http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/11123666p-12040039c.html
NBA Beat: Kings will face the new-look Lakers in Fresno
Kobe Bryant is back for Los Angeles, but many others aren't.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, October 17, 2004
It's not too late to get into a Fantasy Sports League. Sign up here.
Only in today's NBA can a team - the Kings - jet 16 or so hours to China for two preseason games, then arrive home with their time clocks completely kaput and regain their sense for one practice. Then board that same charter for a quickie flight to Fresno.
And only in today's NBA can a team so familiar for so long - the Lakers - be transformed so quickly, via trades or free-agent defections. Say hello to new-look Los Angeles, whom the Kings will play Tuesday night in Fresno for the least-anticipated meeting among rivals since at least the early-to mid-1990s. And be sure to bring an updated roster for this one.
You'll hardly recognize this Lakers lot, with Shaquille O'Neal, Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, Gary Payton, Karl Malone and coach Phil Jackson gone. (Malone might return sometime after the first of the year if his surgically repaired knee so allows.) New coach Rudy Tomjanovich inherits a club that isn't projected by any bookmakers or anyone across the NBA to make a realistic run at an NBA championship.
How about just making the playoffs? The Lakers broke training camp Friday in San Diego with plenty of crutches, ice bags and medical charts in tow. Vlade Divac, the former Kings captain who re-joined his first NBA team in the Lakers this summer, has been sidelined with a herniated disc. He's hoping to return by the start of the regular season. Others who aren't expected to play Tuesday are Devean George, Kareem Rush, Luke Walton and Slava Medvedenko, all of whom are nursing assorted ailments.
So it really is Kobe Bryant and four other guys running around.
"I don't even know who we are," Tomjanovich told camp reporters Friday.
He knows who Kobe is, the undisputed star left in the fold and the alleged taskmaster in running Jackson and O'Neal off in his apparent quest to make the Lakers solely his. In the Lakers' preseason opener against Seattle, Bryant scored 15 of Los Angeles' first 20 points and finished with 35 in 41 minutes, a ton of time for a marquee player in a preseason game. Lamar Odom, the key figure brought in from Miami in the O'Neal deal, looked a bit lost, making just 2 of 10 shots.
Seattle All-Star Ray Allen, never a real fan favorite of Bryant (and vice versa), predicted last week that Bryant would be a selfish player this season, perhaps asking for a trade if the Lakers don't win a championship in the next two or three seasons.
And with Bryant, there's always more. He has declined to comment in depth about a tell-all book Jackson wrote on the Lakers' 2003-04 season in which the Lakers guard was heavily criticized as a difficult player to manage with petty issues with O'Neal. Asked if he would read it, Bryant smirked and said, "Why?" (Tomjanovich, meanwhile, said he'd read the book - "Just curious.") Bryant also clowned with the media at the University of San Diego, fibbing a bit when he said he and his fellow Lakers swam with killer whales at SeaWorld as part of a bonding trick. But he also made it clear he's bored with the questions of last season.
"I don't know how many times people want to talk about last year," he said. "It's a new year. You've got to come up with a new question."
Kobe and Rudy T
Bryant and Tomjanovich said they like each other already. No feuds or personality clashes here, folks.
Bryant offered an assessment on the differences between his old coach and his new one in camp, saying, "Him and Phil are completely different as far as their relationship with players and how they approach the game. Everybody here, we all love Rudy. Rudy's great for us, him and his coaching staff. It's fun to be around them.
"He speaks to the players every day. Every player, one through 14, can go up to him and just talk to him about the game, just be open with him and converse with him. I think players like that."
One coach who knows Bryant well is Frank Hamblen, the former Kings assistant who was retained off Jackson's old staff in Los Angeles. Hamblen and Tomjanovich go back several decades. Hamblen is the longest-tenured assistant coach in the NBA, on the eve of his 35th season. He was scout with the Rockets in 1970 when the franchise was located in San Diego and he suggested the club draft Tomjanovich No. 2 out of Michigan.
They have been close since.
McGrady on Yao
Tracy McGrady knows a little about star treatment. Or at least he thought he did before witnessing the hysteria of the China Games in which the Rockets and the Kings played two preseason games.
Yao was the focal point for droves of admirers.
"It was amazing," McGrady, the Rockets' new guard, told reporters. "I had to sit back and take it all in. I couldn't believe how people react to him, the true support he gets, the love they have for him. He's international. He's an icon. He's huge. "People here look at us like a rock band. I love the international atmosphere. It's much different than in the States. They're constantly up, rowdy, cheering. It's fun. It's a great feeling playing in an atmosphere like this."
