SportsHubLA

Gather my children and you shall hear
Of the fourth quarter run of the guys in green gear
T’was on a summer’s eve in June of ‘08
In a game on TV that ended waaay too late
They tortured the Lakers and opened the door
To echo their victories from the days of yore

Yes, […]

Discuss: 1 Comment

He’s staring 30 in the face.
A dozen years ago, he could not WAIT to get to pro basketball.
Screw a bunch of college, he said. I want me some pro. Today, a man in full, he stands before a Laker nation for the most important game of his career. The last time he faced these circumstances […]

Discuss: 6 Comments

The L.A. crowd has always been laid back, but as I looked around Staples Center in the third quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, I had to ask myself, “Did they pass out quaaludes as the promotional freebee tonight?”
The difference in atmosphere between Staples and Boston Garden, or just about any other NBA […]

Discuss: 18 Comments

Phil Jackson and his Los Angeles Lakers are moving their way through yet another championship series, trying to win his tenth championship. They do so with relative love and happiness. Ten years ago, Jackson’s Chicago Bulls won their sixth championship despite a brutal internal conflict. I was able to put together an inside account of […]

Discuss: 5 Comments

It was just 51 years ago that Red Auerbach opened the 1957 NBA Finals by punching St. Louis Hawks owner Ben Kerner in the mouth just before tip-off.
Auerbach, the late, great Celtics coach, once explained to me that he socked Kerner during a heated exchange over the height of the baskets in old Kiel Auditorium […]

Discuss: 3 Comments

Their jet was sitting on the runway Tuesday afternoon while the Los Angeles Lakers ran through one last practice at their gym in El Segundo, and they still hadn’t figured just how they were going to match up against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.  You might think that Boston’s Big Three of Kevin […]

Discuss: 6 Comments

Take your pick.
Tex Winter has.
Just about every element of Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference finals qualifies as unbelievable, bizarre, strange, whatever you want to call it.
What was weirder? Kobe Bryant in the first half? Or Kobe in the second?
“Hard to figure out, isn’t he?” Winter said Thursday afternoon, still bemused many hours after […]

Discuss: 4 Comments

The Lakers first heard it during the 2000 playoffs.
The coach beat his tom-tom and chanted on home game days. The instrument had routine purpose in the lives of the Native Americans, and Phil Jackson was determined it would have the same for his Los Angeles Lakers.
“I guess the drum is basically for gathering in terms […]

Discuss: 20 Comments

Tex Winter has had high praise for Jordan Farmar this season, although the Lakers consultant like many other observers had noted Farmar’s performances had lost their sheen in January.
Then came the infamous nine-game, 15-day Lakers road trip, and Farmar started hitting big shots again and playing the role of a push guard off the bench.
“He […]

Discuss: 8 Comments

Every year for Lindy’s Pro Basketball Annual, I have to try to guess in August how teams are going to finish the next April. Given the difficulty of that, trying to do the same thing in February is a piece of cake. So maybe that’s why I’m a little reckless in my predictions.
Oh, well, feel […]

Discuss: 8 Comments