Bleacher Report - Articles by Chirs Moss

Lakers Draft Day Success: Magic, Kobe, West... and Kareem?

Chirs Moss — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:43:17 -0400

Historically, the Los Angeles Lakers have been quiet on most draft nights. However when they make moves, they're usually moves where everyone takes notice; and most importantly, they're usually the right moves.

In what figures to be another quiet draft day for the Lakers, let's look back at the five draft moves that made the most short-term and long-term noise throughout Laker history.

#1 – Earvin "Magic" Johnson: The Greatest Laker of All (1979)
An easy pick for the top spot for both immediate and long-term impact, Magic stepped right in and immediately made his presence felt on the Lakers.

As a rookie, he averaged 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 7.3 assists for the season as well as being selected as a starter for the NBA All-Star Game. As stellar of a regular season as he had, Magic's legacy was born during the 1980 NBA Finals when he replaced injured starting center and NBA regular season MVP, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the deciding Game Six of the NBA Finals and led the Lakers to victory.

During his playing career, he picked up four more championships for the Lakers, three MVP awards, three NBA Finals MVP awards, and two All-Star Game MVP awards. After his playing career ended, he later became minority owner of the Lakers and an active member of the Los Angeles community. If one were to select the "Greatest Laker," the only other man who could have a respectable argument would be…

#2 – Jerry West: “Zeke from Cabin Creek” to “Mr. Clutch” (1960)
The Logo is the only man to ever win an NBA Finals MVP award while being on the losing team. Jerry West was drafted in 1960 and had been with the Lakers organization for over 40 years. On top of what he accomplished on the court, he did a lot more for the Lakers off of it. While he only helped the Lakers win one title as a player, he was the driving force behind seven championships as the Lakers General Manager. He was also responsible for…

#3 – Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher: Dynasty Building through the Draft (1996)
The reigning Finals MVP’s and the reigning Laker hero’s careers are so intertwined that it’s hard not to put them together, especially since they were both in the draft class of 1996. Jerry West fell in love with Kobe Bryant’s skills as a 17-year-old coming out of high school and traded a proven center and fan favorite, Vlade Divac, to get his draft rights from the then-Charlotte Hornets.

Fisher was taken 24th in the same draft. Enough has been said in recent days about the Black Mamba’s individual merits and Derek Fisher’s clutch shooting, tenacity, and leadership that it doesn’t need to be repeated again. They’ve been a part of four NBA championship teams together with the potential for more. They’re the Lakers’ version of the Draft Dynamic Duo, narrowly beating out…

#4 – David Meyers and Junior Bridgeman: Creating the “Showtime” Era’s First Building Block (1975)
If you don’t recognize those names, you’re not alone. They were drafted as picks two and eight, respectively, in the 1975 draft, then were subsequently traded in a blink of an eye along with Brian Winters and Elmore Smith to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The former Lew Alcindor won three of his six MVP trophies while in the purple and gold and went on to win five NBA Titles with the Lakers. He currently serves as an assistant coach with the Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar anchored the late-80’s “Showtime” era along with Magic and…

#5 – James Worthy: The Most Overlooked Laker (1982)
“Big Game James” was selected first overall in the 1982 Draft after the Lakers won the NBA title the previous season. The Lakers’ front office made a number of moves to get this pick and the lottery was instituted soon thereafter, ensuring something like this would not happen again.

Worthy was a Hall of Fame player, an NBA Finals MVP, named one of the 50 Greatest Players during the NBA’s 50th Anniversary season in 1996, and a seven time All-Star. He’s not given nearly enough credit for the success of the Lakers in the 80’s or for his overall game.

The Lakers are in the two-team conversation (the other team being the Boston Celtics, for the record) for most successful franchise in NBA history. A lot of the success has been built through the players the Lakers have drafted and the moves they made on draft day.

Even though most observers expect this to be a relatively uneventful draft for the NBA Champions, the Lakers may make some unexpected noise. No matter what moves they make this season or forthcoming seasons, it’d be difficult to break into this top five draft moves in Laker history.

