SERIAL NO. 2 of 10
Bynum ties Hakeem Olajuwon and Mark Eaton with a Playoff record 10 blocks, finishes game with a no assist triple-double: 10pts - 12 rebs - 10 blks
Watch all 10 here.
BYNUM: “I shot the ball like shit, man.”
Big Andrew grabs 30 rebounds, then swears on live television. All in a day’s work.
Not even two minutes into the 3rd quarter of last night’s game against the Golden State Warriors, with 16 seconds left on the shot clock and a 6-point lead, Los Angeles Lakers’ center Andrew Bynum walked up the court and shot a 3-pointer from the top of the key. If you’re into this sort of thing, the video is available to watch here.
He missed.
I wouldn’t say he missed terribly. The shot had a nice touch, but fell right of center. The Warriors rebounded, but couldn’t even get the ball past half court before Lakers’ head coach Mike Brown ventured down to the end of his bench to substitute Josh McRoberts for the still 24-year old Bynum. Andrew would not see action the rest of the quarter, and only a scant few minutes in the fourth, as LA struggled to maintain it’s lead over the undersized Warriors team.
Spanning his 7-year NBA career, Andrew Bynum has taken 7 threes, making one (two nights ago, in a loss to the Memphis Grizzlies).
It is not against the rules for a center to take a 3-point shot. Off the top of my head, Mehmet Okur takes them, Andrea Bargnani takes them, Spencer Hawes takes them. Manute Bol took them. Pau Gasol of the Lakers, who plays the center position each and every game for the same Los Angeles Lakers, has taken 19 of them this season alone. So why would first-year coach Mike Brown punish Bynum after launching his own?
Because he missed? If that shot had gone in, would Brown have pulled him?
I’m certainly not lobbying for Bynum to start taking more shots from deep. I clearly see the error in him launching basketballs from 24 feet away. If I had my druthers, Bynum wouldn’t move from directly underneath the rim on both ends, he would never put his arms down, and he would have his entire skeleton fortified with the indestructible metal alloy, adamantium.
Andrew Bynum shouldn’t take 3-point shots because he is simply not effective at making them. However, by the numbers, a lot of Lakers, in a lot of different positions, are not effective either.
The Lakers 3PT% during the 2012 NBA season:
Andrew Bynum: 25% (1-4)
Pau Gasol: 26% (5-19)
Metta World Peace: 26% (33-125)
Kobe Bryant: 28% (73-254)
If Mike Brown wants to punish someone for taking and missing a bad 3-point shot, he can stand in the middle of a huddle, put on a blind fold, point his finger, spin himself in a circle, and bench the player he stops on. There are only two teams worse at making 3’s in the NBA, and one of them is the Charlotte Bobcats, which is, as we all know, a franchise that should be put on a rocket ship and blasted into the sun.
When asked about the very public censure (the Lakers played on NBATV’s Fan Night), Brown said,
“That’s something that I felt could have taken us out of rhythm, and so that’s why I took him out of the game.”
Ohhhhh! I get it. It’s not that Bynum took the shot, it’s that it was taken outside the flow of the offense? Mike Brown, I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Kobe Bean Bryant…
I’m not defending Bynum or his errant shot (Kevin Ding did that far more beautifully than I ever could). My issue is with Mike Brown. Brown needs to be consistent with his actions, his coaching. If you’re going to punish someone for hurting the offense, you better punish everyone who does the same. Different sets of rules for different players will breed contempt. Pau Gasol, like Bynum, is a seven footer who should be operating predominantly from the post, yet Gasol’s taken multiple ill-advised three point attempts with impunity. Pau spoke to the press about Bynum,
“That’s not his game. Hopefully it’s just one bad game, it’s out of the way. We’ll be fine. Andrew understands.”
I’m sure Bynum appreciates the lecture. Let’s take a look at the first 135 seconds of the Lakers loss to the Grizzlies 3 days ago:
10:52 - Pau Gasol misses 16-foot jumper
10:33 - Pau Gasol misses 19-foot jumper
10:15 - Pau Gasol misses 17-foot jumper
09:45 - Pau Gasol misses 17-foot jumper
Please, Pau Gasol, tell me more about who should be taking what shots.
So what does Brown do after Gasol misses the Lakers’ fourth shot in a row to start the game? Nothing. He didn’t bench Gasol for playing outside his strength. He didn’t bench Gasol for repeatedly making the same mistake over and over. Yet, two days later, Brown does punish Bynum, and Gasol decides to be didactic?
