Henry Abbott: Were the Lakers ever really magic?

[HarlemHeat37]

https://www.truehoop.com/p/were-the-lakers-ever-really-magic

Great, great article on Jeannie Buss's incompetence and the Lakers being a historically overrated franchise..

[Mr. Body]

It's a franchise completely up its own ass. If not in Los Angeles, they'd be a backwater team, sure, but they did have great general management for a long time. You can't keep championships going without picking out great role-players and so on. That takes work. Five missed playoffs in sixty-five years and now six in a row. smdh

[Mugen]

Good article tbh. Abbott even threw in a nice little shot at that bridge troll Ramona.

Look, if you hate the Lakers, you've been spoiled beyond belief these last 7 years tbh. I honestly couldn't have scripted a better way to fuck up that organization than what ended up happening in real life.

But, I need just one more bone from the great Buss family. Just one last piece of the puzzle to complete this Laker hater masterpiece....Hire Kirby.

[HarlemHeat37]

It's a franchise completely up its own ass. If not in Los Angeles, they'd be a backwater team, sure, but they did have great general management for a long time. You can't keep championships going without picking out great role-players and so on. That takes work. Five missed playoffs in sixty-five years and now six in a row. smdh

Is it a coincidence that they've been an embarrassment in the analytics era, though? They've been completely incompetent without the ability to just sign big names due to location..

Kareem demanded to go there, Magic was a no-brainer, Shaq signed there, Kobe demanded a trade to go there..that's virtually all their success right there:lol

[Bynumite]

Lakers FO is a dumpster fire, no doubt but they're not the only ones to blame. OP may not agree with some of Lebron's moves but he's still firmly on his dick. He won't call out his boy for the piss poor way he handled this season and let his business interests get in the way of team success.

[Robz4000]

Lakers FO is a dumpster fire, no doubt but they're not the only ones to blame. OP may not agree with some of Lebron's moves but he's still firmly on his dick. He won't call out his boy for the piss poor way he handled this season and let his business interests get in the way of team success.

He never planned to have team success. Literally the only reason he went to LA was to further said business interests.

[LkrFan]

Lakers are a dumpster fire...missed the playoffs for the last 6 years...blah blah blah

Spurs have been this model franchise...in the playoffs for 21 straight years...blah blah blah

Yet you farmers keep making threads about...you guessed it...the Lakers :lol

#RentFree

[Rummpd]

Lakers are a dumpster fire...missed the playoffs for the last 6 years...blah blah blah

Spurs have been this model franchise...in the playoffs for 21 straight years...blah blah blah

Yet you farmers keep making threads about...you guessed it...the Lakers :lol

Got to love your loyalty and hanging around here. Lakers have so much financial resources and glamor they can turn it around but sure is fun to see them in such total disarray!

#RentFree

[baseline bum]

Good article tbh. Abbott even threw in a nice little shot at that bridge troll Ramona.

Look, if you hate the Lakers, you've been spoiled beyond belief these last 7 years tbh. I honestly couldn't have scripted a better way to fuck up that organization than what ended up happening in real life.

But, I need just one more bone from the great Buss family. Just one last piece of the puzzle to complete this Laker hater masterpiece....Hire Kirby.

You gonna get robdiaz pissed talking bad about Big Mona

[LkrFan]

Got to love your loyalty and hanging around here. Lakers have so much financial resources and glamor they can turn it around but sure is fun to see them in such total disarray!
:lol

[Mr. Body]

Lakers are a dumpster fire...missed the playoffs for the last 6 years...blah blah blah

Spurs have been this model franchise...in the playoffs for 21 straight years...blah blah blah

Yet you farmers keep making threads about...you guessed it...the Lakers :lol

#RentFree

The Spurs are so boringly competent, sometimes it's fun to watch a train wreck.

[R. DeMurre]

Lakers are a dumpster fire...missed the playoffs for the last 6 years...blah blah blah

Spurs have been this model franchise...in the playoffs for 21 straight years...blah blah blah

Yet you farmers keep making threads about...you guessed it...the Lakers :lol

#RentFree


:lol You're a Laker fan with 29,000+ posts on a website dedicated to the San Antonio Spurs.

