alamo50
11-21-2005, 11:23 AM
Help from teammates? Not Odom, Brown, Mihm — rest of roster a joke
COMMENTARY
By Michael Ventre
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 6:03 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2005
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a workplace that is free of serious recognized hazards and is in compliance with government standards.
The National Labor Relations Board, established in 1935, is in charge of, among other things, remedying unfair labor practices.
In addition, there are various human rights and workers’ rights organizations throughout the United States dedicated to protecting the American worker.
So how, in this day and age, can the Los Angeles Lakers get away with blatantly and callously exploiting Kobe Bryant?
Here is a man who shows up every day for his regular shift, only to discover that he not only has to do his work but also the work of 11 other men. And he gets no pay raise for it, no extra coffee break, no additional vacation time or comp days. Granted, he is in the midst of a seven-year, $136 million contract, but fair is fair.
This isn’t exactly Cesar Chavez territory, but clearly the Lakers are overworking Bryant. They send him out there each and every game and tell him to score, rebound, pass, defend and chase down loose balls while his teammates sit in the shade and watch.
As a result, the Lakers are steeped in mediocrity with a 4-5 record, and have conceded the city’s bragging rights to the Clippers. Can bullhorns and picket signs and speeches by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson outside Staples Center be far behind?
Bryant is averaging 31.9 points per contest this season, second in the NBA to Allen Iverson. But he’s leading the league in field-goal attempts at 28.1 per game, almost four more than the notoriously trigger-happy Iverson.
Bryant is shooting just 44 percent from the field, and has made just one of 12 three-point tries. That’s what happens when you’ve been carrying a heavy load by yourself, and your arms and legs get weary, and the rest of your teammates have apparently gone on a wildcat strike.
Not to rehash a now widespread criticism, but the Lakers really didn’t think this through when they got rid of Shaquille O’Neal and handed the keys to Kobe. As brilliant an individual talent as he is, Bryant is useless without help. And right now he’s alarmingly useless, because he has almost no help whatsoever.
There have been many players throughout NBA annals who have performed one-man shows — Pete Maravich, Dominique Wilkins and Bernard King come to mind — but who didn’t have enough help to contend for a title. Bryant is now in danger of being trapped in this pigeonhole for the rest of his career, because it’s incredibly difficult to build a championship contender and right now the Lakers don’t even have a strong foundation in place.
I would be remiss in bemoaning Kobe’s excessive workload without chastising the slackers who comprise the rest of the roster.
Everyone seems to be waiting for the day when Lamar Odom breaks out and becomes the trusty No. 2 man to Kobe that Scottie Pippen was to Michael Jordan. It won’t happen. A player never rises above his own personality. Odom is certainly talented, but he’s also flaky and unfocused. While he has posted decent stats throughout his career, he rarely has an impact on a game. He’s like an auxiliary generator who only kicks in when the main source of power goes out, and even then he’s not reliable. Odom is in his seventh NBA season. If the light bulb hasn’t gone on yet, it never will. Two words: Trade bait.
The Lakers took a chance on young enigma Kwame Brown, and so far he’s been like Odom Lite. The five-year veteran appears even more disoriented and lacking in confidence than Odom. Brown is scheduled to miss the next two weeks with a hamstring, and the DNPs in the box score while he’s gone may represent his most positive contributions to date.
Chris Mihm is an excellent human being, but as Clint Eastwood once said in “Magnum Force”: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Just about every man in the NBA who plays against the Lakers knows Mihm’s. Some nights he puts up decent numbers, other nights he’s invisible, but overall he’s rarely a factor in the outcome and is not a viable option to score at crunch time. This is his sixth NBA season, and like Odom, he is what he is and won’t transform into Moses Malone anytime soon.
The rest of the Lakers’ roster reads like an unprotected list for an expansion draft: Smush Parker, Devean George, Slava Medvedenko, Brian Cook, Sasha Vujacic, Laron Profit, Aaron McKie, Luke Walton, Devin Green and Von Wafer. Only 18-year-old Andrew Bynum, the team’s first-round pick last June, has sparked any kind of hope at all among the Lakers faithful, and that’s only because he plays five minutes a game and that’s too little time for anybody to predict if he’ll be a bust or not.
Not to beat up on Kobe, but this is what he wanted, and now he has it: Free reign. He was bashed enough last season, when the Lakers finished 34-48 and out of the playoffs in their first post-Shaq season, so I’ll resist the temptation here. What’s done is done.
But the Lakers have to do something about bringing in more talent and not making this another growing season, another nurturing and learning experience. Otherwise, they might find themselves filling out worker’s comp papers for their only star.
