Laker Nation

Worries over economic downturn are nowhere to be found as money flows at playoff time at Staples Center. L.A. Times: Even though Shona Jones’ seats were near the ceiling, she couldn’t stop smiling. Jones had driven from her San Diego home to Staples Center on Sunday with her two kids and one of her best friends. She took a breather [...]

HOOPSWORLD: Trevor Ariza just couldn’t get enough. He kept going back for more and more and he looked smooth while on the floor. Ariza partnered with Ira Newble in a rousing and never ending game of “around the world” against Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic, and if nothing more than displaying his stroke from beyond the arc while fending off [...]

Attention Lakers Nation! As you all know, the presidential elections are this year and it has been one of the closest races we have seen in a long time. Who to support? Who to vote for? McCain? Obama? Hillary? NONE OF THEM! Support the new campaign of KOBE/GASOL 2008! Get your new bumper stickers exclusively on TLN! Lakers are making [...]

DBricks sports talk radio show entitled “The David Brickley Show” had an extensive interview with the Laker video legend our very own Chris “LD2K” Manning. The interview which was live on SDSU’s very own KCR Radio, touches on topics such as LD2K’s future in the industry, what projects he is working on, his thoughts on The Nation, and what KOBE [...]

Here we are, on the brink of a new season. As the City of Los Angeles unites again tonight at STAPLES Center, it is important that we come together and support our beloved team. The Kobe trade talk is done. As of now, just like he has been for the past 12 years, he is OUR guy. Amid everything off [...]

N.Y. Post: WAY I hear it, Phil Jackson banned Kobe Bryant from being around the Lakers Tuesday when his petulant VIP – offended that owner Jerry Buss alerted the Los Angeles media he was available in an equitable trade – informed him he wouldn’t be practicing, for the third straight day, because he wanted to rest his legs, knee, bruised [...]

It is pre-season, of course. Nothing to worry about, right? Well, sound-off in the comments and tell us what you think! Fox Sports: In the first quarter of the Lakers’ first preseason game — Tuesday in Honolulu against the Warriors — the Lakers relinquished 41 points. Kelenna Azubuike (try saying that once fast or slow), a development-league recruit late last [...]

Charley Rosen lists players that need to make a change during camp. One of the guys listed is our very own Andrew Bynum. Fox Sports: Andrew Bynum must demonstrate that the Lakers’ decision not to trade him was the correct one. Also, Bynum must do whatever he can to gain the respect of the team’s most important player, Kobe Bryant. [...]

Press Enterprise: The right ankle Kwame Brown had surgery on still was swollen Monday, leaving the 6-foot-11 center in the precarious state of not wanting to push things. Coach Phil Jackson said Brown could possible play tonight when the Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors in their first exhibition game. Brown, however, was of a different mind-set. He didn’t [...]

Press Enterprise: Mitch Kupchak stood tall, his 6-foot-10 frame hovering. There was no sign of stress in his face from a summer in which his superstar player criticized the entire Lakers organization, in which he was unable to pull off the mega-deal and in which he was widely criticized by the fans and media. It’s all part of being the [...]

Fox Sports: Phil Jackson has just announced that he’ll make public within the next four weeks his decision whether or not to re-sign with the Lakers (his current contract expires after this season). Let me preface the following by saying that, although Phil is a good friend of long-standing, I’ve had no advance word from him as to what his [...]

The Arizona Republic: Suns forward Shawn Marion said he would show up Monday, the team’s mandatory reporting day, if his trade request is not met. The Suns anticipate that no trade will be made and Marion will be smiling for photos Monday. The predictions around the NBA are similar to ones inside US Airways Center. advertisement A sampling of executives [...]

MSNBC.COM: On further consideration, maybe Kobe Bryant should sit out the season. If the Lakers aren’t serious about trying to compete, then why waste his best years? Say what you will about the Chicago Bulls and breaking up the team or any of the criticisms that endured during their championship years: They never put Michael Jordan in a position where [...]

L.A. Times: As Lakers fans well know, wherever he goes, Kobe is the main man and it’s no different with the U.S. basketball team. Winter, summer, in a Lakers uniform or that of the U.S. team, it’s still all Kobe, all the time. . . . He’s not just a Lakers obsession, now he belongs to the world, or at [...]