OFFICIAL LAKERS 2009/2010 (57-25) 2009-2010 CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!

[antbanks81]

I am waiting to see how KG comes out...you know Pau's comments will have an effect on him.

All that's needed is 3 more!Lets Go Lakers

 

[notorious 858]

new wallpaper from kb24.com:

 

[23mcpizzle23]

Originally Posted by gimpystevie87



It's going to be an intense game. Pau Gasol pretty much said in his press conference today that KG is losing is step. This is definitely going to fire KG up for sure. Can't wait!!!!

thats not what he was trying to say they were asking about how they went head to head when they were in mini and mimph he was trying to say that they are both different players now.
Ole girl from ESPN twisted it and told rondo like Pau was talking trash but the hell with it Pau > KG he can be mad if he wants 2

 

[Truth]

You don't wanna give the Celtics anymore motivation. He can talk all the @%@% he wants if we win the series

 

[gimpystevie87]

I think what Pau meant to say was in terms of KG becoming more of a jump-shooter rather than a post-presence aggressor on the offensive end. I know ESPN will take everything out of proportion and hype things up just for ratings, but telling by KG's reaction you know that subtle statement is going to serve as fuel for his motivation. I hope Game 2 will be a closer game, even though I wouldn't mind another good old-fashioned @#+%-beating brought to you by the KB24

.

 

[notorious 858]

Something I noticed last night during the game:

 

[kvsm23vs24]

same thing i noticed notorious.

Will Smith got it right, new ones look like trash on the damn jersey.

 

[kb8sandiego]

Originally Posted by Notorious 858

Snoop need to shut his buster sports fan mouth up.

Tombout Laker Fan #1. That fool was reppin' the Warriors back in 07. On top of that, I'm sitting watch that Ice Cube's Raiders 30 for 30 and he's talkin' about being a Raiders fan. Fool, ain't you a Steelers fan?

B-U-S-T-E-R

 

[gimpystevie87]

I agree with Notorious, the new ones suck.

 

[notorious 858]

\

 

[cedric ceballos 1995 lakers]

Originally Posted by DTruth07

You don't wanna give the Celtics anymore motivation. He can talk all the @%@% he wants if we win the series

man eff the celtics,  q g can as motivated as she wants, the Lakers still got this in 5 or 6

 

[infyrno23]

I like what Pau said, even though it got twisted... he clearly was comparing the Minnesota KG, and Memphis Pau

but !%#@ it, Garnett get mad... play hard, i want them to play hard, so when we beat them we can say we beat them at their best, and we were the first to beat their "Starting 5 record"

Bring It!!!

 

[westcoastsfinest]

KB8sandiego wrote:

---

Originally Posted by Notorious 858

Snoop need to shut his buster sports fan mouth up.

Tombout Laker Fan #1. That fool was reppin' the Warriors back in 07. On top of that, I'm sitting watch that Ice Cube's Raiders 30 for 30 and he's talkin' about being a Raiders fan. Fool, ain't you a Steelers fan?

B-U-S-T-E-R




for reals...ever since dude was reppin' a we believe shirt and all that junk pffft
ice cube is thereal fan...you never seen other than staples

yeah i was a fan of what pau said about kg...pau better step up even more now cause kg will come back fighting

 

[darth dnzy]

--I dont care what kind of FInals patch they have on them jerseys. It can be a Hello Kitty one for all I care.
--All that matters is we take Game 2 before heading out to Beantown.

 

[tmoney85]

Kg could be motivated all he wants. What the hell is he gonna do differently?

Plus its okay for Pau to say stuff like that because we all know he needs more toughness and cockyness. Im telling you, Celtics are a bunch of weinies. They are ALL show. If you stand up to them, they will fold.

 

[menacin methods]

http://hangtime.blogs.nba.../04/bryant-get-physical/

x 100

 

[tupac003]

I hate the new patches...but I have to get them any way and those other things might come in handy come june 15th.....

 

[23mcpizzle23]

Originally Posted by westcoastsfinest

---

Originally Posted by Notorious 858

Snoop need to shut his buster sports fan mouth up.

Tombout Laker Fan #1. That fool was reppin' the Warriors back in 07. On top of that, I'm sitting watch that Ice Cube's Raiders 30 for 30 and he's talkin' about being a Raiders fan. Fool, ain't you a Steelers fan?