That's the definition of #RentFree.

[Laker_1995]

:lol You're a Laker fan with 29,000+ posts on a website dedicated to the San Antonio Spurs.

That's the definition of #RentFree.

Lmao damn

[FrostKing]

Have the LA Lakers ever won a Championship with lesser overall talent than opponents?

Juggernaut franchise but not the basketball soul of Boston

[LkrFan]

:lol You're a Laker fan with 29,000+ posts on a website dedicated to the San Antonio Spurs.

That's the definition of #RentFree.
https://media1.giphy.com/media/3oz8xLd9DJq2l2VFtu/giphy.gif
This is a LAKER Board son.
https://media0.giphy.com/media/26n6ziTEeDDbowBkQ/source.gif

:lol

[LkrFan]

Have the LA Lakers ever won a Championship with lesser overall talent than opponents?

Juggernaut franchise but not the basketball soul of Boston

Buck Foston

[LkrFan]

The Spurs are so boringly competent, sometimes it's fun to watch a train wreck.

Preview of Dubs vs Spurs:

https://media.tenor.com/images/d81baeec3e9b35efd3372cca6ee4554d/tenor.gif

:lol

[R. DeMurre]

https://media1.giphy.com/media/3oz8xLd9DJq2l2VFtu/giphy.gif
This is a LAKER Board son.
https://media0.giphy.com/media/26n6ziTEeDDbowBkQ/source.gif

:lol



:lol WWW.SPURSTALK.COM

[Mr. Body]

Preview of Dubs vs Spurs:

https://media.tenor.com/images/d81baeec3e9b35efd3372cca6ee4554d/tenor.gif

:lol

Interesting coming from a Lakers fan whose trashy young players are going yet another year without getting to compete at even a basic postseason level.

[Kurgan]

Great article. The author also makes a great point about LA sports writers being spineless cheerleaders. They essentially act as enthusiastic mouthpieces for the Lakers organization. It's like the complete opposite of NY where the journos are a little too eager to tear apart the Knicks ownership and players at every opportunity(although the criticism is mostly justified).

[Kurgan]

Preview of Dubs vs Spurs:

https://media.tenor.com/images/d81baeec3e9b35efd3372cca6ee4554d/tenor.gif

:lol

lol, thanks for the compliment. I don't think even most Spurs fans think we're making the conference finals.

[Clipper Nation]

It's obvious now that the real "magic" of the Lakers was Jack Kent Cooke, Jerry Buss and Jerry West. Now that none of them are in charge anymore, they've been a dumpster fire on and off the court.

[Mr. Body]

Great article. The author also makes a great point about LA sports writers being spineless cheerleaders. They essentially act as enthusiastic mouthpieces for the Lakers organization. It's like the complete opposite of NY where the journos are a little too eager to tear apart the Knicks ownership and players at every opportunity(although the criticism is mostly justified).

True, the LAL beat writers are pathetic.

[Killakobe81]

https://www.truehoop.com/p/were-the-lakers-ever-really-magic

Great, great article on Jeannie Buss's incompetence and the Lakers being a historically overrated franchise..

fuck abbott but some truth in there

[DMC]

Sure, now they say it. Where were those articles prior to this.

Bandwagon media. They see an opportunity and they take it. Maybe if media wasn't riding the Lakers' dicks all the time even after 6 consecutive lottery seasons, creating a narrative about how important it is for the NBA that the Lakers return to glory, maybe no one would overrate them.

Neither Lebron nor Magic caused this. This was caused by LA player fans worshiping a dead superstar and LA paying him 50m to wave at the crowd in his warmups. This is the same guy who ran everyone off he ever played with who was worth a fuck. This is the guy who poisoned the vine in LA. No no one wanted to play with him. The fact he still hovers around there keeps players away. He's a cancer, then and now.

[Clipper Nation]

True, the LAL beat writers are pathetic.

