Adande laid an egg today

Posted at LG.net on 2/2.

J. A. Adande lays an egg is so many ways in his most recent column:

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: (meaningless fluff better suited to a tabloid)
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Jerry Buss has watched his Lakers diminish into what he'd always dreaded: just another team. You could see it in the pockets of empty seats and occasional empty suites in Staples Center for Tuesday night's victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. For weeks, arena employees have bemoaned the lack of buzz at Laker games.

Adande apparently thinks that the Lakers should compete for championships EVERY YEAR. Did he follow the Lakers after Magic retired? For three seasons, they were *GASP* just another team. A team with a sub-.500 record over those three seasons, who didn't make the playoffs one year and who fell behind the Clippers. And was the owner then? Jerry Buss, the owner they have now. Buss didn't panic then and I doubt if he is panicking now.

If Jackson comes back to the franchise whose inner workings he just detailed, Buss' Lakers are once again the story in sports.

Now, I can see that a writer covering the Lakers would want them to be the story. However, I am sure Buss would rather have the Lakers be the champions. Next Adande would want the Lakers to sign Karl Malone and trade for Ruben Patterson, so he could write column after column about the turmoil in the locker room.

Kobe Bryant's image has been shredded thanks in part to Jackson's book and what better way for him to look like a good guy than by endorsing the return of the prodigal father?

Could Bryant do it? Could he coexist with the man who tore him up in print?

Here's one indication: Last week he manned up, broke the ice and we had our first cordial conversation in almost a year. And I've written much worse things about him than Jackson ever did.

First of all, I would think Kobe would be far more concerned about how he didn't get along with Jackson in practice and that Jackson demanded that Kobe be traded than anything Jackson said in some book that Kobe has never read. But this is a writer who apparently thinks that the sports world revolves around the sports pages. As for Kobe "manning up", I find that a odd phrase for "was willing to talk nicely to a moron who treated him badly in the past."

Jackson's standards are impossible for anyone to recapture even himself. He won't go to four NBA Finals in five years again. So why risk losing the damage to his mystique, let alone his stellar playoff winning percentage?

"Millions of dollars" is the first thing that comes to mind for me. "High standards" don't pay the bills.

Because the Lakers aren't in position to win.

What's sad is that Tomjanovich's resignation or retirement or health sabbatical or whatever you want to call it isn't a killer blow to the season. It's the latest indication of a franchise adrift, a meandering show desperately in need of a strong script and an authoritative director.

It's the reverberation of a shock wave that began with the exodus of Jerry West in 2000.

Yeah, the Lakers have done awful since Jerry left. Only went to the NBA finals three times in those four years. And this year's team has a .558 record with plenty of young talent. That is comparable to the '94-'95 record that happened after THREE YEARS OF REBUILDING under Mr. West.

Now we see the magnitude of the failure to extend Jackson's contract before the 2003-04 season began. Both sides indicated they were close when training camp began in 2003. But the longer they lingered without a deal, the more defiant Kobe Bryant became, fully aware that if it came down to a choice between him and Jackson, Buss would bet his future on the talented young guard.

That caused Jackson, in turn, to become increasingly intolerant of Bryant and made it a me-or-him-issue, and the Lakers chose, as O'Neal would say, him. The team's last offer was removed from the table shortly thereafter and Jackson was a lame duck.

Doesn't this moron know that kobe was a free agent after last season. That Kobe could have said that it was him or Jackson regardless of how many years Jackson had on his contract?

If they had kept Jackson, they'd have a coach now. They wouldn't be searching all over again just halfway through the first season after.

And if they made just about anyone else their coach, they would still have a coach. Duh!

Of course, that wouldn't even begin to solve their problems, because they have a patchwork roster that isn't equipped to compete for a championship.

Yes, that's true. That is because they are REBUILDING! That is what teams that compete for a championship do after their roster gets old.

When they traded O'Neal to the Miami Heat they got a complementary Caron Butler, a gimpy Brian Grant and an inconsistent Lamar Odom, who needs to have the offense run through him to flourish.

The old "They-should-have-gotten-more-for-Shaq" bit. Yeah, the Lakers should have gotten more for an obscenely-paid, disgruntled All-Star who refused to be traded to all but a few teams. Of course, Adande doesn't suggest what they should have gotten. I guess everyone knows the Lakers should have gotten Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki.

They counted on an aging Vlade Divac to be their presence in the middle. He couldn't even make it to the start of training camp before he got hurt.

And the five seasons before that, Vlade played a minimum of 80 games. Career ending injuries happen to even young players.

And they ignored the recent injury history of Bryant in making the team so dependent on him. Believe it or not, O'Neal played in more games than Bryant in three of the last five seasons and is on track to do so again this year.

Kobe averaged 72 games a season over the last 5 seasons and Shaq 71. Kobe may have been sidelined because of injuries in 3 of the last 5 seasons, but he also is a quick healer. What is Adande's point? That they shouldn't have built around Kobe because he can get injured?

The Lakers have been slowly adrift.

I guess Adande would prefer the fast adrift of the Chicago Bulls, who had the following winning percentages after they decide to rebuild: .260, .207, .183, .256, .366 and .280. Or he would prefer to have not rebuilt like the Celtics did in the late 80's and then after Bird and McHale retired had the following records: .390, .427, .402, .183, .439, .380, .427 and .439.

If hiring Tomjanovich was all part of some master plan to attract Yao Ming when he becomes a free agent in two years, that plan's out the window too. Yao has said, "Rudy is like a father," but now the Lakers can't include "come to papa" among their recruiting pitches.

I think Rudy was hired as part of a master plan to rebuild the Lakers into championship contenders. Yes, he would have helped with the pitch to Ming, but I would rate that fact Rudy was two NBA championships as slightly more important.

Tomjanovich isn't officially gone yet. Odds are that's because the Lakers hadn't finalized the buyout terms for the rest of his five-year, $30-million contract. One Laker staffer said the announcement would come today. Tomjanovich has to go now, just because it got this far. He can't command the locker room if the players think he'll bail on them at any minute.

You know, there are two views on respect. One view is that a person commands respect that the threat or use of power. Yes, Rudy wouldn't be able to command respect in that fashion. The other is that a person respects through being successful in his relationships. From all that I have read, Rudy has done that in spades. But I can see how some jerk who gets off on his power to spear people in his sports column would only be able to understand the first view.