In a blog post on ESPN.com, rapper Lil’ Wayne listed off his favorite teams in each sport, naming the Lakers as his favorite hoops squad. His native New Orleans was without a pro basketball team from 1979-2002 so it makes sense that he might align himself with the Purple & Gold. Especially considering how old he was during the Showtime era. Weezy has stepped it up for the Finals with a new track that premiered on Power 106 this afternoon about Kobe Bryant and this year’s Lakers’ squad. Check it out above.
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In a blog post on ESPN.com, rapper Lil’ Wayne listed off his favorite teams in each sport, naming the Lakers as his favorite hoops squad. His native New Orleans was without a pro basketball team from 1979-2002 so it makes sense that he might align himself with the Purple & Gold. Especially considering how old he was during the Showtime era. Weezy has stepped it up for the Finals with a new track that premiered on Power 106 this afternoon about Kobe Bryant and this year’s Lakers’ squad. Check it out above.
Assistant coach Brian Shaw joined us at the arena to preview Game 1, emphasizing L.A.’s need to play its game as opposed to reacting to Orlando’s, detailing how the Lakers plan on using their length to disrupt the Magic in the paint and around the perimeter and explaining why he’s going to turn his shirt inside-out in the pregame locker room.
To watch, head to our Gameday Page by CLICKING HERE.
In the Eastern Conference finals there were stretches of the games where the Magic just ran the same play over and over and over and over again. This play is called “3 IN”. It starts with Hedo standing at the free throw line with a big at each elbow (Howard on the left and Lewis on the right)…
To read the full Scouting Report go to Lakers Courtside Connection.
With that in mind, we kept the video camera rolling to capture some of the action with just over 24 hours until Game 1 tips off in Los Angeles.
Amidst the media horde at STAPLES Center for the first day of full availability, we spent some time with various Lakers and Magic players, plus Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, to offer a summary of the event.
First, Kobe Bryant (2:49) and Jackson (2:33) spoke from the podium (CLICK HERE): The nine-time coaching champ addressed how his team looked in practice this week, talked about the meaning of Orlando’s regular season wins over L.A., the motivation caused by losing last year’s NBA Finals and more. Bryant, meanwhile, expressed a state of calm focus, referred to the determination felt by his team and talked about what it would mean to deliver Jackson’s 10th ring.
Afterwards, we sat down individually with Josh Powell, Jordan Farmar and Luke Walton, videos that can be seen by CLICKING HERE. Powell, protected by a ball rack, talked mostly about hip hop music; Farmar talked about returning to the Finals and being great at video games; while Walton let everyone know that his phone will be off throughout the Finals.
Finally, we heard from three Orlando players - Hedo Turkoglu, Jameer Nelson and Anthony Johnson - to sum up the visitors’ perspective, which can be viewed HERE. Nelson remains questionable (shoulder), but did explain that if he does play, it will be in limited capacity. He was looked to as a scorer in the regular season before hurting his shoulder on Feb. 2, keyed by a terrific shooting rhythm that he said simply isn’t back yet. As such, if he plays, Nelson will serve as more of a facilitator off the bench.
For more on the Finals, head to our Playoff Central page or check out the complete Lakers - Magic preview.
Phil Jackson addressed assembled media following L.A.’s Wednesday morning practice:
Q. How can you just whether this team is ready, what kind of feeling will you have?
PHIL JACKSON: Boy, that’s not the easiest question to answer because we’ve got two really good days of practice. Today wasn’t as sharp or as crisp, and that’s what you’re looking for as a coach is that everybody is focused, they’re reacting well, shooting well in a sense.
Q. Pau, he talked yesterday about how he really hit the weight room this season and he’s stronger and he doesn’t have to take anti inflammatories. How much healthier is he now than he was a year ago?
PHIL JACKSON: Yeah, I just think that he’s never been one that’s been dedicated to the weight room type. We understand that. But knowing what happened last year and felt we just didn’t have the muscle to get in there and wrestle with Boston in the situation that we were in, that he really had to get in the weight room, and it would help his rebounding, and it certainly has.
Q. What does it mean that you lost two games to those guys? Does it mean anything going into The Finals?
PHIL JACKSON: It means we have a great deal of respect for them as far as a team. They played very well down the stretch in both the games to win the two games they played against us. Obviously those are mitigating circumstances; we had different people in the lineup, they had different people in the lineup. It was four months ago, but it certainly gives us a great deal of respect for them.
Q. Can you talk about just what it means to be back here. And then also the role that you had to take, taking a team from a lottery to being a championship contender over the last five years or so?
PHIL JACKSON: Well, I came back at the behest of the Buss family really to coach this team back into playoff contention. We obviously got back into the playoffs even though we got back to .500 and struggled in the playoffs both against Phoenix first two years and then we subsequently have gotten to a position where we feel like we’re as strong as any team in the league. Every night we give ourselves a chance to win, and have during the regular season. So that’s been really the blessing of coming back and having this opportunity again to see this team rise through kind of a feeling situation, come out from the ashes and become again a dominant team in the league.
Q. What keeps you going? I know you’ve been dealing with a lot of health issues and other things throughout the year. How much longer do you see yourself being able to do this?
PHIL JACKSON: With the training staff we have and the equipment manager, it’s about as easy a life as I can live. He carries my luggage, and the therapists, they keep me going every day. I’m in good shape.
Q. In terms of motivation?
PHIL JACKSON: It’s really about the momentum of a season. You know, you get caught up in this day to day life that we have where your schedule is pretty much determined from October until summer. You know, you get onto it, and there’s something about it that you learn over a behavior period, I think, of years. I think it’s going to be hard to get away from it, personally. I know I’ve done it twice, and I know one year, the asterisk season, and they didn’t start playing until February, and the other year I went to the South Pacific and got away from the basketball game simply by dissolving the presence of NBA ball.
But yeah, it’s something that’s been in my life for 40 years.
Q. When you talked about health and rings yesterday, we never got around to asking you, what happens if you win this thing? Will that enter into your decision about coming back?
PHIL JACKSON: I hope it does. It’s certainly an event that would be a culmination of an effort.
Q. So that means a large part of it, if you finally win that tenth ring?
PHIL JACKSON: I guess I really haven’t thought about it in that depth. I’ve kind of left that off to assessment at the end of the year.
Continue reading ‘Phil Jackson Press Conference’
Before Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard had this to say about Kobe Bryant: “If the Lakers go on to win this series it will be because Bryant becomes less involved, not more so.” That certainly proved to be the case, so we called Ballard to talk about the player who’s put his team in position to win the NBA title.
As always, listen below or check out Playoff Central for everything else you need to know about this series.
Show your support for the Lakers during their run title by putting the Finals schedule on your desktop. Go to the Lakers.com Wallpapers page to download the most appropriate size for your monitor. Thanks to Tyson Beck for the design.
Our friend Chris Lewis served as the Orlando Magic sideline reporter for four seasons before moving on to cover sports in Colorado, and he joined us to take a closer look at Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and the Magic.
As always, listen below or check out Playoff Central for everything else you need to know about this series.
As part of our complete Finals Preview we talked with Lakers Advance Scout Rasheed Hazzard who spent the past couple weeks bouncing between Cleveland and Orlando for the Eastern Conference Finals, all the while reporting back to the Lakers coaching staff and keeping them apprised of each team’s strengths and weaknesses. We caught up with him to talk about the Magic and how they matchup with the Lakers.
As always, listen below or check out Playoff Central for everything else you need to know about this series.