The national media is even worse. The Lakers are the only team in sports where the whole media (local and national) tries to play GM for them and convince stars to join them. They don't even do this shit for the Yankees and the Patriots.

[midnightpulp]

Kirby really did a number on that franchise.

[Killakobe81]

Kirby really did a number on that franchise.

That's it!!!
Lets lay it all on Achilles ...and give Jeannie, Jimbo, Mitch, Magic, Rob, Luke Lonzo and Lavar all passes!!!

[Clipper Nation]

Pictured: the moment the Lakers became the worst franchise in sports.

https://i.imgur.com/ExqP9Az.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IzFv1dH.jpg

[Bynumite]

Lebron dickriders coming out the woodwork doing the ol' :downspin: Imagine blaming this dumpster fire on Kobe :lol


Did Kobe let good young prospects like Russell, Randle and Zubac go and for barely nothing in return?

Did Kobe fall for Lavar's snake oil sales?

Did Kobe make the call to trade half the team midway through the season, fail and ruin the locker room in the process?

Did Kobe fail to acquire a better cast of roleplayers?

[Ball Buster]

Abbott has had an axe to grind with the Lakers for two fucking decades. Oh, he wrote a piece about how bad the Lakers are? Oh, so insightful.:wakeup

[Mr. Body]

Abbott has had an axe to grind with the Lakers for two fucking decades. Oh, he wrote a piece about how bad the Lakers are? Oh, so insightful.:wakeup

They should have asked Lavar to write it.

[Kurgan]

Abbott has had an axe to grind with the Lakers for two fucking decades. Oh, he wrote a piece about how bad the Lakers are? Oh, so insightful.:wakeup

He's addressed this cancerous line of thought in the article. LA fans are so used to having the journos glorify the Laker organization that any writer that comes at them with criticism is labeled biased. LA is where sports journalism goes to die:

Once upon a time I wrote an ESPN the magazine story that upset some at the Lakers. What followed taught me a lot about how the organization works. Almost immediately Jeanie accused me of making everything up. That wasn’t surprising; all those anonymous sources were the story’s vulnerability. But the thing is, while I couldn’t identify them publicly, I knew who the sources were. I knew not one word was fabricated. I believe she knew it too. Twisting into pretzel logic, she also said that if they found out who the sources were, they would be fired.

What surprised me, though, was the degree to which the local Laker media fell in line. People might be souring on Jeanie Buss a little now, and they might question what she’s good at. One area in which she is elite: feeding and watering a select group of journalists. They do an admirable job of selling a version of Laker history where glory is always just around that corner, they’re still The Lakers, and anyone who says otherwise is a hater.

This, too, feels short-term. The Lakers duck some criticism with help from a charmed media posse.

[Ball Buster]

He's addressed this cancerous line of thought in the article. LA fans are so used to having the journos glorify the Laker organization that any writer that comes at them with criticism is labeled biased. LA is where sports journalism goes to die:

Once upon a time I wrote an ESPN the magazine story that upset some at the Lakers. What followed taught me a lot about how the organization works. Almost immediately Jeanie accused me of making everything up. That wasn’t surprising; all those anonymous sources were the story’s vulnerability. But the thing is, while I couldn’t identify them publicly, I knew who the sources were. I knew not one word was fabricated. I believe she knew it too. Twisting into pretzel logic, she also said that if they found out who the sources were, they would be fired.

What surprised me, though, was the degree to which the local Laker media fell in line. People might be souring on Jeanie Buss a little now, and they might question what she’s good at. One area in which she is elite: feeding and watering a select group of journalists. They do an admirable job of selling a version of Laker history where glory is always just around that corner, they’re still The Lakers, and anyone who says otherwise is a hater.

This, too, feels short-term. The Lakers duck some criticism with help from a charmed media posse.


A select group of journalists...

Hes talking about Kevin Ding. Which is true, he has been her mouthpiece for years. We all know this already. The bit about all local LA media falling in line, yada yada is complete horshit. Guy uses half truths and exaggerations all over the place because he’s a hack.