“I guess, ‘Don’t take 3’s is the message, but I’m going to take another one and I’m going to take some more, so I just hope it’s not the same result.”
- Andrew Bynum
You know what kind of people hate inconsistent treatment, and public emasculation? 24-year old kids like Andrew Bynum. He’s been watching Kobe Bryant jack shots for 7 straight years, doing exactly what’s been asked of him without complaint, to the tune of back-to-back championship titles. He’s been underestimated, relegated to third wheel status behind Gasol, and sometimes fourth behind Odom, injured and understandably frustrated with his career to this point. Now he’s finally healthy, coming into his own during a wild, unpredictable season, while learning a new system on both ends of the court, still adjusting to play with a ball-dominant Kobe Bryant, and waiting in the paint for the rebound off Pau Gasol’s missed 3-point shot, and you’re wondering why he’s lashing out?
Tip of the iceberg for Mike Brown. Earlier this week, the head coach publicly benched Bryant, only with ESPN cameras this time, for playing exactly the way Kobe’s played his entire career. Brown’s explanation?
“I felt I wanted to make a sub at the time.”
Here’s an idea, Coach Brown: instead of punishing both men in front of the cameras, talk to each behind them. Give those players the respect a man, and multi-million dollar, championship athlete deserves. And when you get frustrated again, Coach Brown, please remember: these Lakers’ go as far as Bryant and Bynum drag them.
This road will never be easy for the new coach. Brown is replacing Phil Jackson, a man who is not only world-famous for dealing with team strife, but could earn the respect of his players simply by flashing his golden knuckles. On the other hand, Brown’s résumé shows a history of weakness. In his only other head coaching job in the NBA, Brown let LeBron James ran roughshod over Cleveland. Could Mike now be over-compensating to avoid the same criticism?
This NBA season is different than any before it, with compressed schedules, accelerated travel, and no practice time, now more than ever head coaches need to be pillars of support and models of consistency for their players. The only thing Mike Brown has done consistently is tinker with his lineups. Two weeks ago, Josh McRoberts couldn’t get off the bench, and rookie shooting guard Andrew Goudelock was playing 15-20 minutes per game. Now, it’s completely reversed. A certain level of experimentation is expected for a new coaching staff and new offensive and defensive systems, but somebody remind the head coach there are only 16 games left. NBA teams like to find a groove just before the Playoffs. The Lakers will be lucky to have a locked rotation.
This core has won titles together, and it’s clear Mike Brown does not have their respect. Bynum said he’d shoot more from distance. Bryant called the coaching staff’s “experience” into question. Steve Blake was the starter “for the remainder of the season,” but Brown has changed course, and is still searching for the right mix off the bench. To top it off, are the players now worried if they make a mistake they’ll be punished on cable television?
Cats and dogs, living together… All in a day’s work for Lakers’ head coach Mike Brown.
Think Derek Fisher could have helped with this mess?
Andrew Bynum got benched tonight for shooting a 3-pointer (DUMB, both the shot and the benching), then continued to sulk on the bench, not standing during timeouts (EVEN DUMBER).
(via a million sources on twitter)
The elevator at Madison Square Garden.
In this world, there are a lot of things that matter. Rarely, if ever, do sports fall too highly on that list. I love sports as much as the next person, but lets face it, most championships are given out once a year, more or less rendering them insignificant, or at the very least, certainly not unique.
It is this general lack of relative importance that allows some events, certain moments and the occasional player, team or game to transcend.
In rivalry, sports are no longer games. It’s City vs. City. Team vs. Team. Fans vs. Fans. However, with the ever changing landscape in sports today, including free agency, players forcing trades, ballooning payrolls, lawyers fighting over collective bargaining agreements, performance-enhancing drugs, etc., most rivalries are on life support. College athletics are built on rivalry, but even universities can’t keep their athletes in school. It’s tough to keep a rivalry heated
Except for Lakers vs. Celtics - the greatest rivalry in any sport, ever.
When I was a kid, life was simple. I loved grilled cheese sandwiches and playing in the backyard. That was it. That was my life. Outside of those two things, nothing else mattered, more or less. But when the Lakers and the Celtics played each other, I remember caring only because it seemed like everyone else did. When they played, I would stop whatever I was doing, go inside, turn on CBS, and start caring.
