The City of Alley-Oops

Well it's "official": Chris Paul is a Clipper. Lamar Odom is a Maverick. The Lakers signed three other players, but no "superstars" yet. I'm feeling okay though, aside from losing Lamar which hurts on many levels. Everyone is in panic mode, but I honestly believe we still have a good team. We still have Kobe. We still have Pau and Andrew, and Fish (for locker room speeches and 0.4 shots, if nothing else). We'll be okay. I don't mind sharing Staples with CP3 and Blake Griffin- that is a SportsCenter Top Ten moment waiting to happen every time they step on the court. I think this whole process of trades, and vetoes, and non-stop Twitter chatter has numbed me a bit. I'm just thankful we have a season at all. Everything will take care of itself. It's paradoxical, but whenever the Lakers are the worst is when the true fans shine the most. No one can take the purple and gold running through my veins away. We have a good core. And there might be more surprises left in store, if everyone is just patient enough to find out.

CP3 and the Mysteriously Vanishing Trade

I'm basically waiting to comment on the Chris Paul craziness until all is said and done.... I went from happiness to disbelief and shock in literally 20 minutes last night and have been glued to Twitter ever since. I still find Twitter crazy, the way we get information nowadays. Literally up-to-the-second updates. But anyway shame on the NBA and David Stern for putting the players, teams and fans through this fiasco. Everyone feels wronged, and rightly so. I contemplated writing an article last night too, but there is nothing I could say that hasn't already been said... It's a unique problem when you find yourself with Celtics fans and all kinds of Laker-haters on your side. If Stern can veto this trade, why not any other in the future? Stay tuned for updates, the teams are talking again. I'm afraid to report anything because it changes so quickly lol. I'm also not convinced it's the best trade for the Lakers even though I've personally wanted Chris Paul on the team for years, but now it's about the principle of the trade, and of choice, as well. It has to get done.

David Stern Makes a Colossal Mistake- Ian O'Connor, ESPN New York
" The National Basketball Association has lost its way."- Bill Simmons, Grantland
NBA Sets a Dangerous Precedent- Ramona Shelbourne, ESPN Los Angeles
Chris Paul Veto: Vindictive and Petty- Michael Wilbon, ESPN

LD2k Laker Fan Videos

Here is the link to my boyfriend's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/ld2kVIDEOS.

His old YouTube channel had over 20 million views, but had to be taken down temporarily; the new one doesn't reflect what an amazing worldwide following he truly has. I promise if you are a Lakers fan at all, you will love the videos. If you are as diehard and passionate as the two of us are, you'll really love them! He really has an eye for matching amazing footage with inspiring cuts and music and dialogue. Plus they're fun! His newest video is the featured front page one, and it incorporates a Coach Taylor speech from Friday Night Lights, which is my favorite show ever.

I have personally gotten 6 other people to watch the show and they all fell in love with it and watched all the episodes as fast as possible. The acting is incredible, the writing is impeccable, and it just has so much emotion and heart. It's real. It's different from most shows out there because of how real it is. There's football, but it's also about a small town and the people in it. Their relationships and their lives; so many nuances to each character. And the music is breathtaking. I cannot recommend Friday Night Lights highly enough. I've watched all five seasons about three times all the way through.

66 GAMES

THE LOCKOUT IS OVER!!!! OVER, I SAY!!!

First Lakers game is on Christmas Day against Chicago at 11:15am. I can't WAIT! This whole scenario has seemed like a bad dream and it's finally over. I'm just so thankful to have basketball back, I missed it so. And it seems like a very good possibility that we could get Dwight Howard! That would be incredible and give us an even better shot at the championship, no question. Dwight is already talented. With Kobe there to give him extra motivation he'd be unstoppable and insatiable too. I'm writing an article outline right now comparing the careers of Shaq and Dwight; I think it will be a good piece. Gonna wait to post it until it's "official"... knock on wood.

But yeah, I'm back (for the three readers I have). I moved recently and have a busier schedule that unfortunately won't allow me to continue writing for Lakers Nation on a regular basis, but I should get to watch every game now. I have weekends off for the first time ever, and we're going to get NBA League Pass too. I'm going to post my articles on here in the mean time, and try to get my bf to help me reformat this blog so it looks a little better. I'll post some of his incredible fan-made Lakers videos as well. He's very talented, and if you're a Laker fan you'll enjoy them.

LeBron side note, because there's always a LeBron side note: I've been hearing that he's been working on his game the past few months, working on his post moves and everything under the sun. That makes me respect him more. He can definitely earn back my respect, he just has to show me that he wants to win. That he wants to get better and reach his full potential. That's what drove me crazy about him; he didn't seem to care. He'd talk the talk, but he wouldn't walk the walk. And now he's finally walking. Scary thought.