[DMC]

Lebron dickriders coming out the woodwork doing the ol' :downspin: Imagine blaming this dumpster fire on Kobe :lol


Did Kobe let good young prospects like Russell, Randle and Zubac go and for barely nothing in return?

Did Kobe fall for Lavar's snake oil sales?

Did Kobe make the call to trade half the team midway through the season, fail and ruin the locker room in the process?

Did Kobe fail to acquire a better cast of roleplayers?
This dumpster fire has been burning for 6 years. Lebron was in Miami when it started.

[Will Hunting]

It's obvious now that the real "magic" of the Lakers was Jack Kent Cooke, Jerry Buss and Jerry West. Now that none of them are in charge anymore, they've been a dumpster fire on and off the court.
This. The Buss kids should sell them to a billionaire with resources at his disposal. They have no fucking idea what they’re doing.

[Bynumite]

This dumpster fire has been burning for 6 years. Lebron was in Miami when it started.

You don't know what you talking about. Stick to being old and fat.

[DMC]

This. The Buss kids should sell them to a billionaire with resources at his disposal. They have no fucking idea what they’re doing.

But it's fun to see how much of a clown show they can become. Lavar and sons really epitomize that franchise these days, and the shit talking alt trolls have abandoned ship.

[HarlemHeat37]

Lebron dickriders coming out the woodwork doing the ol' :downspin: Imagine blaming this dumpster fire on Kobe :lol


Did Kobe let good young prospects like Russell, Randle and Zubac go and for barely nothing in return?

Did Kobe fall for Lavar's snake oil sales?

Did Kobe make the call to trade half the team midway through the season, fail and ruin the locker room in the process?

Did Kobe fail to acquire a better cast of roleplayers?

I don't blame Kobe for this, I've always said the Lakers are a poor organization without the ability to rely exclusively on geography, which they can't anymore..

However, losing D'Angelo Russell(I'm not a fan of his game, but he's certainly much better than any Lakers prospect) was Kobe's fault, not Magic's..if Kobe and Byron Scott hadn't stunted his growth, he would have developed much faster and they also wouldn't have wasted a pick on Lonzo..


"We're all about playing together now," he says. "It's not about one guy anymore. It's about sacrificing for the team." Adds Russell, "Kobe deserved every bit of attention he got in his last year, but there's freedom in Kobe not being around." There's also a leadership vacuum that they plan to fill as a unit. "There's no one leader, no face of the Lakers," Russell says, citing the Spurs as the template. "When we traveled to San Antonio last season, I noticed that it's about everybody-they had all those household names, but the 15th guy got the same amount of attention as Tim Duncan, who's a legend. I feel like we're all buying into that concept. We're a team now. And that's exciting."

[DMC]

You don't know what you talking about. Stick to being old and fat.

https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241596&page=2&p=7697214&viewfull=1#post7697214

5 years ago, son.

:lmao

Quick! Run to another alt and +1 yourself.

[ElNono]

But it's fun to see how much of a clown show they can become. Lavar and sons really epitomize that franchise these days, and the shit talking alt trolls have abandoned ship.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/cd2da003d1214d5afa43eeae7b0be341/tenor.gif

[Ball Buster]

I joined here in the summer of 2015, friggin two years before Lonzo. Mafakn’ Nostradamus shit with the username.

[Othyus Lalanne]

Good article tbh. Abbott even threw in a nice little shot at that bridge troll Ramona.

Look, if you hate the Lakers, you've been spoiled beyond belief these last 7 years tbh. I honestly couldn't have scripted a better way to fuck up that organization than what ended up happening in real life.

But, I need just one more bone from the great Buss family. Just one last piece of the puzzle to complete this Laker hater masterpiece....Hire Kirby.

Kirby as an actual smart person with all his flaws.

[TDMVPDPOY]

:lol You're a Laker fan with 29,000+ posts on a website dedicated to the San Antonio Spurs.

That's the definition of #RentFree.

lol


lakers missin 6th straight years to appear at playoffs,

thats reaching prime kg wolves who missed 7 straight years

[Killakobe81]

A select group of journalists...