B-U-S-T-E-R

for reals...ever since dude was reppin' a we believe shirt and all that junk pffft
ice cube�is the�real fan...you never seen other than staples

yeah i was a fan of what pau said about kg...pau better step up even more now cause kg will come back fighting
Yep just like hes a USC fan but his %#* was all up at LSU practice Jersey hat and all after the won a few years ago

 

[notorious 858]

[h1]http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/serving_of_kobe_beef_ML3r3YyS0q3pmQlatrYs8H[/h1]

[h1]Bryant doesn't give 'a bleep' about where LeBron will play[/h1]
LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant, in a private moment at Staples Center yesterday, didn't care to hear the name LeBron James, who is stealing attention from the NBA Finals because of his impending summer free-agency drama.

Bryant is consumed with one item -- a fifth championship -- not the soap opera surrounding King James, who wears a crown but not a ring.

Bryant is three wins away after a flawless 30-point, seven-rebound, six-assist outing in Game 1 on Thursday lifted the Lakers to a 102-89 win over the Celtics and a 1-0 lead over the Celtics


"You're asking me if LeBron is going to New York?" Bryant told The Post. "I'm trying to tell you in a polite way, I don't give a [bleep].

"As a fan, it's a big deal," Kobe added. "You're talking about LeBron and Dwyane Wade, it's two huge names changing cities. It alters things drastically in the NBA. But I really don't care about it."

Byron Scott, now an ESPN broadcaster, was standing with Bryant and cracked up.

"Why are people talking about LeBron anyway?" Scott said. "Let me tell you something. From me just knowing Kobe, he doesn't give a [bleep] what everyone is talking about anyway."

"I couldn't have said it better," Bryant piped in.

Indeed, it is a strange dynamic at these Finals. Bryant is approaching a fifth championship -- one less than Michael Jordan. He is playing in his seventh Finals -- one more than Jordan. Yet James is getting more attention even a month after his Cavaliers played their last game of the season.

Last night, CNN showed James' hourlong, much-hyped interview. During the Finals telecast of Game 1, ABC promoted a "Nightline" interview with James to be shown after the game -- even though the segment was taped on April 5 and already was aired in May.

During his formal interview session yesterday, Bryant said of the King James' cloud over the Finals: "I don't care about attention. It doesn't mean anything to me."

Fact is, Bryant, despite a sore knee drained in April, despite a healing broken finger, is playing at the highest level he's ever played. Historically speaking, Bryant is nearing Jordan's plane of greatness. James is nowhere in that discussion, even if he has two MVPs to Bryant's one.

Somehow, Bryant, at 31, is better than Bryant of his 20's.

"I think he's a better and a more well-rounded total basketball player," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said at a charity event in which a community center blocks from the arena was dedicated by NBA Cares. "And that includes leadership, teammate skills, things you get better at as you mature. Five, six years ago, he was off the charts athletically. Today he's still incredibly athletic but not as athletic as 26. When you look at the total package, yes, he's better now."

Jerry Colangelo, Team USA's CEO, told The Post Friday he has been informed Bryant likely will have right knee surgery after the season, which is why he won't play in the World Championships. According to a Lakers source, Bryant may undergo arthroscopic knee surgery because of wear and tear.

Bryant's broken finger has healed, but a Lakers source said the finger is puffed up.

Asked about his condition yesterday, Bryant said, "You just try to get healthy as you can for every game and you go out there and just do your best. You just forget about the injuries and put your hardhat on and go to work."

Kupchak said he is amazed Bryant played the whole season.

"If you talk to him now, he'll say he's feeling pretty good," Kupchak said. "He had a rebirth of energy after the knee was drained. But over the course of an 82-game season, we advised him in so many different ways it was time to take some time off, but he didn't want to hear anything about it."

Bryant has put on a surly persona for the media, with mostly clipped answers. His Finals face is on. The title drought from 2003 to 2008 seems to have him more determined.

"Just comes from understanding opportunities not coming along very often and making sure you focus in and take full advantage of it," Bryant said. "Early in my career, it's like we'd pop up, win three straight [titles] and after that was a drought.

"I want to make sure we don't leave any stones unturned."

 

[darthska]

I'm not going to get ahead of myself and act like I'm convinced we'll be the champs now because of game 1. We lose tomorrow and it's serious.