Why Kobe's "Weariness" May Be Cause For Worry Beyond NBA Finals

Chirs Moss — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:10:31 -0400

A lot has been written and said about how Kobe Bryant flamed out in the final half of the Lakers' loss on Tuesday night.

Phil Jackson, never one to shy away at calling his players out through the media, said Bryant was fatigued. Bryant, contrary to him admitting it in Denver, denied being tired. Analysts say he missed an unusual 50 percent of his free throws because his legs were gone.

Worrisome for the Lakers and their fans for Game Four and for the rest of the Finals. But there's a bigger picture here. It's a picture that has been rarely touched upon over the numerous articles and media reports that have mentioned Bryant being tired at the end of Game Three.

How much does Kobe have left?

The skills are still there and he'll surely improve on his enormous skill set over the summer. He always does. His deadly mid-range game may become downright homicidal. His underrated passing game may be mentioned in the same breath as Chris Paul's or LeBron James' come next season. Undoubtedly, his desire and killer instinct won't flame out.

But how much will Kobe Bryant's body have left? This is less about age as it is about the "NBA miles" he's put on his body, especially over the past three years.

Bryant played 77 games in the 2006-2007 regular season and five in the playoffs. During the summer, he played 10 games in the FIBA Americas Championship. In the 2007-2008 season, he started all 82 regular season games and played in 21 playoff games. Last summer, he played eight games in the Olympics and then one more regular season with 82 games along with 21 games (and counting) in these playoffs.

That's 306 games (as of Jun. 10, 2009) in three years, not counting preseason games, practices, traveling, and promotional appearances on behalf of the Lakers, the national team, and his sponsors.

There hasn't been an NBA player who's been doin' as much work as Bryant has done in the past three years.

On the optimistic side, Bryant is going to have more than just a few weeks off this summer for the first time in three years to re-energize and heal some nagging injuries; not to mention there is little debate about him being one of the most well-conditioned and durable players in the league.

However, at almost 31, how much of a toll have the past three years (not to mention the long seasons before that) taken on him for the future?

Just don't ask Kobe that question. He may run through you like that wall he declared he'd run through after Game Three.

No Excuses: The Orlando Magic Were Better Than LeBron and the Cavs

Chirs Moss — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:57:12 -0400

So much is being made of LeBron James' refusal to shake hands and address the media after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic last night.

The blame game about whether it was LeBron's fault or his teammates' fault for not going to the Finals has been started and been played.

If you search hard enough, you can find any reason to blame LeBron James for the Cavs' downfall or the rest of the Cavs for not supporting LeBron. You can pull up statistics to support either side of the argument, I'm sure.

A lot of this has to do with LeBron (and, by extension, the Cavaliers') growing fan base. Some of it has to do with LeBron entering the "Kobe Zone" where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't in the eyes of many fans.

But all this hoopla takes away from the real story: the Orlando Magic were a better team than the Cleveland Cavaliers over the course of the past two weeks.

The Cavaliers' struggles against the other top three teams (the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Orlando Magic) in the league during the regular season have been well-documented.

However, they were still heavily favored going into this series against the Orlando Magic even though they struggled more against the Magic than the other two elite teams of the season.

This included an Orlando victory two weeks before the playoffs that was probably Cleveland's most embarrassing loss during the season to any team besides the Washington Wizards.

Orlando did a good job of running their inside-outside games. No one is going to think any of the Cavs' bigs are going to guard Dwight Howard straight up.

And when Howard was doubled up, the other Magic guys did a great job knocking down their shots on a consistent basis.

When the Cavs had to respect Orlando's shooters, Dwight Howard made them repeatedly pay inside.

The Magic exploited their match-up advantages better in this series than any other team in any other series in the playoffs. It's what the Lakers should have done against the short-handed (and just plain short) Rockets team without Yao Ming.

It's easy to forget that this series was one LeBron James Game 2 buzzer-beater away from being a sweep. If he doesn't make that shot, this series ends at Game 4. As big of a shot as that was, that shot isn't the story of the series.

The Orlando Magic should be the story coming out of the Eastern Conference. And come Thursday, no one will have a choice but to make them the story one way or another.