Hes talking about Kevin Ding. Which is true, he has been her mouthpiece for years. We all know this already. The bit about all local LA media falling in line, yada yada is complete horshit. Guy uses half truths and exaggerations all over the place because he’s a hack.

and ramona is also a laker friendly as is jim hill

Plashke and the othe cat from daily news used to kill the Lakers

* and abbot pre emptively admitting he has been accused of an axe to grind doesnt absolve him ...why even include that?

[Killakobe81]

I don't blame Kobe for this, I've always said the Lakers are a poor organization without the ability to rely exclusively on geography, which they can't anymore..

However, losing D'Angelo Russell(I'm not a fan of his game, but he's certainly much better than any Lakers prospect) was Kobe's fault, not Magic's..if Kobe and Byron Scott hadn't stunted his growth, he would have developed much faster and they also wouldn't have wasted a pick on Lonzo..

that's horseshitAchilles is to blame for his extension and jacking up a bunch of bad shots ...
But Russel's development is on Luke and Magic.
Luke for allowing Lou and Clarkson to dominate the ball when russell needed to be developed and Mgic for shitting on him as he sent him packing.

ruseel can say what ever he wants but I watched every game he played here ...
Plus he worked much harder this off-season then he ever had (contract year)

[ambchang]

Remember when Jeanie and Jackson were supposed to be this nba power couple running the lakers and Knicks?

[RD2191]

Good article tbh. Abbott even threw in a nice little shot at that bridge troll Ramona.

Look, if you hate the Lakers, you've been spoiled beyond belief these last 7 years tbh. I honestly couldn't have scripted a better way to fuck up that organization than what ended up happening in real life.

But, I need just one more bone from the great Buss family. Just one last piece of the puzzle to complete this Laker hater masterpiece....Hire Kirby.

Ey, keep big mona's name out ya mouth :wakeup

[RD2191]

Remember when Jeanie and Jackson were supposed to be this nba power couple running the lakers and Knicks?

:lol

[DMC]

that's horseshitAchilles is to blame for his extension and jacking up a bunch of bad shots ...
But Russel's development is on Luke and Magic.
Luke for allowing Lou and Clarkson to dominate the ball when russell needed to be developed and Mgic for shitting on him as he sent him packing.

ruseel can say what ever he wants but I watched every game he played here ...
Plus he worked much harder this off-season then he ever had (contract year)

Kobe had to have his glory exit season(s). Because of that he was still getting the lion's share of touches, and he did nothing more than stunt the growth of what looked to be a pretty solid group of high draft picks (Lonzo notwithstanding). This isn't just on Kobe, it's a business decision made by the Buss family when they knew they didn't have the ability to win the championship. They just chose the reality TV version of the NBA over the NBA TV version. They cashed in the franchise and back shelved it. LA is becoming the new Knicks.

[Chucho]

ROFL, the Kobe cocksuckers still doing damage control on Rapey McFuckthefranchise.

Get over it, he lit the fuse and kept pumping grease into this shit fire.

[Chucho]

Kobe had to have his glory exit season(s). Because of that he was still getting the lion's share of touches, and he did nothing more than stunt the growth of what looked to be a pretty solid group of high draft picks (Lonzo notwithstanding). This isn't just on Kobe, it's a business decision made by the Buss family when they knew they didn't have the ability to win the championship. They just chose the reality TV version of the NBA over the NBA TV version. They cashed in the franchise and back shelved it. LA is becoming the new Knicks.


They aren't "becoming" the "new" Knicks. They are NYK West Coast. Everyone is expecting failure except the media.

[Brazil]

Lakers FO is clueless and sold out the name of the Lakers years ago.

They let Kobe do what he wanted during years, his desastrous farewell year was the nail in the coffin. The D12 begging is another example of how weak and desperate this organization is, the Magic fiasco is another slap in the face. Lakers have been humiliated over and over and there is no signal of remaining pride.

Lakers organization should start by letting clear that the Franchise is bigger than the players, the agents, the former players, the relatives..... There is a difference between loyalty and stupidity, Pop would have never accepted putting the interest of one his player over the Spurs.. that's what Lakers did with Kobe.

