FSP Features
Three points: Lakers Thin • Fearless Iverson • Sweet Name
By Os Davis
Oct 26, 2006, 22:59

Lakers Thin

In recent years – just in case you’ve missed it – there has been something of a general tendency for teams to dog it early in the season, particularly those teams who take a playoff spot for granted. The Los Angeles Lakers epitomized this trend in their three-peat years, with Shaquille O’Neal reportedly habitually hoping to play into shape by playoff time and Robert Horry mostly invisible until late in the seed-clinching part of the year.

This year, the Lakers are cool. No one’s panicking, everyone’s assured of a playoff seed – a low one, to be sure, but a playoff seed. Angelinos may need to think again, as injury after injury exposes how thin they are. Gone for at least the short term are Kobe Bryant, Chris Mihm, Shammond Williams, Von Wafer, Brian Cook and Aaron McKie. If that’s not bad enough, Phil “the Zen Master” Jackson is on the DL.

The latest casualty, funny as it is silly as it is ridiculous is Kwame Brown going down for up to four weeks with a shoulder injury. Turns out Brown was injured practicing against Andrew Bynum. Bynum, as Laker fans certainly recall, was the Lakers’ overweight first-round draft pick out of high school last year; good to see something’s happening with the kid.

At the end of the AP story announcing details of the injury ran the line, “The Lakers have a number of options at power forward, including Lamar Odom, Vladimir Radmanovic, Brian Cook and Ronny Turiaf.” There’s a typo in there somewhere. Oh yes, at “options”. It should read instead, “barely adequate dudes”.


Fearless Iverson

You gotta love the spin these NBA PR folks put on things. The Philadelphia 76ers, a team which bolstered its 38-44 finishing roster with … well, not much actually, realistically has chances between little and none of making the playoffs.

But Allen Iverson, the spin doctors tell us in the headlines, “refuses to give up on Philly’s title hopes.” Despite being “known as one of the best active NBA players without a championship” (funny, long-time Sixer Charles Barkley was once defined along similar lines), he’s optimistic: “The team is better than it was last year.”

Perhaps someone should inform The Answer that reports of Dr. J returning to the team are about him buying the team, not rejoining it. And that’s Will Smith with Erving, not Robert Horry.


Sweet Name

Or at least this writer thought it was. Working the “day job” over at software website CRMchump.org, I came across an item featuring Jason Richardson talking to a gaggle of folks from monster firm Oracle, partners and media at the firm’s huge do in San Francisco on Sunday.

As it turns out, the Golden State Warriors will be playing in “The Oracle” this season, as opposed to “The Arena.” A great name, if you can ignore their megacorporate meaning behind it. And please allow me to inaugurate a new round of jokes regarding San Francisco’s favorite beat: Call it the Oracle at Elphi, because now that Don Nelson’s there, the “D” has disappeared.




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