A bit in here on the Kings as well as other teams in the west....
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2137523&num=2
(Edited to add whole story-VF21)
NBA West will be a real circus
By Mark Kreidler, Special to ESPN.COM
The Western Conference has been the NBA's traveling carny troupe for years, and that's just how it is. You couldn't have invented a better and more volatile mix than the Zen Master, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, both in terms of real talent and exaggerated ego. There wasn't a more apt foil than the star-crossed Sacramento Kings of Chris Webber and Vlade Divac. San Antonio was the cool, almost professionally detached operator, Dallas a sort of continuously unstable chemical element, capable of exploding at any moment. And Portland -- forget about it. Just erect a big top over the franchise and be done with it.
Of course, that was then. In the here and now … well, happily, not all that much has changed. The West is still loaded with character, or at least with characters. The casts have changed, some for the better and some for the worse, but I can think of at least 10 reasons why the 2005-06 season out here on the other side of the Mississippi once again will produce its grand share of amusing theater.
Well, there's Phil: And just in time to prevent the Lakers from committing the worst sin listed in the Jerry Buss Guidebook to Successful Franchising: Losing and being boring. What Phil Jackson was thinking taking a year off from coaching, while arguably at his peak and at a point where he might see ahead the last NBA job he'd ever take, is still anybody's guess. (Right: He wrote a book.) But Jackson's return to coach Bryant is absolutely one of the feel-weird stories of the coming season: Two egos that have at times proved almost utterly incompatible, now relying upon each other as they try to a) reinstate Bryant as an NBA force, b) remind people of Jackson's essential talent in his chosen profession and c) jack L.A. somewhere north of .500, just for grins and giggles.
Bryant and Jackson either make hit music together or declare a media war upon one another by Christmas. This just in for the average NBA follower: You can't really lose.
The Spurs, in general: It's such a great idea to have the NBA champion come from your conference -- it gives everybody else in the West something either to shoot for or to attempt to shoot down. And San Antonio plays the role so perfectly, with an almost bloodless approach to winning. The real benefit to having the Spurs in the conversation so often over the past couple of years has been getting to see the volcanic side of coach Gregg Popovich and the documented mortality of Tim Duncan (unbelievably horrible free-throw shooting that seems to bear no relation whatsoever to the rest of his game, which is brilliant). When you threw in Eva Longoria making postseason appearances in the stands in support of beau Tony Parker, and the offseason addition of Fabricio Oberto, well, you're just about all the way there.
Houston getting Swift-er: It's hard to know exactly what Stromile Swift is going to bring to the table for the Rockets, in part because it's hard to know exactly anything connected to anyone who played a significant role in the bizarro-world season the Memphis Grizzlies experienced last go-round. But Swift sure made an interesting directional decision: The Rockets, with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming already aboard and Jeff Van Gundy doing the coaching, and now Swift coming along to do his stuff, are suddenly one of the great curiosities in the conference. Houston's success still might depend upon how Yao continues (or fails) to grow into the leadership role the whole world seems to want to foist on him at center -- but there's absolutely nothing about the whole Rockets experiment that looks dull. Good stuff.
Continued...
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2137523&num=2
(Edited to add whole story-VF21)
NBA West will be a real circus
By Mark Kreidler, Special to ESPN.COM
The Western Conference has been the NBA's traveling carny troupe for years, and that's just how it is. You couldn't have invented a better and more volatile mix than the Zen Master, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, both in terms of real talent and exaggerated ego. There wasn't a more apt foil than the star-crossed Sacramento Kings of Chris Webber and Vlade Divac. San Antonio was the cool, almost professionally detached operator, Dallas a sort of continuously unstable chemical element, capable of exploding at any moment. And Portland -- forget about it. Just erect a big top over the franchise and be done with it.
Of course, that was then. In the here and now … well, happily, not all that much has changed. The West is still loaded with character, or at least with characters. The casts have changed, some for the better and some for the worse, but I can think of at least 10 reasons why the 2005-06 season out here on the other side of the Mississippi once again will produce its grand share of amusing theater.
Well, there's Phil: And just in time to prevent the Lakers from committing the worst sin listed in the Jerry Buss Guidebook to Successful Franchising: Losing and being boring. What Phil Jackson was thinking taking a year off from coaching, while arguably at his peak and at a point where he might see ahead the last NBA job he'd ever take, is still anybody's guess. (Right: He wrote a book.) But Jackson's return to coach Bryant is absolutely one of the feel-weird stories of the coming season: Two egos that have at times proved almost utterly incompatible, now relying upon each other as they try to a) reinstate Bryant as an NBA force, b) remind people of Jackson's essential talent in his chosen profession and c) jack L.A. somewhere north of .500, just for grins and giggles.
Bryant and Jackson either make hit music together or declare a media war upon one another by Christmas. This just in for the average NBA follower: You can't really lose.
The Spurs, in general: It's such a great idea to have the NBA champion come from your conference -- it gives everybody else in the West something either to shoot for or to attempt to shoot down. And San Antonio plays the role so perfectly, with an almost bloodless approach to winning. The real benefit to having the Spurs in the conversation so often over the past couple of years has been getting to see the volcanic side of coach Gregg Popovich and the documented mortality of Tim Duncan (unbelievably horrible free-throw shooting that seems to bear no relation whatsoever to the rest of his game, which is brilliant). When you threw in Eva Longoria making postseason appearances in the stands in support of beau Tony Parker, and the offseason addition of Fabricio Oberto, well, you're just about all the way there.
Houston getting Swift-er: It's hard to know exactly what Stromile Swift is going to bring to the table for the Rockets, in part because it's hard to know exactly anything connected to anyone who played a significant role in the bizarro-world season the Memphis Grizzlies experienced last go-round. But Swift sure made an interesting directional decision: The Rockets, with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming already aboard and Jeff Van Gundy doing the coaching, and now Swift coming along to do his stuff, are suddenly one of the great curiosities in the conference. Houston's success still might depend upon how Yao continues (or fails) to grow into the leadership role the whole world seems to want to foist on him at center -- but there's absolutely nothing about the whole Rockets experiment that looks dull. Good stuff.
Continued...
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I swore I was using my glasses,
