Archive for the 'Shannon Brown' Category
(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)
As Shannon Brown explained in the above @Lakers Twitvid, he was joined by Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, Ron Artest, Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell and Adam Morrison in addition to some D-Leaguers (to round out a 5-on-5 run).
Prior to the full-court action, some of the players went through lifting and general strenghtening activities with Lakers Director of Athletic Performance Chip Schaefer (Walton and Brown specifically), others got some shots up (Vujacic and Farmar) while others worked with assistant coach Brian Shaw and advance scout/assistant coach Rasheed Hazzard on running L.A.’s offense (Artest and Brown).
“It’s just good to get back in here,” said Walton. “I think we’re all excited about the coming season and eager to get ready to go.”
It won’t be long, since the first preseason game is only three weeks away on October 7 against Golden State.
We sat down with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak on Thursday afternoon primarily to discuss the signing of Shannon Brown, and also to touch on the Ron Artest deal … plus the team’s continued hope to retain the services of Lamar Odom.
Clearly, Kupchak is still pretty busy.
He detailed what the Lakers like about Brown’s game, explained why the 23-year-old was acquired in the first place, and opined on why signing Artest put the team in a better position to ink Brown and Odom. Kupchak also said that while L.A. would like to expedite the Lamar talks, the organization has “way too much” respect for the versatile swingman to rush the process: “We’re hopeful that a day goes by, two days or maybe the weekend and we’ll have more clarity,” he concluded.
You can listen to the audio (9:53) by clicking below:
For all the details on L.A.’s signing of free agent Ron Artest, CLICK HERE.
The page includes the official press release, an article breaking down the addition of Artest to the NBA Champions and a photo gallery of the small forward through the years.
You can also CLICK HERE to read the press release regarding Shannon Brown’s agreement with the Lakers.
When you watch “Forrest Gump,” it takes just a few seconds to realize that Tom Hanks can do a bit of acting.
Observe President Obama give a speech, tune in to see Albert Pujos hit a baseball or listen to Jay-Z perform one of his songs, and your conclusion makes itself in a flash.
That’s about how long it takes to notice that Shannon Brown is some kind of a freakish athlete, and upon further consideration, literally one of the world’s best.
Surely if you observe the raw, explosive nature of Brown’s body movements going up and down the basketball floor, it’s easy to imagine an extensive weight lifting and training program that’s been followed for years and maximized in the NBA. After all, this is the guy you saw raise up to destroy a Mario West layup attempt in February and climb over the outstretched arms of Chris Andersen for a hammer dunk in the Western Conference Finals.
His 44.5-inch vertical - measured prior to his rookie season at the Lakers’ predraft camp - was in part of gift of genetics, but it would be assumed that Brown’s well-muscled arms didn’t just appear from nowhere. We assume he lifts some serious weights. Right?
Not really.
In fact, late in the season, Brown explained to us that while he did do some lifting in high school and at Michigan State, he has basically stayed away from weight training since entering the NBA.
Huh?
“Whatever Shannon accomplishes or doesn’t accomplish in the NBA is not going to be for lack of athleticism, and the risks involved with trying to be too clever with him would be ridiculous,” explained Lakers Director of Athletic Performance, Chip Schaefer. “We’re very open ended and we like to listen to the athletes, so when Shannon came … I had no problem with him sticking to (his program).”
Schaefer, who’s in charge of the team’s strength and conditioning, instead worked to supplement Brown’s routine with some fine tuning. Accordingly, to get a better understanding of why Brown sticks mostly to push ups and does little to nothing with his legs, we sat down with Schaefer for a podcast:
Up next in our run of post-championship locker room series is Shannon Brown, who came to the Lakers midseason from Charlotte before realizing his childhood dream.
I’m really numb, to be honest. My teammates were holding me back telling me not to cry. It’s just something you work so hard for. This is why you play the game, to be a champion on the highest level of basketball, to be considered one of the greatest teams ever to do it … I can’t explain it. I’m numb man. I’m numb.
Sure enough, Brown was particularly emotional while trying to sum up his feelings, leading in part to our calling up his father Chris to really understand Shannon’s journey.
Alas, to watch the locker room interview, CLICK HERE.
For a perspective that only a father could have, we dialed up Shannon Brown’s dad Chris to talk about his son’s journey from Maywood, Illinois to the NBA Championship, including a nugget about Shannon breaking the glass after a freshman-year-of-high-school dunk.
During a coming-soon podcast we did with Shannon Brown’s father Chris, we learned that during Shannon’s freshman year, his father received a call from Proviso East High School asking him to come on down to the Maywood, Ill., location.
When Chris, a police sergeant, showed up, he saw that his son had smashed one of the school’s backboards with a dunk. Yeah, he was a bit concerned about the prospect of paying for it, but he couldn’t deny a bit of pride crept in.
As it were, Proviso East - home of Michael Finley, Doc Rivers, Reggie Jordan, Brown’s teammate Dee Brown and others - saw a 6-foot something freshman, not a visiting monster like Dwight Howard, smash the glass.
Apparently a 44.5 inch vertical helps?
Stay tuned later this week for the podcast.
