap that I do.

Secondly, we don't do that on this board -- link off to other messageborads to mock them. Right now it probably means nothing, but in more relevant times we've seen that become a major conduit for trolls being sent off both ways to harass our boards and theirs. Just not a classy thing to do.
 
#96
I love the smell of Laker defeat in the morning.

Couldn't have asked for a better script. Jackson punching Gasol in the chest. Artest clotheslining Barrea. Odom punching Nowitsky in the chest. And Bynum clotheslining Berrea. Just the kind of class act that you'd expect.

And now we get to hear from Magic Johnson that they'll break up the team and get Howard. Just send two out of Bynum, Gasol or Odom, and voila! - Howard would be in a Laker uni, all's right will be in the universe and the Lakers will continue as NBA champions. Easy peezy. Don't ya love that sense of entitlement? Doesn't that arrogance delight the senses? I'd like for the NBA to see that Magic interview and replay it over and over when they are discussing the CBA and how the small market teams need protection from the big bullies. Orlando needs to be able to keep Howard and not get punked again by the Lakers. Wouldn't that be deja vu all over again? First Shaq. Then Howard. How much can those Floridians take?
Precisely why so many, even non Kings and non Celtics fans hate the Lakers and their fanbase. They make it so darn easy!
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#99
I'm hoping against hope, althoght I know this is not the way it works, that seeing Lakers fans complaining about conspiracy theories against them when they lose will cause some of our own conspiracy theorists to have a little light bulb go on over their head. That there ARE no objective conspiracies. That it is entirely a sad litle coping mechanism created by people to explain their failures, or the failures of their teams. Doesn't matter who the team is, or who the fanbase is. You lose, instantly somebody out there had to be cheating you.
 
I'm hoping against hope, althoght I know this is not the way it works, that seeing Lakers fans complaining about conspiracy theories against them when they lose will cause some of our own conspiracy theorists to have a little light bulb go on over their head. That there ARE no objective conspiracies. That it is entirely a sad litle coping mechanism created by people to explain their failures, or the failures of their teams. Doesn't matter who the team is, or who the fanbase is. You lose, instantly somebody out there had to be cheating you.
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you. :p
 
It's a Zen garden. The prayer is nail-polished there: "SweepLaker Scum!". Sorry for the tiny pic, not very good at the photo hosting thing these days.
 
I've been listening to some of the L.A. sports radio shows today just for kicks and their reactions are pretty interesting. There's none of the doom and gloom, depression, anger, etc. that there would be if The Kings got swept out of the playoffs. The mood seems to be pretty casual considering how their team just went out. I don't hear any desperation, despair, etc. I'm sure some of the fans feel that way but the radio hosts certainly aren't reflecting it.
 
Last edited:
I've been listening to some of the L.A. sports radio shows today just for kicks and their reactions are pretty interesting. There's none of the doom and gloom, depression, anger, etc. that there would be if The Kings got swept out of the playoffs. The mood seems to be pretty casual considering how their team just went out. I don't hear any desperation, despair, etc. I'm sure some of the fans feels that way but the radio hosts certainly aren't reflecting it.
yeah, only thing i've heard is gossip about pau and kobe (which is total bull, imo) and rampant speculation that dwight and cp3 are gonna get left outside staples center in a picnic basket sometime over the next three months
 
I'm hoping against hope, althoght I know this is not the way it works, that seeing Lakers fans complaining about conspiracy theories against them when they lose will cause some of our own conspiracy theorists to have a little light bulb go on over their head. That there ARE no objective conspiracies. That it is entirely a sad litle coping mechanism created by people to explain their failures, or the failures of their teams. Doesn't matter who the team is, or who the fanbase is. You lose, instantly somebody out there had to be cheating you.
I think there's a difference between the conspiracy theories of some laker fans in which even their fellow fans think is obsurd and OUR theory in which everyone not a Laker fan agrees that we were cheated.
 
I think there's a difference between the conspiracy theories of some laker fans in which even their fellow fans think is obsurd and OUR theory in which everyone not a Laker fan agrees that we were cheated.
There's a difference between "we got cheated by poor officiating" and "the NBA fixed the game/series".
 
That's what I read in the Los Angeles Times that Kobe and Gasol were not talking to each other. They are just making excuses instead of admitting that they lost to a better team. I'd watch yesterday's game and pretty much it was over by the first quarter.
 
Ya know, it's just part of the trade-off. If you want to root for a franchise like L.A. -- which is admittedly a fun thing to do since a) they're always good b) always a big draw for free agents and c) the league needs them to be good to draw big viewership numbers -- then you have to accept that the cost that goes along with that is that every other non-Laker fan hates your team and revels mercilessly when you lose.

I've always thought rooting for the Lakers was a little bit like rooting for a bully in a fight. Wins are satisfying (but expected), and losses are excruciating and will be rubbed in your face like there's no tomorrow.
 

Warhawk

Give blood and save a life!
Staff member
That's what I read in the Los Angeles Times that Kobe and Gasol were not talking to each other.
Grant had a radio guy from LA on his show this evening and the guy said that Pau and Kobe were talking all the time on the bench in the postseason.
 
Andrew Bynum sorry for decking Barea

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Lakers center Andrew Bynum started off his exit interview on Tuesday with an apology for the hit he made on Mavericks guard J.J. Barea late in Los Angeles' Game 4 loss to Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals.