But if we win tomorrow...

Mitch Kupchak

---

I think he's a better and a more well-rounded basketball player. And that includes leadership, teammate skills, things you get better at as you mature. Five, six years ago, he was off the charts athletically. Today he's still incredibly athletic but not as athletic as 26. When you look at the total package, yes, he's better now.
COMPLETELY agree. It was hard for me to be a fan of Frobe; y'all know that. But this guy? Kobe? It's hard for me to not be a fan.

 

[tmoney85]

 

[goukiteg]

"Just comes from understanding opportunities not coming along very often and making sure you focus in and take full advantage of it," Bryant said. "Early in my career, it's like we'd pop up, win three straight [titles] and after that was a drought.

"I want to make sure we don't leave any stones unturned."

 

 

[notorious 858]

[h2][/h2]

[h2]Pssst. If Lakers win, Phil will be back[/h2]

LOS ANGELES -- For all the talk of Phil Jackson going to Chicago or New Jersey or Cleveland or wherever else LeBron James might end up, the truth is he's three wins from returning as the Los Angeles Lakers' coach next season.

He never will fully admit as much because he doesn't have to and shouldn't in a contract year in which he will be the biggest free agent to hit the market next month outside of James. There probably will be at least a half-dozen teams that will go after Jackson hard, believing luring him will also guarantee James, who is trying to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

It all makes for interesting off-day conjecture and offseason storylines, but don't believe it.

If the Lakers win, Jackson will be back.

There is no way he will walk away from this team and a chance to complete a fourth three-peat, and has admitted as much several times this season.

"Yeah, if we win, it's almost imperative to give it another shot," Jackson said. "We [would] have a chance to do something special and unique again."

If this were a decade ago and Jackson, 64, weren't in the twilight of his career, maybe I'd put more stock in him packing up, going to the highest bidder in the offseason and turning around the fortunes of another franchise, but that's not the case.

After Bryant signed his three-year extension in April, which meant the quintet of Bryant, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest were locked up for at least the next three years, I asked Jackson whether he would coach this group through its run before riding off into the sunset. He looked at me as if I were crazy and said, "No."

"I'm not going to buy into anything for three or four years," Jackson said. "I don't think that's in the cards at all. But I can look at a season, one year at a time right now, and feel comfortable with the commitment I can generate to get through another year and push the team hard enough to get them through a year. When you talk about those long-term things, there's got to be a change here in the near future where there needs to be a successive coach who is able to deal with these players, help them on with their game."

Do you really think a coach who isn't willing to commit to coaching for more than the next year or two is going to pack up and start coaching somewhere else? Furthermore, if you're a team looking to hire a coach to turn around your team and attract a free agent like James, how secure would you be in your decision when Jackson says he's only comfortable signing a one-year contract?

Bryant seems quietly confident Jackson will be back as his coach next season and is cautiously optimistic he might even be able to get him to coach him through his contract extension despite Jackson's claims that coaching that long isn't in the cards for him.

After he signed his extension, Bryant talked with Jackson and told him there was one person left who hadn't signed a contract extension and that he was waiting for him to do so in the offseason.

"He's a big part of me as a player," Bryant said after signing his extension. "I enjoy playing for him, and I made it very clear to him today that I would love to see him be back."

If Jackson ran a simple offense used throughout the league, one that could be picked up during the course of a single training camp, perhaps the idea of him leaving a championship team in Los Angeles and turning around the fortunes of New Jersey or Cleveland would be more plausible, but that's obviously not the case. Nobody outside of his former assistant Kurt Rambis in Minnesota runs the triangle, and it isn't an offense suited for every player. As Rambis, Jim Cleamons (Dallas) and Tim Floyd (Chicago) have shown, it's an offense that doesn't work as effectively when neither Jordan nor Bryant is on the floor. Jackson also had Tex Winter by his side in Los Angeles and Chicago to break down the triangle for newcomers when he was first named the head coach at both stops.

Does he really want to start teaching it to a new group of players without the innovator of the offense by his side?

Despite Jackson's recently saying he has "always had problems committing" when asked to end all this conjecture and simply commit to returning to the Lakers next season, he actually has been one of the most committed and loyal coaches in sports. He has coached only two franchises since 1987 and was basically forced out of both before returning to the Lakers in 2005.

