LakersJerryWest44

NBA Actual Draft

2006-07-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

1. Toronto - Andrea Bargnani
2. Chicago - LaMarcus Aldridge (Traded to Portland)
3. Charlotte - Adam Morrison
4. Portland - Tyrus Thomas (Traded to Chicago)
5. Atlanta - Shelden Williams
6. Minnesota - Brandon Roy (Traded to Portland)
7. Portland - Randy Foye (Traded to Minnesota)
8. Houston - Rudy Gay (Traded to Memphis)
9. Golden State - Patrick O’Bryant
10. Seattle - Saer Sene
11. Orlando - JJ Redick
12. New Orleans - Hilton Armstrong
13. Philadelphia - Thabo Sefolosha (Traded to Chicago)
14. Utah - Ronnie Brewer
15. New Orleans - Cedric Simmons
16. Chicago - Rodney Carney (Traded to Philadelphia)
17. Indiana - Shawne Williams
18. Washington - Oleksiy Pecherov
19. Sacramento - Quincy Douby
20. New York - Renaldo Balkman
21. Phoenix - Rajon Rondo (Traded to Boston)
22. New Jersey - Marcus Williams
23. New Jersey - Josh Boone
24. Memphis - Kyle Lowry
25. Cleveland - Shannon Brown
26. LA Lakers - Jordan Farmar
27. Phoenix - Sergio Rodriguez (Traded to Portland)
28. Dallas - Maurice Ager
29. New York - Mardy Collins
30. Portland - Joel Freeland

31. Portland - James White (Traded to Indiana)
32. Houston - Steve Novak
33. Atlanta - Soloman Jones
34. LA Clippers - Paul Davis
35. Toronto - PJ Tucker
36. Minnesota - Craig Smith
37. Minnesota - Bobby Jones (Traded to Philadelphia)
38. Golden State - Kosta Perovic
39. Milwaukee - David Noel
40. Seattle - Denham Brown
41. Orlando - James Augustine
42. Cleveland - Daniel Gibson
43. New Orleans - Marcus Vinicius
44. Orlando - Lior Eliyahu (Traded to Houston)
45. Indiana - Alexander Johnson (Traded to Memphis)
46. Utah - Dee Brown
47. Utah - Paul Milsap
48. Washington - Vladimir Veremeenko
49. Denver - Leon Powe (Traded to Boston)
50. Charlotte - Ryan Hollins
51. LA Lakers - Cheikh Samb (Traded to Detroit)
52. LA Clippers - Guillermo Diaz
53. Seattle - Yotam Halperin
54. New Jersey - Hassan Adams
55. Cleveland - Ejike Ugboaja
56. Toronto - Edin Bavcic (Traded to Philadelphia)
57. Minnesota - Loukas Mavrokefalidis
58. Dallas - Danilo Pinnock (Traded to LA Lakers)
59. San Antonio - Damir Markota (Traded to Milwaukee)
60. Detroit - Will Blalock

15 Good Players Who Were Not Drafted

Mike Gansey
Louis Amundson
Kevin Pittsnogle
Darius Washington
Rashad Anderson
Allen Ray
Jose Juan Barea
Taj Gray
Kenny Adeleke
Steven Smith
Christian Maraker
Thomas Gardner
Marcus Slaughter
Brandon Bowman
Taquan Dean

Vasamsetti: The Art Of Hatin' In The NBA

2006-07-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

FRB is happy to welcome back NBA analyst Prasad Vasamsetti. His February column, according to some reports, was an inspiration to Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers and propelled them to finish the year strong and make a good showing in the first round of the playoffs. Prasad currently resides in Miami, but is contemplating, after Jeanie Buss' offer, taking over as dentist of the LA Lakers starting next fall.

The NBA...it’s FANTASTIC!! Or, so I thought. Two weeks of NBA playoff basketball passed, and it possibly could have been the best first round of playoffs ever, and you know what I found out: there is a lot of hatin’ going on. Even though all games went either 6 or a long 6 (in the case of the Lakers), the playoffs provided us with a multitude of game winners, the LeBron rules, a few breakout stars, and, still, what is there a lot of? Hatin’. A mouthpiece toss, a clothesline, some occasional groping , a football style out of bounds shove, the type of rough play that everyone was screaming for, and what is everyone doing: well, you guessed it...hatin’. And not just hating any team, just two in particular...the Miami Heat and the LA Lakers, depending on which coast you live on, and everyone in the middle else picks one of the two, if not both.

