May 9th: Planning for Next Year. Commentary about the season ended.

 
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Phil
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:31 am    Post subject: May 9th: Planning for Next Year. Commentary about the season ended.

They're Out but Not Very Down
By Jerry Crowe, Times Staff Writer
11:55 PM PDT, May 8, 2006

The Lakers were 11 games better than they were a season ago. They made the playoffs and pushed the second-seeded Phoenix Suns to the brink of elimination. Kobe Bryant won his first scoring title and, more important to the future of the franchise, he got along famously with Coach Phil Jackson.

All in all, it wasn't a bad season for L.A.'s second-best NBA team — other than the ugly ending, a 31-point Game 7 loss to the Suns on Saturday.

"I don't in any way believe that this team could have won the championship," Jackson said Monday at the Lakers' El Segundo headquarters, where he and General Manager Mitch Kupchak conducted exit interviews with players. "We were all about getting to the playoffs and making noise in the playoffs. That's been my whole message to these guys, and we did that. We accomplished the goal."

That being said, Jackson later added, "We don't believe that we have to have a superstar come here to be able to advance. That's not part of our thinking. … We know we have enough physical talent. We have enough size and we have enough expertise to be able to compete in this Western Conference."
09,1,1011008.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba-lakers


Last edited by Phil on Tue May 09, 2006 8:03 am; edited 1 time in total
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Phil
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:33 am    Post subject:

Bryant Just Quit, and the Suns and Clippers Play On
May 9, 2006

PHOENIX — Great news here, of course, for the Clippers who began round two of the playoffs without Kobe Bryant.

How awful would it have been for the Clippers to have signed the guy, finally make the playoffs — only then to learn Bryant is liable to tank it at any time?

The fact is, after the Lakers' last performance, the best scorer in the game can no longer be trusted.

In the seventh game of a playoff series, a game in which Bryant scored 23 points in the first half, Bryant returned to the floor with the Lakers down by 15 to take three shots and score one point.

What if he had taken the same approach a few years back when the Lakers found themselves down by 15 in the fourth quarter only to rally, win and eventually claim an NBA title?

Amazingly, the media in L.A. gave Bryant nothing but a free ride after the Lakers went dead against the Suns.

HEY, THE GREATEST CLOSER IN THE GAME TOOK THREE SHOTS IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEVENTH GAME OF A PLAYOFF SERIES AND SCORED ONE POINT!

That's a shocking story!
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Phil
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:36 am    Post subject:

Lakers aim for 2007-08
Lakers wrapup: If Kobe Bryant wins another championship wearing No. 24, which he said he'll be wearing because his last number in the pros should be his first from high school, the earliest it can come is probably the 2007-08 season.

By KEVIN DING
The Orange County Register


Kobe Bryant is guarded by Raja Bell during a recent game.

FILE PHOTO: KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

EL SEGUNDO – Kobe Bryant said he's switching to uniform No.24 because he began his career in high school with it and it's fitting for him to wear it at the end of his career.

He called it "time to start a new chapter," although if not for an NBA regulation preventing an immediate switch, Bryant would have worn No.24 this season.

To Bryant, this season was the opening line of the story that takes him back. The timetable for No.24 to win a championship - based on the hints Bryant and Lakers coach Phil Jackson dropped in comments Monday - isn't next season but the one after.

This past season? Despite not reaching a second playoff round, Jackson made clear to players who came in for season-ending individual meetings with him and General Manager Mitch Kupchak on Monday that the season was a success.
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Phil
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:41 am    Post subject:

It was fun while it lasted
Compiled by John Ryan
Mercury News

We're a little late. But some things are too good to pass up.

Kobe Bryant and Raja Bell had nothing to say to each other before, during or after Game 7. This followed, of course, their verbal dust-up after Bell's Game 5 clotheslining, in which Bell called Bryant an ``arrogant, pompous individual'' and Bryant said that ``maybe he didn't get hugged enough as a kid.''

Which led to paper cutouts of Bell's face, so he's going to have to thank Bryant for that brief measure of immortality.

And according to the Arizona Republic, after the game Bryant passed a woman who asked him, ``Do you need a hug?''

It was Raja Bell's mom.

• Also noted, from the Los Angeles Times, one of the great fan signs we can remember: ``It's not Raja's fault Kobe can't limbo.''
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Phil
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:44 am    Post subject:

Lakers look to future
BY ROSS SILER, Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - Kobe Bryant talked about starting a new chapter in his career with a different jersey number next season. As for whether the Lakers someday will retire his old No. 8 or new No. 24, Bryant almost had to laugh.

"It would be nice to have a bunch of more championships to even have that be a discussion," Bryant said Monday.

How close the Lakers are to playing for another championship was the question of the day as the players filed through the team's practice facility for their end-of-the-

season exit interviews with coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak.

A 31-point loss in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series to the Phoenix Suns notwithstanding, the Lakers finished the regular season by winning 19 of 30 games and came within six seconds and one 3-pointer by Tim Thomas of advancing to the second round.

"We're very pleased with our core group," Kupchak said. "... with some changes and players getting older and getting better, we think we can win a bunch of games and, in fact, advance beyond the first round."
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PostPosted: Tue May 09, 2006 1:33 pm    Post subject:

Thanks, Phil!
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