One of the biggest reasons Jackson came back as the coach of the Lakers five years ago after having a falling-out with Lakers owner Jerry Buss was his girlfriend and Buss' daughter, Jeanie Buss, who is the team's vice president. While she claims she won't be pulling any personal strings to get Jackson to return, it would be naïve to think she isn't going to play a huge role in bridging whatever gap currently exists between her father and her boyfriend.

While Jerry Buss isn't the biggest fan of Jackson personally, he didn't become a wealthy businessman and one of the most successful owners in sports by making decisions he knew would harm his franchise and his investment. While Jerry Buss and Jackson might not go on family vacations together, Buss remembers how his team performed when Jackson wasn't the coach.

The Lakers with Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry and Rick Fox were swept out of the playoffs two straight years before Jackson was hired and led them to three straight titles. The one season he left the team, it missed the playoffs for only the fifth time in franchise history. The Lakers have made the postseason, including the past three NBA Finals, every year since he's returned.

So much has been made of Buss wanting to cut Jackson's salary from $12 million this season to possibly $5 million next season. While the exact figure of the pay cut isn't known, Jackson knows that if he returns next season, he will be making less than he has this season. He likely still will be the highest-paid coach in the NBA, but the days of him making almost double the salary of the next coach on the list have been numbered as long as the Lakers' payroll has kept increasing.

"Dr. Buss said that he put some things on the line by re-signing Lamar [Odom], so it's financial," Jackson said. "This team has never lost money since he took over the team, so that's a big part of it. I pushed him to sign Lamar, and we all said we have to have this guy back, even if it's going to put this team in jeopardy financially. At a time when it's tough in this league, he took the step."

If Jackson took a pay cut, he wouldn't be doing anything more than what he asked Odom and Trevor Ariza to do last offseason, when both were asked to take offers less than what they wanted to return to the Lakers.

"Obviously, it's going to take sacrifice on many parts," Jackson said last year. "Dr. Buss is not going to be able to do without having to make sacrifices at some level. We have to make sacrifices in other places in our organization to make room for their salaries. [Ariza and Odom] probably have to sacrifice something in the process if they want to come back. Nobody can eat their cake and have it both, in their situation. But it's possible to do it."

To his credit, Jackson hasn't acted like a hypocrite when addressing his possible pay cut, saying whatever he makes next season will still be "ridiculous."

"Pay cuts come in all different forms," Jackson said, joking he might cash out his 401(k). "There are some ways around that. I think we could find a way to make that work."

While Jackson won't make any commitments on his future during the season, he promises to make a decision shortly after the season and doesn't anticipate the drama extending past a few days. "I'll do a whole physical checkup at the end of the year and then I'll make a decision," Jackson said. "It's pretty easy. It'll go pretty quick. It'll be a two-day thing, and then I'll be back and we'll see what happens."

If the Lakers win this year, we all know what will happen, even if Jackson doesn't want to admit it quite yet.

Link:

http://sports.espn.go.com...columns/story?id=5255193

 

[notorious 858]

[h1][/h1]

[h1]Lakers need to do the right thing with Derek Fisher, and that's to keep him[/h1]Every time his old butt skids, the mandate speaks. Every time his rainbow jumper drops, the message soars.

Every time he stares down basketball's scariest player in the corner of the locker room and tells him to zip it, dude, his bosses better listen.

When Derek Fisher becomes a free agent next month, the Lakers have one directive for which there can be no caterwauling or confusion.

Don't mess it up. Don't let him walk.

Go ahead, sign a younger point guard, but don't think it will make Fisher irrelevant or undeserving of crunch time. Fine, cut his $5-million salary if you must, but don't embarrass him or make him beg.

You don't need to star him. You don't need to even start him. But you do need to keep him.

Fisher is 35, his legs are slowing, his stamina is fading, but his impact is enormous. He is ordinary in autumn, forgettable in winter, but absolutely irreplaceable in the spring, where once again he is six feet of rock and two hundred pounds of glue.

"Our captain," Jordan Farmar said simply. "Our leader."

Imagine someone making that statement on a team that includes Kobe Bryant, yet not saying it about Kobe Bryant, but make no mistake.