"My actions ... don't represent me, my upbringing, this franchise or any of the Laker fans out there that want to watch us and want us to succeed," Bynum said. "Furthermore, and more importantly, I want to actually apologize to J.J. Barea for doing that. I'm just glad that he wasn't seriously injured in the event and all I can say is, I've looked at [the replay], it's terrible and it definitely won't be happening again."

... [more in link]
Video http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=6521032&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Won't be happening again? He's already done it three times now.

Wallace

Beasley

Barea

Considering his history I hope he gets a minimum 10 game suspension.
i disagree. he needs to be suspended for an entire season without pay. if he really did this to two or three other players before jj barea he needs to go. someone couldve been put in the hospital or worse and a 10 game suspension shouldn't be entertained. missing 10 games of the regular season would be equal to missing the 1st quarter of an nfl regular season game. there are just too many games in the nba and im sure he wouldn't learn his lesson.
 
Radio announced that even with all the world outraged at Bynum, the NBA chose to suspend Bynum only 5 games next season with a paltry $25,000 fine.

Pathetic.

After he already broke Gerald Wallace's ribs and punctured his frigging lung (!), and being suspended 2 games for the WORSE elbow-punch against Beasley, the NBA thinks the proper escalation/enforcement after the absurdity and intent to injure of the Berea hit is simply a FIVE game suspension?

That is a wholesale ignorance of the play, and the proven intent to injure with Bynum.
The NBA is not getting it about this guy.
 
Radio announced that even with all the world outraged at Bynum, the NBA chose to suspend Bynum only 5 games next season with a paltry $25,000 fine.

Pathetic.

After he already broke Gerald Wallace's ribs and punctured his frigging lung (!), and being suspended 2 games for the WORSE elbow-punch against Beasley, the NBA thinks the proper escalation/enforcement after the absurdity and intent to injure of the Berea hit is simply a FIVE game suspension?

That is a wholesale ignorance of the play, and the proven intent to injure with Bynum.
The NBA is not getting it about this guy.
he hasn't went into the fans and beat a few of them up yet. once he does that he'll get a bigger sentence. :D
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
5 games is right about on target based on precedents. It was a cheap shot, but coe on, once upon a time things like this happened every night. Well, maybe every week.

If he actually injures the guy you of course bounce it upwards. As is though, he lost his temper, and the total cost is probably going to be something like $1million for it (fine + lost wages). Not only nothing to sneeze at, people get themselves killed chasing $1million.
 
Last edited:
At first, I felt it would be 5 games, but now I think it could easily be 10-15. Remember the Knicks/Nuggets fight a few years back? Carmelo got 15 games for that. Nate Robinson and JR Smith both got 10. I feel that Bynum's is worse than Nate or JR Smith's and on the level of Melo's punch. In some ways it was worse. An extremely hard elbow to the ribs while at the top of your jump is one of the most dangerous plays in basketball. Bynum has not only done it 3 times now, but this third time he dealt an even harsher blow.

Extremely hard fouls that we would consider flagrant 2s did indeed happen very often back in the day and were only called personal fouls, but the difference is that it was only very rarely at the bush league level of Bynum's hit. Had that happened during that earlier time period, there is no doubt a MAJOR fight would have escalated. Nonetheless, that is a different time period and we can't judge today's incidents on yesterday's standards.

Edit: Nevermind, I didn't know the NBA had already come out with the suspension/fine. I'm a bit surprised the NBA didn't come out hard against Bynum's bush league play. Seems to me that a 3rd offense definitely warrants a 10+ game suspension, but I guess I am nothing more than a casual observer.
 
Last edited:
5 games is right about on target based on precedents. It was a cheap shot, but coe on, once upon a time things like this happened every night. Well, maybe every week.
It isn't once upon a time anymore, and you know it.
Living in the past isn't an option for you, just as it isn't an option for the league officials.

If he actually injures the guy you of course bounce it upwards. As is though, he lost his temper, and the total cost is probably going to be something like $1million for it (fine + lost wages). Not only nothing to sneeze at, people get themselves killed chasing $1million.
Bynum HAS injured players with that exact move.
He broke Gerald Wallace's rib and punctured his lung : http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3866849

Then he did a WORSE flagrant against Michael Beasley this year, and was suspended 2 games for it (and that wasn't in the midst of an ***-kicking sweep in the playoffs).

I am disappointed that you would even mention what his lost salary might turn out to be. It is a PRIVILEDGE to play in the NBA, not a right.
Bynum has proven himself, on no less than THREE separate occasions, to purposely elbow-punch into the chest area of a defenseless opposing player in the air, and it has succeeded in severely injuring before.

The fact that Berea didn't HAPPEN to be seriously injured in that occurrence is absolutely immaterial, as I'm sure you'd agree given Bynum's history. If the NBA waits for a player to be injured to act, they are closing the barn door after the horse escapes.

By not coming down harder on Bynum, the NBA is tacitly allowing this bush league play that the entire Lakers organization was forced to apologize for.
This was a HUGE mistake that flies in the face of current penalty histories, in this era where players are suspended for actions that aren't even on the court/field.

The fact remains - the ONLY penalty is $25,000 - the 5 games is simply removing a privilege from a player who has proven himself to the world unworthy of playing.