When did the NBA go from “I love this game” to “I love the team that beats the team I hate”. As an avid Lakers fan, you know how many phone calls or text messages I received after game four between LA and Phoenix? Zero! Strange...I thought people would be happy that my team won, that I was overfilled with bliss, that Kobe hit not one but two game altering baskets, but to my dismay, no calls. Well, maybe it was just a bad day and my friends have other important things to do on a Sunday afternoon. Whatever the reason is, it didn’t bother me. Unfortunately for me, they had plenty of time this past Saturday evening, after the conclusion of game 7, when my phone was blowing up like everyone just found out how to work the damn thing.

And to talk to a hater about basketball is overwhelming, because their team is always winning, whichever team it might be this year: New Jersey, San Antonio, or Phoenix. Well next year, Phoenix might drop off and Sacramento and Portland might be doing great. “Well, don’t you remember Prasad, I rooted for Sacramento a few years ago, and Portland was my team a half a decade ago when they almost beat LA in game 7...damn Scottie blew that one. But still they were my boys.”

So I’m trying to figure out what qualities there are about a team that everyone loves to hate. I mean the LA Lakers and the Miami Heat are not the NBA equivalent of the New York Yankees. The highest payroll belongs to the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics have the most championships. So it’s not like they are buying their championships. Maybe it’s their fans, which is very plausible. Being from Mississippi, it’s not so much that I dislike Ole Miss athletics, it’s that I despise the fans who think Ole Miss athletics is the greatest and how they stop at nothing to prove their point. But I don’t think I’m very assertive of my love for the Lakers, nor have I met any Heat fan that is forceful of pushing their agenda of why their team is the greatest. For the most part, humility is not lost amongst us.

So, ultimately it comes down to the players and/or coach. What have Phil, Shaq, Kobe, GP, and 'Toine done to you that you must hate them or their team? I mean really! Every time an article comes up about the Lakers or the Heat, there is always some team or player bashing. You can’t have an article go up about Kobe or Shaq without someone demoralizing them for their lack of abilities, how they shoot too much, how they don’t shoot enough, they don’t work hard on the defensive end, they don’t make their free throws, ill-advised shots, didn’t box out, he fouled, he should have fouled, didn’t stand up for his teammates, was too aggressive in standing up for his teammates, grabbed somebody’s testicles. Whatever the reason is, the hater will always find at least one. More often than not, it’s a 20 minute phone call or cooler talk with multiple reasons on why they suck.

So, my question is this: if you hate them viciously, why are you watching them play so much? No lie, I have multiple friends...not one, not two, but at least five friends who have watched more Laker games than any other team in the 21st Century, and everyone of them detest, no let me rephrase, loathe the Lakers. They would rather stick their penis in a bowl of piranhas than have the Lakers hoist up the Larry O’Brian trophy. And I’m sure there are Heat haters who would do the same thing. I don’t understand it, but whatever.

However, if you can get past all the nonsense, the first round of playoffs has provided us with the assurance that the NBA is in good hands. Even though there was no single individual with Jordanesque abilities, collectively, we have a solid group of young players who will once again take the NBA to its next level. Centers and power forwards are no longer the centerpiece to have a championship team. The NBA is very much now a guard oriented team, and there are plenty of good ones. The gap between the great teams and the mediocre teams has gotten smaller and will continue to get smaller until you have at least 4 teams that have equal chance of winning every year. So please, to all the haters, let’s just put all this negativity aside, pick a team (preferably one with a great guard), and enjoy the next decade of NBA basketball. It’s gonna be FANTASTIC!!

Jack Nicholson Is PO'ed

2006-07-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Lakers said Monday they had increased prices in eight of their nine season-ticket pricing plans, an average of 4% to 5% overall.

I guarantee you can go season tickets for the Hawks for two grand.....

LA Lakers

2006-05-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

The team is renowned for the fanbase of celebrities, such as musicians and movie stars who attend its games. Without question, many are present only during successful times for the team. During such times, near-court seats at an important Laker game are a desirable place for entertainment figures to "be seen". Each network broadcast, and many local broadcasts, of Laker home games invariably includes a few moments taken out to show on camera the various celebrities present at that particular game, and clearly many attendees are more interested in this aspect of their attendance than in the team or the game itself.

Los Angeles Lakers

2006-02-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association team based in Los Angeles, California. They are notable for having (at the end of the 2004–05 season) the highest number of wins (2,621), the highest winning percentage (61.9%), the most number of finals appearances (28), and the first most championships (18), in front of the Boston Celtics who have 16. They also have the record for most number of consecutive wins in a season (33).