|
New around here? If so, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow on Twitter |
Startling news of Andrew Bynum’s knee injury has gotten my ass into gear to blog for a minute. I woke up frighteningly early (in Paris) to catch the end of the Lakers-Sonics webcast, only to not be able to find Bynum in the webcast boxscores. This was fine, as previous reports said he would be out a bit but could potentially play against Seattle. However, I then navigated to ESPN’s main page to see the devastating news. Eight weeks. Balls.
Going back to the boxscore and seeing that the game was winding down in overtime, I wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see Kobe carrying the team with 46 points. His game winner subsequently gave him 48. Just like old times. Great. It instantly dawned on me that, solid bench aside, we had digressed into the 05-06 and 06-07 versions of ourselves. Everyone stand around while Kobe throws up 40+ shots per night. The emergence of Bynum is what ignited Kobe’s trust in his teammates.
We’re now back at square one with Odom as the supposed Number 2 option. History has proved that this will not work. Hell, the present continues to prove it as he hoists up ridiculous jumper after ridiculous jumper [whose release I still can't figure out in NBA2K7]. As of now, Odom is essentially Kwame Brown with handles. At least he can crash the boards – but not without getting in the way and sidelining our breakout center.
Lamar Odom might as well be classified below Kwame standards. He is officially in the Craig Johnson club. Johnson, an underachieving winger for the L.A. Kings in the late 90′s-early 00′s was always falling out of favor with the fans. Ultimately, he is now remembered as the guy who ended Adam Deadmarsh’s potentially amazing career with a concussive knee to the head.
The Kings looked equally promising when Deadmarsh went out, finally looking poised to upend the Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs and take the next big step. However, the botch known as Craig Johnson had to get in the way.
Lamar Odom – pray to the sports gods you didn’t mess up equally bad and send the Lakers into a downward spiral for the next 5 years.
