embiid's kind of an a**. his weird embrace of the trust the process thing doesn't make sense to me. it's actually a cautionary tale to teams thinking of doing what philly did: this guy thinks losing is cool. anyway, stay on the court for a full season before you start yapping. you too, kangaroo jack.
From the Lakers' perspective on Ball. The piece ends up throwing a little bit of shade at Kobe and explains why even if the Lakers liked Russell's talent, his attitude didn't fit for more than one reason.
Haven't read it, but is it really necessary to be throwing shots at Kobe? He's retired now and is argurably the best player in franchise history. Kobe was team first enough to win five titles and be the best player in the game for about a decade. That's all I know.
It's shade in that Kobe was an alpha, Russell gave off an alpha vibe, and the Lakers are moving on from that culture. That "me" type of thing. I don't think the "This is my ****" type of thing Russell did is the vibe this FO wants. That's what Russell is about and that's okay too, but it's not what this FO is about. They're moving on from the one-on-one type of play to more of what the Warriors do and what Magic liked to do. They aren't bringing back Showtime, they're catching up to modern basketball so I don't mind it. I don't think Ding really had to go there to make the point, but whatever. He's just the Mouthpiece.
Yeah. It's also interesting given how involved Rob and Magic want Kobe to be with the front office. Outside of that, I think the overall culture change is going to be a good thing going forward and something I'm in favor of.
I'm fine with that. It's the right way to play basketball and function as an organization. Just don't like the shots at Kobe, but whatever.
Shams from Yahoo with with the inside story of how we drafted Lonzo: https://sports.yahoo.com/inside-story-lonzo-ball-became-laker-161936139.html Tl;dr: Lonzo was sick for the 1st workout and insisted on the 2nd workout.
Lonzo getting the call before he was picked: On the other end, Magic and Rob calling him to tell him Welcome to the Lakers:
Pelinka/Magic doing a lot of press lately justifying the trade and their pick. Sometimes less talk is better. The more they talk the more defensive they sound. That was such a hit piece by Ding.
How the bleep do you come up with that kind of cynicism after reading that piece directly above? It explains so much. Whatever. Did not read the Ding piece, BTW and now I don't think I will. No shade should ever be thrown on Kobe from this organization. Seriously doubt anyone would. Maybe Ding shoulda writ it better.
I'm not a fan of the Russell trade by the way. Rob/Magic have done a solid job but I have mixed feelings about last night's draft (other than Ball) and the trade. Here's the title of the article....you can probably guess what the rest of the article says " With Ball, Lakers Break with Me-First Kobe Era, Embrace Magic's We-First Vision"
