“We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”
- Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum
On April 19, 1995, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil prior to Sept. 11, 2001 occurred when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack killed 168 people and injured over 800 in a horrible act of cowardice that lingers strongly over the Memorial. Beautifully laid out in the heart of downtown with a long, thin lake, two large rectangular structures and 168 individual chairs symbolizing each passed victim, the Memorial stands today to “Honor the victims, survivors, rescuers and all who were changed forever,” as stated at the site.
Some Lakers staffers ventured to the site on Tuesday afternoon, hours before tipoff at OKC’s Ford Center, where L.A. would take on the Thunder for the first time in their building this season.
“It’s just such a sad thing with no justification or explanation,” said assistant coach Jim Cleamons. “We have to be thankful for what we have.”
If nothing else, visiting the site - a truly sobering experience - lent some perspective on the game of basketball that we’re all quite fortunate to watch and be a part of.
After practice today in Boston Kobe Bryant gave us a quick twenty-second update on the state of his injured right hand. Check out the video above for full details, but basically it’s fine and Kobe has found a comfort zone with it.
That would be the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, in all of its 1,815.4 feet.
The world’s highest free standing structure - which took three years to build and was completed in 1976 - stands in full glory above downtown Toronto, affording all who go up (Ty Nowell and I in this case) to take in North America’s 5th largest city on the shores of Lake Ontario.
Along the way, we met the Queen of Toronto (tour guide Susan), a random Lakers fan (Dan) from Syracuse, New York in town for the game and kept our mini camera rolling throughout.
Here’s the video:
(Click HQ in the drop down in the bottom right of the
video player to watch in High Quality)
After Wednesday’s shootaround in Toronto, we brought our mini video camera up to Sasha Vujacic’s room to look on as Lakers assistant trainer Marco Nunez stretched the guard/forward’s hip flexor and other muscles.
It’s actually quite common for trainers to meet with players at various times of the day to ensure that their bodies are operating as effectively as possible come game time. Nunez offered the metaphor of a car, which constantly needs various kinds of maintenance like oil changes, new tires or what have you.
How does an NBA assistant coach prepare for a six-game road trip? Which opponents does he focus on, what occurs on “off days” and what are his particular methods and tricks to impart information on his players?
On the road in Minneapolis, we spent a little time with Lakers assistant coach Jim Cleamons to talk about those topics and more.
From the sky above Colorado* a few hours after I caught up with Mihm at practice, radio play-by-play man Spero Dedes and I chatted about the plane’s food, how his voice projects at altitude and why we’re not at all sold on the Nuggets. *Yeah, the above picture isn’t exactly what we saw from the plane, but you get the point.
In other news, my Zach Morris costume idea went down in flames when the “Bayside Tigers” t-shirt I ordered to complement a pair of stone-washed jeans, hightops with the tongue sticking out and a wave in my hair ended up being too small to fit a skinny fourth-grader. But whatever, Happy Halloween and all that. Here’s the convo with Spero:
Before we took off for Denver, I spent a few minutes with Chris Mihm on the practice court to get his take on the transition from practice to the plane.
Here’s what Mihm, who was the last Laker player on the floor as he worked alongside assistant coach Kurt Rambis, had to say:
The local sports teams do a great job of supporting one another in this city.
At today’s Red Sox/Mariners game a whole ribbon board was devoted to “Beat L.A.” and other pro Celtics phrases (as pictured above). Why not feed the beast though right? Half the crowd was wearing green today anyway, so give them what they want.
In turn, the Celtics found some very good seats for members of the Patriots at Game 1 and with a day game today a lot of Red Sox are in the building. Mike Lowell is up in a suite, Sox owner John Henry is in row two and Curt Schilling and David Ortiz are courtside.
(Ortiz is sitting next to former Celtic Antoine Walker, who at one point dubbed himself “Employee #8″, one of the best all-time nicknames)
The Celtics also made a point to honor Red Sox pitcher and cancer survivor Jon Lester as part of their “Heroes Among Us” program.
The longest it’s taken me to get from hotel to arena entrance so far this trip is 20 minutes. I rode the T (Boston’s subway system) which drops off at North Station right under the arena.
The standard trip has been about 10 minutes in a cab.
Today’s trip took about 6 minutes even though we were in a bus. With the aide of a police escort and a bus driver that thought he was behind the wheel of a lambo you can really get some stuff done, even through the narrow streets of Boston.
Yes it was the same guy that wore the Celtics hat the other day, he got demoted from team duty to third bus family duty. Thank god he’s not responsible for any of the players or coaching staff getting to the game.
Much has been made about the refs ability to distinguish where the centerline is after a couple of questionable over and back calls in Game 1. The normal center stripe is obscured by the giant Larry O’Brien trophy sticker that is applied to the floor for the Finals.
As you can see above (and in the post from media day) the line stops at the trophy, but a set of grey lines cut through the trophy as well as the logo.
The trophy and “The Finals” script are significantly marked up after just a couple days of use.
“We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”
On April 19, 1995, the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil prior to Sept. 11, 2001 occurred when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack killed 168 people and injured over 800 in a horrible act of cowardice that lingers strongly over the Memorial. Beautifully laid out in the heart of downtown with a long, thin lake, two large rectangular structures and 168 individual chairs symbolizing each passed victim, the Memorial stands today to “Honor the victims, survivors, rescuers and all who were changed forever,” as stated at the site.
That would be the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, in all of its 1,815.4 feet. 
How does an NBA assistant coach prepare for a six-game road trip? Which opponents does he focus on, what occurs on “off days” and what are his particular methods and tricks to impart information on his players?
Regular season road trip No. 1 = Denver.