NBA Beat: Kings will face the new-look Lakers in Fresno
Kobe Bryant is back for Los Angeles, but many others aren't.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, October 17, 2004
It's not too late to get into a Fantasy Sports League. Sign up here.
Only in today's NBA can a team - the Kings - jet 16 or so hours to China for two preseason games, then arrive home with their time clocks completely kaput and regain their sense for one practice. Then board that same charter for a quickie flight to Fresno.
And only in today's NBA can a team so familiar for so long - the Lakers - be transformed so quickly, via trades or free-agent defections. Say hello to new-look Los Angeles, whom the Kings will play Tuesday night in Fresno for the least-anticipated meeting among rivals since at least the early-to mid-1990s. And be sure to bring an updated roster for this one.
You'll hardly recognize this Lakers lot, with Shaquille O'Neal, Rick Fox, Derek Fisher, Gary Payton, Karl Malone and coach Phil Jackson gone. (Malone might return sometime after the first of the year if his surgically repaired knee so allows.) New coach Rudy Tomjanovich inherits a club that isn't projected by any bookmakers or anyone across the NBA to make a realistic run at an NBA championship.
How about just making the playoffs? The Lakers broke training camp Friday in San Diego with plenty of crutches, ice bags and medical charts in tow. Vlade Divac, the former Kings captain who re-joined his first NBA team in the Lakers this summer, has been sidelined with a herniated disc. He's hoping to return by the start of the regular season. Others who aren't expected to play Tuesday are Devean George, Kareem Rush, Luke Walton and Slava Medvedenko, all of whom are nursing assorted ailments.
So it really is Kobe Bryant and four other guys running around.
"I don't even know who we are," Tomjanovich told camp reporters Friday.
He knows who Kobe is, the undisputed star left in the fold and the alleged taskmaster in running Jackson and O'Neal off in his apparent quest to make the Lakers solely his. In the Lakers' preseason opener against Seattle, Bryant scored 15 of Los Angeles' first 20 points and finished with 35 in 41 minutes, a ton of time for a marquee player in a preseason game. Lamar Odom, the key figure brought in from Miami in the O'Neal deal, looked a bit lost, making just 2 of 10 shots.
Seattle All-Star Ray Allen, never a real fan favorite of Bryant (and vice versa), predicted last week that Bryant would be a selfish player this season, perhaps asking for a trade if the Lakers don't win a championship in the next two or three seasons.
And with Bryant, there's always more. He has declined to comment in depth about a tell-all book Jackson wrote on the Lakers' 2003-04 season in which the Lakers guard was heavily criticized as a difficult player to manage with petty issues with O'Neal. Asked if he would read it, Bryant smirked and said, "Why?" (Tomjanovich, meanwhile, said he'd read the book - "Just curious.") Bryant also clowned with the media at the University of San Diego, fibbing a bit when he said he and his fellow Lakers swam with killer whales at SeaWorld as part of a bonding trick. But he also made it clear he's bored with the questions of last season.
"I don't know how many times people want to talk about last year," he said. "It's a new year. You've got to come up with a new question."
Kobe and Rudy T
Bryant and Tomjanovich said they like each other already. No feuds or personality clashes here, folks.
Bryant offered an assessment on the differences between his old coach and his new one in camp, saying, "Him and Phil are completely different as far as their relationship with players and how they approach the game. Everybody here, we all love Rudy. Rudy's great for us, him and his coaching staff. It's fun to be around them.
"He speaks to the players every day. Every player, one through 14, can go up to him and just talk to him about the game, just be open with him and converse with him. I think players like that."
One coach who knows Bryant well is Frank Hamblen, the former Kings assistant who was retained off Jackson's old staff in Los Angeles. Hamblen and Tomjanovich go back several decades. Hamblen is the longest-tenured assistant coach in the NBA, on the eve of his 35th season. He was scout with the Rockets in 1970 when the franchise was located in San Diego and he suggested the club draft Tomjanovich No. 2 out of Michigan.
They have been close since.
McGrady on Yao
Tracy McGrady knows a little about star treatment. Or at least he thought he did before witnessing the hysteria of the China Games in which the Rockets and the Kings played two preseason games.
Yao was the focal point for droves of admirers.
"It was amazing," McGrady, the Rockets' new guard, told reporters. "I had to sit back and take it all in. I couldn't believe how people react to him, the true support he gets, the love they have for him. He's international. He's an icon. He's huge. "People here look at us like a rock band. I love the international atmosphere. It's much different than in the States. They're constantly up, rowdy, cheering. It's fun. It's a great feeling playing in an atmosphere like this."
