http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13584582p-14425393c.html
NBA beat: He's on the hook: Lakers tab Kareem
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 18, 2005
The generation gap will be bridged somewhat this season in Los Angeles.
The Lakers have hired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to teach a few tricks of the post game to an intriguing collection of talent that can use a lot of polish. The NBA's all-time leading scorer, six-time MVP and winner of five Lakers championships in the feel-good Lakers Showtime era of the 1980s has arms just about long enough to take three key cogs to the franchise under his wing.
There's Andrew Bynum, the 17-year-old first-round pick with all of 25 high school varsity games to his credit. He's raw, eager, athletic and bright. He also was clever enough to drop Lakers center history on reporters after the draft.
There's Kwame Brown, the NBA's first No. 1 overall pick out of high school, who has underachieved with his only legacy to this point that of a slacker. But Brown has a body, he has skills (he has had 30-point games,) and he insists California is the change of pace to jump-start his career.
The incumbent is Chris Mihm, who has been solid and steady through five NBA seasons and was part of the Shaquille O'Neal swap. He's not a championship center, hence the trade for Brown and the drafting for the future in Bynum. But Mihm's no Jawann Oldham slug, either.
Three posts and one Hall of Famer teaching the position with an image of his own to restore.
Abdul-Jabbar retired in 1989 with a reputation of sheer greatness. By the mid-1990s, he had the itch to coach. No one scratched, his quiet and sometimes aloof demeanor as a player perhaps leaving NBA front-office executives to wonder if he's too moody and too difficult to handle.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak approached Abdul-Jabbar this summer. He has been working with Bynum in recent weeks, thrilled to be back.
"I think I had to overcome a few problems I had with regard to my image and the way I conducted myself as a player," Abdul-Jabbar told Lakers media recently after a Bynum workout. "I avoided the press (as a player) and didn't have too much to say, and when you don't have too much to say, people think you can't communicate.
"That's something that I had to prove that I could do, and that I could teach. I've worked on that, and I think people have seen that."
And what about Vlade Divac? After returning to the Lakers in the 2004-05 season after seven stellar years in Sacramento, Divac spent most of his time off the court and in the training room.
Divac might return to the Lakers but reportedly not as a player but a coach. A Serbian newspaper reported Friday that Divac plans to retire and become an assistant coach and scout for the Lakers.
Divac certainly has an interesting place in Lakers lore. He replaced Abdul-Jabbar as a rookie in 1989-90, in a draft he thought might send him to Golden State with coach Don Nelson.
After helping the Lakers reach the NBA Finals in 1991, he was traded for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant (a deal he would say several times in later years that he'd make himself). He signed with the Lakers last summer, though he hurt his back and was a nonfactor.
Past pupils
Abdul-Jabbar has worked with NBA centers before, including some with size and all manner of potential but often lacking the drive.
He had sessions with Michael Olowokandi, the first pick of the 1998 draft with the Clippers, one spot of ahead of Mike Bibby to the Vancouver Grizzlies, by the way. But Abdul-Jabbar was dismayed when the former Pacific star couldn't handle criticism or didn't want his teammates to hear it.
He also spent time with former Kings project Jerome James in Seattle.
Neither, incidentally, has had any luck with the sky hook, something Abdul-Jabbar concedes might be a shot that never returns.
Guarded position
When the Mavericks visit Arco Arena in a preseason opener Oct. 11, it will be the first step in deciding, presumably, who will secure the starting off-guard spot.
For years, it belonged to Michael Finley. Now Doug Christie, Jerry Stackhouse and Marquis Daniels are in the fold. All want to start.
One possibility is to have Christie start and have Stackhouse come off the bench, a role he thrived in last season but one he's not willing to accept now, according to Dallas media. He wants training camp to decide the starter.
BASELINE JUMPERS
* Travis Best is going from 10 seasons of Eastern Conference play to playing in Russia, meaning his NBA days are all but done.
* Just what Phoenix fans didn't want to hear. Amare Stoudemire on any Lakers free-agent interest to SI.com: "I'm a businessman. I'm going to listen, but I already know what they got to say: 'Amare, we want to give you the max.' "
* Gerald Wallace received virtually no free-agent nibbles this summer, meaning he likely will return to Charlotte and try again next summer. Wallace always has had the outrageous athletic ability -Kings fans know all too well about that tease game -but consistency and work ethic remain works in progress. Still, he's worth a nibble.
* Reggie Evans is still on the free-agent market, something of a surprise, given the man's penchant to rebound, even if he can't score from point-blank range. He could wind up in Minnesota or return to Seattle.
* Now that Michael Olowokandi is in the final year of his contract -otherwise known as a contract year -maybe he'll play like a first-round pick. Maybe. * Ron Artest on his first NBA game this coming season: "Ain't nobody going to throw a beer on me. As long as I don't get hurt, I'll be fine."
