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Even kupcake turning against the big got
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/...akers-lives-onPau Gasol's legacy with the Lakers lives on
On the road, against the New Jersey Nets -- that’s where it started. Mitch Kupchak can still recall the details, even now. That’s the type of impact the Los Angeles Lakers’ newest player made on that February night in 2008.
“It was dramatic,” recalled Kupchak, the Lakers general manager.
Pau Gasol joined the Lakers a few days earlier in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. In his debut in purple and gold, the 7-foot Spaniard started and poured in 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes against the Nets. The Lakers won that game by 15 points, foreshadowing a river of success that soon followed.
It seems so long ago today, with Gasol having departed the Lakers after six and a half seasons to join theChicago Bulls over the summer. His new team will host his old one on Christmas Day, the first meeting between the two squads since Gasol left Los Angeles.
“It’s going to be hyped up,” said Lakers reserve guard Nick Young, “because Kobe’s been talking about this since summertime, when I asked him about Pau.”
But as he reminisced about Gasol’s initial days with the Lakers, Kupchak gazed up at their past two championship banners gracing the wall of the team’s practice facility in El Segundo, California -- the ones from 2008-09 and 2009-10.
“We would not have those banners if it wasn’t for Pau,” Kupchak said.
Nor, he added, would the Lakers have appeared in the NBA Finals at the end of Gasol’s first season with the team, when they fell to theBoston Celtics in six games.
"From Day 1, he was terrific for this organization," Kupchak said.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Beyond that, Kobe Bryant’s winning percentage in the three seasons after O’Neal left and before Gasol arrived was .520, but with Gasol by his side, that percentage rose to .689, including 13 playoff series wins.
Even kupcake turning against the big got
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Gasol helped turn around a franchise still searching for an iden y after Shaquille O'Neal left in 2004 via trade to Miami. In the first three seasons after O’Neal’s departure, the Lakers missed the playoffs once and twice failed to reach the second round. After Gasol arrived, they reached three straight NBA Finals.
Kirby wishing he could have a 52% winning percentage nowadays
Mitch Kupchak's grammar is atrocious. He clearly has no knowledge of how to use the subjunctive mood.
^yeah but nobody gives a
rofl typical lib talking grammar smack
Though he couldn't win a single playoff game till Kobe held his hand.
Cry more, got.
While Kobe was the face of the franchise, the franchise has been in shambles. You needed a real like Daddy or MVPau to run the show out there. Kobe is just a convenient chucker to appease the be@ners whilst the real players are being wooed. 81 is the worst thing that ever happened to LA, worse than the riots in fact, because it's led to a carte blanche chucking exhibition by Bean, the likes of which have never been seen.
When you think of MJ, you think of 6 les, 5 league MVPs, clutch heartbreaking shots, Finals MVPs. When you think of Kobe you think of 81, Stephen A Smith... Faber.... The b2b conjures images of Pau.
Actually Andrew Bynum was crucial too in the 2010 finals against Celtics.
Pau alone will not beat KG
Where's that pic of Phil Jackson's book where Kobe admits he was Shaq's sidekick?
How many playoff series did Kobe win without Daddy or the Spaniard?
Yeah, he leaned on Perkins and it was over. Over over.
, without Kobe Daddy would be lynched like Sterling.
Without Daddy Kobe would be in New York catching Carmelo's farts.
But, without Kobe Daddy would be lynched like Sterling.
But, without Daddy Kobe would be selling cars with Isaiah Rider.
Without Daddy to snitch on Kobe would be pillowbiting in jail.
Kobe is/was a role player period. He never led any team to a le.
Who gets a playoff series first sans the other, Pau or Kobe? My vote is on Pau.
Sure. Without Kobe there'd be no Daddy as we know him. Without Kobe there'd be no 3 consecutive back-to-backs.
Without Kobe there'd be no Gasol in Los Angeles. Without Kobe there'd be no additional back-to-back.
Without Kobe there'd be no redeemed Artest. Without Kobe there'd be no Pierce the liar, pants all be afire.
Without Kobe there'd be no redeemed Phil.
Kobe
You've nary room. Your Rodman told on Robinson in the middle of the playoffs. ha, ha.
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