Report: Bryant's wrist injury latest setback to Lakers in preseason

[Warhawk]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3078419

The difficulties Kobe Bryant has had prior to the upcoming NBA season have been mostly limited to the issues surrounding trade talk swirling around the Lakers' star.

Bryant


Now, with a wrist injured suffered during Tuesday night's preseason game against the Utah Jazz, Bryant joins a long list of Lakers who are suffering from different ailments.
"My knee is OK, but my wrist isn't too good," Bryant told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Bryant said he hoped he could play in Friday's preseason finale against the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas.
Foward Lamar Odom won't play opening night as he continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery. Centers Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm have played sparingly this preseason as they try to come back from injuries while forward Luke Walton missed Tuesday's game against the Jazz but might be ready to face the Kings on Friday.
The uncertainty of all injuries has left the Lakers with little preseason time with their key players on the court together. L.A. opens the regular season Tuesday at home against Houston.
"It's tough to say because we haven't had our core guys out there, so it's kind of tough to gauge," Bryant told the paper. "We have a lot of young players still trying to find their way through the offense, through the system. It's tough. We were all hopeful that [Odom] would be ready for the start of the season, but we have to get him healthy."

 

[Gargamel]

Roland Lazenby's latest on the LA schism. He's one of Jerry West's chosen few, so his knowledge of ruffles in Lakers past is dead on for a Chicago guy. He probably is one of Phillip's earpieces too, and also likely one of Kupchak's (West's boy). He goes into a few different areas here, even touching on Rudy T, which was an off-the-record firing (fake reassignment).

I figured I'd dump it in this thread. Don't bother reading Sam Smith, Chad Ford, or others for your dose of LA soap.

http://lakernoise.com/2007/10/30/when-the-musics-over-turn-out-the-lights/

 

[VF21]

Wow. Nice piece, Gargy. Thanks for posting it.

When The Music's Over, Turn Out The Lights

The one thing to come out of the Kobe Bryant turmoil this fall? Coach Phil Jackson’s power within the Los Angeles Lakers organization is increasing...

Saying he would wait to determine if he wanted to keep coaching the team, Jackson had held off on accepting a new deal. But in recent days the coach has begun sounding like he will stick around...

This is not to imply that Jackson is seeking to shore up his own importance by driving away Bryant. Far from it, the coach has done virtually everything possible this fall to keep Bryant in the fold...

Jackson and other coaches talked repeatedly to Bryant, telling him the team would not trade him because there was no way the Lakers could receive comparable value in return...

Bryant, though, has steadfastly held on to the belief that somehow a deal will be worked out with either Dallas or Chicago.

The Lakers acknowledge that they have continued to talk trade possibilities, but working out a deal is very difficult...

There's more of the same. It's pretty good look inside.