A Year Has Passed.

A year has passed since I started my darling little Lakers blog, and I know that I've recently ignored it for too long. I was heartbroken and then in denial about the lockout and just a little stressed about life this summer. So much good has happened since then (personally) that I will try to get back to my regularly-scheduled blogging, lockout or no lockout. I've been brewing an Olympic article for a little bit, and I always have random basketball thoughts to add. If anyone is still reading this, I'll be back SOON!

A Month's Worth of Recap Links

Here are the links to my last five recaps, oldest to newest:

-Loss to Utah

-terrible game against OKC

-great win against the Spurs led by LO

-Game 1 of the playoffs: we lost but I was at Staples and my bf made the intro video so all in all it was fun.

-My latest recap, Game 3 vs. NOH... GREAT win last night!!

The playoffs are finally upon us.... I can't believe it. I still have lots of basketball thoughts, but I'm not going to stress about updating or not updating because I figure god forbid if there is a lockout or some sort of shenanigans this summer/next season.... i'll have things to write about. I can get my ideas out then lol. I'm sure I'll construct some articles before then though ;)

Updates and an Impassioned Response to BS.

Wow, major slacking on my part!! I've been updating facebook and twitter so much that my own little blog fell by the wayside a bit :( Here's my article on the win last week against the Mavericks.... such a crazy game!! Not gonna lie, I mention it in the article, but I love fights. I'll have to do a post of my favorites one of these days... one of my early articles on the Kings talked about a bunch of them haha.

Honestly, I was bummed that the Lakers lost to the Nuggets on Sunday, but you can't win every game, and the Nuggets are doing pretty well surprisingly enough. I am just glad that Pau and Andrew are okay.... so scary to hear about. I'd probably cry if I thought either of them would miss extended time heh.

I just got sent an anger-inducing, TERRIBLE article hating on Kobe... if you are inclined to read it, there it is. And I couldn't help myself, so I left a comment which I will copy-paste here:

"That sure is a lot of hypothetical bullshit. How do you know Kobe wouldn't have won if he wasn't in Charlotte? Or anywhere else for that matter? It's not like Shaq has done that well for himself without Kobe... he's won one other title with another amazing player in Dwayne Wade, but other than that destroyed basketball in Phoenix, tried to jump on LeBron's bandwagon in Cleveland, which didn't work well, and hasn't done much for Boston this year either. Torpedoed them by the looks of it. And you seem to be forgetting that Michael Jordan didn't win anything his first 7 years in the league.... I guess Hall of Famers like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman don't count for much.

Let's talk about Lebron: you say that if you put him on the 2006 Lakers in his prime, they would get 60 wins and compete for a championship. I think it's been pretty clear the past few years that that might be true, but rings aren't won in the regular season. Cleveland had the best record in the NBA two years in a row and got bounced before the championship round. And now he's gone to hook up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh... he apparently doesn't think that he can win it alone either. Weird.

I will admit that Kobe is definitely not a saint. He makes bad decisions sometimes and used to be quite petulant and arrogant... however how can you say that he doesn't love the game? Basketball is his LIFE. He doesn't always use points to will his team to win; when he struggled in Game 7 last year, he crashed the boards and did everything he count to "will" his team to victory. There is no one with greater determination, greater spirit and greater will than Kobe. He has worked diligently to bring his teammates under the same fold in a positive manner, as opposed to how he might have handled things in the past.

No one has every won a championship alone. Are you saying that Magic Johnson isn't a winner or can't carry a team because he had Kareem, James Worthy and Michael Cooper? Is Larry Bird not one of the top ten players ever because he had 5 All Stars on his championship teams? Please.

People like you prove to me that you know nothing about basketball and that you twist logic and facts around to serve your vendetta against Kobe Bryant because you dislike him. I am obviously a huge Kobe fan, but I'm a Lakers fan first and foremost, born and raised in Southern California. It is not my fault that I have an amazing player on my home team. I feel privileged to watch him play every night and hope other teams get their own superstar that they feel so lucky about in the future. I'd like to see where you get your facts for the points he hits that don't matter. I can think of eight game winners he hit last year alone. If you're going to attack someone so vehemently, I would at least like to see some hard evidence for your BS."

I was pretty mad, to say the least. Not the best thing I've ever written, but it was more of a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing hehe.

Also, I'm kind of devastated that the regular season is almost over... only 6 more games.... but I'll save that for another entry :) Recapping the Utah game tonight, should be a good one hopefully!