There have been 65 NBA Championships, and the Lakers and Celtics have won 33 of them. The Celtics have made the Finals 21 times, and the Lakers 31. They’ve faced each other 12 times in the Finals, a record across all of sports. Each team has 20+ Hall of Famers, a gang of retired numbers, and enough history to choke and kill a large, strong, virile horse. By the numbers, there is simply nothing like this in sports.
The Celtics won 11 championships in 13 seasons. The Lakers have won 5 in their last 12 seasons, and 10 in the last 31. Larry and Magic. Wilt and Russell. It should come as know surprise the two biggest player rivalries in the game have Boston and LA ties. Let’s examine the 1980’s, or as I like to call it, “The Greatest Decade of Any Sport,” as a microcosm.
From the ten year stretch of ‘79-‘80 to ‘88-‘89, one of these two teams played in every NBA Finals, and between them, won 8 of the 10 championships of the decade. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson resurrected the league from near financial failure in the 1970’s, and are widely considered two of the 10 greatest players in basketball history. Add to them Hall of Famers Tiny Archibald, Bill Walton, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, K.C. Jones, NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Bob McAdoo, and you see two of the all-time great dynasties in any era, in any athletic endeavor, mirroring each other, constructed to destroy the other.
Take into account the players and teams they competed against during the ‘80’s, including the Bulls and Michael Jordan, the Pistons and Isiah Thomas, the Sixers and Dr. J, the Rockets of Sampson and Olajuwon, the Malone and Stockton Jazz, among others, and their dominance is even more amazing.
What makes this rivalry unique is not just the incomparable statistics and numbers, players and history. It’s the fact that Lakers versus Celtics represents so much. From ‘58-‘59 to ‘68-‘69, the Celtics beat the Lakers in the Finals 7 times in a row (another record). At that time, Lakers versus Celtics was about a wood shed ass-whuppin’.
In the ‘80’s, this battle became about much more. Two different styles of basketball: fast break versus half court. Two schools of thought: progressive versus traditional. Two major coastal cities separated by an entire country-worth of land: sunny Los Angeles and the seemingly always autumnal Boston. Two lifestyles: Hollywood glamour v. blue collar New England grit. Style versus substance. And lastly, to a good and completely fair extent, blacks versus whites. This rivalry was an allegory for attitudes, cultures and racial equality. Boston was the predominantly white team, and LA predominantly black. At a time when the NBA was rapidly changing, this rivalry divided along racial lines, revealing the tension that’s plagued this country since it’s existence.
Even today, the Celtics are rough and tumble. Fighters, full of heart. The Lakers seem to always be the pretty boys. Flashy. Finesse. Soft. Some things change. And others never do.
What’s on the line tonight? Relevance. Which of these two teams is still in contention? Rajon Rondo is fighting for the deserved recognition as one of the league’s elite point guards, while the Lakers are hoping to find any point guard. Kevin Garnett will not go quietly as his window is slowly closing, while Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are playing for their uncertain basketball lives, possibly shipped out at any moment. Paul Pierce just passed Larry Bird on the Celtics all-time scoring list, but Kobe just passed Shaq on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. This game is never without storylines.
This rivalry was, and continues to be, remarkable. Representative. So, when they tip in Boston tonight, stop what you’re doing in the backyard, grab a grilled cheese, get in front of the television, and remember and revere what it used to be, and will always be to me.
It’s happening…
If the Lakers can move Pau Gasol, using the Houston Rockets as a third-party, to get Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets, that leaves them Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum available as a trade package to get Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic, otherwise known as…
I wrote about this on June 23rd, when trade rumors were swirling about the Lakers future. In a nutshell, I said the Lakers need to move on Chris Paul, then get Dwight Howard (although admittedly I assumed they could wait and sign Dwight as a free agent in the off-season).
To pull off “The Neil Plan,” the Lakers must move Pau Gasol, and Pau Gasol only, to get Chris Paul. The Rockets may facilitate that.
Let the record show, if this goes down, I will be tremendously sad for the Lakers the team will lose. Also, WARNING: if the Lakers trade for Chris Paul, but do NOT get Dwight Howard, it’s trouble. Pau Gasol is better than Bynum, and Pau fits better with Kobe and CP3. If Pau leaves, and the Lakers don’t get Dwight, Laker fans better hope Kevin Ding is right, and that Bynum is ready to breakout and stay healthy.
For updates, follow @gotem_coach
Got ‘Em Roach
RT @AndrewBynum This is the great Freddie Roach and I, working on my new career!