Kobe has never won a championship without Fish. Kobe cannot carry a team without Fish. Kobe would be a lonely locker-room dictator without Fish.

Bryant is the main reason Fisher was brought back here in 2007 after he spent three years understandably chasing big money in Golden State and Utah. Bryant is one of the reasons he can now not be allowed to leave, as he constantly clears the path of communication between the Lakers' intense superstar and his occasionally intimidated teammates.

"Most of what Fish does, you'll never see," Lamar Odom said. "He keeps everything level, everyone on the same page. He is one person, one speech, one word."

Sometimes that word is for Bryant — "I'm sure there's some times he wishes I were taller, faster and quicker . . . and there's sometimes I wish he would pass a little bit more," Fisher said with a twinkle.

Usually, though, that word is for everyone.

In the Lakers' 102-89 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, that word was "bump." The raw Fisher bumped the skilled Ray Allen through screens, through breaks, down the lane, over the top, bumped him right into three-for-eight shooting with zero threes and a bunch of ouches.

This is the same Fisher who, just three months ago, supposedly couldn't guard anybody. This is the same Fisher who was beaten so badly by Russell Westbrook in the Lakers' opening playoff series against Oklahoma City, the defensive assignment was eventually given to Bryant.

But this is the same Fisher who ignored the snub — like he ignores all snubs — and hit three treys in the decisive Game 6 against the Thunder. This is the Fisher who tuned out the obscene chants in Salt Lake City and hit a three-pointer in the final minute that propelled the Lakers to the Game 3 victory that led to the sweep of the Jazz. And, of course, this was the Fisher who scored 22 points in the turning point that was Game 5 against Phoenix.

Now this, a fist to the chest of the mighty Boston Celtics that should put him back in the good graces of fans and officials for . . . "Two days?" Fisher said, laughing. "Depending on what happens in the game on Sunday, that's over."

It shouldn't be over. These things add up. It's time for the Lakers to take count. Remember his hardball speech last spring against Denver, followed by his longball heroics against Orlando? Remember what happened the last time he left here? Remember Chucky Atkins and Smush Parker and Shammond Williams, oh my!

Fisher's oh-point-four shot against San Antonio is precisely how long the Lakers should need to give him a fair deal and keep him a Laker forever.

He said this week that he is not retiring, and that he would "love" to remain with the Lakers. But he won't do it with Sasha Vujacic minutes or minimum pay, nor should he.

"I definitely believe I can play a lot of minutes, and I'm capable of being a starter. . . . I'm still willing to demand what I feel like is deserving," he said during a rare private moment in a Staples Center hallway. "But I know what's important to me is being in this position time and time again."

He looked around at the Finals clutter. He heard the Finals buzz. He briefly stared up at the championship banners.

That "position" is a championship one. That "position" is sliding on his back while drawing a charge, fighting through a pick to stop a shooter, staring down a star to make him start passing.

You heard him, Lakers. He wants to be here. He will sacrifice a little bit to be here. But he still needs to matter here.

Don't mess it up.
Link:

http://www.latimes.com/sp...0100606,0,2230485.column

 

[notorious 858]

[h2][/h2]

[h2]Lakers' Gasol: Hardened veteran[/h2]

He's different. That much you can tell the first time you meet him. You're trying to introduce yourself to Pau Gasol and he's the one shaking your hand and asking your name like it's important to him.

The first time the Los Angeles Lakers passed through Memphis after the league-changing trade that brought him from Beale Street to Hollywood in 2008, he was asked about the homecoming. He picked out Ron Tillery, who covered him for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, in the back of the crowd and said, "Well, as Mr. Tillery and I were discussing earlier ... "

It was nothing really, just a simple show of familiarity and respect, and yet it was different than just about anything I'd ever seen a professional athlete do in such a setting.

You don't meet athletes like Pau Gasol every day. He's human and real, smart enough to go through a year of medical school before turning professional as a basketball player, well-read and multi-lingual. On off-nights, he's as likely to be at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown L.A. watching an opera as he is to be out at a hip restaurant in Manhattan Beach.

On the court, he's developed into the most skilled big man in the NBA with the brains and vision of a point guard.

He's different, and while you appreciate him on one level, you don't always know what to do with him.

Which is how terms like "soft" became affixed to his reputation, when in reality his game, like his personality, is impressively refined.