I'm not complaining tho... fuck the Lakers.. I hope they stay in their hole for the next decades

[R. DeMurre]

Kobe had to have his glory exit season(s). Because of that he was still getting the lion's share of touches, and he did nothing more than stunt the growth of what looked to be a pretty solid group of high draft picks (Lonzo notwithstanding). This isn't just on Kobe, it's a business decision made by the Buss family when they knew they didn't have the ability to win the championship. They just chose the reality TV version of the NBA over the NBA TV version. They cashed in the franchise and back shelved it. LA is becoming the new Knicks.


That's a great analogy. Byron Scott was like an actor portraying a coach during Kobe's last two years, because no real coach would've let him shoot those threes and those high volume shots with those percentages. I think it's fair to say that no young player developed in those years as they stood around watching a faded star and a powerless coach lead them to 21 and 17 win seasons, while playing an absolutely selfish and terrible style of basketball.

[baseline bum]

This. The Buss kids should sell them to a billionaire with resources at his disposal. They have no fucking idea what they’re doing.

Nah they should keep in the family. Knicks West in LA is so much better for the rest of the conference. Plus it'll be funny to see the Clippers become the LA franchise that matters.

[Othyus Lalanne]

Lakers FO is clueless and sold out the name of the Lakers years ago.

They let Kobe do what he wanted during years, his desastrous farewell year was the nail in the coffin. The D12 begging is another example of how weak and desperate this organization is, the Magic fiasco is another slap in the face. Lakers have been humiliated over and over and there is no signal of remaining pride.

Lakers organization should start by letting clear that the Franchise is bigger than the players, the agents, the former players, the relatives..... There is a difference between loyalty and stupidity, Pop would have never accepted putting the interest of one his player over the Spurs.. that's what Lakers did with Kobe.

I'm not complaining tho... fuck the Lakers.. I hope they stay in their hole for the next decades

If i am printing Lakers money i pay the coach more than the best player to send a message to the players. Players league is bs. No one would even say that if there was 1 conference instead of 2. The only bitch coach with a ring is Lue.

[Will Hunting]

Nah they should keep in the family. Knicks West in LA is so much better for the rest of the conference. Plus it'll be funny to see the Clippers become the LA franchise that matters.
Well yeah from a selfish perspective I’d prefer they keep the team, but if we’re talking about what’s better for the franchise they should sell :lol

[Mark Celibate]

Have the LA Lakers ever won a Championship with lesser overall talent than opponents?

Juggernaut franchise but not the basketball soul of Boston

:lol not like the Celtics did it any differently. The only title they won anytime recently was when they had three Hall of Famers in their prime. Bird's Celtics were always loaded, and Bill Russell's Celtics were basically the Golden State Warriors of the 60's rofl

[SuperCam]

laker have proven they can win in multiple eras though. Spurms were also-ran losers like current portland and oklahoma city before Tim, and are once again also-ran losers with no shot at a title after Tim.

[Ninja Roach]

laker have proven they can win in multiple eras though. Spurms were also-ran losers like current portland and oklahoma city before Tim, and are once again also-ran losers with no shot at a title after Tim.

Look at this joto reppin' a never was Bobcats team, with a never was Cam Newton avi talking about "also-ran loser" teams. :lmao Look at SuperCam everybody. He needs attention. Joto, go get your f'n shine box. :elephant

[valleybeyond]

:lol You're a Laker fan with 29,000+ posts on a website dedicated to the San Antonio Spurs.

That's the definition of #RentFree.

#thread

[midnightpulp]

That's it!!!
Lets lay it all on Achilles ...and give Jeannie, Jimbo, Mitch, Magic, Rob, Luke Lonzo and Lavar all passes!!!

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek. Yes, Mitch has always been an overrated GM, Jimbo and Magic are clueless, Pelinka is a sports agent, and Jeannie still operates with the building through free agency mindset. The organization needs to learn how to develop. Simple as that, really.