Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on his blog on the Los Angeles Times website: "My first season in the playoffs with the Lakers was 1977. That was an up-and-down year in all respects. Our regular season was very successful and we felt that we had a great chance to play in the Finals. All those hopes were lost when we had injuries to two key players: Lucius Allen and Kermit Washington. The Portland Trailblazers beat us in the conference finals and went on to win the world championship from the Philadelphia 76ers in six games. This season is starting to look the same way. Injuries have had a dramatic impact on the team's chances. Andrew Bynum's emergence as a dominant NBA center was something that had Lakers fans relishing the playoff season but a knee injury to Drew has made it impossible for anyone to know when he will be coming back. The acquisition of Pau Gasol has also buoyed the hopes of the Lakers faithful. An ankle injury almost took out that dream, but Pau has recovered nicely and should be in good shape for the playoff season. Trevor Ariza has also been a player who has come to the forefront as a Laker this year. He is our best defensive player at three positions. But a stress fracture has sidelined Trevor and we are waiting patiently for his return. At full strength, the Lakers are a formidable crew, but who knows when they will reach that status? I think the playoffs will hold that answer."
Peter Finney of The Times-Picayune: "If you were watching your first Hornets playoff game Saturday night, it put you 61 Hornets playoff games behind Terry Kofler. ... no one has watched more Hornets games than the team's athletic trainer, someone who's been around since day one, which happened to be 20 seasons, and, at the moment, 1,670 games ago. Kofler has missed only one of the 1,670, and that was in 2005 when his mother passed away."
Scott Perry is a respected front office executive who left the Pistons last year for Seattle. Now he's back with the Pistons, which may or may not say something about Seattle.
John Brennan of The Record: "The Nets expect to lose about $40 million in the just-completed season, with similar red ink expected annually for the basketball franchise's foreseeable future at the Izod Center. At the same time, the estimated cost of their proposed new building -- the Barclays Center in Brooklyn -- has soared to $950 million, or more than twice the price of any pro basketball or hockey arena ever built in the United States. At this rate, the Nets can't afford to stay in the Meadowlands -- but can they afford to move to Brooklyn? And where in the world would they find much of the money to build that arena? Europe, it turns out. Nets Chief Executive Officer Brett Yormark has just returned from London and Turin, Italy, where he has begun attempts to entice foreign companies into becoming major contributing sponsors for the new Brooklyn arena."
Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: "The league owners voted to increase the revenue sharing pool from $40 million to $49 million, but there is a long way to go. So what does this have to do with the state of the Grizzlies, as they come off a 22-60 season? Michael Heisley says he is trying to find the right formula, within the system, to make Memphis' only major league professional franchise work. 'I'm not (complaining),' Heisley said. 'But we do not have the financial base that the large-market teams have, and we have to be more cautious about how we spend our dollars. There's only two ways to build a team. You can go through free agency. But the free agents have got to want to come to your team. Some will not do that, especially with a small-market team. There are very few small-market teams that can build through free agency. San Antonio built their team through the draft. Now that they've won championships, people want to come. ... I'm trying to win. But you can't just buy your way to a championship. People ask me, will we use cap room? I'm not going to just use it to use it. We cannot afford to basically have one of the highest payrolls. We can't have $60 million in salary because we don't have the fan base to support it. But I'm going to do the best job I can.'"
Dave D'Alessandro of The Star-Ledger: "Forty-five Minutes. That's how long Rod spoke today, and if there were any signs of a plan, it eluded us. The one thing he did say is he expects Kiki Vandeweghe to stick around for a long time (Exec VP? GM? Butler? It's T.B.A.), which will help him formulate the plan that he's not sharing. Basically, the boss threw out a lot of mealy-mouthed stuff that didn't really explain where they're going, because he 1) doesn't know; or 2) is waiting for the draft to shake out; or 3) is going to wing it once the free agent market opens; or 4) it's none of our damn business. Figure on some combination of 2 and 4."
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