"I'm always about finesse and speed," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, noticeably resisting the temptation to tweak Gasol as he often does with the local media, knowing it will echo back to Gasol at some point.

"I think finesse and speed is what basketball is about. It's not about bump and grind, although it does get more forceful in the playoffs."
[h2]Building a reputation[/h2]
Could Gasol be more physical on the court? Of course. Was he strong enough in 2008, when the Celtics roughed up the Lakers in the Finals? No.

Even he would admit that as he devoted the last two years to weight training and has put on about 15 pounds of muscle.

But soft? That doesn't resonate with Gasol in the simplified way it was applied to his reputation after the 2008 Finals.

"I don't hate that word because it really doesn't have anything to do with me," Gasol says calmly, even though it's obvious bile is rising within him as we walk off the empty practice court before Game 3 of the Western Conference finals in Phoenix.

"It doesn't affect me, because it's like you're not talking about me. You think you might be talking about me, or you think you might be picking on me, but to me, it just slips away from me, it just bounces off."

While Gasol clearly -- and with good reason -- rejects the premise that his game is soft, it's also clear that his pride isn't able to shrug those characterizations off as easily as he suggests.

It bugs him. That much you can tell from his tone, which grows forceful as he talks. And that much we could see in his play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, when he poured two years of annoyance into every rebound and dunk he threw down against the Celtics. He came away with 23 points and 14 rebounds, then shrugged when asked if there was any point he was so obviously trying to prove.

"You know, for me it was important just to play hard, be aggressive and help as much as possible out there, win the first game," Gasol said. "That was my mindset tonight. There was no statements to be made. My goal, our goal is to win the championship, not just the first game and not just to make a statement right now."

The next day, Gasol took it a step further, flipping the script on the toughness question by bringing up the age question of his chief rival in this series, Kevin Garnett.

"On Kevin's part, he's also lost some explosiveness," said Gasol. "He's more of a jump shooter now you could say, comes off the lane. Before he had a really, really quick first step and was getting to the lane and he was more aggressive then. Time passes and we all suffer it one way or another, but he's still a terrific player, a terrific competitor, and he's going to bring everything he's got. You can count on that."

It was out-of-character and yet completely understandable. Maybe even laudable, depending on which side of this rivalry you sit.

Jackson called the Lakers' big men "thin-chested" before Game 5 of the conference finals, but a few days earlier he'd made a point of defending the Spaniard's honor, knowing sometimes Gasol needs a carrot, not a stick on this sensitive issue.

"In the final game [Boston's 131-92 win in Game 6], they ran Pau over the first or second play of the game with no call and that kind of set a tone for what that game was about," Jackson said. "So that stands out in everybody's mind.

"But we were actually more concerned with Lamar [Odom] than we were with Pau in that series. Because Andrew [Bynum] couldn't really play, and Lamar ended up not really exploiting his strengths in that series, if you want the real history."

The Lakers and Gasol, by coincidence or fate, have drawn the Celtics in the Finals again, arriving back at the place all those labels were affixed two seasons ago.

Redemption, and a reckoning, can be had.

"When we talk about it in a serious manner, all joking aside, he signifies that, 'Yes, there's things that he has to improve on,'" Jackson said of Gasol. "And to his credit, he's done the weight work, the extra things that give him the opportunity [to be more physical].

"Now he has to provide the force behind that opportunity. Obviously he's kind of got the hand strength and upper body strength, now to apply it is his choice."
[h2]A beautiful mind[/h2]
It was a quiet moment at a loud time of year. The Lakers were wrapping up their shoot-around, and the bus was waiting for Gasol.

Hubie Brown, who coached Gasol in Memphis and was doing the radio broadcast of Western Conference finals, caught his eye as he walked off the court.

Gasol stopped, thought nothing of the time or consequences for being late, and embraced Brown.

"You're doing great, people are starting to see the whole you," Brown said, thumping on his chest, motioning to his heart. "It's about time."

Gasol smiled.

"Yeah, it's about time, thank you," he said. "Better late than never."

Brown has always had an affection for Gasol since he came to know him in 2001, Gasol's first year in the league. He was struck by the young Spaniard's intelligence as much as his talent.

Though Gasol was still wispy and young, his feel for the game was as highly developed as his skill-set.

Brown was immediately intrigued.