Imagine if Atlas had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he climbed on Kobe Bryant’s back. That would be almost as heavy a load to bear as Bryant is dealing with now carrying the Lakers
Michael Ventre writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
:spin
COMMENTARY
By Michael Ventre
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 6:03 p.m. ET Nov. 20, 2005
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to provide a workplace that is free of serious recognized hazards and is in compliance with government standards.
The National Labor Relations Board, established in 1935, is in charge of, among other things, remedying unfair labor practices.
In addition, there are various human rights and workers’ rights organizations throughout the United States dedicated to protecting the American worker.
So how, in this day and age, can the Los Angeles Lakers get away with blatantly and callously exploiting Kobe Bryant?
Here is a man who shows up every day for his regular shift, only to discover that he not only has to do his work but also the work of 11 other men. And he gets no pay raise for it, no extra coffee break, no additional vacation time or comp days. Granted, he is in the midst of a seven-year, $136 million contract, but fair is fair.
This isn’t exactly Cesar Chavez territory, but clearly the Lakers are overworking Bryant. They send him out there each and every game and tell him to score, rebound, pass, defend and chase down loose balls while his teammates sit in the shade and watch.
As a result, the Lakers are steeped in mediocrity with a 4-5 record, and have conceded the city’s bragging rights to the Clippers. Can bullhorns and picket signs and speeches by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson outside Staples Center be far behind?
Bryant is averaging 31.9 points per contest this season, second in the NBA to Allen Iverson. But he’s leading the league in field-goal attempts at 28.1 per game, almost four more than the notoriously trigger-happy Iverson.
Bryant is shooting just 44 percent from the field, and has made just one of 12 three-point tries. That’s what happens when you’ve been carrying a heavy load by yourself, and your arms and legs get weary, and the rest of your teammates have apparently gone on a wildcat strike.
Not to rehash a now widespread criticism, but the Lakers really didn’t think this through when they got rid of Shaquille O’Neal and handed the keys to Kobe. As brilliant an individual talent as he is, Bryant is useless without help. And right now he’s alarmingly useless, because he has almost no help whatsoever.
There have been many players throughout NBA annals who have performed one-man shows — Pete Maravich, Dominique Wilkins and Bernard King come to mind — but who didn’t have enough help to contend for a title. Bryant is now in danger of being trapped in this pigeonhole for the rest of his career, because it’s incredibly difficult to build a championship contender and right now the Lakers don’t even have a strong foundation in place.
I would be remiss in bemoaning Kobe’s excessive workload without chastising the slackers who comprise the rest of the roster.
Everyone seems to be waiting for the day when Lamar Odom breaks out and becomes the trusty No. 2 man to Kobe that Scottie Pippen was to Michael Jordan. It won’t happen. A player never rises above his own personality. Odom is certainly talented, but he’s also flaky and unfocused. While he has posted decent stats throughout his career, he rarely has an impact on a game. He’s like an auxiliary generator who only kicks in when the main source of power goes out, and even then he’s not reliable. Odom is in his seventh NBA season. If the light bulb hasn’t gone on yet, it never will. Two words: Trade bait.
The Lakers took a chance on young enigma Kwame Brown, and so far he’s been like Odom Lite. The five-year veteran appears even more disoriented and lacking in confidence than Odom. Brown is scheduled to miss the next two weeks with a hamstring, and the DNPs in the box score while he’s gone may represent his most positive contributions to date.
Chris Mihm is an excellent human being, but as Clint Eastwood once said in “Magnum Force”: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Just about every man in the NBA who plays against the Lakers knows Mihm’s. Some nights he puts up decent numbers, other nights he’s invisible, but overall he’s rarely a factor in the outcome and is not a viable option to score at crunch time. This is his sixth NBA season, and like Odom, he is what he is and won’t transform into Moses Malone anytime soon.
The rest of the Lakers’ roster reads like an unprotected list for an expansion draft: Smush Parker, Devean George, Slava Medvedenko, Brian Cook, Sasha Vujacic, Laron Profit, Aaron McKie, Luke Walton, Devin Green and Von Wafer. Only 18-year-old Andrew Bynum, the team’s first-round pick last June, has sparked any kind of hope at all among the Lakers faithful, and that’s only because he plays five minutes a game and that’s too little time for anybody to predict if he’ll be a bust or not.
Not to beat up on Kobe, but this is what he wanted, and now he has it: Free reign. He was bashed enough last season, when the Lakers finished 34-48 and out of the playoffs in their first post-Shaq season, so I’ll resist the temptation here. What’s done is done.
But the Lakers have to do something about bringing in more talent and not making this another growing season, another nurturing and learning experience. Otherwise, they might find themselves filling out worker’s comp papers for their only star.
Imagine if Atlas had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he climbed on Kobe Bryant’s back. That would be almost as heavy a load to bear as Bryant is dealing with now carrying the Lakers
Michael Ventre writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
:spin