Kobe on PTI

Lakers Dominate in Opening Preseason Game

The Los Angeles Lakers filled up the box score at the Honda Center Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors in their preseason opener.

It was great to see Andrew Bynum playing at 100%. Bynum finished with 24 points, 5 boards and was 8-9 from the FT line. Kobe Bryant picked up right where he left off scoring 22 points, 9 rebounds in 26 minutes.

In his Lakers debut, Ron Artest put up some impressive numbers. He finished with 12 points, 9 boards and 7 assists in 23 minutes. The Lakers won easily 118-101.

The play of the night was this dunk by Shannon Brown. 

I cannot wait for the regular season!

Media Day

Media Day for the Los Angeles Lakers generally would mean, Kobe Time! However, with Odom’s shenanigans and the addition of Ron Artest, Kobe was the third wheel.

I was a little nervous with Artest loving the media attention on top of the Odom-Kardashian wedding, but then I saw this Kobe quote:

"We understand that we worked really hard to get to this point," Bryant said of beginning the title defense. "It took us a long time to get here, so it's not something we want to give up because of our own inability to move forward or to not take the season seriously or as focused as we did the year before. If somebody's going to take it from us, we want them to take it from us with us being 100 percent focused and locked in…There's not going to be any distractions. There weren't any distractions last year, the year before. Everything will be smooth.”

Kobe is the leader of this team and I know he will keep this squad in line for a repeat! Another plus, the NBA banned twitter during games which will at least eliminated one distraction.

Odom and Kardashian Tie the Knot

Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian were married, 9/27, in a private Beverly Hills location. Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, and Phil Jackson attended the ceremony.

This wedding is clearly a dumb move by Lamar. Why do I care? 1) I don’t want to see Khloe affect Odom’s on the court play. 2) Khloe is the ugliest of the three sisters! What are you thinking Lamar?

Anyway – Congratulations buddy!

A Summer to Remember

Good things come in 3’s…so the saying goes. 1) World Champions, 2) Ron Artest, 3) Lamar Odom.

As a result of the Boston’s slaughtering of the Lakers in 2008, I was plagued with Shaq’s rap ringing in my ears, “last week Kobe couldn’t do wit out me!...Hey Kobe, tell me how my ass taste!” This June, Kobe cleared his name! The much anticipated and long awaited championship by the Lakers this June was a great start to a great off season.

About a 3 weeks later while on vacation in Mexico, my trip was enhanced with the great news that Ron Artest would sport the purple and gold. Instantly I smiled, then thought about the loss of a great team player, Trevor Ariza, which was quickly followed by hope that the Lakers would reel in Lamar Odom.

Happily the Lakers pulled the trigger and sealed our fate - A few more years of Championship glory! This has indeed been a summer to remember which will surely segue into a dynasty to remember. I'm looking forward to a great 50th season for the Los Angeles Lakers.