"From the day that we came to coach him in 2003 to the day I left, he's one of the most cerebral players that ever played for me, starting with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson," Brown said.

"That's the category he's in in terms of what is going on. Not just at his position, but he understands every play. He understands the second, third, fourth option. He understands the game plan and at that young age, that's an extremely tough thing to do."

It's hard to say how Gasol developed such an understanding for the game. He watched basketball growing up but was not obsessed with it. He practiced hard but spent more time studying for medical school and keeping his grades up.

He credits the coaches of his youth in Spain -- Juan Montes, Quim Costa and Aito Garcia Reneses -- for helping his development.

But it's clear Gasol is blessed not only with superior agility and athleticism for a man of his size but intelligence, both kinesthetic and the kind that can be quantified on an IQ chart.

He said his IQ has never been tested, but when you watch him pick up complex schemes and details as quickly as he has, speak English better than many Americans, then shift effortlessly to Spanish or Catalan, it becomes evident: Gasol has a beautiful game and a beautiful mind.

"You know, it just comes easy to me," he says, a bit shyly. "I really absorb things quickly. You don't have to tell me something too many times for me to catch it and understand it.

"Everything just kind of comes naturally, from my footwork, I just react and I have the skills to be able to do different things."

When Gasol came to the Lakers midway through the 2008 season, Lakers coaches were amazed at how quickly he picked up the triangle offense.

Some players take a full year to understand Tex Winter's triple-post offense, but Gasol seemed to master it after one practice. Since then, his understanding and mastery of it has grown.

Outside of Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, who have played within the triangle offense for virtually their entire careers, there is no Lakers player who understands it as well as Gasol.

"I think I talk to Pau more than anybody," teammate Ron Artest said. "I ask him questions all the time. He's always thinking the game. Offense, defense, he's always thinking the game. He knows the triangle so well, so I always ask him questions.

"He helps me a lot."
[h2]Appreciation from afar[/h2]
Suns coach Alvin Gentry needed little prompting to recite an extended ode to Gasol.

"He's a whole different story," Gentry said of the three-time All Star. "If you start talking about the best low-post players in the NBA, you get to about one before you call his name.

"I don't think there's anybody that has better moves than him. Just the footwork, he's superior. And he's a very cerebral player."

"Cerebral" is the kind of word coaches use to describe a smart guy, a player who sees the game as a coach does, who understands things at a macro and micro level and doesn't need much explanation during film sessions.

Aside from Gasol's intelligence, his background enables him to think and play that way.

He grew up playing point guard, working on dribbling up court, perimeter shooting and running an offense. He was never a star, though. He wasn't even much of a prospect until his late teens.

The star of FC Barcelona and Spain's junior national teams was actually Gasol's best friend, Juan Carlos Navarro, who became known as "La Bomba" for his high-arching 3-point shots.

Gasol didn't even crack FC Barcelona's rotation until his final season with the club, and only then because the team needed someone to fill in for Rony Seikaly, who clashed with the coaching staff and left the team during a road trip.

"I was the bigger star when I was young, but of course now, he came to the NBA and he is the man," Navarro said last year, before the Lakers hosted FC Barcelona in an exhibition game.

Six months after he replaced Seikaly in the lineup, Gasol became the highest-drafted European player ever when the Grizzlies traded up to take him No. 3 overall in 2001.

Memphis was high on Gasol, but he managed to exceed their expectations when he averaged 17.6 points and 8.9 rebounds and was named the league's rookie of the year.

He still had a lot to work on and refine.

"When he first came over here, he complained on every play," Brown said. "To the point that it disrupted him in transition defense. Coaches are never happy about that. Now, he does less of that.

"He's also an 80 percent free throw shooter now, which is important at his position."

Still, the things most people remember about his days in Memphis are that he never won a playoff game and another label he picked up while he was there: "metrosexual."

Gasol -- refined, sophisticated and dressed in well-tailored European-made suits or designer jeans -- said he'd never heard the term before then and thinks it's kind of funny now. But it's also a coded word, one that fits with "soft" and "finesse" to undercut Gasol's accomplishments.

Fair, fitting or not, there is only one way for Gasol to change those perceptions, one team he must defeat.

That team wears green, and the Lakers will play it again Sunday night.

Link:

http://sports.espn.go.com...columns/story?id=5255631