NBA beat: He's on the hook: Lakers tab Kareem
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 18, 2005
The generation gap will be bridged somewhat this season in Los Angeles.
The Lakers have hired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to teach a few tricks of the post game to an intriguing collection of talent that can use a lot of polish. The NBA's all-time leading scorer, six-time MVP and winner of five Lakers championships in the feel-good Lakers Showtime era of the 1980s has arms just about long enough to take three key cogs to the franchise under his wing.
There's Andrew Bynum, the 17-year-old first-round pick with all of 25 high school varsity games to his credit. He's raw, eager, athletic and bright. He also was clever enough to drop Lakers center history on reporters after the draft.
There's Kwame Brown, the NBA's first No. 1 overall pick out of high school, who has underachieved with his only legacy to this point that of a slacker. But Brown has a body, he has skills (he has had 30-point games,) and he insists California is the change of pace to jump-start his career.
The incumbent is Chris Mihm, who has been solid and steady through five NBA seasons and was part of the Shaquille O'Neal swap. He's not a championship center, hence the trade for Brown and the drafting for the future in Bynum. But Mihm's no Jawann Oldham slug, either.
Three posts and one Hall of Famer teaching the position with an image of his own to restore.
Abdul-Jabbar retired in 1989 with a reputation of sheer greatness. By the mid-1990s, he had the itch to coach. No one scratched, his quiet and sometimes aloof demeanor as a player perhaps leaving NBA front-office executives to wonder if he's too moody and too difficult to handle.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak approached Abdul-Jabbar this summer. He has been working with Bynum in recent weeks, thrilled to be back.
"I think I had to overcome a few problems I had with regard to my image and the way I conducted myself as a player," Abdul-Jabbar told Lakers media recently after a Bynum workout. "I avoided the press (as a player) and didn't have too much to say, and when you don't have too much to say, people think you can't communicate.
"That's something that I had to prove that I could do, and that I could teach. I've worked on that, and I think people have seen that."
And what about Vlade Divac? After returning to the Lakers in the 2004-05 season after seven stellar years in Sacramento, Divac spent most of his time off the court and in the training room.
Divac might return to the Lakers but reportedly not as a player but a coach. A Serbian newspaper reported Friday that Divac plans to retire and become an assistant coach and scout for the Lakers.
Divac certainly has an interesting place in Lakers lore. He replaced Abdul-Jabbar as a rookie in 1989-90, in a draft he thought might send him to Golden State with coach Don Nelson.
After helping the Lakers reach the NBA Finals in 1991, he was traded for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant (a deal he would say several times in later years that he'd make himself). He signed with the Lakers last summer, though he hurt his back and was a nonfactor.
Past pupils
Abdul-Jabbar has worked with NBA centers before, including some with size and all manner of potential but often lacking the drive.
He had sessions with Michael Olowokandi, the first pick of the 1998 draft with the Clippers, one spot of ahead of Mike Bibby to the Vancouver Grizzlies, by the way. But Abdul-Jabbar was dismayed when the former Pacific star couldn't handle criticism or didn't want his teammates to hear it.
He also spent time with former Kings project Jerome James in Seattle.
Neither, incidentally, has had any luck with the sky hook, something Abdul-Jabbar concedes might be a shot that never returns.
Guarded position
When the Mavericks visit Arco Arena in a preseason opener Oct. 11, it will be the first step in deciding, presumably, who will secure the starting off-guard spot.
For years, it belonged to Michael Finley. Now Doug Christie, Jerry Stackhouse and Marquis Daniels are in the fold. All want to start.
One possibility is to have Christie start and have Stackhouse come off the bench, a role he thrived in last season but one he's not willing to accept now, according to Dallas media. He wants training camp to decide the starter.
BASELINE JUMPERS
* Travis Best is going from 10 seasons of Eastern Conference play to playing in Russia, meaning his NBA days are all but done.
* Just what Phoenix fans didn't want to hear. Amare Stoudemire on any Lakers free-agent interest to SI.com: "I'm a businessman. I'm going to listen, but I already know what they got to say: 'Amare, we want to give you the max.' "
* Gerald Wallace received virtually no free-agent nibbles this summer, meaning he likely will return to Charlotte and try again next summer. Wallace always has had the outrageous athletic ability -Kings fans know all too well about that tease game -but consistency and work ethic remain works in progress. Still, he's worth a nibble.
* Reggie Evans is still on the free-agent market, something of a surprise, given the man's penchant to rebound, even if he can't score from point-blank range. He could wind up in Minnesota or return to Seattle.
* Now that Michael Olowokandi is in the final year of his contract -otherwise known as a contract year -maybe he'll play like a first-round pick. Maybe. * Ron Artest on his first NBA game this coming season: "Ain't nobody going to throw a beer on me. As long as I don't get hurt, I'll be fine."
